Read Blood of Dawn for Free Online Page A

merely a lucky coincidence was almost nil.
    “It was collecting dust in a little used-book store I like to visit from time to time. . . . Okay, I confess. Jim—er, your father—called and told me what had happened. I had this copy at home. To be honest, I thought I’d sold it. But I checked, anyway. Obviously, I hadn’t sold it. I thought you could use it more than me.”
    “Thank you.” I hugged the book to my chest and stared up into his eyes. “This is sure going to come in handy.”
    “Glad to hear that.”
    Mom cleared her throat. “Oh, my.” She yawned loudly. It was a complete fake. “I’m exhausted. I think I’ll head up to bed.”
    “Did you have some of your pie?” I asked her. “I bought French silk.”
    “French silk.” Mom’s eyes sparkled, but then they flicked to Damen. All the sparkle vanished. Poof. Gone. “My doctor told me that I need to cut back.” She shuffled past my gentleman caller, stopped next to me, and whispered, “Good night, Sloan. I gave Sergio the rest of the night off, and your father’s working late.” She waggled her eyebrows. Then, continuing on, she turned to Damen. “It was good seeing you again, Mr. Sylver.”
    “It was good seeing you too,” he said, the corners of his lips twitching.
    Once she was out of earshot, I shook my head. “I knew living with her was going to be tough, but I had no idea—”
    Before I could finish, Damen hauled me into his arms. I looked up, my mouth agape. And he tipped his head down, lower, lower. He was going to kiss me; and oh, my God, was I happy about it! When his lips came into contact with mine, my whole body felt like it was electrified. Every single cell. I heard the book hit the floor long before I realized I had dropped it. I threw my arms around Damen’s neck and held on while he kissed me. The world seemed to close in on itself, until all that existed was his big, hard body and little, trembling me.
    When he finally broke the kiss, I blinked a couple of times and muttered something unintelligible.
    “Are you okay?” he asked.
    “S-sure.”
    With his arm still curved around my waist, he bent over and picked up the book. “You dropped this.”
    “Th-thanks.”
    I couldn’t seem to produce more than one syllable at a time. My insides were zooming and swooping and flip-flopping. My head was spinning. I wasn’t sure which way was up. I was brain-dead. And as much as I wanted to shake myself out of it, I couldn’t.
    “Sloan, come here.” He guided me to the couch and helped me sit. Then he went to the kitchen. He grabbed a bottled water out of the refrigerator and handed it to me. After I guzzled half of it, he asked, “Better?”
    “What was that?” I asked. Three words. Three syllables. That was an improvement.
    “I’d like to think it was the result of my overwhelming charm.” He winked.
    “I’ve never been struck dumb before. It was weird.”
    “Weird, bad?”
    “Weird, weird. But not necessarily bad.” I set down the bottle. “In the name of science, maybe we should try that again. To see if we get the same results.”
    His smile broadened. “Of course, in the name of science.” Our mouths met. An explosion of colors blasted behind my closed eyelids. I swear, there couldn’t be a nerve in my body that wasn’t on fire.
    It was magic.
    “Excuse me,” someone said.
    No. Not now.
    The offending interrupter cleared his throat. “Thith is life or death.”
    So was this. I didn’t just want to keep kissing Damen. I needed to keep kissing him. I couldn’t stop. Not a chance.
    Damen stopped. He leaned back. I pried open my eyelids and cut a mean look at Elmer.
    “I don’t care,” Elmer hissed. “You didn’t help me thith morning, and now it’th too late.”
    My gaze wandered up and down his form. He was wearing a suit. Black. Black shirt. Black tie. His hair was cover-model perfect—and much, much thicker than it had been this morning. And his skin was the shade of a Baywatch lifeguard’s.