Mica by Ronin Winters Read Free Book Online Page B

firm line. This was Jo in her general mode, brooking no argument and expecting no talk back. Sophie threw her comforter over her head. “Leave me alone.”
    She hadn’t seen or heard from Mica in a week. His phone was disconnected, and after she came home from the shop the first day, where she saw the result of the destruction but thankfully no dragon body or blood in sight, she had found the picture of her, the one he once had displayed beside his bed, laying in the middle of her coffee table, out of its frame and crumpled in a ball.
    That sort of made his position crystal clear.
    “I can’t do this, Jo. I’ve lost him.” The picture had sent her under the cover, where she’d stayed ever since. She’d been numb, not moving, watching whatever on the television with empty eyes, only getting up for necessities. Now, her dear friend watching her with unpitying eyes, her own began to tear, little hitching breaths hitting her chest and sobs escaping no matter how she tried to hold them back.
    “Oh honey.” And now Jo had her wrapped in a tight hug, and at the familiar warmth, the cries came hard and fast, the tears now unstoppable, the fight lost.
    She’d loved him, with everything in her. She adored him. He was her sweet, sexy, lumberjack, perhaps the only one who loved every single facet of her. He hadn’t wanted her to change anything. Her own parents couldn’t even claim that.
    Between choke-filled sobs, Sophie said, “He’s stupid. He’s a heavy-handed jerk to make me fall in love with him, and then pull away. Who the hell does he think he is? He’s not God. He’s not even the leader of his…group.”
    Jo either didn’t pick up or decided not to question what Sophie meant. Instead, she rocked Sophie like she was a child, quietly murmuring it’s okay, it’s okay, let it out.
    The cries died down, and Jo went from rocking her to merely holding on, but Sophie stayed there, bringing in the warmth from her friend, warmth she’d been missing since Mica left.
    There came a knock at the door, and Sophie’s heart picked up while across her mind, the word Mica…?
    It wasn’t Mica shown when Jo opened the door, though it was a man. He also had a dark hair and a beard, though his hair was more styled than Mica’s ever was, and the beard was short and groomed compared to Mica’s full lumberjack. He wore a white button down shirt, which was gorgeous against the deep tan of his skin, and like Mica, it was evident he had some serious musculature under that shirt and pants, though he was trimmer and more streamlined than Mica’s overall bigness.
    More importantly, he projected that thing Sophie now realized meant he was also a creature other than human, that big presence which caused a shiver of unease, the reminder to the prey that they were in the presence of a predator.
    He didn’t step through the door, but he did look around until he found Sophie on the couch. “I’m a friend of Mica’s. The name’s Granite.”
    “What’s up with you guys and the names? They’re interesting and all, but they’re also kind of crazy.”
    “Jo,” Sophie admonished, though, she couldn’t deny the point. Still, she loved Mica’s name. It would be impossible now to think of him in any other way.
    Granite only smiled at Jo’s observance, which earned him a point in Sophie’s book. Anyone who could put up with Jo deserved an initial good-guy impression. “Sophie, Mica didn’t send me, but I would like to talk to you for a moment about him. May I?”
    She was weak, because even after he hurt her, right now, she’d give anything to hear about Mica, anything that could feed her craving about him.
    She turned to Jo, who shrugged and said, “Yeah, got it. You better torture that idiot before you take him back and make sure he doesn’t do anything like this again. Deny him an orgasm for a few hours. That will set him straight.” With a flippant salute, Jo headed out the door…though not without one backwards glance at