Read Captured by Desire for Free Online Page A

wouldn’t embarrass him. She decided right then, that though she enjoyed their lovemaking, if they made it off the mountain, she would leave Cristian and Romania behind without a backward glance.
    As much as it pained her, the simple truth was that she wasn’t the woman for him. The knowledge made her eyes burn with unshed tears and her throat close with emotion.
    “Tell me what you know of the Wendigo,” Cristian suddenly said, breaking the silence.
    Jules swallowed past the lump in her throat, but didn’t move. “I know only what my father wrote in his letters. It was after I realized what he was after that I leafed through his books. There isn’t much said about the Wendigo, though what I did find gave a detailed description.”
    “What did it say?”
    “The Wendigo is really a man who has lost his sanity from a combination of magic and cannibalism. They say it’s a fearsome monster, taller, swifter, and deadlier than any man. He’s skeletally thin with skin that’s nearly white and completely hairless. The most bizarre part is they say the Wendigo has inhumanly long teeth, claws instead of fingernails, and glowing eyes.”
    “Then your father was most certainly looking for the Wendigo,” Cristian said after a moment. “What did his letters say?”
    Jules lifted her head to look into his eyes. “At first they were full of excitement as he jotted down some of the stories he’d heard on his way to Romania. Once here, he wrote almost daily, each letter filled with details on the Wendigo and how many people had gone missing since it began hunting.”
    Cristian nodded. “The Wendigo will hunt and feed for several months before it’ll hibernate in its lair for a time.”
    “We have to find it then.”
    He softly ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “You should’ve stayed in Brasov. I can hunt better alone.”
    “You know as well as I that our best chance is to hunt it now. Leave me in the circle if you have to.”
    “Nay.” His voice was hard and cold. “He stayed near the circle all night, waiting for you to make a mistake and step out of it. I can’t chance that again.”
    She shrugged, though his words disturbed her. “Make the circle bigger.”
    “You’re fearless,” he said, amazement in his gaze.
    Jules rose and turned her back to him while she pulled on her shirt. “I’m far from fearless. I stayed in my father’s house for three years. A fearless woman would’ve faced the women of society that had made her run and hide. I didn’t do that. I hid.”
    “You came out here looking for your father, knowing you might have to do it alone. That’s more fearless than facing society.”
    She chuckled and looked over her shoulder at him. “The truth was, I was ashamed of myself. I thought the best thing would be for me to keep to myself.”
    “You created your own prison.”
    “I did,” she admitted and looked away.
    “Tell me,” he urged so softly that she had to close her eyes against the tears that gathered.
    She would rather he not know, but Cristian wasn’t a normal man who might ask once. He would continue until she told him. It was better to tell him now. “I had an affair, but not just any affair. I found out too late my lover was already married. My father was shamed and ridiculed for what I’d done.”
    Suddenly, warm, strong hands gripped her shoulders and turned her to face him. “You did what hundreds of others have done since the beginning of time. Don’t punish yourself for giving into your body’s desires. As for the man, he’s the one to blame, not you. He knew what he was doing.”
    She glanced down as a smile pulled at her lips. “My father said the same thing.”
    “He sounds like a very smart man.”
    “He is.”
    Cristian rose and held out his hand for her. “Then let’s find him and my parents and end this.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Cristian hadn’t wanted to depart the safety of the circle, but he couldn’t leave Jules behind either, not when he