Shades of Gray Tour and Giveaway

There comes a point in most relationships where a voice says fish or cut bait. It might be the first date or the third month or the second late night phone call. If you want to be dramatic, you can call it the point of no return. The moment where some part of you knows – everything just changed.

“Scared? Me?” I scoffed, even though I knew he spoke the truth. Screw scared, a step away from flat out terrified described me better. “I play with vampires now, mister. You underestimate me greatly if you believe that.”

“Alright, then. If you’re not scared, you won’t have a problem with me kissing you.” He slid around the table until he sat next to me. He kept his hands above the table, away from my legs, even though my dress rode high enough to expose a decent amount of thigh. Points for him.

“You’re daring me to kiss you? What, are we back in middle school or something?”

“Whatever gets the job done. Besides, think of it as playing spin-the-bottle without actually spinning the bottle and possibly landing on someone like that robust gentlemen over there.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see who Theo nodding toward and choked back laughter at the sight of a man who could have been Ms. Talanger’s brother, down to the overabundance of surgical enhancements. As I turned back to say something on the slick side, Theo slid his hands up my neck and cupped my face.

“Don’t worry, sugar. It’s only a kiss,” he murmured, his lips close enough I felt the words against mine. His eyes were almost black again, and I felt my breath hitch. He eased forward a teeny, tiny bit, pressing his lips more firmly against mine, and my eyes opened wide.

I’d expected Williams to be cold and he’d been warm. I expected Theo to be warm and he burned against me. Like all the emotion he felt concentrated in those amazing lips and he poured them into this kiss. Williams had skill, because he’s over two hundred years old, and he even had feeling, but Theo…. I’ve always thought the phrase, “make an angel weep” overused and overrated, but I’ll recant now. There were angels weeping in jealousy at not being able to experience what I did at the moment.

I’m betting a few of the other people in the bar were jealous, because at least one called out for us to get a room. Their reaction might have something to do with the fact that after my initial shock, I did my best to crawl into his lap. I wasn’t being too subtle about it either. My breath burned in my lungs when I pulled back and fell back into my chair. I scooted a few inches away, trying to put a little more distance between temptation and myself. I’m usually strong willed, but I didn’t trust myself at this point.

On the plus side, Theo didn’t look any better than me. We sat silent until I could draw a deep breath and let it out slowly. Finally, I felt calm enough to say something. I tried for something profound, but came up blank.

“Well.”

“Yeah, that’s all I had, too. Nice to know once in a while that smart mouth of yours is out of gas.”