Moonrise by Cassidy Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

course she would. They were so worth waiting for.
    She dropped the keys on the entrance table and leaped up the stairs. They wouldn’t stay at the bar for long and she wanted to get freshened up and in bed before they came roaring through the door.
    She shivered. They were hers.
    She’d barely made it to the bathroom and kicked off her shoes before she heard a heavy tread on the stairs. Dammit. They’d pretty much followed her home. At least she could brush her teeth before Trey snatched her from the bathroom and into his bed.
    She giggled at the thought, then hurriedly rinsed her mouth. Wasting time with her two men around was not a smart thing to do.
    Taking time to study her face in the mirror, she rubbed at her cheeks to get some color going, patted down her hair, then turned to open the door.
    It was opened before she could reach it. Not gently, not carefully, but jerked practically off its hinges.
    She stared, shocked, unable to even scream.
    Robert.
    How had he found her so quickly?
    And here, in this house?
    “Hello, Selene.” He cocked a hip against the door frame, blocking her exit, his face a mixture of greedy anticipation and sadistic darkness. “You’re looking well.”
    All that came out of her mouth was a squeak, and as black spots danced before her eyes her only fear was that she would pass out and he would kill her while she was unconscious. Illogical maybe, but there it was.
    She put her hands on her knees and drew in gulps of air as she stared at his feet. Don’t look at his eyes. It had been the one rule she’d created for herself and had stringently adhered to.
    His eyes were gateways into an abyss she did not want to fall into. She’d be lost forever and she knew it. No, he was not a vampire, but the evil lurking there somehow damaged her, claimed her, terrorized her in her nightmares.
    He stepped closer and lifted a lock of her hair, tugging it gently. “What, no welcome?” He sighed. “Do you at least want to know how I found my little bird?”
    She straightened up, afraid not to. She tried to be strong, to find her own power, but it was too soon. And she was too afraid.
    Her fear rose to choke her in a rancid cloud, and she could feel herself begin to hyperventilate. Oh God, why? Why?
    “I heard that you were living with two men. Two men!” He threw his head back and laughed, the echoes of his familiar, vile voice bouncing off the walls of her mind.
    “No,” she said. That was all she could manage. Just no.
    “Of course not.” His laughter dried up as if it had never been, and he pulled her hair just enough to let her know she’d better look at him.
    She stared at his mouth, his nose, anything but his eyes. “No.”
    He sneered, his coldly handsome face turning ugly quickly. “I knew that couldn’t be true. And you knew I’d never give up until I found you. Now here I am, and here you are.” He leaned down and licked her from chin to eyebrow in another familiar action that made her stomach clench and nausea threaten.
    Oh how I hate you. Finally. Finally some microscopic tendrils of hate, of anger.
    She jerked away from him and grabbed a washcloth, scrubbing her face so hard she nearly left the skin on the cloth. “Get out of here.”
    He hesitated, shocked. “What did you just say to me?”
    She clenched the washcloth, her eyes filling with hated tears. Her voice broke but she got the words out. “Get out of here.”
    Carefully he ran his hand over his close-cropped skull. “Well, well, well. Someone has taught my little bird how to have a backbone. And in such a short time!”
    He grabbed her by the throat so fast she didn’t have time to react and pushed her backward through the bathroom door and into the bedroom.
    She tried to scream but his grip tightened on her throat, blocking her air, crushing her windpipe. She knew he was going to kill her this time. Of course he would.
    She dug her nails into the back of his hand and drew on every bit of strength she’d gathered