Embrace the Heat by Cassandra Lawson Read Free Book Online Page B

were ringed with a lighter shade of green.
Her breasts were more than a handful and responsive. That was one
thing about wood nymphs, they were very sexual creatures.
    When she reached out to touch him, Simon
grabbed her hand roughly. “No! I’m done with this, Narissa. Last
night was a huge mistake, and it won’t happen again. Find another
man. There are plenty of vampires here who would love to take you
up on what you’re offering, but we are never going to be together.
I’m not going to give you children.”
    Narissa’s lovely face turned an ugly shade of
red as she glared at him.
    “I’m sorry about barging in on you,” Echo
said quietly. “I enjoyed our night together.”
    Now Simon felt like even more of a jerk. “I’m
sorry about being so rude. I have a history with Narissa, but I
shouldn’t take that out on you.”
    Echo gave him a shy smile. “No need to
apologize. It was obvious from the beginning that I remind you of
someone you want more. I really did enjoy last night and don’t
expect more from you.”
    “You should expect me to be polite,” he said.
“You’ve been nothing but kind.”
    Her soft laughter drifted around the room.
“Stop worrying. I only came here for sex, and I’m quite
satisfied.”
    “I’ll walk you to the gate after I get
ready,” he said.
    “Do we really have to wear clothing when we
leave here?” Echo asked.
    “I’m afraid so,” he said with a smile.
“There’s a bathroom downstairs with a shower. The towels are clean.
I don’t have much in the kitchen other than juice.”
    “Thank you,” Echo said as she headed out of
the room and down the hallway.
    Narissa was still glaring at him. “This isn’t
over.”
    “Yes, it is,” he said with a weary sigh. “I’m
sorry about last night. It was wrong to let you in here. I’m also
sorry for being such an ass this morning. We just aren’t right for
each other.”
    “Your body knows we belong together,” she
said in a nasty tone. “Don’t bother trying to fight it. I’ll give
you a couple of days to think about how good last night was, and
then I’ll be back.”
    “I’m done,” Simon said firmly “This won’t
happen again.”
    “One way or another, I will own you,” Narissa
hissed and then stormed out of the room.
     

Chapter Nine
    Layla was irritable again. She’d been this
way for the last week, and each day things got worse. The
irritability probably had something to do with her birthday. Her
twenty seventh birthday was coming up, and her mom had been
that age when she’d disappeared. While Layla was the first to admit
that her mom had been a pretty crappy mother, the woman had still
been her mom. Thanks to Raven, Layla was able to grieve that loss
instead of trying to deny her feelings or get caught up in anger.
That is until this year.
    After some thought, she realized that it
couldn’t be about her mom. Layla hadn’t even started thinking about
her mom until she’d started trying to explain her own bitchiness.
Plus, it certainly wouldn’t explain the other things going on.
    For whatever reason, Layla was angry most of
the time. She wished Raven was around to help improve her mood.
Unfortunately, Raven was caught up in vampire politics in
Fangri La at the moment, and Layla was doing her best to avoid
reaching out to Raven because she knew these trips were stressful
enough already.
    It was hard to avoid snapping at everyone
around her. Worse than that, she was horny all the time. In all
honesty, she’d never really had much interest in sex before. It had
been over a year and she hadn’t been missing it. Honestly, sex had
never been that good. Now she had recurring sex dreams about a
vampire. Not just any vampire, the one who had saved her life and
now acted like she was an annoying little sister most of the time.
To add to her problems, she suddenly found it impossible to bring
herself to orgasm. That had never been a problem. Now she woke up
craving a man she could never have and