Read A Touch of Crimson for Free Online Page A

moment the words left her mouth, she regretted them. “That came out wrong.”
    “Don’t ever worry about what you say around me, as long as you’re honest.”
    “Honesty is my policy, which gets me in trouble a lot.”
    “Some trouble is worth getting into.”
    She twisted within her slackened seat belt, canting her torso toward him. “What kind of trouble do you get into?”
    “The epic kind,” he said wryly.
    The faint touch of humor hit all her hot buttons. “I’m intrigued. Tell me more.”
    “That’s third-date material. You’ll have to stick around.”
    What would it be like to keep a man like Adrian? Just for a little while . . . “That’s extortion.”
    He looked completely unrepentant. “I’m ruthless about getting what I want, which leads me back to the topic of what to cook for dinner. What’s your guilty pleasure?”
    “You’re cooking?”
    “Unless you object.”
    Her mouth curved. Adrian was clearly used to getting his way with no questions asked. “I should probably deny you at some point, just to keep you in your place.”
    His gaze smoldered. “And where would that be? The place where you’d like to put me.”
    “The place where I set the pace.”
    “I like it already.”
    “Good.” Lindsay gave an approving nod. He was becoming more approachable by the minute. More real. “As for dinner at your place, I’m okay with that. But I want you to decide what’s on the menu. Impress me.”
    “No allergies? Nothing off-limits?”
    “I’m not a fan of liver, bugs, or meat that’s still bleeding.” Her nose wrinkled. “Aside from that, you’ve got carte blanche.”
    Her stipulations elicited his first real smile. “I’m not a fan of blood either.”
    The sensual curving of his lips caused heat to spread outward from her tummy, pushing languidness through her limbs even as it gave her a potent headrush. She felt flushed and totally smitten.
    It figured that the one guy to set her off like a rocket was also one who obviously had a lot more to him than met the eye.
    As if what met the eye wasn’t enough . . .
     
    “Why do you need bodyguards?”
    Adrian lifted his shoulder in an offhand shrug, his gaze trained on Lindsay as it had been since they’d entered his local organic grocery. She was long and lean, athletic. Her body was a credit to the Creator, and she kept it in prime shape. The way she carried her weight on her feet was notable for its predaceous grace. While her outward appearance was relaxed, he sensed the edge to her. His mood was affecting her strongly, yet she rolled with it, maintaining an admirable level of control.
    She was in a lot better state than he was.
    Shadoe’s return was shredding his equanimity. Shopping for dinner ingredients seemed absurd, considering the violent need tensing every muscle in his body. Here, finally, was the one woman who made him hunger and crave and feel as no other could. The one woman capable of making him acutely aware of every second of his two hundred years of celibacy . . . and he couldn’t have her. Not yet.
    “Notoriety leads to unwanted attention,” he explained with studious evenness.
    Which was why he avoided going out in public when Shadoe wasn’t with him. He did so now because it served a variety of purposes—it continued his campaign to appear unfazed by the morning’s attack, it established normalcy and intimacy with Lindsay, and it gave her the opportunity to select the ingredients she preferred.
    She glanced at the lycans who stood on either end of the produce section. “Dangerous attention? Your bullet catchers are pretty big guys.”
    “Sometimes. Nothing for you to worry about. I’ll keep you safe.”
    “If I scared easily”—Lindsay picked up a sweet potato and dropped it into a plastic produce bag—“I wouldn’t have left the airport in a strange city with a guy I don’t know.”
    She knew him, even if she didn’t realize why or how. It was obvious she relied on her gut instincts more than