Edge of Hunger by Rhyannon Byrd Read Free Book Online Page B

been having nightmares for weeks now, and we only just met. I swear, I have nothing to do with them. The darkness...this all has to do with what's hiding within you. You know that. I know you do. Elaina's been telling you stories about the Merrick since you were a little boy."
    He stumbled back another step, eyes bleeding to black, and shoved his hands into his hair.
    Locking his fingers behind his head, he glared up at the ceiling with his jaw clenched so hard it looked painful. Molly stared at the dark tufts of hair under his arms, the stark lines of his throat, wanting so badly to reach out and touch him. To place her hand over the center of his chest and feel his heart pounding against her palm, vital and urgent and strong.
    "Ian, I know you don't want to believe me, but after what's happened, how can you still think I'm here to con you? This thing is real. I have the bite marks on my neck to prove it. We need to help each other figure it out, because I can guarantee you this is more than I signed up for.
    Elaina told me how to find you, wanted me to talk to you. To tell you things that she's afraid no one else will. But she didn't say a damn thing about...about whatever the hell it was that happened tonight. She told me this thing inside of you needs to feed for power, but she didn't say..."
    Her voice trailed off, and he lowered his gaze back to her, muttering, "That it would feed off you? That it would take your blood?"
    "Yes." She swallowed nervously, folding her arms across her chest, resisting the urge to lift her fingertips and touch the tingling warmth of the bite on her throat, the tender flesh slowly throbbing with residual pulses of pleasure.
    His eyes narrowed, studying her with fierce intensity, and then he rasped, "Son of a bitch.
    You actually liked it, didn't you?"

    "What?" She blinked, floundering for the right thing to say.
    "Face it, Molly. Any other woman would have run screaming in the other direction by now.
    Would have hauled her ass out of Henning the second she woke up and found her throat bleeding. But look at you, coming here, wanting to talk. To help me. What is it with you?" He stalked toward her again, his body closing off any escape route. "You got a death wish? Or do you just get off on the hard stuff?"
    Towering over her, his callused hand slipped under the fall of her hair again, his rough fingertip smoothing over one of the two puncture wounds, and she gasped at the insane rush of sensation that curled through her center, settling heavily between her thighs. Her sex heated...swelled, feeling heavy and empty all at once, and his nostrils flared, those dark eyes cutting to her own confused stare, and she knew he could smell the need. That dark, uncontrollable ache twisting deep inside, clawing at her, making her crave. Making her need things that she didn't even understand. That she feared.
    "What's your answer, Molly?"
    Shakily, she said, "Be crude if it helps you deal. I have a thick enough skin by now to take it.
    You may piss me off, but it's not going to scare me away. I'm not going to run."
    "And you're not going to give me any answers, either, are you?"
    Her eyes slid closed, tears threatening to spill from the excess emotion crashing through her system. "I wish I could explain how the dream happened, Ian. But I can't."
    He sighed, the heat of his body covering her like a glittering ray of sunshine. "Okay, I'll bite,"
    he drawled in a deep, graveled voice, and she could feel the press of his eyes on her face, watching her. "It's not like your story won't be entertaining as hell. So let's hear it. What can you tell me?"
    With a deep breath, Molly lifted her lashes. "I can tell you about Elaina. I can tell you what she's told me."
    "In your dreams, right?" he murmured, his gaze settling heavily on her mouth, making her lips tingle.
    "That's how she talks to me, yes. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. It's just the way that it's been since I was a teenager."
    He latched on to that