Her Halloween Vampire: Magical Beginnings, #3

By Melisse Aires

Fun sized Halloween Romance!

 

Journey rents her basement apartment to Rob, a man who is way too gorgeous for Cherry Creek, Kansas. He lives there quietly, and she goes about her life as a local preschool teacher, with only a few daydreams of the good-looking man in her basement.

 

On Halloween, twin four-year-olds, the granddaughters of the high priestess of the local coven, tell her a prophecy. A member of the coven in high school, Journey asks her best friend about it. They decide they will have an early night on Halloween. Just in case.

 

In the middle of the night, a late season tornado roars through town. Journey has to stay with Rob in his basement apartment.

They are stuck together in a closet with the furious storm all around. Passion ignites.

Then she learns he's a vampire.

 

A supernatural world of desire and danger opens for Journey in the storm.

Novella, spicy heat level.

Author's note: A secondary character, Brian, is the teenager saved from death by Master Vampire Vare in Single Mom, Vampire Lover. This story takes place about twenty years later. 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pure Escapism
• Release date: Oct 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215227916

Melisse Aires

Take a shy Catholic school bookworm from Montana. Hand her a stack of her much older brother’s sci-fi and fantasy novels, James Bond books and horror comics. Later, introduce Barbara Cartland and the world of romance fiction.Get her a teaching job or two in authentic, one room Montana schools, ala Laura Ingels Wilder.Marry her off to a great guy, move her to a big city in Tornado Alley, then pop three daughters out of her in twenty-two months (one set of identical twins).Then, make her a jinx. Every great genre TV show she loves gets the ax: Beauty and the Beast, Dark Angel—and Buffy and Spike NEVER have a happy ending! She gets upset about no romance in the world and fires up to write her own stories with happy endings.Throw this all together into a small house in Wyoming, along with a small bouncy dog named Baxter and too many cats, shake constantly and pour it out onto a computer keyboard.There! You have me, Melisse Aires.

Book preview

Blurb

Journey rents her basement apartment to Rob, a man who is way too gorgeous for Cherry Creek, Kansas. He lives there quietly, and she goes about her life as a local preschool teacher, with only a few daydreams of the good-looking man in her basement.

On Halloween, twin four-year-olds, the granddaughters of the high priestess of the local coven, tell her a prophecy. A member of the coven in high school, Journey asks her best friend about it. They decide they will have an early night on Halloween. Just in case.

In the middle of the night, a late season tornado roars through town. Journey has to stay with Rob in his basement apartment.

They are stuck together in a closet with the furious storm all around. Passion ignites.

Then she learns he’s a vampire.

A supernatural world of desire and danger opens for Journey in the storm.

Novella, spicy heat level.

Author's note: A secondary character, Brian, is the teenager saved from death by Master Vampire Vare in Single Mom, Vampire Lover. This story takes place about twenty years later. 

Acknowledgements

Editor: Dave Ellis

Cover artist: Melisse Aires

Using photos from Pixabay and Canstockphotos.com

Blurb

Chapter 1

Journey was enjoying a pleasant spring night on her porch watching fireflies when Verna, the rental manager she’d hired to manage her basement apartment, showed up with a potential renter trailing after her.

Journey, this is Rob Thompson, from Chicago, Verna said in her all-business manner. He works on computers and would like to live in a small town.

A small town?

He didn’t look like a small town type of guy. Not one in Cherry Creek, anyway. No ball cap, no worn 501s. He wore khaki pants and a blue button-down shirt. Rob Thompson was a delight to the eye. Incredible periwinkle blue eyes with long dark lashes and winged brows almost glowed in the soft shine of the fairy lights on her porch. Very striking with his chocolate brown hair and cheek bones. And full lips. And... Not one feature had a flaw.

He’s prettier than I am. And he wants to live in Cherry Creek?

He’s self-employed. One of those computer geniuses, Verna said. And our fair city invested in great internet!

Rob grinned. Dimples, of course. I make and maintain websites. Wanted out of Chicago. Crime, you know?

Oh. Might as well give him the bad news.

I run a daycare Monday through Friday, Journey pointed at her sign by the door. Cherry Creek Childcare. Up to eight preschoolers on the main floor and in the yard. The noisy times are late morning and late afternoon when we play outside. Or, um, rainy days.

She thought that might be a problem since he would be working at home instead of driving off to a job like her previous renters.

Not a concern, he smiled, showing gleaming white teeth. All my jobs are done at night, for my client’s convenience. I sleep like the dead.

All right. Great. Sounds like we would be a good fit. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Journey realized they could be taken in a completely sexual way. Verna, standing behind Rob’s shoulder, smirked and winked behind her cat-eye glasses. Journey’s already warm face got warmer. Thank goodness it was nighttime!

Journey is technically your landlord, Rob, but she hired us to oversee the rental. So you will pay your rent to the management company.

I would like to pay six months in advance, if that’s all right. He looked at Journey, fine eyebrows raised.

Uh, sure, she said. Sophisticated around men, that’s me!

We’ll take care of that while I show you the apartment, Verna said. Journey might need to take shelter in the basement during a storm, since Cherry Creek is in Tornado Alley. We always make sure she can get into the basement during a severe weather warning.

Rob the hottie nodded and grinned. Not a problem.

Um. I would bring my cats. In carriers. Journey played with her braid, a nervous habit. I have an emergency bag with food and a flashlight and stuff.

That would be fine. Knock loud. I’ll give you my cell number, too.

So Rob moved in downstairs and Journey didn’t hear a peep out of him, ever. He left town most weekends and never had company. He never complained, not even when Trevor and Jamieson ninja-kicked a whole toy shelf down.

Suzanne, her best friend, who ran the Cherry Creek Cafe, thought he looked like a Chippendale Dancer. He has that wedge-shaped form, you know? Broad shoulders, slim hips.

Journey had never seen a Chippendale, but Rob had an exotic quality not seen around town. Well, a girl can daydream.

Suzanne gave her a Look. Really, Journey. You could do more than dream!

Journey rolled her eyes. Right, like I’m going to ask him on a date? Not very likely.

Spring and summer rolled on by with some thunderstorms but no tornadoes. Darn it. Journey saw her renter now and then in passing, but he seemed to have a busy life. Suzanne, exasperated at the lack of men in Journey’s life, set her up on a blind date from their high school classmates. Hank Mayhew, a deputy sheriff, was balding and had close-set eyes. Balding, close-set eyes and bossy. Not that looks meant everything. Shallow had its limits. Journey didn’t want to be mean to someone with unfortunate genetics. She’d give him a few chances. He was one of the few men her age in town who was still single.

She didn’t want to judge someone by their looks (well, other than sexy), but something about the sardonic twist of his lips and frown lines put her off. Was his inner soul reflected by his outer shell? Relaxing around him was impossible. He seemed almost elderly. He was never happy or satisfied, and was one step from becoming a stalker. She saw both his patrol car and his truck drive by her house all the time.

A tiny town like Cherry Creek made it hard to be blunt to a local. People had long memories.