IntimateEnemy by Jocelyn Modo Read Free Book Online

floor had to offer. She
was silent beside him, but he could feel her gratitude, her admiration for him.
She humbled him.
    He had done nothing but hold her while she cried and offered
to help her. She was his intimate. Everything he had was hers even if she never
accepted him completely.
    A petite Vitca soprano dressed in a gown made of smart
material, which rippled with colors to accompany the wearer’s mood, stepped up
onto one of many long, narrow stages and began to sing A Song to the Moons .
Her voice seemed to captivate Azure. She swayed to the lovely aria, her gaze
fixed on the singer.
    “You like music?” he asked.
    “Love. All kinds.”
    “Good,” he said, squeezing her hand. “It’s my life’s work.”
    She turned to him, interest in her eyes. “You’re a
musician?”
    He led her to a bountiful buffet table, brimming with both
Vitca and Nashete delicacies. “Amateur musician. Professional musical
instrument dealer.”
    An elderly Nashete couple in front of them ran their gazes
over Lone and Azure then sniffed loudly, a distasteful look on their frowning
faces.
    Azure dropped his hand. She’d abandoned him. He turned to
reassure her but laughed instead. His sweet, little Vitca intimate was giving
the Nashete couple a very rude hand sign. She met his gaze and arched an
eyebrow at him.
    “What’s so funny?” she asked, smiling.
    “I—” He lost his breath as a fiery lick of his intimate’s
spirit connected with his. Her strength, her character, her fortitude blew
through him like a ghost of her possessing him. Holy shit. He had been
prepared to wait months, even years for the spirit bond. But somehow, some way,
the joining of spirits had already begun.
    “No.” She dropped her plate of food on the buffet table as
she stumbled away from him, a look of horror on her face. “No.”
    He took a calming breath and reached out for her to take his
hand once more. If they could share the body bond they had already created it
should help both of them to accept the spirit bonding too.
    Azure looked at his hand as if he held out a clawed paw.
    “No,” she said again, then turned and ran from him off
through the crowd.
    Lone gritted his teeth as her emotional pain tore through
him, ripping at him from the inside out. She was more than afraid. She was
terrified. The spirit bond meant they would be emotionally tied for life. And
despite the body bond, his intimate, apparently, was not ready for that sort of
commitment.
    He set his plate aside and followed her. She might be okay
with living the rest of her life celibate, now that they were both unable to
become physically intimate with anyone else, but Lone was the furthest thing
from okay.
    Damned if he was going to spend the rest of his life
impotent. He hesitated. As soon as he had the thought a worse one came—living
the rest of his life without Azure.
    He was sick at the thought. If he had eaten, he would have
vomited.
    He stalked his intimate through the dense crowd, fighting
back her fear and his anger.
     
    Azure rushed through the crowd without direction. All she
could think was that she needed to be as far away from Lone as she could before
the spirit bond solidified, binding them together. Forever.
    She wanted to be free. Not tied to a male she didn’t know or
love. Then again, she had spent her entire girlhood dreaming of finding her
intimate, bonding with him, living happily in a beautiful home with loving
children.
    She shook her head. That had been the dream of a child. Her
dream as an adult was to be free. Before she’d met Lone, she feared becoming
her mother, being enslaved to a male who was not her intimate. But now she
feared being bonded to a male who was her intimate.
    Gods unseen, she couldn’t think straight because of the
hormonal change that came with adulthood. She couldn’t think past her fear for
Corra, her fear of her father who must be in pursuit of her, her fear of being
tied to someone she barely knew.
    “Found you,” a