Demand by Lisa Renée Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

path. Inhaling, I dare to turn down the path he’d taken, hurrying forward until I reach an open gate leading to a private garden. It’s then that I see a man on the ground. . . . David on the ground.
    I rush to him, and there is blood oozing from his chest. “I’ll get help! Hold on. I’ll get help.”
    I start to get up and he grips my arm. “Wait,” he hisses. “Don’t . . . give . . . him the necklace.”
    â€œHim who?”
    But the memory goes blank and my eyes pop open, my heart racing a million miles an hour. “Don’t give him the necklace,” I whisper, repeating his words and then my own. “Him who?”
    And I can come to only one conclusion. He didn’t use a name because he believed I knew who he was talking about.

four

    â€œE lla.”
    At the sound of my name, my lashes lift and I blink the gorgeous man leaning over me into view, my mind flickering back to the hospital room where I’d done the same. “Kayden?” I ask, rising up on my elbows to find him kneeling beside me.
    â€œWhy are you on the couch?” he asks, his voice a soft but evident demand.
    â€œI must have fallen asleep. What time is it?”
    â€œTwo in the morning.”
    â€œTwo,” I repeat. “The last time I looked it was ten, and—” Everything comes crashing back to me. Raul. Enzo. Adriel. Gallo and Giada. The flashback of David dying on that cobblestone walkway. My fear that Kayden would also die. “Oh God.” I throw aside the heavy weight of Matteo’s jacket, sit up, and fling my arms around Kayden’s neck. “You’re alive. You’re okay. I’m so glad you’re here.”
    But he doesn’t hug me; his hands settle at my waist. “But you didn’t want to be in my bedroom, in our room, Ella.”
    I lean back to look at him, shadows stroking his face that have nothing to do with the ones I see in his eyes. “I just . . . I needed to be right here while you were gone.”
    â€œBecause you don’t trust me right now.”
    â€œBut I do,” I confess, no matter how right or wrong that decision may be. “Beyond reason, I do, which is why the idea of you betraying me guts me.”
    â€œThe truth is not as simple as a betrayal. And what guts me is the idea of losing you.”
    â€œI don’t know what the future holds, Kayden. I barely know how I got here. I can’t promise how I’ll react to what you tell me. But I know that we’re here, and Enzo is gone, and I can’t lose you tonight.”
    His hand slides under my hair, folding around my neck. “I can’t lose you ever .” His mouth slants over mine, his tongue stroking deep, and suddenly we are crazy, wildly kissing, touching each other like we will never touch again, two people who value control and have lost it, as if every emotion we’ve bottled up tonight has exploded right here and now, and become this moment that is all about need, passion, and hunger. My hand slides under his T-shirt, and only then do I realize his guns are gone. The hell is done and over, at least for now, and I press my palms to his warm, taut skin, reveling in this escape that I know will not last.
    â€œKayden,” I find myself whispering, his name a plea for some unknown something that only he can give me.
    His answer is to kiss me again, and I feel the deep, seductive stroke of his tongue in every part of me. I moan and arch into him, and a frenzied rush of our hands on each other’s bodies ends in our shirts disappearing and my bra falling to the floor. It’s then that we slow down and his gaze rakes over my breasts, a hot inspection that tightens my nipples and my sex.
    â€œYou are beautiful,” he declares, flattening his hand between my shoulder blades, molding my naked chest to his, skin against skin. “If I can hold you like this every day for