Haunted by Your Touch by Jeaniene Frost, Sharie Kohler Read Free Book Online

swimmingthe moat, I guessed. What I couldn’t understand was why.
    For all its size and impressive adornments, the place seemed strangely barren of people. It didn’t make sense. Rafael was renowned for his fighting skills, true, but everyone had to sleep eventually, and he’d left himself virtually unprotected here.
    The thought of Rafael and sleeping made another twinge of guilt flare in me. God, his
face
when he realized what I’d done! Even though I tried to push the image aside, it rose in my mind anyway. He’d looked shocked, which I’d expected, but there had been more to it than that.
    He looked betrayed
, my human conscience whispered.
    I had no choice
, the demon in me snarled back.
    There are
always
choices
, my conscience countered ruthlessly.
    Not this time. I’d asked Rafael repeatedly why he had been there the night Ashton had taken Gloria, and every time he answered, some part of me
knew
he was lying. Why would he lie if he hadn’t been in on it somehow? Add that to the whispers about Rafael that Gloria’s parents had uncovered during their previous searches here, plus the things I’d heard about how he was alwaysconveniently close by when Purebloods were sighted, and it all added up to one thing: guilty. My not wanting it to be true because of a long-held infatuation didn’t change that.
    So, if I were the guilty ruler of a large dimension populated by Partials who would descend on me en masse if they found out about my involvement, where would I hide evidence of that guilt? What would I consider to be the least likely place where someone could stumble across some form of damning clue that would tie me to Purebloods? Somewhere in this house, obviously. For the average Partial, it was harder to get inside Rafael’s castle than it was for a typical American to get a private audience with the president. But this place was huge. Damn it, if only I had more time to search! There could be hidden catacombs beneath the foundations, tunnels, vaults, secret rooms—
    Rooms
. An image of Rafael’s bedroom flashed in my mind. It was his private sanctuary, the place he never brought anyone back into.…
    Holy shit, I was so
stupid
! I’d spent all this time looking around the castle when I should’ve been concentrating on turning his bedroom upside down. I spun around, hugging the wall as I made my way back toward the main part of the castle.It took several agonizingly stretched-out minutes during which I was sure I’d be discovered, but eventually, I made it close enough to recognize where Rafael and I had first come in.
    Now, where had we gone from there again?
    Two lefts past the fancy sword display,
I began to chant to myself, easing past the corner before ducking out into the open hallway.
Then right at the ancient-looking tapestry…
    By the time I passed the blacked-out window on the third floor, I was sweating even though the castle corridors were chilly
and
drafty. Then, once I reached Rafael’s wide bedroom door, that sweat turned cold on my skin. Logic said he should still be out like a light, but what if I was wrong? I’d never tranqued a three-quarter demon—or possible
Pureblood
—before; how did I know how long the sedative would keep him out?
    Only one way to find out. I took a deep breath, then gingerly opened the door, muscles bunched to run if I heard the slightest sound of movement within. When nothing but deep, rhythmic breathing met my ears, I dared to go all the way inside before closing the door quietly behind me.
    Rafael lay right where I’d left him, his big body still in that elegant sprawl. Guilt flared in me onceagain, but I squashed it. If I was wrong, I’d wait for him to wake up and then offer the most sincere apology of my
life
, but until then, I had a job to do. I stepped around him, one hand on my gun just in case he’d been faking sleep to lunge at me. When he still didn’t move, I began my search.
    I owed my animal reserve relative huge for this one.
    Nothing