Bled Dry

I’ve avoided posting the back cover copy for BLED DRY because I think it gives away a bit more of the plot than I wanted to before BIT THE JACKPOT hit the shelves, but I’m sure some of you have guessed what’s going on with Brittany and Corbin anyway. I left some pretty hefty clues. ;-) The back cover copy is going up on my website this weekend, but I thought I’d post it here first, with a very short excerpt below it. BLED DRY is a May release, the third in my Vegas Vampires series.

Only in Vegas can a one-night stand with a vampire beat the odds-from the national bestselling author of Bit the Jackpot and High Stakes...

Hooking up with a vampire has its risks-but getting pregnant usually isn't one of them. Tell that to Brittany Baldizzi, who finds herself in the family way with no father in sight. After their one night of passion, vampire Corbin Jean Michel Atelier disappeared off the face of the earth-or at least off the Vegas strip...

Corbin is a vampire with a cause, secretly trying to find a cure for his condition. But when he finds out Brittany is pregnant with his child, Corbin can't keep his parental instincts from trumping his bloodsucking ones. Even when showing his hand could cost him the woman he can't help but love...

BLED DRY
By Erin McCarthy

“Well, it’s not the flu.”

Brittany Baldizzi watched her general practitioner tuck her hair behind her ear as she stepped back into the room. Perched on the edge of the examination table, Brittany was seriously confused. “An ulcer then? I’ve felt this awful nausea for weeks.”

Not an ulcer.” Dr. Hopkins smiled. “You’re pregnant.”

“Excuse me?” The room went stark white and a buzzing rang in Brittany’s ears. “Pregnant? I can’t be pregnant!”

There was no way. It wasn’t possible.

“Have you been practicing abstinence?” Dr. Hopkins asked with a rueful shrug.

“Yes, I’ve been totally abstinent.” How in the hell could she be pregnant?

Dr. Hopkins raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

Okay, so that wasn’t completely true. “Well, mostly. I’ve only had sex once in the last six months.” But that had been with Corbin Atelier, and that didn’t count because he was a vampire.

“Once is all it takes.”

Normally. When you were having sex with regular, mortal men. “But…” Brittany rubbed her head. “He can’t have children.” She didn’t think. Of course, he had never really said he couldn’t have children. But neither had he suggested birth control.

“I’m sorry this is such a shock, Brittany, but obviously he can have children, because you are definitely pregnant.”

“Well, I had no idea.” That vampires had sperm.

Which was a stupid assumption on her part. After all, hadn’t her brother-in-law sworn to her up, down, and sideways that her own biological father had to be a vampire? But she hadn’t put two and two together when she and Corbin had been talking that night.

Though to be to totally honest, it wasn’t like she and Corbin had devoted a whole lot of time to conversation when he had climbed in her bedroom window and asked for blood. She’d given him her blood and her body, and now he had given her a baby.

Holy crap.

It really would have been nice if he had warned her his boys could still swim.

By the way, if you’re going to the Romantic Times convention this year, I just found out that Bled Dry will definitely be at the book fair, even though it’s a May book. Berkley gave permission for the early release. Yay! :)