Dark Journey by Anne Stuart Read Free Book Online Page B

strength of will not to throw back the heavy covers and go to him. He was courting death out there in the freezing rain, and she wanted to bring him inside, to warm him, to find out what lay behind those mirrored sun-glasses.
    She didn't, of course. She knew all too well what Jeremy had said to him in his soft, mellifluous voice. If Alex had had any interest in her, it would have vanished instantly when Jeremy told him how sick she was.
    But then, she'd already told him herself, and it hadn't seemed to shock him. Her father had always warned her of unscrupulous men who would come after her, try to seduce her, marry her, knowing that she would die and they would inherit her share of the Fitzpatrick fortune. Perhaps Alex was one of those. After all, what did she know about him? A ski bum, appearing suddenly on the tightly patrolled slopes of Taylor Butte just as the world and the weather went haywire.
    She thought she could feel something between the two of them. Some strand, some rope, of longing, of recognition. She was probably going crazy from the stress of William's last weeks and the demands of her own failing body. She had thought she would die tonight, alone in the forest. She'd felt the pain, the sudden cessation of breath and life and heartbeat, and when she looked up, she'd seen nothing but a clear white light.
    And Alex, holding out a hand to her.
    She hadn't taken that hand, a fact that stayed with her, oddly enough. She'd wanted to. With all her damaged heart, she'd wanted to.
    But instead, she'd opened her eyes, struggled to her feet unaided and brought him home with her.
    What would he do if she got out of bed and walked into his room? Would he welcome her into his bed? Would he expect knowledge and experience? Would he give her pleasure? Would she die?
    She would never find out the answers to those questions. She would do as her family expected of her. She would die, sooner or later, a virgin, never knowing life or sex or passion. She would be a good girl, as the good Fitzpatricks expected her to be.
    She punched the pillow, hard, before she turned over and went to sleep.

    "Y ou're up early." Laura poured herself a cup of herb tea, ignoring the tantalizing odor of dark-roasted coffee with a stoic effort. Her doctor had banned even decaffeinated coffee in the past few years, and the enticing scent was almost more torment than the sound of Alex had been, tossing in the bed beyond her wall.
    Jeremy yawned, then rubbed his bristly jaw. "I fell asleep by Father's bed," he admitted. "Lucky for me, Cynthia isn't the type to worry."
    Laura glanced out at the overcast morning. The wind still whipped through the treetops; the thunder still rumbled. "You've rather gone beyond that stage in your marriage, haven't you?" She took a scone, ignored the butter and sat down next to her brother.
    Jeremy managed a boyish smile as he drained his cup of fresh-ground coffee with unappreciative haste. "Well, we've actually been talking about a future."
    Laura stared at him. "A future? You mean a reconciliation? I thought things were years past that."
    Jeremy shrugged. "Life is full of possibilities, don't you think? On a morning like this, I feel incredibly alive. Like I could do just about anything I wanted."
    Laura looked out at the stormy violence of the day, then back to her usually stolid older brother. "I think you should go down to the cottage and get some sleep," she said flatly. "I know why you stayed here, and I'm not very happy about it."
    The change in his shallow blue eyes was startling, brief and just a bit frightening. Absurd – there was nothing the least bit frightening about Jeremy. "What do you mean?" he said in a completely expressionless voice.
    "You wanted to play chaperone for me, didn't you? For some reason you thought I'd go traipsing off to bed with a perfect stranger, and you didn't even trust your heavy-handed warnings to make him keep his distance."
    The tension vanished from his shoulders as swiftly as