5 - Together To Join by Jackie Ivie Read Free Book Online Page A

this place. She was recreating a child’s view. And she was lying. He narrowed his eyes and took a bite of salmon. He’d been mistaken earlier. The potatoes didn’t melt in his mouth. This did, flaking against his tongue without any need of chewing. He swallowed and looked across at her.
    “You don’t look six.”
    She lowered her chin slightly and favored him with a non-blinking gaze, giving him her full attention and making his ears hum. He’d been warned countless times about this type of allure. Now he knew why. Heat flared along his lower back, reached around him, and made him instantly rock hard without one bit of permission. But that’s what napkins were good for.
    He shoved in another bite of anything and grunted as if busily chewing. Keep your mind on the food. Her words. Use what she says. The explanations. Toy with her. The thrust and counter-thrust of conversation.
    Thrust…
    He choked. And when he had the coughing conquered, a frosted mug of amber liquid was beside his plate. As if by magic. If he wasn’t doing his best to combat the coughing and stay the tears, he’d have watched her fetch it, and maybe have a bit of inkling on how to escape this hell. But that would have to wait. He needed a drink, and it wasn’t like him to let a good beer go to waste. He had it half downed with the first round of gulping. The next had it emptied. Damn. That was the best brew he’d ever had, too.
     “I was forced from my home at six. I wasn’t turned until fifteen years later. To the day.”
    “Who forces a six-year old?”
    “My husband.”
    Husband. Right. He was beginning to wonder if she ever spoke the truth. And somehow, her lying tongue helped alleviate her sexual allure. It wasn’t much, but it was something. If he could just keep her talking...
    “This is delicious. Perfectly cooked. I’m going to guess it wasn’t frozen.”
    “Of course not. The best meals start with the freshest ingredients.”
    “So…we’re close to a market?”
    He busied himself with slicing another bite from his steak, as if he’d said nothing of import, and hoped it worked. This was a very sharp knife. Probably the match to his razor. She shouldn’t have given them to him. There wasn’t hosiery around that was safe now.
    “Why don’t you just ask if we’re near a town?”
    “Are we?” The bite went in his mouth and he tipped his head to one side to regard her as he chewed.
    “No.”
    “Pity.” He shoved in another mouthful of eggs.
    “Aren’t you going to ask why I’m still a virgin?”
    He stiffened, and then kept chewing, although the eggs were nearly liquefied already. Swallowed. And then worked on the potatoes again. He should have asked for bread, too. It would have soaked up the steak juice. “Nope.”
     “My husband was a travesty of a man. A…man who prefers other men. Despite how they forced him into my bedchamber, he couldn’t…perform.”
    Her voice quavered slightly. Garrick squeezed the fork in his hand until he felt it start to warp. They’d used real gold all right, and too much of it. He very carefully shrugged and then worked at his meal again.
    “Surely there were other men around. The kind who like women. You’ve had centuries to find them.”
    “That’s why I had you bound. I couldn’t chance losing you. The odds of finding you were already astronomical.”
    He stopped the bite halfway to his mouth, and dropped it back to his plate where it sat, soaking up steak juices.
    “I don’t want to know. Ok? We can stop now.”
    “You’re ending our truce?”
    “I’m saying I don’t want to hear this mating part again. You’re a dead thing walking, and I’m sworn to destroy them as I find them. Hard obstacles to overcome, know what I mean?”
    He didn’t think the room had gotten hotter, but it sure felt it. He almost moved to loosen his collar.
    “Yes. I know what you mean.”
    Her voice was barely above a whisper and contained something he didn’t want to explore. She’d