Daniel by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t just kissing
her, he was…taking her. She started to reach up and push him away but was
wrapping her hand into his dress shirt before she could get her hand to do what
her mind wanted. When he pulled her closer to him, his flush with hers, she
moaned. The contact was scintillating; sparks seemed to ignite throughout her
body from his. He cupped her breast, and she felt it swell under his hand.
    “O’Reilly,” he moaned her name, and she
felt his thigh press against her mound. “Come home with me. I want to fuck
you.”
    Home. She wanted to go home with him,
and that’s when she remembered her home. Benny was there. The gate. The phone. She
wrenched away from him only to have him reach for her again.
    “I have to…we can’t…you can’t do that. I
have to go.” She grabbed up her things and was to the door when she realized
he’d locked it when they came in. She turned to him when she couldn’t get the
lock to work for her.
    He brushed against her without a word.
The electricity from him was almost enough to make her want to go back to where
they’d been, but once she was on the outside of the building with him, she took
several steps back.
    “I’m not going to rape you,” he snarled
at her. “A simple no would keep me back.”
    She nodded but wasn’t sure what to say.
She was humiliated, and he was angry. Not even sure what to say to him, she
started to the car. Stopping her with a jerk on her arm was the only thing that
kept her from running away.
    “What happened back there? I thought we
were connecting and you run like I’ve done something heinous.”
    “I did it. Not…I can’t get involved with
you. With anyone. I want to live my life like I have been. Alone. It’s safer for
everyone.”
    He didn’t let her go but stared at her.
“Does this have anything to do with the call you apparently received before? The
one I asked you about? Is it Carver? Is he the one you’re hiding from?”
    She knew she paled. All the blood
drained from her face in that second. She staggered back, and had he not still
been holding her, she would have fallen. He knew was all she could think
of. He knew that Carver was after her, and she wondered how.
    “You won’t give Benny to him. I swear to
you if you even try, I’ll kill you myself. He’s my—”
    “I’m not going to do anything of the kind.”
He shook her. “Think. I’m not going to give anyone to that bastard. He’s not
going to get Benny or you. But you need my help. You can’t take on a man like
him and expect to come out the victor.”
    Brave words. She jerked from him and
went to her car. When he didn’t come with her, she turned back before getting
in her car, wondering if he was going to get in and let her take him back to
his car.
    “You don’t trust me. I don’t think getting
in a car with you right now is smart.” She started to speak, but he lifted his
hand to stop her. “I’ll expect you to be at the Foundation offices on Monday.
If that’s the only way I can keep an eye on you, so be it. Eight o’clock on
Monday, and ask for Kasey or Kylie Hunter. They’ll expect you.”
    “You have to see that I’m right. If you
know about Carver, then you know what sort of man he is. He’ll hurt you like…I
can’t let him harm anyone, and he’ll not get my son.”
    “You’re wrong. And we both know it. If
you have any knowledge of what he is capable of, you know that, as well. He
won’t stop until he gets whatever it is he’s told you, and if you don’t know
that, you’re more naive that I thought.”
    She drove home on auto-pilot. Things
were just fine until she…who was this guy, anyway? What rights did he have to
barge into her life and treat her as if she hadn’t been dealing with this all
along without his interference? She parked in the garage and went to the house.
She was so tired of this stress and wondered what it would be like to just let
someone else help her with it. She shuddered at that thought. That