This week, my fellow readers, I went with a character from the very first romance series I read. And a paranormal one at that. Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed series is about vampires, of a sort, and the second installment, Kiss of Crimson, features Dante, one of the Order. These vampires are the good guys, fighting their own kind: the ones gone rogue from bloodlust. Dante, as described by eventual breedmate when he first stumbles into her clinic, injured and in need of nourishment:

No, not handsome, because even unconscious, his features held their stark angles and knife-edge planes. Straight black brows cut dark slashes over his closed eyes. His cheekbones were razor sharp, giving the slope of his face a lean feral quality. His nose might have been perfect at one time, but the strong line of its bridge had a faint jag in it from an old break. Maybe more than one.

There was something strangely compelling about him, although she was certain she didn’t know him.

Dante wasn’t pretty like a lot of heroes in these stories. Sometimes vampires come off as too regal or…stuffy. Not these guys. No, they are all rugged warriors. Here’s a scene from when Dante has tracked down Tess at a public affair, hoping for one more taste:

Good Lord, the guy was gorgeous. Not model pretty but rugged and masculine, with a square-cut jaw and lean cheekbones. His full lips were enough to make any one of the collagen-plumped socialites at the reception weep with envy. In fact, his was the kind of profanely masculine face that artists had been trying to capture in clay and marble for centuries.”

Dante cannot get enough of Tess and courts her, in a way, at this art exhibit. They look at a sculpture of Endymion sleeping and then this scene, which is melt-worthy:

Heat ignited in her core, a slow burn that melted even more of her reason.

I came here tonight for you.

She couldn’t have heard that correctly – if for nothing else, the very fact that he hadn’t said a word. Yet Dante’s voice was in her head, soothing her when she should be alarmed. Making her believe, when everything reasonable told her she was experiencing the impossible.

Close tour eyes, Tess.

Her eyelids fell shut and then his mouth moved over hers in a soft, mesmerizing kiss. It wasn’t happening, Tess thought desperately. She wasn’t really letting this man kiss her, was she? In the middle of a crowded room?

But his lips were warm on hers, his teeth roughly grazing as he sucked her lower lip between them before drawing back. Just like that, the sudden, surprising kiss was over. And Tess wanted more.

God, how she wanted.

All the vampires in Adrian’s series are seriously Alpha and Dante no exception. Out of all 8, 9? books, I think I liked Dante and then Rio the most. Rio will be featured soon! This was my first foray into paranormal romance and man, is it good. Check it out!