Savage Instinct by Celeste Anwar Read Free Book Online Page A

here,
apparently.”
     
    “I guess you’d have to be born here to understand it.”
     
    She raised one fine, black eyebrow and drummed her fingers
against her hip as if losing patience.  “I think you’re being condescending and
deliberately obtuse.  Do you have a stash of meth at your place and can’t risk
getting busted by the cops?”
     
    He sat up and waved his hands.  “Hell no.  That shit is
like toxic waste.  Give me a few days and I’ll be out of your hair.  It’s the
least you could do, considering you clocked me with your car.”
     
    “You make me doubt the wisdom of believing anything you
say.  I’m to believe you’re not a criminal being hunted by another criminal. 
And I don’t have to worry about someone tracking you down here and murdering
both of us in our sleep?  Or worry about you doing something to me?”
     
    “That’s right,” he said, nodding.
     
    She pursed her lips.  “Mmmmhmmm.  Just what I thought.  You
trying to stay.”
     
    Aiden guffawed.  “You do have a smart mouth, and you don’t
miss a thing.  Just like I thought.”
     
    “If you’re trying to insult me, it’s not working.  Anyway,
that’s what I’ve been told.  But only to people that rub me the wrong way.”
     
    “Why don’t you let me know how to rub you the right way?”
he asked, his eyes glimmering and face relaxed despite the tension he felt in
every muscle.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter
Five
     
     
    A kick in the gut wouldn’t have impacted Nydia as hard as
seeing Aiden walk out of the bathroom wearing only the pajama bottoms. 
Somehow, all cleaned up with his short brown hair tousled around his face
affected her more than when he’d been stark naked and stuffed into the passenger
seat of her car.
     
    Maybe it was the lack of blood, sweat, and dirt, but the
boy cleaned up good.  Too good.
     
    The body wash he’d bathed with hit her first.  She’d never
noticed it smelled spicy before.  Sexy.
     
    She wanted to crawl into the crook of his neck and live
there.
     
    Nydia had always been a sucker for freshly washed skin.
     
    Dark stubble covered his square jaw.  His face had a
fierceness to it softened only by thick curly lashes around his eyes and lips
that were full and bowed.  That mouth had the promise of sensual delights she
firmly denied imagining.  His green eyes practically glowed with intensity.
     
    He walked with a limp, reinforcing the guilt swamping her
about hitting him with her car.  Guilt made her anxiety levels shoot through
the roof.
     
    She couldn’t see any bruises on his chest, when she managed
to pry her eyes away from the damp happy trail that disappeared into his
pants.  He settled on the couch, making it look like a love seat with his long
frame.
     
    When he’d asked about the guest bed, her mind leapt
immediately to her own lonely mattress and the carnal pursuits to be had there.
     
    Get a grip, girl.  You just broke up a few
hours ago!
     
    “Why don’t you let me know how to rub you the
right way?” he’d said.
     
    She narrowed her eyes at him, feigning annoyance.  “Are you
flirting with me?”
     
    “Flirting comes as naturally as breathing in the South,
ma’am,” he said.
     
    “I thought ma’am was usually reserved for distinguished
women.”
     
    He raked his gaze down her body and back up to her face. 
The look was as palpable as a caress, making her feel strangely exposed.  She
remembered taking her shirt off and wondered how much he’d paid attention to
her in her bra when she thought he’d been nearly unconscious.
     
    He met her eyes, a playful grin on his face.  “When you’re
raised right, it’s used for all women.  See, things like that just confirm you
ain’t southern raised, honey.”
     
    She wanted to ask exactly what he meant by that, but she
didn’t know him, and she had a pretty good idea what he was angling for.  It seemed
to her he was an incorrigible flirt, and didn’t need any encouragement from