Losing It: A Collection of VCards (34 page)

Ethan's eyes rolled back into his head. I couldn't take it anymore. I leaned down and crushed my mouth over his, silently begging for this feeling to go on forever.

If only it could.

If only this wasn’t a fantasy.

If only my life really was a romance novel and Ethan and I were cuddled together on my living room floor instead of standing, face-to-face in the doorway before we left to meet Ethan’s real date, Ariel. Man, oh man, did I wish my life was a romance novel. Instead, my fantasy completely and totally burst.

Reality set in and I blinked up at Ethan. He was still standing on my doorstep, fully clothed, looking at me. Instead of ripping my clothes off or, at the very least, complimenting my dress and telling me how amazing I looked, he was saying, “Maybe you should change.”

“Why? What’s wrong with this dress?” I demanded.

I was totally put off after the hot sex scene we just had in my head. He should at least think I looked sexy. For once, I knew I did. I had looked repeatedly in the mirror for the last twenty minutes and I looked pretty darn good in this dress. I didn’t look fat at all and who knew my boobs looked this good? Not me. Now everyone, including Troy and Ethan, would know. The dress fit me perfectly. I had to admit, my aunt had good taste. We’d have to go shopping again this Christmas in case I ever got asked out on another date.

“You don’t want to give Troy the impression that you actually like him, do you?” Ethan said, not able to tear his eyes away from me.

“Isn’t that the point of a date? To make your date think that you like him?” I asked and then as an afterthought added, “Maybe that’s why you don’t have a Homecoming date. You’re clueless.”

I knew it was a petty thing to say, but I was hoping for a reaction. After hooking up with Ethan in my head, the fact that he wasn't even trying to make out with me now was irritating. I mean, couldn't he just compliment me? I did get a reaction from Ethan, but not quite the one I was expecting.

Ethan raised his eyebrows. “Ariel already asked me to Homecoming, in front of you, if I remember right. And, I could have my pick of any girl. I just haven’t asked her yet.”

“Wow,” I responded with sarcasm.

Ethan could be so arrogant. Well, maybe Troy would take me to Homecoming, once I cleared him of all murder suspicion and admitted to him that I was still in high school. I mean, it’s not like we weren’t close in age and all.

“I’m wearing this dress. It’s perfect,” I said and to prove my point, walked out of my house, shutting the door behind me, and walked to his car.

If he had been about to open the door for me like a real gentleman would, I didn’t wait. I got into the passenger side and sat down, feeling huffy. Who knew Ethan was a prude in disguise? I didn’t care if he didn’t like my dress. I knew that Troy would. Maybe Troy would take Ethan's place in my next fantasy sex scene. Heck, maybe Troy would take his place in real life.

Ethan got into the driver’s seat and looked at me one more time, and then said softly, “You know, you do look pretty.”

It was almost like Ethan had grabbed and kissed me, the way a bolt of electricity shot through my entire body at that compliment. Then Ethan started the car and blared the music, so I spent the rest of the drive trying to figure out if Ethan meant that as just an apology or if he really thought I actually looked pretty. Guys were so confusing, unless they were fantasy men, the kind that knew exactly what to say and do.
Maybe one day Ethan would kiss me for real. Until then, a compliment would have to do and maybe more fantasizing.

***

Adventures in Dating is an extended bonus scene from
Adventures in Funeral Crashing
(Funeral Crashing #1) by Milda Harris.

About the Author

Author Milda Harris is a Chicago girl who ran off to Hollywood to pursue a screenwriting dream. She has a dog named after a piece of candy (Licorice), was once hit by a tree (seriously), and wears hot pink sunglasses (why not?). Between working in production on television shows like Austin & Ally, Hannah Montana, and That's So Raven she writes young adult and new adult novels.

List of Titles:

Adventures in Funeral Crashing (Funeral Crashing #1)

Adventures of a Graveyard Girl (Funeral Crashing #2)
 

Adventures in Murder Chasing (Funeral Crashing #3)

Adventures of a New Year's Kiss (Funeral Crashing #3.5)

Adventures in Heartbreak and Homicide (Funeral Crashing #4) - Coming Soon!

Doppelganger (Doppelganger #1)

Doppelganger 2: On the Run (Doppelganger #2)

The New Girl Who Found A Dead Body

Connected: A Paranormal Romance

Crashing Prom

Social Media:

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Wolf Passion

By M. R. Polish

The following is taken from Chapter Ten in
Wolf Dream
, the second book in the Wolf Trilogy by M.R. Polish.

***

Esmerelda

“I’m not sleeping.” I was so tired I couldn’t even hide the frustration in my voice. How long had it been since I slept? Two or three days? Maybe four? My hours all blurred together as I fought to keep my eyes open.

“I know you’re not, that’s why I’m telling you to.” Ian pushed me back on the bed and lowered himself down next to me.

“Ian.” I placed a hand on his chest. “I can’t lay down.” Even as I said it, I felt my eyes close. I jerked them open and tried to sit up.

Ian kept his arm around me, keeping me down. I didn’t have enough strength to fight him and fell back to the pillow.

My mom sat down on the other side of me. “Es, you’re making yourself sick. You may be immortal, but even witches need sleep. Immortality doesn’t mean you can’t die, or get sick. There are still things out there that can kill us, just not as easily as a mortal. Like a gunshot won’t kill you, but Belladonna can. Sleep is still essential, and you need it.”

I shook my head. “I can’t. If Nicholas finds me, he finds all of us. I don’t want to see him right now.” I wasn’t sure, but my voice sounded far away, detached from me. I couldn’t help but giggle over the slurring sound I made with each word. I was definitely overtired.

I felt a hand on my forehead. “I will keep him away. I won’t sleep until you awaken.” It was my mom. Her confident voice gave me the peace I needed.

Hope filled me. “Really? You can do that?”

“Of course.”

I wasn’t sure if she meant it, but my body didn’t care anymore.

***

Ian

“Can you really keep Nicholas away while she sleeps?” I looked down at Es. Her eyes were closed, and I could still see the dark circles around them. Her face was taut. It was hard not to notice she was wearing herself thin.

“I don’t know, but she wouldn’t sleep otherwise. I’m going to try something though. Just stay with her.” Her tone was serious, and I couldn’t figure out why she thought I’d leave Es. I nodded. No one was going to take me away from her. Not now, not ever.

Adonia stood and stretched with her hands on her back. “Ailaina and Torres should be back soon with our drinks. Personally, a cup of coffee is what I’ll need.”

“That’s an understatement.” I yawned, suddenly feeling extremely tired. I pulled Es up so her head rested comfortably on my shoulder and wrapped my arm around her. Within seconds, my eyes closed.

***

Esmerelda

I looked around cautiously, standing outside back at Jarak’s cabin. Fog swirled around my feet and ankles. Footsteps crunched leaves somewhere behind me. Spinning around, I raised my hands and took a stance, ready to defend myself against Nicholas.

My breathing hitched when Ian walked through the fog. I relaxed a little seeing him. It had been forever since I’d dreamed of him. His all-black clothing made him look like a shadow walking through the mist.

“Hey, good looking. I didn’t expect to see you here.” I met him halfway and reached up to place a kiss on his cheek.

His brow rose. “That’s all I get?”

I smiled. It was so nice to relax for a moment with him. I almost forgot what it was like to just soak in everything about him.

He smirked. “Strange.”

“What is?”

“This. I mean, one minute I was laying on a bed with you and the next I’m here, at Jarak’s cabin with you.”

That was strange. “It’s a dream, Ian. Right?” I felt my heartbeat pick up faster. “My mom said she’d let me sleep.”

Ian took my hands. “If it was just a dream, then how can you remember everything from while you were awake? Besides, after you fell asleep, Adonia told me that she could only try and for me to not leave…” he trailed off.

“To not leave what?”

“You. She said not to leave you. Now I get it. She didn’t know if she could keep Nicholas away so she sent me. That’s why I’m not really sleeping either.”

Great, one more person who could see into my head. Was nothing sacred anymore?

He let go of my hands and ran his up and down my arms. The feather-like touch from his fingers made me shiver. “Es, it’s not all that bad. We’re alone.” He wiggled his brows and I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips.

“Yes, we’re alone. For now.”

He inched closer, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me closer. His voice dropped to a deep whisper. “I’ve been wanting some alone time with you.”

Not to be outdone, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed myself against his rock hard chest. “Oh really? And just why would you be wanting that?”

Ian picked me up and carried me up onto the deck, then gently sat down in the porch-swing with me on his lap. I didn’t care if it was a dream or not, I also wanted time alone with him. So many things just kept getting in the way.

But, now that we had the time, my heart raced as a new excitement filled every part of me. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I had to have faith that
he
did. Magic would only get me so far, and this wasn’t a place anyone else could train me for.

“Es, you’re so beautiful.” He rested his forehead on mine and ran his hands through my hair. “Happy Birthday.”

I cocked my head slightly. I had been so busy and so tired that I didn’t even realize today was my birthday. Looking into his eyes, I couldn’t imagine a better present than to be with Ian in my dreams.

Alright. I could do this.

Trailing my finger down his jaw line, and over the rough stubble from his five o’clock shadow, I felt a warmth spread down low.

I’d felt tingles with him before, and a desire to touch him, but this was different.
Much
different.

His hand found its way to my lower back and sent a shiver through my spine. His other hand held the back of my neck and he used it to pull me closer to his mouth, his lips caressing mine in slow movements, barely touching my skin, teasing my already wanton mouth. I never knew I could need a kiss so badly.

Ian had never kissed me this way. There was something special about the way he savored this moment that made me writhe on the inside.

Sitting in his lap, I could feel the bulge in his jeans grow. Instantly, I was excited and afraid at the same time. I wanted this. Probably more than I could fathom. But what if I didn’t meet his expectations?

I started to pull back, but he stopped me, keeping his hand at the back of my neck. “Let me love you, Es.”

It was so innocent, yet it was the question that burned in between my thighs. I loved him. More than anything.

He waited without touching me. The sudden loss of his lips on my flesh made me ache with a new need. I knew why he stopped, but I didn’t want him to. Damn him and his gentleman qualities, I didn’t want him to ever stop touching me.

My head clouded over and the only thing I could think wouldn’t come out in sound, so I grabbed his shirt and lifted it up over his head, dropping it to the deck.

Running my hands over his chest, I could feel his muscles and the way they flexed with each movement. He wasn’t just my boyfriend; he was my protector, my guardian.

Ian’s lips crashed down on mine with a matched desire. His tongue slipped out to find mine, like a slow dance he was my perfect partner.

Leaving my lips, he trailed down my neck. I was already breathless, I couldn’t imagine this getting any better. There was no way a make-out session this intense could be beat.

I gripped his hair and held him close. Leaning forward, I brushed his ear with my lips as I whispered. “Don’t ever stop.”

“Hell, girl, you don’t know what you do to me. I don’t think I could, even if I wanted to.” The husky tone sent ripples over my skin.

“I love you.”

He stared into my eyes. His were dilated and pooled with a desire I never saw before. “I’ve loved you before I even met you, Princess. And I’ll love you eternally.”

He groaned and shifted me in his lap so that I straddled him. I could feel the length of him pulse against my thighs and I knew the heat in my cheeks wasn’t from the heat he was creating.

It was strange knowing that part of him could grow like that just by kissing me.

I tensed with a gasp caught in my throat.

What I felt was
definitely
not
a banana.

“It’s okay. I promise, I won’t do anything you don’t want. If you’d rather wait,” he paused.

“No!” I blurted out in my own syrupy voice. Calmer, I ran my hand bravely down his chest to his nipples and stopped. “I definitely don’t want to wait. I’m just a little nervous.”

Ian slid his hands up my shirt at the waist and inched higher, his eyes never breaking my stare. “Do you trust me?”

I nodded, but partially because I couldn’t speak. His hands were burning flames in my vision. All I could think about was where his fingers stopped—right under the wire of my bra.

When his hands moved from their spot to slip around to my back, I was both disappointed and relieved, until the clasp of my bra was releasing my breasts.

A quick gasp escaped my lips as his hands returned to the very spot I was just seconds ago craving his touch.

I wasn’t sure my heart was even beating anymore, and time slowed to a complete stop as Ian cupped my breast in his hand and gently kneaded it.

Moaning, I was not prepared for the plea of my body as it reacted to his touch. Did I move? Sit still so he didn’t stop?

There was no stopping my body as my back arched on its own accord. I didn’t even try to stop myself as it seemed to know the rules to this new world of passion I was entering.

My movement brought a slight groan from Ian, and that made me want to do it again.

Quickly, he removed his hand and grabbed my shirt, ripping it up and over my head. His lips crashed down on mine once again as he slipped the rest of my bra off.

My chest against his created a euphoria. His heat, my heat. His flesh, my flesh. My nipples brushed his skin and grew taut.

Pressing myself closer to him, I moved around on his lap, but it wasn’t close enough. I needed… something. But, I couldn’t figure out what I needed. I pushed my hips closer to him, almost grinding on his lap.

Ian pushed me back just enough for me to see a longing in his eyes before his head dipped to my chest and his mouth took in one of my small peaks.

Oh. My. Heaven. The heat of his mouth.

I couldn’t.

I shouldn’t.

I needed.