Passion's Prey: The Shadow Shifters by A.C. Arthur Read Free Book Online

the mental ones before shaking her head clear of it all.
    She climbed onto the bed and was sitting in its center with her legs crossed when X returned.
    *   *   *
    Innocent, that’s how she looked sitting on his big bed, with her slim frame and wild hair hanging past her shoulders. The shirt she wore was huge and hung on her like a curtain. Long luxurious legs were folded together and tucked neatly. Yeah, she looked like a high school kid instead of the alluring stripper he now knew her to be.
    “Seth brought your things from the club,” he said, putting her purse and the bag with her clothes and shoes in it near one of the dressers on the opposite side of the room.
    “He sucks as a guard, you know,” she told him when she’d scrambled off the bed to grab her purse. “You shouldn’t have been allowed to get near that stage or me, for that matter.”
    “I’m his supervisor,” he told her. He moved to his dresser, taking his cell phone from his pocket and putting it along with his keys on the surface. “And you should have stayed at Havenway.”
    X had thought the same thing about Seth earlier, but after seeing the shifter already near his vehicle he realized Seth had known he was there all along. And maybe the shifter was doing just as he’d said: giving them space. Although X had no idea why Seth would think that was necessary.
    “I can go back now if you’d let me out of this gray cell you’ve created for yourself.”
    He turned to her then. “You think my house is a cell?”
    She was reading something on her phone, her brow furrowed, and for an instant, just a quick second, X scented her fear. In the next moment it was gone; she’d squared her shoulders, put the phone on the dresser closest to her, and flipped her hair over one shoulder.
    “You’re kidding, right?” She shook her head. “No, you don’t kid, nor do you laugh. Okay, yes, this is a cell. It’s cold and impersonal and clearly designed to keep people out.”
    X frowned, hated that her assessment sounded damn close to the truth. “And you were named psychotherapist when?”
    She shrugged. “Just an observation. So look, I’m tired. I need a shower, then I plan to sleep. How long do you plan to hold me captive this time?”
    He hadn’t held her captive before. Sure, he’d locked her into a room at Rome’s house, but that was for her own safety. X could say that keeping her here tonight was for the same reason. Rogues had been to Athena’s before. X knew this for a fact, because Sabar’s savior drug was being sold there. Diamond, the stripper he’d met a few weeks ago and who’d subsequently been killed, had worked at Athena’s. She’d recognized the drug with the mysterious symbol on its package. Yet tonight, of all nights, they’d come straight to Caprise’s dressing room. Why?
    That was a good enough reason to keep her here, in his house, in his bed. But if he were totally honest he’d admit that this was where he’d wanted her for quite some time. Fate had just played into his hand. Since she’d been back Caprise had become his one weakness. Sure, he’d denied that fact for the first few weeks of her return, but X wasn’t in the habit of hiding from the truth. He wasn’t in the habit of hiding at all. In fact, he hated like hell that he couldn’t go back to Athena’s and kick some Rogue ass. But for tonight he’d have to leave that to the guards.
    “Take your shower then you can sleep in here.”
    “You don’t like to answer questions, do you?” she said with a tilt to her head as if she were actually studying him.
    He folded his arms over his chest, not trying to avoid the hardening of his dick at the sight of her long bare legs and nipples poking through the cotton of that shirt. However, he was definitely trying to keep her busy little mind off him. Because it was one thing to want Caprise in his bed, another to want her in his life. Especially that part of his life he didn’t even want to claim