Bought for Christmas by Doris O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page B

and she slumped down, unable to do anything but
take the pain. Pain that slowly morphed into pleasure, when
he stopped abusing her ass and massaged the hot cheeks instead.
    “Give
me a color, kitten—now.” His voice sounded more distorted than ever, and Emilia
wasn’t all surprised at the clawed hand that grasped her chin. She blinked
through her tears when she saw his toothy smile. Looking more animal than human
right now, he studied her from under hooded lids, his harsh features drawn
tight, yet she wasn’t afraid.
    There
was rigid control in the way he held her. His claws just
resting on her skin without breaking through and really harming her.   She knew without a doubt that he would stop
if she cried red. How she could be so sure, she couldn’t even begin to explain
to herself, she just did, and she somehow managed to croak her answer past her
parched lips.
    “Green,
Sir, please don’t stop. Let me see all of you.”
    Hunter
blinked, astonishment on his face, and he shook his head, and released her.
    “You
don’t know what you’re asking of me, and you’re not ready to meet the real me.”
    He
slid her off his lap, and bereft without his control over her, she scrambled
into a sitting position and brought her knees up. The action stung like crazy
on her hot ass, and she bit her lip to stop herself from crying out.
    Hunter
paced the wooden floorboards like a caged lion in the zoo, and when he turned
Emilia couldn’t suppress her gasp. The scars on his back were far worse than any
of the others she had seen. They covered his shoulders and ran half way down
his back. Thicker on one side that the other, she recognized them for what they
were.   Blast injuries, either from a fire
or an explosion. They looked very similar to the ones one of the pregnant
ladies under her care bore. She had been involved in a car crash as a child,
and despite multiple skin grafts had been left with large areas on her tummy
covered in scars. It had and still was cause for concern as her pregnancy
progressed, as no one could be sure how far that skin would stretch.
    Hunter
stopped pacing when he noticed her reaction, and she offered him a watery
smile.
    “Don’t
presume to know me, Hunter Monahan. You have no idea what I am ready to hear.
Tell me the truth or contract be fucking damned I’ll cry red and make you take
me home. And I don’t mean to my father’s place. Home to my flat, and if that
happens I don’t ever want to see you again.”
    To
his credit he didn’t react in any other way than to blink several times, and
then he turned and shrugged into a pair of worn jeans that he pulled out of one
the wardrobes taking up the entire opposite wall of the room.
    Despite
the situation Emilia sighed inside at seeing the denim hug those tree-trunk
thighs, and muscled behind. Scars notwithstanding, Hunter was a prime specimen
of male whatever species he might be.
    “I can’t do this on an empty stomach.
I’ll be in the kitchen. You’ll find some clothes in that wardrobe. I don’t want
you getting cold.”
    With one last searching glance in her
direction Hunter stalked from the room, shoulders hunched as though he carried
the weight of the world on them. And maybe he did. Hunter was clearly a very
private person, and Emilia had just challenged him to not only let her in, but
bare his soul.
    Letting her see his scars had pushed
him, but demanding that he share his secret with her…. Emilia shook her head,
wincing as she slid off the bed. By the way her butt felt she would carry some
spectacular bruises tomorrow. The thought made her grin, and her determination
grew to get Hunter to truly open up to her.
    She had set out to make this Christmas
different, hadn’t she? Perhaps it wasn’t exactly turning out like she had
envisaged, but the glimpses of the real Hunter she’d managed to snatch made her
hungry for more.
    Emilia padded across to the wardrobe
he’d indicated and gasped.
    ****
      Hunter smiled grimly when he heard