Snippet Saturday - Author's Choice - Excerpt from Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) - Felicity Heaton - Paranormal Romances with PassionFelicity Heaton

It’s time for Snippet Saturday! Each week has a theme or is author’s choice. This week the theme is Author’s Choice.

This week my snippet comes from my vampire romance novel, Masquerade, which is book 10 in the Vampires Realm romance series. It’s finally a shorter excerpt this week, but it’s still quite long… I love the UST between Vivek and Sophis in this book, the product of misunderstandings and mistakes, and barely leashed desire that runs as an undercurrent through them both and both of them deny its existence… ah, their love is undeniable though.

The fight in the park with the hunter tonight came flooding back and the moment demanding the most airtime in her thoughts reared up again. She couldnâ€™t shake the startling way she had felt as the haze from feeding had lifted and she had found herself face-to-face with Vivek. His desire had been unmistakable.

As had hers.

At first, she had tried to put it down to the effects of feeding but that excuse had died a little more with each silent moment that had passed between them. The longer he had looked at her with eyes full of fire, the harsh rise and fall of his chest emphasising the breadth of his powerful muscular body, the more intense her awareness of him had become. The scent of their desire mingling and filling her senses had urged her to go to him and satisfy the dark craving to finish what they had started earlier this evening.

Not the fight.

Where the fight had been going.

On some instinctive and feminine level inside her, she had been aware that things had changed during the flow of their battle and that they remained changed now. Vivek had started responding differently to her and, in turn, she had reacted differently to him.

Hideously differently.

It had felt too good when he had pinned her to the floor, his body against hers, sending heat chasing through every inch of her and igniting a lust not for violence or blood, but for him.

Every touch of his body against hers since then had sent sparks skittering over her skin and rekindled the embers of her passion.

Definitely disturbing.

She hated Vivek. He hated her. He had made that evident over the past decade or so, destroying their friendship in the process. What everyone said about them might have been possible once but it was impossible now.

Vivek muttered something, slowed, and came around the other side of her. She silently cursed him for it when he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. The streetlights washed over his face, softening the harsh line of his jaw and the straight angle of his nose, and turning his hazel eyes as black as midnight. Golden highlights threaded through his hair, weaving over the tangled dark waves. Sophis cursed him again and swore he was the only man in the world who could look even more handsome than usual under sickly sodium lights.

â€œWhen we get back to the mansion we need to go straight to Commander Tynan and file our report,â€ he said, casual and disinterested, as though commenting on the weather rather than the fact they had uncovered a dangerous level of hunters grouping together.

She frowned at him and he glanced at her again, his eyes briefly touching hers before he faced forwards and jostled the hunter on his shoulder. The calm and detached air he affected didnâ€™t fool her. She could feel his senses locked on her. Monitoring her for what?

She hoped to the Devil it wasnâ€™t for a sign of arousal.

That had been a temporary glitch. Nothing more. The man was a misogynistic cruel bastard.

Her heart said that he hadnâ€™t been once. They had been friends. He had taught her how to defend herself and how to dispatch hunters quickly, and trained her in tracking and almost every other valuable skill that she knew. He had spent hours with her in the training room when he should have been teaching others, favouring her over them.

What had changed him?

Aleksis Romanov loomed up in her mind and her steps faltered, her hands shaking at the memory that assaulted her and her side burning so fiercely that she swore if she touched it her fingers would come away bloodied.

â€œAre you alright?â€ Vivekâ€™s tone was low and cautious, his English accented with a Russian edge that teased her ears and gave her comfort that she couldnâ€™t help but accept. Her senses locked on him before she could stop herself and the comfort just his voice had given her paled in comparison to that which flooded her when she felt his senses focus on her in return.

I will not let him near you.

Those words echoed in her head, husked close to her ear, whispered with so much feeling that she believed in their promise to keep her safe from the beast that was Aleksis Romanov.

Had Vivek meant them or had he only said what had been necessary to make her continue with their mission?

Sophis looked up into his eyes, afraid of seeing the answer in them. There was no edge of softness and concern in them now, not as there had been during that moment behind the white van when fear had gripped her and she had turned to Vivek for reassurance and strength.

She cursed her own weakness this time, nodded and kept walking. She didnâ€™t need his strength or his reassurance. She was strong enough to fight her own battles, even against a foe as deadly as Aleksis. Her swift steps carried her a few feet ahead of Vivek and she was thankful when he didnâ€™t catch up with her and brought up the rear instead.

What was getting into her?

Seeing Aleksis and Izabella again had rattled her. Now that she knew they were in the city and had seen them once, she would be prepared when she faced them again. She would kill Aleksis.

And Izabella?

Sophisâ€™s senses switched back to Vivek. His fear had been palpable when he had spotted Izabella at the huntersâ€™ base tonight.

When Sophis had been recovering from the dagger wound in the infirmary a decade ago, Seth had come to her, saying that Vivek had sent him to check on her. She had asked him why Vivek hadnâ€™t come himself. He had hesitated and made excuses, but eventually he had confessed that Izabella Romanov had staked Vivek in the back whilst he had been holding Sophis to comfort her. Sophis still felt sick to her stomach whenever she thought about that, or whenever she happened to catch sight of the scar on Vivekâ€™s back. He had come close to death because of her.

Things had degenerated so quickly between them after that night that she had never had a chance to apologise, or even thank him for remaining with her.

Or ask him why he had been so focused on her and not his surroundings.

Her memory of the night was patchy, but sometimes she relived it in her nightmares, and each time Vivek held her close and told her to hold on.

Told her not to leave him.

A shiver raced down her spine and arms, spreading heat through her body, and she turned her head to one side. Not enough that she could see Vivek walking behind her, but enough that her awareness of him increased.

Was that moment just part of her fevered imagination during her nightmares or was it something that had actually happened?

She couldnâ€™t ask him. If she did, he would brush it off, would laugh at her and tease her about it. It had plagued her for over ten years and now she wondered if she would ever find the courage to talk to him about what had happened that night.

He had been surprised when she had touched his back earlier tonight, resting her hand over the spot where the scar was, and she hadnâ€™t wanted to stop herself from silently asking him whether he was all right. He had needed to know that she was there with him and that nothing would happen. Just as he had promised to keep her safe from Aleksis, she had promised without words that she would protect him from Izabella.

They would both have their vengeance one day.

Did you enjoy the snippet?

More about the book:

Masquerade
F E Heaton
Ten years have passed since Sophis and Vivek, two vampires of the Venia bloodline, came close to death at the hands of twin hunters Aleksis and Izabella Romanov. The events of that night turned Sophis and Vivek against each other, shattering their close friendship and driving them apart.

Now, on the eve of a centenary Creator Day masquerade and at a time when things between them are dangerously close to separating them forever, they uncover a small army of vampire hunters in Saint Petersburg, led by their nemeses, Aleksis and Izabella.

With the safety of the rulers of the seven pure vampire bloodlines in their hands and their chance for vengeance hanging in the balance, can Sophis and Vivek face their past and overcome their differences? Will they realise their true feelings for each other before itâ€™s too late or will the hunters finally claim their lives as their deadly plot to destroy the bloodlines unfolds?

Available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle France | Amazon Kindle Canada

Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Vampires Realm romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and some are available in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website: