Mystical Seduction: full-length sensual paranormal romance (The Protectors) by Dorothy McFalls Read Free Book Online Page A

one major difference between his
situation and Brendan’s. Brendan loved his Dallas St. John. He’d ended up
marrying her.
    This thing between Horace and Faith…it was just lust. Raw.
Primal. Lust. They would never be permanent lovers. He’d made a huge mistake by
acting on his urges in the first place. If Stone could fix things by blurring Faith’s
memory of tonight, so much the better.
    Horace pulled Faith to his chest and wrapped his arms around
her. He reverently kissed the top of her head.
    “Thank you,” he whispered. And because he knew she wouldn’t
remember any of this, he spoke a truth he hadn’t realized was true until the
words had formed on his lips, “If not for who I am—what I am—I could easily see
myself falling for someone exactly like you.”
    Such a shame, really. Because of what had happened to Horace
all those years ago, and what he had become, there could never be anything
between them.
    But it hurt his head to think about that.
    So he didn’t.

 

Chapter Five
    The alarm clock beside Faith’s bed wailed like a blasted foghorn.
Faith groaned as she sleepily rolled over to slap the snooze button. She really
needed to get up. She had an early class. And she couldn’t skip it since, as a
graduate teaching assistant, it was her class to teach. Even knowing that, she
couldn’t find the energy to move.
    Her entire body felt stiff and drowsy. Muscles not used to
action ached from the alleyway encounter. Had that really been her? She’d thrown
herself at Horace. Though there’d been a connection between the two of them,
Horace had done his best to discourage her. To keep… that …from happening.
    And he’d marked her. The spot where he’d bitten her ached
this morning. Not an altogether unpleasant sensation. Despite the dull throb of
bruised skin, the mark he’d made on her breast left her feeling slightly
aroused and anxious.
    Don’t think about that. I need to put him and what he did
to me out of my mind , a calm, soothing voice inside her urged. Forget him
and forget everything that happened last night.
    Nothing happened last night. She’d gone home early.
    Faith curled deeper into the covers, nodding her head in
agreement with her inner voice. She should forget. She should…
    Suddenly she remembered something she would never, ever
forget. With a frustrated scream, Faith jolted up in bed.
    That jerk!
    After they had acted so impetuously in the alleyway, but
before all the weird stuff—or had that been a foggy dream?—Horace had started
to tell her that what they’d done had been a one-time thing. That there could
never be anything between them.
    Well, buster, Faith didn’t do one-night-stands. She didn’t
give sex to men in order to make herself feel special or sexy. She made
connections. She cultivated relationships. Sure, sex might come into the
equation pretty quick. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t already started
calculating the likelihood of a happily-ever-after.
    But Horace had made himself clear. He didn’t want a
relationship or any kind of forever. And after what she saw last night, she
couldn’t be sure she did either. At least, not with him. A man had shot him in
cold blood.
    Cold blood .
    The memory made her shiver. Though she didn’t know anything
about these things, it sure as hell hadn’t been a crime of passion but a
chillingly pre-planned murder attempt.
    Any normal person would have been scared shitless and
knocking people over to call the police. But not Horace.
    She’d gotten the feeling he’d expected something like that
to happen. And when she’d tried to call 911, he’d snatched the phone away.
Bleeding and dying, he’d wrenched the phone from her. Why would he do that?
    Something fishy is going on.
    Most likely illegal .
    She should have never had sex with Horace…a virtual
stranger. What had gotten into her? Could getting her tongue pierced have so
thoroughly gone to her head? How was she going to face him tonight—or any
night—with