Dark Admirer by Charlotte Featherstone Read Free Book Online Page B

would it be if he were illiterate? So instead, they sat crossed legged on the floor, staring at each other while the fire crackled in the hearth and the wind howled outside.
    She probably should be terrified to be alone with him. She should probably be panicking, wondering how she was going to get rid of him. But she wasn’t. She wasn’t afraid. She was intrigued.
    Eve looked beyond his wide shoulders to the wall behind him which was bathed with firelight. There were no shadows of wings or any other celestial things, merely the stranger’s broad back and strong shoulders, which were naked, the smooth skin shining with the flickering firelight. She gulped down the last of her tea, trying not to think of those shoulders, or the incredible chest and abs he was sporting.
    The silence stretched on, and Eve struggled to look everywhere but the half naked man sitting across from her. It was rather unnerving, all that smooth, taut skin and the quiet. She didn’t quite know what to do, or say. Anything she did manage to say, however, wouldn’t be replied to. That much she knew for certain.
    As she scanned every surface of the bookstore for the fifth time, her gaze skimmed over a book that was sitting on the floor, beside her chair. She’d been reading it when Gemma called. Reaching for it, she dragged it across the hardwood floor and opened it to the dog eared page.
    She held the cover of the book out to him. “Have you ever read Bronte’s, Jane Eyre?”He shook his head, and reached for the last bit of bread. “No? It’s a classic piece of literature, and probably one of my favourites. I was reading it when…when…” Eve licked her lips. “Well, before I found you in the alley.”
    He motioned to her with a little wave of his hand. “You want me to read it to you?”
    Nodding, he sat back and rested his weight on his hands. Stretching out his longs legs, he crossed them at the ankles. The ridges of his abs jumped then tensed, and Eve immediately drew her gaze away. She was in danger here. Not only of checking out the top part of him, but the lower half as well. It seemed the button fly of his jeans was bulging.
    “You must be cold, here,” she said, then tossed him the plaid throw that was draped over the arm of the wingback. Thankfully he took the hint and covered himself.
    Clearing her throat, she opened the book. “I really had just started it, therefore I’ll start at the beginning.”
    He didn’t do anything, but Eve felt the heat from his gaze burning upon her face nonetheless. With a deep breath, she held the book up in a manner that afforded her the most firelight and began reading to him.
    She read to him for what must have been at least an hour. He was as still as a statue, and as silent as death. More than once she had glanced over her book, expecting to find him asleep, or at the very least looking about at his surroundings and appearing bored to tears. But every time she peeked at him, his attention was fixed on her. If she were a vain woman, she might have even thought the appropriate word to be transfixed. What was it that had captured his attention?

    Her voice was the sweetest he’d ever heard, and the way her lips moved as she read pulled him in until he could do nothing but watch them. Could think of nothing but touching them. He watched the way her chest rose and fell with each of her breaths, studied the way her fingers moved along the spine of the book, or the way her cheeks pinked at certain passages.
    Sitting forward, he inched ever so slightly closer to her, until he could feel the heat from her body, and smell the scent of her skin. She was beautiful like this, reading to him. The food she had prepared for him had been the first gift a mortal had ever bestowed upon him. He didn’t need to eat or drink. But she didn’t know that. So having her offer him the food first was a gift he cherished. Every mortal he’d ever had contact with had only wanted him for his powers. But not this one.