Never Letting Go (Delphian Book 1) by Christina Channelle Read Free Book Online

the first moment that we had met, like I had gotten under his skin and he wanted to stay far away from me as possible.
    That was fine by me.
    I went to bed and woke up as normal. I spent time with the others, watched television with Amy and Kaede, etcetera, etcetera. I spent most of my time with Dante, actually. It was like we had a connection of sorts. I had no idea of the reason. Maybe it was because he was the first person I’d seen when my eyes opened for the first time. For whatever reason, I felt most comfortable with him. We would play games—he had taught me how to play chess, checkers and a slew of card games, talking as if we were both involved in the conversation instead of only one-sided. He was like his sister in that way.
    There were even times when he said absolutely nothing and we would sit together in silence, both comfortable by the lack of words.
    That changed today.
    “I like you,” he blurted out unexpectedly. We were playing chess, something that I had seemed to inherently know how to play. Dante couldn’t understand why I kept winning against him. I looked up from the chessboard, saw him run his fingers through his hair, and his cheeks suddenly became red.
    It was quite alarming how red.
    Then he did something that surprised me even more. He took a hold of my hand and gave a tight, reassuring squeeze, smiling all of a sudden, his voice a little lower, husky. “And I really, really, would like to kiss you right now.”
    He slowly removed his hand from mine and brought it up to my face, caressing my cheek with the pad of his thumb. It burned a line where he touched me and I in turn felt my face beginning to heat up by his focus on me. His thumb then moved over my lips and I took an intake of breath, enjoying the feeling of our connection. It felt familiar, like a long ago memory. My mind went back to an image I had watched on the television screen, a girl and boy embracing one another, their lips joined together.
    Lips.
    My gaze went to Dante’s lips and I slowly saw his face become closer and closer to mine. I was interested—no, more than interested—in what it would be like to be joined like that, and my eyes instinctively closed as I waited.
    And waited.
    My eyes flickered open to see what had stopped Dante, and I frowned slightly. I looked at Dante’s face and saw that his attention was no longer on me at all but on something else, something behind me. I turned my head.
    Briggs was standing as still as a statue by the kitchen entrance. For some reason I wasn’t surprised to see him there, as he looked intimidatingly at the both of us and I wondered what he was thinking in that moment.
    Then I wondered why I cared at all.
    Glancing back at Dante, I saw him staring at me. “Sorry,” he whispered. I gave a slight nod and stood up to retreat to my room. Passing Briggs, he stood ever so still and I thought I heard a sound coming from him, an inhalation of breath, as if scared that I would accidentally touch him as I passed by. But that couldn’t be.
    What would Briggs have to be scared of?
    In the safety of my room, I sat on the edge of my bed, frowning. I was confused—so, so confused—by the emotions that these men in my life were pulling out from me. I liked Dante, I connected with Dante, and I wanted to know what it felt like to kiss Dante. But I feared Briggs, almost as much as he seemed to be scared of me.
    What was he so fearful of?
    I pulled back the collar of my shirt and stared heatedly at the tattooed name on my skin. Ethan. Who the hell was Ethan, and what connection did he have to me? Because more than anything, I think I needed him.
    Something told me that only he could make all this confusion go away.

CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    D ANTE KEPT GIVING me looks as the days went on and I didn’t know what to make of it. Yes, I was curious about how his lips would feel against mine, but that thought completely disappeared as my mind kept going back to Briggs.
    Why did he seem scared by