Lucas (Immortal Blood) by Jennifer Loiske Read Free Book Online Page B

she did. Kind of. Her eyes found my trained abs and she blushed deeply. She put her hands behind her back and backed away as if she couldn’t help herself from touching me and needed to get away before she did something she’d regret later. I grinned wolfishly. A little late for that.
    She glanced at me quickly. “What about you?”             
    “What about me?”
    “Well, you can’t just walk around in the club looking like that.” She waved her hand vaguely.
    “I’ll put a jacket on and no one will take another look at me.”
    She nodded. We both knew that wasn’t true. The way I looked made both women and men look at me, and me without a shirt … well … they’d probably have to wipe the drool off the floor after we’d gone.
    “If that’s all, we should go.” I grabbed her elbow and led her to the door.
    “Where?” she snapped and anger flashed in her eyes. “Where could we possibly go without starting a bunch of nasty rumors?” She eyed my body but didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. Her eyes told me everything. We both knew it was okay for me to walk out of there half naked, but she was a totally different story. I was a stranger but this was her city, and with her attitude a lot of people already knew who she was. So the second we marched out of the door everyone would know she’d been with me, doing God knows what. I hesitated. If we separated and met outside the club, her reputation would stay cleanish, but would she bolt if I let her go first?
    “Well?” she snapped.
    Apparently, the idea of us leaving separately hadn’t even occurred to her. We could go quickly, though, and try to minimize the damage. She glared daggers at me. Good. It was easier to handle my awakening feelings when she was her normal self. Sassy and spicy.
    “To my hotel. You can’t go home looking like that. And you need to shower.”
    “Fine. But after that I’ll go home and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
    “Fine,” I grunted and pushed her out of the door.
     
    When we reached my hotel I sneaked her in without anyone noticing, and as we got to my room she headed straight to the bathroom. Her scream made me rush in after her and I swallowed hard. She stood, wearing only her underwear, in front of a large mirror and was moaning. Her neck and shoulders were covered in bite marks, and her ribs hadn’t been spared either. My hands had left red bruises on her bottom, and her back was covered with scratches. I swallowed harder. Next to her bra were clear fingerprints. My fingerprints. To be fair, I didn’t look much better, and when she realized that, she started to cry. A lump in my throat threatened to choke me. I’d done this. I’d done this to her and would do it again if I got the chance.
    “It will heal before the morning,” I said quietly.
    She sniffed. “I know.”
    But I couldn’t turn my eyes from her marks. Carefully, I placed a towel around her shoulders and took her to the bed. Her lower lip trembled.
    “I’ll take the couch,” I said.
    She closed her eyes and I pulled a blanket over her. After I went to the hard, too-short couch, I lay awake for the rest of the night, the look of her bruised body and teary eyes haunting me.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    I sneaked out of the room in the wee hours. Sam was lying stiffly on the bed and I couldn’t tell if she were asleep or not. There was a bad taste in my mouth and I cursed myself for it. I had let things go too far and got myself too involved with her. I shouldn’t be feeling like this. After all, I’d done this hundreds of times. Used a girl and then dumped her. Only this time was different. There was something fierce and unique in her and somehow she had managed to get under my skin. I had to end this whatever it was between us, as I couldn’t afford to let her distract me from my purpose. What if she begged me to save Jonathan or Dane? Would I do it just to show her I wasn’t evil through and through? Or, better