Read Claimed for Free Online

under my roof!” he spat out in equal ire.
    “Your roof? I don’t believe you said that! For your information, it’s just as much my house!”
    “Tara?” a soft refined female voice interrupted them.
    Tara spun around in shock. “Miss Ellie… um… Miss Callum,” she stammered.
    Jared raised his eyes to meet those of the warm brown beautiful ones of the woman standing across them in the distance. She was nothing like he’d ever seen or imagined. Her fringes were strewn about her face and her long dark hair was twisted into a messy bun at her nape. It seemed to be loose and was beginning to unravel, leaving stray long strands on her shoulders. There was something unfamiliar that did to his body and he didn’t like it. But so did the violet silk robe she was wearing.
    In her haste to follow Tara, she had apparently forgotten that her sash had slackened to reveal a generous proportion of her creamy flesh at her bosom. They were laced with an exquisite matching camisole, hiding its treasures beneath it.
    Her eyes followed his and she reddened. Her fingers clutched at the two parts of her robe and she swiftly tightened her sash, veiling her semi-nakedness from him. Her little attempt at cloaking her body suddenly made it even more enticing and forbidding and he was acutely aware of the throbbing ache in his groin warning him that he was delving into dangerous territories.
    She was a Callum, he reminded himself.
    He moved his eyes away from her, trying to get back to the matter at hand- his sister.
    “Let’s go, Tara,” he said in a low growl.
    “At least, let me get my wages from Sam,” Tara bit back sharply.
    “What’s going on, Tara?” Ellie asked curiously.
    “Nothing, Miss,” Tara replied, glaring at Jared.
    Ellie moved closer. Her scent drifted to his nose and his body tingled with a new sensation. He didn’t like what she was doing to him at all.
    “It doesn’t look like nothing,” Ellie said, her eyes wandering between the two people. “I heard you arguing with him. Clearly, you don’t want to leave your job. Why do you let him treat you that way?”
    A muscle tensed in his jaw. Finally, he’d found back his bearings of hate for the family she’d spurted from. “This is none of your business.”
    She leveled up to him, daring him. “If you treat a woman like you’ve just done your wife, I have every reason to make it my business. I will not allow you to drag her away only because she happens to be a working mother, trying to make ends meet in her family.  You…”
    “Wife?!” he cut her short severely and let out a mocking laugh. “You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about! Well, of course, because like I said this is none of your business.”
    “Jared!” Tara pled, trying to pull him away from her employer’s daughter.
    “ I have no idea of what I’m talking about?!” she huffed with disbelief. “You’re the one who has no idea of the crap falling out of his mouth. Look at you, being all egotistical and full of pride, daring to show up at your wife’s work and dragging her out as if she was your slave.” She turned to the terrified woman beside Jared. “I’ll tell you what, Tara, you leave him right this minute and I’ll talk to Dad about giving you a staff quarters on the property. You don’t deserve a man like him. You’re a beautiful, wonderful woman who can do much, much better than this …this despicable thing called a man!”
    Jared flared at her. Tara threw herself between them in a panic.
    “Please, Miss Callum,” she begged. “We’ll resolve it between us.”
    “Tara, honey,” Ellie shook her head. “I know how you feel. It’s ca lled battered woman syndrome. Women often blame themselves for the domestic violence they endure, making them difficult to leave their abusive relationships. The only way out of it is to leave him now.”
    “Miss Ellie,” Tara bit her lips. “Jared is my brother.”
    Ellie froze, stunned by the revelation. She