Desire Unmatched: 4 (Coded for Love) by Lynne Silver Read Free Book Online

I’ll have
enough credits to be a second-semester sophomore.”
    “I’m a sophomore also. I love your accent.”
    “Thank you.” She got that a lot. Americans, especially
female students, seemed to love anything British. Maybe it was still the whole
Robert Pattinson, Colin Firth, Downton Abbey thing.
    “Are you going back to your dorm now?” Kayla stepped
alongside her, keeping pace as she walked to the garage.
    “Um, I live off campus. I’m going to my auto now.”
    “You live off campus. And you got an on-campus parking spot?”
Kayla’s pink lips parted and her eyes widened. “Lucky.”
    She doubted Kayla would think she was as lucky if she knew
the whole story, but she was content to let it slide. She shrugged. “I guess.”
    “I’m going to try to live off campus next semester. If my parents
cough up the money, you know?”
    No, she didn’t know. Her dad had sent occasional checks for
expenses, but all educational and housing costs had been on her shoulders.
Hence how she’d fallen into such trouble in the first place. If she hadn’t been
desperate for money, she wouldn’t have signed on at the fertility clinic to
sell an egg, and she wouldn’t have been kidnapped by Paulson, and she wouldn’t
have been rescued by the Program. And she wouldn’t have met Xander.
    She averted her face to stare at her trainers and gather
control on her expression. Kayla’s feet were covered by adorable, impractical
kitten heels that totally worked with her funky jeans. Emma consoled her
fashionista self that in the event of another kidnapping or zombie apocalypse,
her thick white trainers were way better for outrunning danger.
    “Well, I’m going back to my dorm. Nice meeting you. See you
Tuesday.”
    “See you.” Emma managed a smile for her new friend, if you
could call the girl a friend. She watched Kayla walk off for a minute, seeing
the other girl wave to a few folks on campus, then merge seamlessly into a
large, boisterous crowd of coeds.
    Six months ago, Kayla wouldn’t have walked away. Emma would
have led the way to the other students and been at the center of the noise. But
that was then and this was now. Now, she turned and went toward her car to head
home, preparing for bad news about Xander. Alone.
    * * * * *
    Captivity, Day Thirty
     
    Xander scratched his sixth diagonal slash across the
straight lines grouped in fives. The paint was old enough, his uncut
fingernails easily sliced a line in the paint. He’d been here thirty days if
his math was correct. He was no closer to escape and he was done waiting for
Paulson.
    He didn’t know what Paulson was up to. He’d had new orders
to stop the morning jack-off sessions into the cups. Either they were out of
cups or they had what they needed. He hoped the former, because he was going to
live the rest of his life wondering how many little Xanders were running around
the world. Mission one after escaping was coming back to destroy anything he’d
left behind.
    Frowning, he shuffled over to the window for his morning
sunshine and sniffed the air. What was it this morning? Baguette? No, brioche.
That meant Thursday. He’d learned the pattern. Sunday, nothing. The bakery
stayed closed. Tuesdays, Thursdays were brioche or some sort of sweet bread.
Baguettes were every day of the week, but there were always specials. Someday,
when he got free, he was coming back here to try one of every damn thing at
that bakery. Emma would love the croissants. He couldn’t wait to see her pink
lips surround the flaky, crusty half-moon.
    Emma and him? Here? What the hell was he doing imagining
things that were never going to happen? Now he had evidence that he’d snapped.
He backed away from the window, finding his normal spot on the hard tile floor,
and flopped onto his butt, then into position for sit-ups.
    He was on crunch twenty or so when the door to his prison
room creaked open. He sat up abruptly, every nerve on alert. His door opened
only twice daily. In the morning