Catherine Spangler - [Sentinel 02] - Touched By Fire (v5.0) (html) by Unknown Read Free Book Online

through his hair again, obviously a nervous—but sexy—habit. “Ah, shit,” he muttered.
    Marla smiled. This was really a cool dream.
THREE
    THE first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a wall that might have been white once, but was now dingy and grimy and sported a fist-sized hole in the plaster. Confused, Marla blinked against the strong sunlight streaming into the room, shifting and wincing when her head protested the movement. That’s when she realized she was in a rumpled double bed with navy sheets. What the—?
    She pushed upright, looking for her glasses. They were on the scarred imitation pine fiberboard nightstand by the bed, neatly closed. She grabbed them up and put them on, and looked around a room she’d never seen in her life. It was so weird, she couldn’t process it. Unless she was dreaming . . . Bits and pieces of another dream drifted to her. Luke had been in it, and Bryony, and they’d taken a wild ride on a Harley motorcycle, roaring down the highway into the night.
    But that had been vastly different from this—surreal and fuzzy, like most dreams. She ran her hand along the sheets, pressed it against the mattress. She didn’t think she was dreaming now. This appeared too real. She didn’t feel drunk or disoriented. She felt fairly normal, except or the throbbing headache. She stared around the small room, taking in the threadbare indoor/outdoor carpeting, the casement window with no curtains, and the general rundown condition.
    She still couldn’t process, except for the crazy thought that she’d entered The Twilight Zone . She tried to think, and more of last night’s dream came back to her. Luke in her house, disarming her, telling her she had to go with him. . . .
    “You’re in a rental house in Needville.”
    Marla gasped and whirled toward the voice. Luke Paxton stood in the doorway. Her heart started pounding. “What are you doing here?”
    He stepped inside the room, looking large and dangerous in jeans and a plain white T-shirt. “I’m renting this place. I brought you here last night.”
    She tried to digest that, tried to make sense of the situation. Uh-oh. “Last night wasn’t a dream, was it?” she asked. Fear slithered through her even before he answered.
    “Afraid not.”
    Adrenaline punched her heart rate off the charts. Oh, God. Not a dream. He really had kidnapped her! She reacted blindly, rolling to run from the bed. Luke was there in an instant. In one smooth move, he had her flat on the mattress. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he captured her hands and pinned her by leaning his upper body across hers. She was basically helpless, despite her frantic heaving and twisting. He managed to stay out of the reach of her head and teeth.
    She screamed at the top of her lungs.
    “Stop it! No one can hear you.”
    She voted in favor of him lying and kept screaming. Until her throat locked up and all she could do was make a rasping sound. A fresh wave of terror roared through her and she made a choking noise as she struggled to get air.
    “You can breathe, Marla. Be calm and relax,” Luke said quietly. A soothing warmth flooded her throat and chest, and she gasped in a lungful of air.
    Sinking back against the bed, she stared up at him. “I want you to listen to me,” he told her. “Take another breath, and listen . Okay?”
    The next breath came easier, and some of the tension left her body. She managed to nod, but her mind was whirling with horrendous possibilities.
    “We’ve been together since eleven thirty last night, and I haven’t made any move to hurt you. Right?”
    She nodded again, trying to push away the utter panic that was making it difficult to think clearly.
    Regret filled his gaze. “I mishandled this. I wish I could go back and do this differently. Obviously, I can’t.” He eased his weight back a little. “You’re completely safe with me. I’m not going to harm you. I give you my word of honor. But I really need your