Read Made for Sin for Free Online Page B

yourself,” he managed. It was hard enough paying attention to what she was saying, without trying to think of a clever reply, too. His vision was starting to go red; just a little around the edges, and it would ease when the pain did, but it was still not good.
    “I never do.” She finished wrapping the gauze around his arm and tore off a strip of tape with her teeth. “I never have to. There’s plenty of people to do that for me.”
    “Lot of drunks in this town,” he said.
    “I hear there’s a lot of desperate women, too, but apparently you’re the expert on that one.” She fastened the tape to his skin and gave it a smack. A hard smack.
    He didn’t respond that she must know something about desperate women herself. Too much of a low blow, even if the idea that she might have a difficult time getting laid weren’t ridiculous. She was all cool fire, soft skin, and sharp eyes; the quick, graceful way she moved that sleek body and the arrogant way she held her head made it clear that any man who got to go on that particular journey was privileged indeed.
    “If you say so,” he said finally, and stood up, glad for the chance to get away. “I’ll be right back.”
    “You’re welcome!” she called after him, but he ignored it. He had to get a clean shirt on and he had to figure out some way to get rid of her, for a little while at least.
    Which was another problem: Should he take her back to the Wheel, or back to her place, or what? His house was protected; even if their would-be assassins knew where he lived and made the trip out there, they couldn’t get past the guardian spells forming a barrier across his doorways. As long as he stayed in the house, they couldn’t get him.
    “Hey,” he said as he walked back down the hall. The sensation of having to fight the beast had faded some, but it hadn’t gone away entirely. “Is your place protected? Will you be safe if I take you back there, I mean.”
    “I know what ‘protected’ means.” She’d poured herself another drink, and one for him, too, which she held out to him. “Eager to get rid of me, huh?”
    Everything was some kind of battle of wits with her. “Like I said, I’ve got shit to do.”
    “Shit that’s more important than finding the demon-sword or figuring out who shot at us?”
    Shit that would save her life, because if his time ran out and she was still there, the beast would go after her immediately. And it would make him watch.
    He couldn’t tell her that, though. He sipped his drink. “Maybe. Is that a problem?”
    “My house is protected.” She started wandering around his living room, looking at the books in his bookcase and then moving to the couple of pictures on his walls. She picked up the Allegar Stone on his desk, examined it, and set it back down, then did the same with the silver Baelliary and the bezoar. Touching everything. Evaluating it.
    She was just bending over in front of the display case in the corner—those jeans really were tight—to inspect some of his more valuable magical items when he spoke. “Hey, maybe you can case my house sometime when I’m not right here?”
    “Oh.” She straightened up, giving him a small but completely unembarrassed half smile. “Force of habit, I guess. You’ve got some good stuff.”
    “I guess.” No, he knew. He did indeed have some good stuff—some great stuff. Too bad none of it had managed to get rid of the beast, or even help him control it without further condemning his soul, but it was still good stuff. “You would know.”
    Her smile widened at the compliment—a compliment he hadn’t planned to make. “I would. I could get you a shitload of money for that Rinaldi Gem you’ve got there. High five figures, at least. It—”
    “No thanks,” he said. “I’m not looking to sell. Anything. I kind of like it all where it is.”
    What was she thinking when she looked at him like that? An evaluating sort of look, cool and distant, yet soft somehow. Curious.