Page 10 of My Blind Date is a Vampire

A knock came at my door just as I was walking down the stairs—three hard raps that seemed to echo throughout the house and resonate deep within my chest. A swarm of butterflies went wild in my stomach as I paused on the last stair, trying to psych myself up for this date.

It wasn’t too late for me to go back upstairs and pretend I wasn’t home, even though my car was parked in the driveway. “Remember the paintings, Jules. He may not turn out to be the love of your life, but he might give you a sweet deal on one of those beautiful paintings,” I mumbled as I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other, which was harder than it sounded seeing as my legs had decided they had no strength or coordination whatsoever tonight.

Sending out a silent prayer to the universe for this night to not be a dud, I pulled the door open and came face to face with the most beautiful pair of amethyst eyes I’d ever seen.

CHAPTER 10

I have no idea how long Landon and I just stared at each other at my front door. Like me, Landon had gone slack-jawed when I opened the door as he slowly looked at me from head to toe, and the sexiest lopsided smirk I’d ever seen spread across his face.

That smile on top of the innate sensuality he exuded just by standing there in his bespoke black suit just about fried my brain.

Wow! Just…wow! Beverly could have at least warned me that I was going out on a date with the incarnation of Adonis or Hades. Landon looked more like a dark god than the classic beauty of Aphrodite’s lover.

Most notable of his many attractive features were, of course, those amethyst eyes, which were framed by thick lashes and the arrogant slash of his thick eyebrows. I’d heard of people with amethyst eyes before. Elizabeth Taylor was famous for her violet gaze. But seeing them up close was something else. At first glance, they looked blue, but the longer I stared at them, I realized that there was indeed some blue mixed in with the amethyst, with a dark ring around the iris.

Landon had a sharp jawline and angular cheekbones that invited a woman to touch, and so did the thick strands of his pitch-black hair, which was parted to frame either side of his face and brushed against the collar of his shirt.

“Julia Bryant?” His voice was husky and there was a hint of a British accent in his voice, faint enough to let me know that he’d either lived in the U.K. for a brief period or he’d been staying in Mystic Cove for so long that the accent was starting to face.

“That would be me,” I replied in a breathy tone, leaning heavily against the door to keep from melting into a puddle at his feet when he took my hand and placed a searing kiss right where my pulse pounded wildly at my wrist.

The feather-light contact of his surprisingly cool and soft lips sent a jolt of electricity from my wrist that arrowed directly to my core and left me breathless. My entire body felt as if it were on fire.

Landon brushed the rough pad of his thumb over the spot where he’d just kissed me in slow circles, and every stroke of his thumb seemed to have a direct line straight to my heart. What was wrong with me? I’d never had such a visceral reaction to a man before. I’d never experienced this feverish kind of arousal even with Toby, and I’d been convinced that my ex-fiancé was the love of my life.

Landon’s nostrils flared, his eyes widened slightly in shock, and his grip tightened around my wrist. His hands were so big, it wouldn’t have taken much for him to snap my wrist if he’d squeezed just a little harder.

I let out a small noise that sounded somewhere between a whimper and a gasp when I saw what was happening to his eyes. His pupils were blown out and an inky blackness was bleeding out from the pupils and eclipsing the amethyst of his irises. “Y-your eyes!”

Landon immediately dropped my hand like it had scorched him, and between one blink and the next, his eyes were back to normal. It happened so fast, I almost thought I’d imagined it.

“We should head out now if we want to keep our reservation.” His voice came out deeper and huskier than it was earlier, and he averted his gaze and stood off to the side, allowing me to precede him. After locking the front door, I walked down to the driveway, my back ramrod straight. Landon was walking behind me and I could feel the weight of his attention all focused on me. It was a wonder that I didn’t trip over myself as we made our way to the sleek sports car parked behind my sedan.

I was no car aficionado, but even I recognized the golden charging bull logo on the hood of the low-slung, pitch-black car.

“Nice car. It suits the tall, dark, and dangerous vibe you’ve got going on,” I teased, tossing my hair over my shoulder. Landon’s chuckle was a low, deep rumble that made me think of silk sheets and whispered sweet nothings exchanged in the anonymity of the dark.

“Tall, dark, and dangerous? I like the sound of that. I was afraid you might find the choice of car too pretentious for a first date,” he commented, clicking the fob on his keychain and the doors swinging up on both sides.

With his hand on my lower back, Landon helped me into the passenger seat and leaned across my seat to help me with the seat belt. I swallowed a garbled whimper when his arm glanced across my chest.

“I can assure you, there isn’t a woman alive who’d object to being picked up in a Lamborghini.”

Landon clicked the seatbelt into place. He leaned in even closer and took a whiff of my scent from the crook of my neck and hummed in approval. “You smell quite delectable, Julia Bryant.”

With that parting statement, he closed the door and I used the few seconds it took him to run around the car to calm my racing heart and fan my face to cool off. I did not want to spend the entire night with my face matching my hair. I tried yoga breathing exercises, but it didn’t help; the car smelled of leather and Landon. It was a crisp, clean scent that reminded me of pine and frost or the scent of fresh snow.

I sucked in a lungful and held it in as Landon opened the door and took his seat. The Lamborghini purred to life quietly like a black panther, slowly waking up before shooting off in a burst of speed.

It felt like I had been holding my breath for hours when it was actually a few minutes. I slowly exhaled as Landon cruised down the street and began to relax, the tension seeping from my shoulders as I watched him maneuver the car down the road.

CHAPTER 11

I’d expected us to go to one of the nicer restaurants in Mystic Cove, but Landon drove us out of town and headed toward the city. I debated whether I should ask where we were going and make small talk or just revel in the comfortable silence enveloping us save for the soothing jazz music playing at a low volume from the car radio. In the end, I decided to let myself be surprised and passed the time watching Landon’s huge hands steer the wheel and the way his thighs bunched and relaxed underneath his slacks as he switched gears. All the while I imagined what those hands would feel like on my body or how firm his thighs would feel under my touch.

It felt strange to be back in the city even though I’d been away only a little more than a week. Mystic Cove was already feeling like “home.” It’s where my bed was, my job was, and where I was making friends. I was already growing used to the serene and scenic feel of Mystic Cove, the fresh air without all the pollution. I didn’t miss the suffocating crush of the people I saw walking along the sidewalks as Landon drove us uptown. At least I knew there was no chance that anyone from my family would see us. They preferred ordering in or visiting family restaurants unless we had something special to celebrate. If they saw me with Landon, I was sure to get the third-degree with my phone blowing up every few seconds.

I was a veritable mess by the time Landon handed his car keys to the valet forty-five minutes later.

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