Born of Fire by Sherrilyn Kenyon Read Free Book Online Page B

lips and trailed a path with his mouth down her cheekbone.
    Shahara shivered as his whiskers gently scraped her skin before he nuzzled against the sensitive flesh of her neck. Her throbbing intensified as chills spread all over her.
    His warm breath tickled her ear while he whispered something poetic in a language she couldn’t understand.
    Unbidden, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, caressing the corded muscles that rippled beneath the smooth silk of his shirt. His rich, warm voice continued to soothe her with its strange, melodic language. Lulling her, hypnotizing her.
    She’d never known a man could hold her without causing pain and her newfound knowledge amazed her.
    Syn shifted and she felt the hard bulge of him against her thigh.
    Panicked shock jolted her.
    In that instant, Shahara remembered herself and why she’d come. He wasn’t a tender man and he damned sure wasn’t a kind one.
    He was a vicious killer.
    Hissing, she gripped his ponytail and pulled him away from her.
“Vanna sitiara!”
She caught him under the chin with her fingernails.
    His oath matched her own as she raked his flesh. At this point, she didn’t care if he killed her. She refused to ever lie with a man wanted for rape and murder. Men were cruel and abusive by nature and she’d die before she ever submitted to one.
    Syn grabbed her hands again and held them by herface. His breathing labored, he curled his lips into a fierce snarl.
    Bravely, Shahara glared her hatred at him. “If you rape me, convict, I’ll tear your heart from your chest and feed it to you!”
    The anger fled his features. His eyes went strangely dull as if something from his past shredded him. It was as if she stared into the face of a statue without any emotions or life at all.
    “I’ve never raped a woman, and I have no intention of starting now.”
    A drop of blood fell from his neck where she’d scratched him and landed on her cheek. He stared at it for a moment before looking back at her eyes. “I’m going to release you. If you attack me again, it’ll be the last time you ever make such a mistake.”
    The icy dare in his voice quelled her more than his words. She had no doubt he would make her long regret any more moves against him. And like Gaelin, he would relish her torture. Laugh at her while he did it.
    But there would come a time when his guard would fall. Then he would be hers and she’d make him pay dearly.
    He released her hands and rose.
    Shahara lay there for a moment, warily watching him.
    Without taking his gaze from her, he retrieved the bottle from the floor. He gripped it so tightly, his knuckles protruded sharply against the leather of his glove.
    “Go ahead, throw it at me.”
    A glimmer of shock passed across his features before he recovered his impassiveness. “I should. Hell, if I had any sense at all, I’d kill you and dump your body in the nearest slime hole.”
    Shahara lifted her chin defiantly. Far better opponents than he had tried and failed. “Then why don’t you?”
    “I have an appointment to keep.”
    The unexpected response was far from comforting. But it served to weaken her cockiness.
    He slid his hand under his chin and cursed when he withdrew it and saw the blood on his glove. He gave her a look of such loathing that she thought he might kill her after all.
    Instead, he turned around and headed into the bathroom.
    She wiped his blood from her own cheek and listened to water splash against the basin. Rising from the floor, she stood in the bedroom uncertain about what to do next.
    How was she going to get out of this mess?
    Was he going to kill her? And just what would he do to her before he took her life? Various terrifying possibilities flashed through her mind, making her shiver.
    Hesitantly, she walked to the bathroom door that he’d left partially open. He stood in front of the sink, wiping the blood away with a washcloth.
    “What are you going to do with me?”
    His hand paused under his chin and he met