Primal Instincts by Susan Sizemore Read Free Book Online Page B

gone back to playing Arkham Asylum. Francesca started to get up to see if she could get in on their game night. A thought from Strahan stopped her.
    Stay. There’s something I want to discuss with you. But first . . .

Chapter Nine
    He dialed a stored number on his cell phone, then put the phone to his ear. He smiled in anticipation.
    As the phone rang Francesca stared at him in surprise.
What the demons could he want me for? Other than the usual.
    When the phone was answered his anticipation turned into a glow of pleasure. “Working hard or hardly working, Saffron, my love?” Tobias Strahan said after a young female voice said hello.
    “Daddy!” An enthusiastic squeal carried to Francesca’s ears.
    “Daddy”? A daughter? Wait a minute.
Francesca was almost viscerally aware that Strahan wasn’t bonded. But only bonded Primes took any part inrearing their female offspring.
    Well, Sidonie’s sire had been involved in her life, but Sid Wolf and Tony Crowe never did anything like other vampires.
    Strahan had been born Tribe even though he was raised Family, and as Jake had so recently pointed out, Tribe Primes weren’t exactly loving parents of mortal offspring. And this girl must be mortal.
    But there was love in Strahan’s voice as he spoke to the girl and love in his thoughts and feelings toward this Saffron even as he began to lecture her about some trouble she was in at school.
    It looked like he was a hard man with a soft center.
    She smiled at the thought, but only for a moment. Until she realized seeing this side of the Prime threatened to bring down the necessary walls she’d built up.
    His caring emotion was so strong it twisted Francesca’s heart. She almost ran from the room but refused to be so cowardly. She wanted to hate Strahan, but her grief wasn’t the Prime’s fault. Probably it was only biology. She loved a mortal but was attracted to an alpha male of her own species.
    Alpha female to alpha male was the natural order of things.
Damn it.
    She got up and walked to the patio doors, rested her forehead on the cool glass, and concentrated onthe sound of the nearby ocean instead of the telephone conversation behind her. Seeing the reflection of the back of Strahan’s head in the dark glass didn’t help. There was something . . .
appealing
in the way his ears marred his perfection just a little.
    She closed her eyes and remembered—Patrick. She hadn’t let herself think his name for a while, or think about the way his gray eyes could go from bright with laughter to an icy warrior’s stare. A shiver went through her and a fist tightened around her heart.
    He was dead.
    Lately she’d been more obsessed with the idea of her love for him than loving him, hadn’t she?
    She wanted to remember the touch of his lips on hers, the feel of his hands on her, but those tactile sensations were lost to her even though her body ached with growing longing.
    Strahan’s suddenly raised voice drew her attention back to the conversation. “No, I will not call Mrs. Palmer. If you were given detention, you know better than to try to get out of it.”
    “But it’s not fair! I should be able to read whatever—”
    “What does fair have to do with it, Saffron Strahan? Weren’t you raised to take responsibility for your actions?”
    After a stubborn silence the girl said, “Yes, sir.”
    “Good. What lesson will you take away from this?”
    “Not to get caught if I want to study magic.”
    He sighed. “All right, I won’t argue with you on that one. Make sure to keep up with your academic studies.”
    “Can I come home, Daddy?”
    It was Strahan’s turn to be silent for a few seconds. “Your winter holidays are coming up soon.”
    “I want to come home now. I miss the Angels.”
    “The Angels miss you too. You’re safer where you are right now. Your friend Kelsie’s mother contacted me about your going to London for Christmas with their family,” he said rushing on. “You’d enjoy that.”
    “I