BlindHeat by Nara Malone Read Free Book Online

intoxicated.
    “Hello?”
    She couldn’t decide what to say to him. What she should do
was hang up. She didn’t.
    “Why me? What do you want from me? Did you plan what
happened this morning?”
    “This is better explained in person.”
    “Look, I don’t know you…” Her brain scrambled for an excuse.
    “Don’t you?”
    Cold so deep it hurt to breathe settled over her. She didn’t
know. Could he be a business acquaintance of Eddie’s? Was he just a casual
acquaintance? Did he work here at the paper, or frequent the diner? She didn’t
know. It drove her crazy that she never knew. He wasn’t familiar enough that
she recognized his voice this morning, or had she? She wasn’t sure. The paper
under her right hand crumpled as her fingers curled into a fist. She took the offense.
    “So you are stalking me.”
    “Sweetheart, a lamppost could stalk you.”
    Hang up! Hang up , her sensible side demanded. Her
hand tightened on the receiver. She couldn’t resist the pull of his voice.
    “I did wait for you this morning,” he said. “I didn’t intend
things to get so out of control. When we go where we need to go, Allison, at
least one of us needs to be in control.”
    Warmth spread through her middle, tingling resonated through
her pussy with every word that slid from his golden tongue into her ear.
    “Tell me you haven’t been thinking of me. When you answered
the phone it was in your voice. A sexy purr.”
    “Advertising Department? That’s a sexy greeting? You just
got out of jail, didn’t you?”
    His heavy sigh had her trembling again, the image of him
with his head tipped back, throat working, floated behind her eyes. She’d wrung
a thoroughly different kind of sigh from him then. She fought to keep her voice
from sounding anything close to sexy. “I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll report you
if you keep harassing me.”
    “I am not a criminal. Look, we’ll talk at lunch.”
    “I don’t do lunch with strange men.” She didn’t do lunch
with anyone, but she didn’t want him to know that.
    “Do you do what we did this morning?”
    She chewed her lip, glanced around the office, hoped no one
could see the effect he had on her.
    “Of course not.”
    “We need to talk, Allie. I’ll meet you at the diner. The
usual time. I know you won’t be late.”
    There was a soft click and then a dial tone.
    The use of her nickname unnerved her further. He knew where
she went to lunch. He knew when. He knew she took pride in being on time. He
knew too much, possibly much more than he’d revealed so far. The situation
smacked of Eddie. He’d sent someone to find her and by the guy’s own admission
things had not gone as he intended. What did he intend? To blackmail her into
more sex if he kept her whereabouts to himself?
    She didn’t want to run. She’d made a good life for herself
in Greyville. Had friends. Friends who would be in danger if this man was the
kind of trouble she suspected he was. It wouldn’t take more than ten minutes to
pack what she owned. She opened her web browser and selected Greyhound.com from
her favorites list.

Chapter Two
     
    Marcus flipped the phone shut and before he could stow it in
Jake’s desk drawer, Oliver—a liberated lab rabbit—increased the pressure
to find Hella tenfold. Marcus’ guilt deepened. He was supposed to be watching
over the shop and Oliver while Jake made a quick trip to his upstairs apartment
in search of something or other he needed to fix a computer. Not that paying
better attention to Oliver, or shooing him from Jake’s laptop, would have
prevented this inevitable evolutionary milestone from occurring. Sentience
confirmed.
    As much as he hated the human practice of creating parahumans
by implanting human neurons in animal brains, he had to admit that hybrids were
endearing little creatures, at least the ones he’d rescued so far.
    One long ear twitched and Oliver’s paw hovered a moment,
then zeroed in on a particular key, and pressed a paw over