Dead Perfect by Amanda Ashley Read Free Book Online

and with it, the urge to hunt. With an effort, he fought it down.
    “Let’s go,” he said when she returned carrying a cardboard tray. “You can eat it in the car.”
    “Why are you in such a hurry?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t like crowds.”
    When she reached for the packages she had been carrying, he took them from her hand. “I’ve got them,” he said, his voice gruff. “Let’s go.”
    She frowned at him but knowing it was useless to argue, she followed him out of the mall to the car.
    He loaded the packages into the back seat and the trunk. “I’ll drive.”
    Again, she didn’t argue, merely pulled her keys out of her pocket and dropped them into his outstretched hand.
    He seemed tense, though she didn’t know why.
    She wolfed down the corn dog, surprised at how hungry she was and how good it tasted. The root beer, too, tasted better than any she’d had in a long time.
    When they reached his house, he parked the car in front, slid from behind the wheel, walked around the front of the car and opened her door. When she reached for one of the packages in the back seat, he waved her off.
    “I’ll do it.”
    “At least let me help.”
    “Go to bed.”
    Shannah stared at him. “What?”
    “I said go to bed.” There was a strange glitter in his eyes; his voice was deep, a low growl that brooked no argument.
    She didn’t argue, didn’t linger to ask what was wrong. Instead, she ran up the porch steps and into the house and didn’t stop running until she was upstairs in the bedroom with the door locked behind her.
    What had she gotten herself into?
    Agitated and more than a little afraid, she paced the floor, then came to an abrupt halt. How had he found her apartment? She hadn’t given him her address or her phone number. He didn’t have her last name. She knew he hadn’t followed her home when she ran away. She had glanced over her shoulder more than once to make sure he wasn’t behind her.
    So, how had he found her?
    And how had he persuaded her to invite him inside? She’d had no intention of doing so. And how had he convinced her to participate in this charade? She’d had no intention of doing that, either. Yet here she was, sharing a house with a complete stranger, albeit a very handsome stranger, who had just bought her a wardrobe worth a small fortune and was willing to pay the rent on her apartment and a salary while she pretended to be him. It seemed too good to be true. As her mother had often said, anything that seemed too good to be true probably was.
    What had she gotten herself into? He had scared her tonight when he’d told her to go to bed. There had been something in his eyes, his voice…She shivered at the memory. Maybe she should tell him she had reconsidered his proposal and changed her mind.
    Sleep, she thought, she needed to get some sleep. Perhaps things would look clearer in the morning.
    She changed into the nightgown he had bought for her, turned out the light, and slipped under the covers, only to lie there in the dark, wide awake, wondering if her decision to stay here was going to turn out to be the biggest mistake of her life.
    With a sigh, she turned on the light and propped the pillows behind her back. Digging his book out of her bag, she began to read.

Chapter Six
    Ronan listened to the sound of Shannah’s footsteps as she paced the floor overhead. Her scent filled the house. He knew she was doubting her decision to stay here, knew she didn’t trust him. Her agitation increased her heartbeat. He could smell the blood flowing through her veins. It called to his hunger, even as her fear aroused his instinctive urge to hunt.
    He heard the faint creak of bedsprings as she got into bed, his mind instantly swarming with images of her lying there, her hair spread out on the pillow, her body relaxed as she waited for sleep.
    Not trusting himself to stay under the same roof with her in his current condition, he fled the house.
    Plagued by his unholy thirst, he stalked