My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel Read Free Book Online

window by the front door. A very tall and muscular shadow. A tall, muscular, irritating shadow.
    Xia.
    She stood up and hit the disconnect button on her phone. “What the hell are you doing?”
    The tall shape walked to the beginning of the hallway and stood there, lurking in the dark. Not saying anything. Her vision hadn’t adjusted to the level of dark in here, and she couldn’t see him very well. Still no acknowledgment of her.
    What if it wasn’t him? Her spine froze. She was a dead woman, that’s what. “Xia?”
    “What are you doing up?”
    Well, that answered that question. Sweet as ever, wasn’t he? Alexandrine brushed past him into the living room. Ice skittered up and down her back. The cold built up in the back of her head and started a slow freeze down her spinal column. Prince Charming followed. By the couch, she stopped and stood with her arms crossed over her chest. He stared. Below her chin. His intent gaze reminded her she’d only buttoned the middle two buttons of her shirt and that her stance must be giving him an eyeful. She dropped her arms by her sides. “I was trying to sleep and—Oh for the love of God! You pervert.”
    Xia held his knife in one hand. And unless you counted the knife, he wasn’t wearing anything. Not a stitch. The shadows hid a lot of detail, but not enough for her to miss that he seemed to have muscles everywhere. As for his, ahem, manly equipment. Oh. My. God. Do not look there . A package to make a girl faint of heart. He wasn’t the least embarrassed at being caught nudie-style.
    “Where the H-E-double toothpicks are your clothes?” she whispered. Why whisper? Because it was dark. Because her spine was still ice. Because something bad was coming, and she didn’t know what it was yet.
    Naked shadow man cocked his head. “Did I wake you?” Not that he sounded sorry or anything.
    “Yes.” She kept her focus on his face. No staring at his ripped torso. Or muscled legs. Or anything else. Jesus, he was sex on a stick.
    “You heard me?” He sounded incredulous. He didn’t whisper, but she noticed he kept his voice low, too. He put his hands on his hips, knife still in his hand. “No way.”
    “Way.” Not looking. Absolutely not looking.
    “No.”
    “Look.” She didn’t bother keeping the irritation from her voice. “I woke up and heard you skulking around out here. Ergo”—she jabbed a finger at him with the hand clutching her cell phone—“you woke me up.”
    He took a step toward her, and she backed up. “Why do you have your phone?”
    “In case I needed to call the police.” The back of her knees quivered, but she refused to retreat another step.
    “Did you think you needed to?” Xia advanced on her. A blink, and there he was, right in front of her, and she was seeing him clear as day. His hand circled her upper arm. “This is important,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Did you think you might need to call for help?”
    She tried to twist free of his grip, but that just wasn’t happening. He had a knife, for God’s sake. Terror bubbled up at the thought that this was the event that had awakened her—being in danger from Xia. He was going to kill her, and she’d walked right to him. “Let go of me.”
    “Answer me.” His hand on her was warm through the fabric of her shirt sleeve. Like he was running a temp.
    Her pulse pounded, but if he was going to kill her, wouldn’t he have done it already? Why wait? As for his question, she’d learned a long time ago, before she knew anything of her peculiar heritage, that most people didn’t react well to someone who claimed to know things before they happened. The ones who did tended to believe in astrology and tarot cards and tea leaves, all of which, in her opinion, were utter crap. “I heard a noise out here. What was I supposed to think?”
    Xia put his free hand on the wall just above her shoulder. On the way up, dim light gleamed off the blade of his knife. “If Rasmus sends