Read Lifebound for Free Online Page A

relationship.” There. She’d said it.
    “Okay.” He looked across the room at something on the wall. The silence hung in the room for a moment. “You don’t have to worry about me. Don’t feel like you have to hide out or anything. Enjoy your vacation. Go learn to breathe.”
    She hadn’t wanted to hurt him, but disappointment was apparent in his voice. As he stood up to leave, he flashed her a slightly sad, yet still dazzling, grin.
    She rose, dropping the blanket as she tried to think of something else to say. She didn’t want him to leave. The soft coverlet fell to the floor, and his gaze roved over her, sending little shivers down her spine.
    The moonlight touched the skin of his neck and shone in his dark hair. As he turned and reached overhead to grip the window ledge, his shirt pulled up to reveal a glimpse of his muscular stomach and a light trail of dark hair that led into the waistband of his shorts.
    “Josh.” She whispered his name, not knowing why she did it, not knowing what she would do if he answered. He had to leave. She had to let him go.
    But she didn’t want him to go. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to run her fingers along his shoulders and across his chest. She wanted to kiss him until he tore the clothes from her body. She wanted to own every inch of him.
    Why? Why does it have to be this way? Why can’t we have this?
    Beside her, the bedside lamp began to dim and brighten with the intensity of her emotions.
    “Sarka needs to spend some money on the wiring in this place,” Josh said as he glanced around the room. As the lamp continued to pulse, he turned away from the window completely and his eyes met hers.
    She didn’t know just what he saw when he looked at her, but his incredibly blue eyes opened wide with surprise or interest, then darkened with determination—and desire. Without warning, he crossed the room in two steps and claimed her. He tangled the fingers of one hand into her hair and wrapped the other around her waist, pulling her into his body and crushing her mouth with his in one swift movement.
    As his lips plundered hers, she began to drag at his life force like a starving animal. They were right. She was a vampire.
    She locked down her hunger as tightly as she could, building an impenetrable dam of pure will between the reservoir of his life and the desert of her need. Damn it, she wanted this. She needed this. And he needed it too.
    He’d leaned into her heavily when she began to draw on him, but the instant she shut down her abilities, he pulled back enough to look into her face.
    “Don’t leave,” she whispered and slipped her hand underneath the edge of his shirt to touch the naked skin of his chest.
    He was so warm and strong beneath her fingers. He drew her closer, pulling her into him so closely the hardness of his body pressed into her insistently.
    He slid his fingers under the fabric of her flimsy sleepshirt to caress her back, then glided downward beneath the silky waistband of her shorts to spread warm against her skin. He kissed her again, his lips pulling at her and tasting her as if he couldn’t get enough.
    A soft moan escaped her lips as his mouth explored the skin of her neck, igniting a trail of sensation that ran through her body like a wildfire along her nerves, peaking at her nipples and at the apex of her thighs. He pressed himself closer to her there, and she gasped at the tingling flood of response that began to roll through her.
    Her physical need for him threatened to overwhelm the tight control she’d placed on her other needs. Just beneath the surface of his warm, solid masculinity, the force of life surged in him, a sweet crackle of energy that coursed through him, run rampant with his arousal.
    He kissed her mouth again, his tongue exploring hers, his lips insistent, leaving her breathless as he clutched at her hair and her body, gathering her against him firmly. She curled her fingers against the short soft dark hair on his