The new release edition features a brand new cover, additional chapters and a never-before-seen preview of Jaded Touch.
A woman's memory returns when she falls in love with the monster who took it from her.
Calli tattoos her skin to fill the holes in her memory, thanks to an accident that left her mind damaged and empty. But a nasty encounter with a fired employee leaves her in the arms of her unlikely savior: Nycholas, a predatory, serpentine Vesper on the run from his brutal master.
Nycholas’ clandestine world holds the secrets to mankind’s origin and survival… but he only wants one thing before his time is up: a few colorful nights with Calli, the fragile, tattooed, human woman he pursued and saved.
The more Calli learns about Nycholas, the more her own darkened memories return to her. Despite her haunted past, she loses herself to passion and desire with her immortal captor.
Now, Calli must overcome the demons of her past, or allow Nycholas to kiss her memories away and spare her the trauma of loving a doomed immortal. But each choice comes with dire consequences – some that endanger not only herself, but her family as well.
Nycholas regarded me for a moment, and then his expression drew even more serious as he stepped toward me once – with caution, not threat. “Calli.”
I searched his eyes. “Yes?”
“Why did you put needles into your skin to color it?”
I gulped down fear. “Human beings do stupid things, I guess, in order to look pretty.”
“I can’t bring myself to eat you, to make that… pretty… disappear. I should want to. I tried. Do your colors make you tasteless?”
I’d never had someone discuss with me whether I’d pair well with red or white wine, so I didn’t know how to answer him. “Um, no. Freddy – my friend – he had colors, too.”
“He tasted fine. But he wasn’t your friend.”
I remembered the alcoholic stench rolling out of Freddy’s mouth as he loomed over me on the staircase, and nodded. “You’re right about that.”
“Am I your friend?”
Was Nycholas my friend? Well, gee, let me think, dumbass, you came into my shop with the intent to eat me, you chased me, twice…
And then set the bone in my hand, left me alive, and saved me from a nasty encounter with Freddy that probably would have turned quickly to drunken revenge rape.
“Yes, Nycholas, I think you are my friend.”
Nycholas stepped closer and I lifted my chin, suppressing my fear, inhaling that smell of steel off his skin. His breath rushed like ice across my cheek. “I’m a Vesper.”
I licked my lips because they were dry, and Nycholas’ eyes dropped down and he sucked in a barely-audible breath. “What’s a Vesper?”
“Me,” he said. “Half-snake. Half man.”
“Nocturnal?” Must be. Vampire legends started somewhere.
“Exclusively.”
“Where do you come from?”
“The same place you come from.”
I shook my head. “Portland?”
Nycholas laughed, and I jumped a little at the force of it, his heavy chest shaking with the deep bass of his humor. He shook his head. “No. The Garden. The same place as the humans.”
“You came from Adam and Eve?”
“We don’t call them that, because we know their real names. But yes. And the apples. Apples are important.”
I took a breath to ask another question, but Nycholas’ eyes perked up suddenly again. “Hey!” he said. “I found something for you.” He swept past me to the door and left the room, and I stood for a moment in stunned silence, and then followed him out the bedroom door into the hallway of what seemed like a two-level, suburban home, not the most modern place I’d seen but certainly well-kept. I took the stairs slow, not trusting my consciousness after two fainting spells. Nycholas stood in the kitchen, an orange in his hand, holding open a drawer and frowning.
I stood beside him at the drawer and accidentally brushed my shoulder against his cool, bare arm. I wanted to shiver, but the softness of his powder-white skin spread comfort through my veins before fear could set in. Nycholas hummed, a low, puzzled sound that was sexy as hell, and I followed his gaze into the drawer.
“I can’t remember which one,” he said.
The drawer was full of silverware, and in Nycholas’ hand was an orange. He couldn’t figure out if I needed a fork or a spoon to eat it.
Don’t giggle. Don’t giggle! Oh my God. How seriously adorable. The big bad monster – the big bad man-eating Vesper – didn’t know how to feed his colorful, exotic human pet. I couldn’t speak or I knew I’d break into ridiculous giggle fits, so I just gently pushed the drawer closed and took the orange from his hand. I pulled back a bit of the peel and slipped a segment out, and then popped it into my mouth. I smiled as I chewed, and he blinked a few times, studying me.
“Thank you,” I said. “It’s delicious.”
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Nola Sarina is a paranormal romance, dark fantasy, and erotica author from Alberta, Canada. She loves weaving romances that leave you breathless and challenge typical relationships with the most mind-blowing twists. Nola will also be at RTCon in New Orleans this month. Stalk her down and say hi for some swag!
Represented by Michelle Johnson of Inklings Literary Agency, Nola is the author of the spicy hot dark fantasy Vesper series. Taking vampires to a whole new level, the Vespers in Gilded Destiny & Jaded Touch live dangerously sexy lives in a harsh world of the balance between mortals and immortals.
Nola is also the co-author of Wild Hyacinthe and THE CORE with friend Emily Faith. Wild Hyacinthe portrays sexy, alpha hero from a unique perspective: an incubus who can't help but kill, while THE CORE invites every reader to throw stereotypes out the window, strip down, and get dirty.
SNEAK PEEK free chapters of all Nola's works are available on her website! http://www.nolasarina.com/
Be sure to join her email contact list for newsletters, exclusive content and to get the latest on all Nola Sarina titles before anyone else: http://www.nolasarina.com/
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