Convince Me (Holton Series #1) by B. L. Blair Read Free Book Online Page A

the
nightmare.  She hadn’t had the dream in years and she worried about the
timing.  Was Steven’s anger the cause of the dream?  Did she fear him
like she did her father?  The nightmare was always the same.  It
began with her father beating her mother and then yelling at her.  She
always woke just when the house was engulfed in flames.  Her father had
died in a fire and although Anna had been told that the cause was cigarettes,
she had never been able to shed the belief that she was at least partially to
blame.
    When the fire had started, she and
her parents had rushed from the house.  He father had shouted at her
asking her over and over if she had left the candles burning in the living
room.  Anna had not been able to remember and her father had blamed
her.  He had been drunk and was totally out of control.  It was the
one time he had hit her.  He had won a great deal of money at a poker game
earlier in the evening and the money was still in the house.  Unable to
believe that he would come to any harm, he had returned to the house to
retrieve the money.  Anna had tried to stop him but he had pushed her
away.  He never made it out. 
    The nightmare was a sign that
Steven was affecting her.  His anger had frightened her briefly and Anna
believed that it had caused the dream.  She just hoped that it wasn’t
going to be an ongoing problem.
    #
    The room was comfortable and cozy
but Steven’s thoughts were far away.  Sitting in his parents’ living room,
he was still thinking about what Anna had said.
    He had completely over-reacted this
morning.  His anger had been inappropriate.  Steven knew he felt
territorial around Anna but that he had no real claim to her.  He had
forgotten that Anna didn’t feel the same way he did.  She didn’t have his
knack for making snap decisions.  To Anna, their mutual attraction was
simply that – a mutual attraction.  She hadn’t yet realized that
they belonged together.
    Anna made her decisions slowly and
after careful consideration.  She liked being in control and if she felt
even a fraction of what Steven did, then control was in short supply right
now.  It was probably driving her crazy.  Steven knew he had been
rushing her, which was why he had backed off when she had asked.  Then he
made the mistake of pushing her once again.
    The problem was no matter what Anna
felt that didn’t change Steven’s feelings for her and when he had heard about
her date, he had been jealous, unbelievably and unreasonably jealous.  He
hadn’t realized what an ugly emotion jealousy could be until his anger had
carried him into Anna’s office.
    It was the fear in Anna’s eyes that
had stopped him from venting that anger.  He had wanted to confront her,
wanted to demand an explanation but for the first time in his life someone had
been afraid of him.  It worried Steven.  No one had ever been afraid
of him before and that fear had cooled his anger quicker than anything she
could have said or done.  He still wasn’t sure why she had been
afraid.  He hadn’t threatened her, hadn’t even spoken to her when he first
saw the fear on her face but it had been there.  It was that fear that
occupied his thoughts now.  He didn’t know what to do about it.
    “Steve.”  His mother’s voice
broke into his thoughts and he looked up to see her watching him. 
Apparently she had been speaking for some time but he had not heard a word she
said.
    Every Monday night, Steven had
dinner with his parents.  He wasn’t really sure when the ritual had first
begun but it had started soon after he had returned from law school.  When
he and Andrew first set up their practice, they both purchased houses in their
old neighborhood.  Some people had thought it was strange that they both
wanted to live so close to their parents but both men genuinely liked their
families and the location was ideal.  It was only a mile from their
office.
    Andrew had moved to a newer part of
town soon