Seduced by Two by Stephanie Julian Read Free Book Online Page B

as one of the show’s stars just made Tanner work that much harder to crack those jokes.
    Right now, it wasn’t funny. Because something really weird was going on.
    “We need to find her.” Jensen knew that for an absolute fact. She needed them. And he wanted her back. Now.
    Tanner was shaking his head. “This is really weird.”
    “I know. We need to go back to the bar. We met her at the bar, right?”
    Or had they?
    Tanner sighed, his gaze searching the floor as if for answers. “I only remember the redhead. Did you try to pick her up?”
    Jensen shook his head. “You know I don’t go for redheads. And neither do you.”
    Tanner sighed. “We need to go back to that bar.”
    * * * * *
    “Are you sure you’re going to be okay here alone? I can stay—”
    “Sal, really. I’m fine.”
    Well, she wasn’t but she wasn’t about to tell the legendary salbinelli Salvatorus, powerful guardian of the Etruscan race, that all she wanted was for him to leave so she could curl up in a ball and cry in peace.
    Sal clomped over to her, the sound of his hooves muffled by the carpet on the living room floor of the safe house he ran for the Etruscans.
    Inches shorter than her own five-two, Sal had handsome Etruscan features, glossy black curls and tiny black horns peeking out of those curls. Muscles packed his upper body—his shoulders, his arms, his broad chest—until his lower stomach. Where what had been human became goat.
    She wondered what Tanner and Jensen would do if they ever got a look at Sal. Would they run screaming?
    No, they wouldn’t run. They hadn’t run last night. They’d stepped in front of her to protect her.
    Would they try to hurt Sal? Attack him for being different?
    She’d seen Tanner’s expression as he watched her hands. He’d been dumbfounded. But not disgusted.
    Of course, he’d been too stunned to completely understand what was going on. And he’d been terrified for his brother’s life.
    But even then, he’d trusted her enough to let her unbind the spell that had been shutting down Jensen’s internal organs.
    “Niccola, I don’t think I should leave you alone.” Sal sat on the couch next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Babe, I don’t figure you want me to call your mom but—”
    “Goddess no.” She shuddered. “I’m no longer a child. And my life will be over soon enough.”
    Damn it, she hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
    Closing her eyes, she wished the words would magically disappear. Sal probably thought she was an ungrateful bitch.
    He didn’t know her well. They’d only met once or twice when he’d been to her tiny village to see one of the streghe about something. He led a secluded life because of the nature of who and what he was. He could go out on the street in the guise of a young boy if he worked a powerful enough glamour. But the magic needed to hold the illusion for any length of time required a huge expenditure of power.
    Power was something Sal was said to have an almost unending supply of but he used it in his position as guardian for the Etruscans. He shielded this safe house, which hadn’t been discovered in the two hundred years since he’d opened it. And he got foolish women out of messes like the one she’d gotten into last night.
    She’d been given a powerful Goddess Gift to serve her people and all she’d done was complain about it for the past several months. And now someone knew who she was and what she could do.
    Total bitch.
    “I’m sorry, Sal.” She sighed. “I am not ungrateful. Just…”
    “Feeling a little trapped?”
    Her gaze flew up from her dissection of her shoes to meet his gaze. “I… No, not trapped, just… Tinia’s teat, yes, I’m feeling trapped. And it really doesn’t make me feel any better to actually say that. It just makes me feel worse.”
    “Okay then,” Sal said. “Here’s something to do while you sit here and mope. I’ve got a computer in the next room. There’s a file on it with pictures of