Amanda Ashley by Deeper Than the Night Read Free Book Online

tomorrow,” Kara repeated, and wondered how she’d ever survive the hours until she saw him again.
    He sat in front of the computer, his gaze fixed on the screen, taking up where he had left off.
    The nightmares came back that night, more real, more frightening than before. With AnnaMara gone, there was nothing to hold me to my old life, my old home. I bade my parents farewell and left the village without looking back. I was running. Running away from the memory of my wife and child. Running away from the images that again haunted my dreams.
    How foolish I was, to think I could outrunmy destiny. I was in France, trying to drown my grief in a tankard of ale, the night she found me.
    I don’t know how long she stood beside me before she touched me. I only remember looking up into a pair of the most exquisite amber-colored eyes I had ever seen. I knew, at that moment, that I was lost, hopelessly and forever lost, that I would do whatever she asked.
    She spoke my name, and I did not question how she knew it.
    She took my hand, and I followed her out of the tavern, down a dark street, into a dark house.
    I was her prisoner from that night. She did not imprison me with chains, nor did she keep me locked in a dungeon. It was the power of her eyes, the strength of her will, that enslaved me.
    I slept by day, and came awake at night. She told me her name was Lilith, and she had been waiting for me since the day of my birth. I thought that an odd statement, as she was a young woman. A beautiful woman, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her hair, as black as the night, fell past her hips like a river of darkness. Her skin was like porcelain, her lips the palest pink imaginable.
    She was a wealthy woman. Her house was huge and well-appointed, filled with paintings and tapestries and exotic pottery and figurines. She took me to the opera and the theater, dressed me in fine clothes, taught me to read and to write.
    I never saw her during the day. I never sawher eat. When I dared question her, she said she preferred to stay up late and sleep late, and that she preferred to dine alone.
    And I believed her. Only later did I realize that she had clouded my mind so that those facts did not seem unusual or important.
    Months passed. I was neither happy nor sad. I did as I was told and gave no thought to the morrow.
    Until the night when I woke and Lilith was not there. . . .
    Alexander leaned back in his chair, his thoughts turning from Lilith to Kara. She would be waiting for him tomorrow night.
    The thought filled him with anticipation. And dread.

Chapter Five
    Kara thought the hours would never pass. She fidgeted through dinner, listened impatiently as Gail recited her homework, stared at the TV without seeing a thing.
    At eight-thirty, she tucked Gail into bed and said good night to Nana.
    At nine o’clock, she took a long, leisurely bubble bath, dressed in a pair of silky black pants and a pale pink sweater, combed her hair, brushed her teeth, applied her lipstick with care.
    At ten o’clock, she went out into the backyard and sat on the swing.
    And waited.
    And waited.
    At eleven, she told herself he wasn’t coming. And still she waited, wondering what there was about Alexander Claybourne that touched her so deeply.Perhaps it was the air of supreme loneliness that clung to him. Perhaps it was the feeling that he needed her, although she admitted that was probably just wishful thinking on her part.
    â€œKara.”
    His voice. Was it real, or was she still dreaming? “Alexander?”
    â€œI’m here.”
    She sat up, rubbing her eyes. “I must have fallen asleep.”
    â€œYou should not be out here. It’s cold.”
    He was wearing a long black coat that reminded her of the dusters old-time cowboys used to wear. Shrugging it off, he draped it over her shoulders.
    â€œYou said you’d be here at ten.”
    â€œI know.”
    She looked up at him, waiting for an explanation, an