![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/house_rules-199x300.jpg\" "\\"house_rules\\"")
<\/p>\nSince we’re only 11 days away from the release of HOUSE RULES, here’s another sneak peek to whet your appetite.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He stopped behind my chair and held out a hand. The entire table went silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cDance with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
My cheeks warmed. \u201cThere\u2019s no music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he had time to respond, the quartet in the corner\u2014a group of Cadogan and Rogue vampires with musical talents\u2014began to play a jazzy tune.<\/p>\n
I gave him a sardonic look. \u201cDid you just telepathically direct them to start playing that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the point of being telepathic if you can\u2019t use the connection for a wee bit of wickedness, Sentinel?\u201d<\/p>\n
I heard the yearning sigh of a female vampire to my right, and caught the dreamy-eyed gaze of a male vampire to my left. Ethan was an equal-opportunity crush.<\/p>\n
He wiggled his fingers. \u201cMerit?\u201d<\/p>\n
With the audience\u2019s eyes on me, it would have been difficult to say no to Ethan even if I hadn\u2019t had feelings for him. That I did made it virtually impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course,\u201d I said, putting my hand in his and letting him lead me to the makeshift dance floor.<\/p>\n
Oh, my God, could he move.<\/p>\n
Ethan whipped a hand around my waist like he\u2019d trained with the cast of a televised dance competition. With moves that were a mix of swing and tango, he led me around the floor like a dance master, all the while keeping those ridiculously green eyes focused on me. Fortunately, I\u2019d been a ballerina in my former (human) life, so I managed to keep up with him. I even tried to put on a good show\u2014or at least as good a show as pants and a fitted leather jacket would allow\u2014to the surprise of Rogue and Cadogan vampires.<\/p>\n
The song ended, and Ethan dropped me into a dip, his smile mischievous and his eyes twinkling. The rest of the world came rushing back in a roar of sound as the vampires on the margins of the dance floor burst into applause.<\/p>\n
Ethan brought me back to my feet, my ponytail bobbing over a shoulder. \u201cAnd that, Sentinel, is how you impress a crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Need more Merit?\u00a0Read the first chapter now<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>or another little snippet<\/a>, or you can\u00a0preorder House Rules at\u00a0Amazon<\/a>,\u00a0Barnes & Noble<\/a>,\u00a0Books-A-Million<\/a>,\u00a0Indiebound<\/a>,\u00a0Penguin<\/a>, or the\u00a0iBooks store<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since we’re only 11 days away from the release of HOUSE RULES, here’s another sneak peek to whet your appetite. He stopped behind my chair and held out a hand. The entire table went silent. \u201cDance with me,\u201d he said. My cheeks warmed. \u201cThere\u2019s no music.\u201d Before he had time to respond, the quartet in[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,262],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chicagoland-vampires","category-house-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2656"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2664,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions\/2664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chloeneill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}