Page 67 of The Vampire's Guide to Wooing a Dressmaker
“No,” she said immediately. Saving Cordon had meant she’d missed the ball, but she’d had many more opportunities since.
She frowned. Cordon had distracted her. She’d spent countless nights by his side, learning how to be a vampire, but she hardly recognized him compared to the Cordon she’d first met. That Cordon had been energetic, almost obsessive in his constant demands. But since she’d awoken as a vampire, he had become almost suffocatingly protective.
Something was wrong, and she had a feeling she knew what it was.
“I have a gift for you,” she said, when the other vampires had left and they had retired to a settee.
He straightened. “A gift? Whatever for?”
She twisted her hands in her lap. “To thank you.”
He looked like he was going to argue but then widened his eyes and wagged his eyebrows. “What is the nature of this gift?”
She poked him in the chest. “It’s exciting.”
“‘Exciting’?” His voice was tight. “That sounds dangerous.”
She sighed. “I was only teasing.” She crawled onto his lap and ran her fingers through his hair. “You’ve changed, Cordon. Don’t you remember leading me around the park nude on a horse at midnight? I can’t believe I am saying this, but don’t you want to do something scandalous, like steal a carriage or challenge a man to a duel?”
He snorted. “I did all of that before I met you.”
There was the Cordon she’d grown to love. “But I haven’t, and I’m finding I would very much like to. What do you think? Perhaps I should make my own list.”
He laughed. “Now that you’ve had a taste of adventure, you want more?”
She removed an envelope from her pocket and handed it to him. “Something like that.”
He turned the envelope over in his hands, inspecting it as if it were a bruised fruit.
She grinned. “Open it?”
He shook his head but cracked the seal, removed the parchment, unfolded it, then stared at it, wide-eyed. “This…”
“I particularly like this one,” she said. She leaned over and pointed at the first item on the paper. “‘Dance a waltz at night naked with a vampire.’ What do you think?”
He laughed. “This is a copy of my list! All you did was add ‘with a vampire’ to the end of each item!”
She grinned. “Yes.”
“I suppose I can’t let you do all of this by yourself.” He sniffed. “You might get hurt, or in trouble you can’t easily get out of.”
She nodded. “I was hoping you would say that. Perhaps you could assist me?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Only if I can add one more.” He removed a bit of charcoal from his pocket and scrawled a line at the bottom of the paper. Then he handed it to her. When she read it, she laughed.
“What do you think?” he asked.
She answered with a kiss that lasted until the first days of sunlight peeked over the horizon.
#102: Marry a Vampire.
