Catherine (Echoes of Ossiria #1) by Vivian Lane Read Free Book Online Page A

you doing ?”  
    And pushed her
down to sit.   “You were about to run into
a chair,” he said.   He picked up the
crystal tumbler of blood again.   “Head’s
fine, by the way. Just need my breakfast.”
    “Good!
That’s…good…”
    “What day is it?”
    She thought for a
second.   “Friday?”
    “Mm, excellent.
I’m thinking, you’ve read about demons, but you’ve hardly seen any. We need an
outing.”
    “You and me ?”
    He shook his
head.   “Everyone! Been too long cooped up
in the house and such.”   Paused to make
notes on a pad on the desk.
    “Uh, where?”   She dropped her eyes to her lap when the
towel loosened to reveal a couple centimeters of butt crack.  
    “Demon bar or
club, wherever we see first. Alicia can make a few contacts…” he said absently,
and made a couple more jots on the paper, folded it, and turned around to hand
it to her.   “Here, take this down to
Alicia so she can get started.”  
    Catherine had
stood, resolutely keeping her eyes at shoulder level.  
    “ What? ”
    “Uh, William…”
    He looked down,
then behind him, and noticed the towel had caught on the desk chair.   “Oh, for heaven’s sake…get out of here.”
    Her blush
deepened.   She briefly met his eyes, then
sprinted from the room.  
    “You’ve seen
penis!” Alicia exclaimed upon seeing Catherine’s face.
    “ What? No!
I haven’t! I didn’t!”   Almost.
    “Oh. Well, poo . And I thought this day was finally going to get
exciting.”
    “Well, I saw
William on my way downstairs and he gave me this for you.”
    She scanned the
page.   “Uh-huh…uh-huh…I can do this… unh -uh,
not on short notice….okay, okay…okay! You can go now.”
    Catherine exited
the office, shaking her head.   She still
wasn’t completely used to the genie’s no-nonsense manner.  
    Word spread
quickly amongst the girls that William was sponsoring a night out.   She wasn’t so excited.  
    When she came
downstairs in jeans, a sweater, and sensible boots, he vetoed the outfit
immediately.   “You’re not going to a club
like that! Go put on something appropriate!”
    “It’s cold outside!” she argued.
    “So? You can’t go
into a demon bar looking like that. It screams ‘lunch’.”
    She crossed her
arms over her chest and cocked her hip at an angle.   “Well, then I’m not going!”
    “Sorry, not an
option. You’re going, and you’re going to change clothes now .”
    She remained
defiant.   “ No. ”
    The tendon in his
jaw ticking with anger, he charged up the two steps to tower over her.   “Get your fucking skinny ass up those stairs
now and do what I bloody tell you.”
    She lifted her
chin.   “No. I’m not a piece of meat, yours
or anyone else’s. You want me to go; I’m going like this, or not at all.”
    He nodded, then
bent his knees and put his shoulder into her stomach, hoisting her over it to
dangle upside-down, and charged up the stairs two at a time.
    “William! Put me
down, you Neanderthal!”
    “Only if you quit
acting like a spoiled brat.”
    She wasn’t going
to go easily.   She squirmed and kicked,
pounding his back with her fists, though his leather coat absorbed most of the
blows.   He dropped her on the first
landing when she finally managed to kick him in the balls.  
    She took advantage
of landing on her back to kick the side of his knee with her heel.   He dropped to one knee as she got up and ran
down the hallway towards the back stairs.
    “ Errgh …Catherine, will you stop ? This is bloody
stupid. Everybody’s waiting.”
    She stopped and
turned around at the end of the hall.   “You’re the one who insisted I change clothes and tried to drag me
upstairs. We could be on the road by now.”   She turned the corner, heading for the back stairs.
    “I’m going to tan
that pretty little ass if you don’t get back here and do as you’re told!”
    Have to catch
me first , she thought.  
    She’d spent her
free time, once she was