Raw, A Dark Romance by Tawny Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

the ledge, legs swinging. Finger muscles strained. They weren’t used to holding my weight. In one, two, three seconds, they spasmed from exhaustion and I slid down, down, down, the lumpy, bumpy surface before smashing into the rocks at the bottom. Pain razored up my leg, from my ankle to my spine, and I cried out. My voice echoed across the empty beach.
    I had failed.
    And now, making matters far worse, I was hurt.

 
     
     
     
    Pain was beautiful. My pain. Their pain. It made me feel alive. It didn’t matter. Pain made my heart beat and my nerves fire. Pain was beautiful…except for hers. --Kace R .
     
Five
    Seconds after I’d fallen strong arms scooped me up.
    It was him.
    He was here.
    The kidnapping bastard.
    At my side so quickly.
    He must have been watching from somewhere close by. Stalking me. Like a wild animal.
    Saying nothing, he carried me into the house. His movements were smooth. He was strong. Very strong. Lithe. Like a skilled athlete.
    He set me on my bed and inspected my ankles and feet. “You’re hurt.”
    My gaze met his. What did I see in those dark eyes? Was it...concern? His brows drew closer as his jaw clenched.
    “I fell.” I watched as he gently flexed my foot. His hands were those of a cultured, rich man. Finely boned and nails groomed but still masculine. Gentle but strong. His touch was firm but not cruel.
    “Does this hurt?” he asked as he tested my ankle.
    I winced. “A little.”
    “ Mierda ,” he growled.
    I didn’t know a lot of Spanish, but I knew what that word meant.
    He straightened up, stared down at me with sharp, cutting eyes and rumbled a string of words I didn’t understand.
    Why was he yelling at me? “You shouldn’t be blaming me!” I snapped. How dare he blame me for this! “If you weren’t holding me here against my will, I wouldn’t have tried to get away!”
    His eyes darkened even more. He bent low, until his mouth was no more than an inch or two from mine. “I’m not blaming you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I’m blaming myself.”
    I was shocked by his admission. Tongue-tied. I stared into his eyes and saw pain and frustration and guilt. And suddenly I wasn’t angry anymore. I wasn’t desperate to leave. I didn’t want to run.
    What the hell was wrong with me?
    One minute I was risking my neck to get away from this monster, and the next I wanted to understand him. In a blink he had changed. He wasn’t just a cold, heartless beast anymore. He was…a beautiful, complicated, hurting man. I wanted to strip away his defenses and reveal all his secrets.
    Shadows whipped and swirled in his eyes like specters. Dark, frightening shadows. I’d thought, in the dungeon, that those were evil shadows. But now, seeing him like this, I knew he wasn’t only evil. He was both good and evil. Man and beast.
    Things had happened to him, had scarred him. Terrible things.
    His hand cupped the back of my neck. His tongue swept across his lower lip. His gaze slid to my mouth.
    Was he going to…kiss me?
    A pulse of erotic need surged through me.
    Yes, please. Yes.
    He moved a tiny bit closer. His gaze lurched back up to my eyes. I saw resistance warring with wanting. “I always get the innocent ones. They have to be innocent.” His voice was so low and his accent so heavy I had to strain to understand.
    “Why?” I whispered as I told myself I shouldn’t care.
    “I won’t want them.”
    His lips brushed across mine, and my breath caught in my throat. Again, his mouth caressed mine. It was the gentlest, shiest kiss I’d ever experienced. And, oh God, it was making me fall apart.
    A pulse of aching crashed through me. My body stiffened. I wanted more. I wanted him to really kiss me, like he meant it. And I wanted him to touch me again. Down there , between my legs, where the aching was getting worse by the second.
    You need to stop this. Now!
    Dire warnings screamed in my head, but my body’s plea drowned them out. Those soft, fleeting