Connor (The Kendall Family Series Book 2) by Randi Everheart Read Free Book Online

his supposed love for me against my will. I punched one of them in the face, which is how I got the blood on me. I kicked another in the crotch and ran for my car. That’s why I only have my keys, not even shoes. Seth came after me and chased me, ramming my car from behind once and trying to force me off the road another time. I finally lost him. I didn’t know where else to go when I passed by here a few moments later and thought this was a good place to hide. Looks like I was right.”
    She stopped talking then, watching Connor continue to transform before her eyes; he didn’t move, except to slowly sit up taller, clench one fist, and tighten his grip on her with the other. A darkness seemed to gather around him, within him, as if he was summoning it from some unholy hell. Outrage swept across his handsome face, which became sinister for a moment. His eyes watered with empathy and then the tears vanished as if a fury within him boiled them away.
    She found tears in her own eyes then, as if his reaction to her list of horrors made that list all the more nightmarish. It had sounded a lot worse out loud than in her head, especially all in a row like that. But it felt good to get it out and not deal with it alone. When Connor didn’t say anything, the muscles in his jaw shifting as he clenched it, she became concerned and was about to gently touch him with her other hand when he finally spoke.
    “Seth Murray,” he finally whispered, his eyes dark, “is a dead man.”

Chapter 5 – Golden Boy
    “You’ve held up so well,” Connor began quietly, “despite going through this alone. You should not have to do that. And you won’t.”
    Sophia put her other hand on him. “Are you okay?”
    His eyebrows rose. Then he visibly tried to relax for her, unclenching his fists, closing his eyes a moment, and letting out a big sigh. That he felt so strongly about the wrongs Seth had done made it clear that he’d never have done any of those things, which didn’t surprise her. Still, his reaction said a lot about his sense of right and wrong. Was he honorable, courageous, and decent to all of Seth’s dishonor, cowardice, and despicableness? She leaned forward on the bed and kissed him on the lips, a rush of pleasure sweeping over her.
    It’s been said that a couple can know everything about how right they are for each other from the very first kiss, and Connor and Sophia knew they were home as long as their lips were pressed together. Physically that kiss didn’t last long, but emotionally, even spiritually, it seemed to go on forever, in a good way. In the best of ways. And every subsequent kiss compounded their adoration like some sort of interest rate from heaven, deepening, broadening, and enriching a love that increasingly seemed like something out of a fairy tale.
    When Sophia pulled back, startled and dazed, nothing but the present mattered anymore. The past was gone. The future had been replaced by a certainty so promising and glorious that she trembled. For his part, Connor’s distress had disappeared as if it had never been, replaced by a deep sense of well-being spreading from his lips down through the rest of him. He hadn’t known a kiss could be anything like that, nor had Sophia, and for several long moments, they just stared silently into each other’s eyes.
    Then Connor remembered himself long enough to whisper, “I knew I couldn’t trust you not to try something.”
    That abrupt comment startled Sophia before both of them began laughing loud and hard. She flung herself into his arms, knocking him back on the bed as he caught her in an embrace from which she never wanted to escape. They lay giggling for several minutes, like two schoolkids who’d just told a silly joke, and when both of them finally stopped, one would start laughing again, triggering the other to. It finally ended with her lying with her head on his chest, one hand stroking his side.
    “Oh, boy,” she said, “I’m tired now. That wore