Long Road Home by Maya Banks Read Free Book Online Page A

reclined the seat in an attempt to alleviate the growing pressure in her midsection.
    The pain eased as she stretched out, and her breathing evened. She pressed her hands to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. Her pulsed thudded incessantly against her fingertips.
    “Speak to me, Jules. What’s wrong? Do I need to get you back to the hospital?” Manny’s concerned voice seared through her haze of pain.
    “No,” she said faintly. “I’m all right. Really.”
    “Where are you, baby? Because you’re miles away from here right now.”
    She cringed, not wanting to voice what she had been thinking. It sounded pathetic and defeatist. But she blurted it out anyway. “I was thinking it should have been me who died. Not Mom and Pop.”
    To her surprise, he slammed on the brakes and pulled over to the shoulder. He turned on her, his eyes blazing in the faint light offered by the headlights. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that. I thought I lost you, Jules. For three long years I lived with the awful reality you might not be coming home. And then I found you. Don’t you dare wish you had died, because I’ve spent the last three years praying you were alive.”
    Before she could respond, he put his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her to meet his kiss. Her mouth opened in surprise, and his tongue darted forward, gently probing her lips.
    It was everything she had ever dreamed it would be. For a moment, she was in high school again, dressing for the prom, depressed because the one guy she wanted to take was eight years older and already out of college. She had closed her eyes and imagined it was Manny kissing her when her date had delivered her to the door with the prerequisite peck on the lips.
    He was exquisitely gentle, his lips moving reverently over hers. His fingers worked slowly into her hair, kneading and stroking as he deepened his kiss.
    Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it ended. He pulled away from her and ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “Christ, I’m sorry, Jules. You don’t need that right now.”
    She stared at him in shock. With a trembling hand, she raised her fingers and touched her swollen mouth.
    “Don’t look at me like that.” He captured her hand and brought it to his lips. “I’m sorry, baby.”
    He allowed her hand to slide from his, and she pulled hers away, cradling it with her other hand. What was she supposed to say? She was so damn confused she doubted she could recall her own name at the moment. For that matter, she really had no idea what her real name was. A hysterical bubble of laughter rose quickly in her throat, and she fought to choke it back.
    Manny swore softly then pulled back onto the highway. “Get some sleep, Jules. If you don’t, I swear, I’ll call Tony and have you transferred to the hospital like we’d planned. It’s what I should’ve done in the first place.”
    “Who the hell is Tony anyway?” she grumbled as she lay back against the leather seat. She shivered, and Manny reached over to turn up the heat.
    “Tony is my partner.”
    “Partner in what? Somehow I doubt you’re still in the computer software business.” He looked far too dangerous to be a computer nerd. She had never been able to reconcile his image with his profession.
    “Rest,” he said in a warning tone. “We’ll talk when we get there.”
    “Wherever there is.”
    He smiled.
    “What’s so funny?”
    “You are. You’re sounding more and more like the Jules I know all the time.”
    She sobered instantly, the throbbing in her head resuming with a vengeance. “I’m not her. Maybe I never was.”
    Manny gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Rest.”
    Not arguing, she turned to the window. She could never go back to that carefree, naive girl she had once been. She’d seen and done far too much. She was glad Mom and Pop had never gotten to see the person she’d become. Their disappointment would have been more than she could bear.
    She raised trembling