So as it happens, April 4th I’ve got a new chapter in the Witches Knot universe coming out from Ellora’s Cave. I’m pretty excited because I’ve wanted to do Minx and Connor’s book since I wrote Vengeance Due in 2006! Anyway, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for my Witches Knot books because they’re where I started and they’ve given me so much enjoyment and creative energy over the years.

Anyway, I thought for Titilating Tuesday, an excerpt from CfoD would be fun…

Adult content behind the jump – 18 and over only please…

WITCHES KNOT: CELEBRATION FOR THE DEAD BY LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2008, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave
Releasing April 4

He hadn’t wanted to be in love with anyone, much less a human woman who hunted vampires and had reason to hate every last one of them. She hadn’t told him about her captivity and torture but what he’d heard from Jagger was enough to help him understand how amazing she was to trust him at all.

Taking blood during sex, especially with someone you loved, was second nature and he had to keep a grasp on his need to taste her. He couldn’t hurt her that way, didn’t want to sully what they had with anything that happened to her before.

And he did love Melanie. He’d realized that in the time he’d been in Europe. He’d tried to wash her out of his head by going to see Patrice but it didn’t happen and he’d finally given in. Back in Ireland, his mother had laughed when he told her about Melanie. She’d known all along about the woman back in New Orleans and had asked him why he’d been such a fool to risk losing her. She’d told him to get his butt back there and stake his claim before someone else did.

And he was. She was his as surely as the moon hung overhead.

The inside of her body was superheated as her delicious cunt clutched at his cock, embracing him. He never wanted to leave but he knew he was close to the end. He’d have her again. And again after that. He’d have her for as many years as he could. First he’d find Anton Purdue and kill that Oathbreaker bastard, end the threat to Melanie and everyone else he cared about in one fell swoop. And then he’d deal with forever. Or as long as he could get with his human woman.

She looked down at him, a mysterious smile on her face, and swiveled her hips as she took him deep inside.

“Minx,” he growled as his balls crawled up into his body.

“That’s what they call me.” She laughed.

They did, he’d learned, because they used her as the bait to lure Oathbreaker vampires to the hunter team to be slayed. His dangerous beauty.

She swallowed and her eyes showed some hesitance for a brief moment until it cleared away. “Connor, do you want to bite me? I mean, the last time…well I jumped and then your phone rang and well,” she took a deep breath, “you haven’t tried to tonight and I know it’s what vampires do during sex.”

He saw the sadness on her face, saw that she felt rejected. They’d both been so silly. He took her hand, his fingers still twined around hers, and kissed it, shaking his head. “Melanie, I do desire you that way. But I promise you I won’t lose control like last time. I didn’t mean to frighten you. You don’t have to fear that again, I swear.”

Tears sprang to her eyes and he sat up, staying inside her as he wrapped his arms around her. Her heart sped, he tasted it at the back of his throat like magic. He did want to bite her—more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life—but he wouldn’t do it. Would die before he betrayed her trust. “Sweetness, I’d never hurt you. I promise. You never have to be afraid of me. I’d die before I harmed you. Don’t cry. It breaks my heart that I’ve made you cry.”