Hunter by Night by Elisabeth Staab Read Free Book Online Page B

finger in place as if the landing had been intentional. “First of all, no uterus, no opinion. Second, Isabel got completely fried this morning, so it’s kind of a special circumstance. Third, quit being an asshole. Fourth? Quit being an asshole.”
    It bore repeating.
    “Fifth, Isabel’s the queen. She can request whatever the hell she wants.”
    Lee dipped his chin. “Yes.” His fingers closed around the one still sunk into his abs and pulled it aside. “She can. So. In spite of the fact that we may have an insane plague-spreading nutcase bearing down on us at any given moment, it’s royal baby time. Let’s move.”
    Again… What the fuck?
    She opened her mouth but Lee pulled her forward before she could speak. Alexia ignored the tremor that traveled from the place where their hands touched, along her arm and down her body, landing a quiver of want deep in her core. Any time now, it would be fan-fricking-tastic if her body could stop reacting to him like he’d been double-dipped in her favorite brand of pheromones.
    She reached for her blue JanSport backpack, just next to the bedroom door. He made no move to let go or get out of her way, and she was forced to squeeze past his tree-trunk thigh in the process. She failed horribly at ignoring how frigging huge those legs of his were. How the vee of her thighs brushed his leg when she passed, and how her body temperature climbed. Stop staring at his ass. “Right. Got everything ready to go, right here.” She cleared her throat.
    “Great. I’ll drive,” he grumbled.
    Did he realize, as he tugged her down the hall, that his fingers were still wrapped around her hand?

Chapter 5
    Lee’s nose picked up the electric tang of a storm brewing in the air. The static prickled his skin. Without hesitation, he clasped Alexia’s shoulder and drew her against his side as they exited the mansion’s side door at the end of the east hall.
    She scowled up at him with a mix of irritation and confusion. Far from the first time. They certainly had a way of tripping each other’s wires. They could pretend otherwise all they wanted—Lee would fucking love to pretend—but from the moment Alexia had followed Isabel to the estate, she’d seemed hell-bent on raising his ire. Centuries of building a carefully controlled facade, and he couldn’t keep his grip around one tiny human.
    He adjusted his hold. “I told you. The security system is down. I want you close.” He pointed toward one of the open parking areas. “I’m getting one of the smaller cars.”
    They trekked in silence down a long gravel path that led to a parking area where most of the vehicles were located. At the front of the property stood a large barn and a cover of trees, to help the illusion that the property was nothing more than a very nicely kept farm. Everything was masked further by vampire illusion. Alexia’s body stiffened, and when he had the sense she might tug away, he slid his hand to her waist. The shift secured his hold but made it less awkward, more gentle. She didn’t quite relax, but she stopped fighting.
    Her frame was small even by human standards—just above five feet in height. With his rangy six feet and four inches, he hadn’t really expected she’d fit against him so nicely. Yet his hand spanned the curve of her waist. Her head, if she moved just so, would go right in the crook of his arm.
    Her human teeth sank into her pouty bottom lip. “So what’s the deal with this Haig guy? How can you be sure this dude is back from the dead after six hundred and whatever years?”
    Lee spread his fingers against the hourglass of Alexia’s waist. How could the curves of one human be so perfect? And why were males wired to think of sex at all moments of the day, even when things such as war and illness held the greater priority? “You’ve heard that old saying about keeping friends close and enemies closer?”
    “Oh. Damn skippy.” She shrugged against him. “In seventh grade, my