Dawn Endeavor 4: Gunnar's Game by Marie Harte Read Free Book Online

someone tried to stop him. He turned and would have smashed Ava in the face if Fallon hadn’t knocked him out of the way.
    Ava—beautiful, intelligent, sexy Ava, a victim to a brutal monster’s rage.
    Scenes of violence against women inevitably drew him to the fateful night he'd spent a lifetime trying to forget. His father's manic shrieks, his mother's screams, his sister's tearful pleas before his father choked the life from her. And then, the stark sound of his girlfriend's neck snapping in the sudden silence broken only by grunts and sobs…
    Tersch pulled back from Ava as if scalded and leaped from the bed. He ignored the aching need in his body and paced until he could control, if not will away, his arousal. The past is the past. Not the here, not the now. I won’t hurt Ava. Not ever.
    Let it fucking go.
    Ava sat up, grumbling. “I'd call you a cock tease, but we both know you give them what they need.”
    He flushed at her referral to his teammates. He couldn't help it. She was right.
    But he knew they could take care of themselves. Even though he'd seen Ava as a Circ, he couldn't help stop thinking of her as a smaller, frailer woman. The thought of hurting her made him sick.
    “Tell me about Grayson,” he said, his voice rough with frustration.

    She grunted. “Well, that killed the mood. Sure, whatever. Grayson is my brother, you know. He's not exactly white, either. We have a nice little mix of ancestry in the Belle family. Grayson likes to say he's the light end of the spectrum.
    I look like Mom; he takes after Dad.”
    “Your parents are still living?” Just about all the Circs in residence were the last of their lines. Well, except for Morgan, but Tersch didn't count him because he'd mated into the Dawn Endeavor family.
    She nodded. “Mom and Dad are still kicking. And they'd be pissed as hell to know Grayson's sending messages when he shouldn't be. I'm not a telepath.”
    “Thank God.”
    “And I don't want to be one.” She glared at Tersch. “I can't imagine what goes on in what you call a brain.”
    His fear of hurting her slowly receded under her irritation. Ah. There was the Ava he knew and lo—liked. He grinned; he couldn't help it. She was so cute when annoyed.
    “Grayson is in trouble. He's in DC working on something for a friend of ours.
    And the shit just hit the fan.”
    “How so?”
    Ava frowned. “I'm not sure. He sent a ton of images and words into my head that I'm still trying to piece together. But he needs my help. He never would have sent me the info, knowing it would hurt me, if he hadn't been desperate.”
    “Well, hell. We're going to need to talk to your grandmother about this.” She sighed. “I know.” Ava didn't look like she had plans to move from his bed, though. “Can I ask you something?”
    He answered, wary. “Sure.”
    “Do you like games?”
    He blinked. “Games?”
    “Yeah. Do you?”

    “I guess so. I like to have fun.” Though normally his idea of fun involved beating the shit out of some dickhead deserving it.
    “I do too.” The sly look that passed over his body and centered on the bulge under his jeans unnerved him. “Let's play a game, Gunnar.”
    “Ava…” His voice left him when she trailed her fingers down her body, past her breasts and belly to her crotch. Her hand hovered there before she slowly unbuttoned and unzipped her shorts. It’s like the woman is reading my fantasies.
    Holy shit. Am I awake?
    “You see, you got me all worked up and left me high and dry. You claim to have perfect control. Let's test that, hmm?”
    “Not a good idea,” he rasped, his gaze glued to her fingers delving beneath her panties visible underneath her zipper. “Oh, fuck.” He could see the outline of her fingers under the cotton, and the corresponding pleasure on her face clearly showed him what she was doing.
    “I need it. I don't have mating heats, but sometimes the desire for sex is there all the same.” She bit her lower lip as she worked her