The Charmer by Autumn Dawn Read Free Book Online Page A

She wasn’t up to idle chatter just
then.
    She’d felt desire in her life, she thought,
wading through the fern fronds. Even hot, raging lust, but she’d
never before walked through fire. The idea that a near stranger
could do that to her, could make her nearly frantic with need, did
not please her.
    Maybe there’s something in the air, she
thought suspiciously, taking a discrete sniff. Maybe it’s not me at
all, but something to do with that thing he calls me. What was it,
a charmer?
    Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye,
she asked, “What is this charmer business about, anyway?”
    He looked at her; obviously surprised she
would choose to speak to him. He took a moment to answer. “A
charmer makes men want her. It’s the special pheromone she produces
that makes the Haunt male wild.”
    “I thought a Haunt was a guard,” she said
with a sharp glance.
    “It is a guard, but also the term for our
race,” he explained, looking at her curiously. Her interest would
have to be powerful indeed to cause her to seek knowledge from him
so soon after his...chastisement.
    She kept her eyes straight ahead, ignoring
what his accent was doing to her insides. “So what does this
pheromone do to me?”
    He stopped in surprise, caught himself, and
continued on. But his tone carried definite inquisitiveness as he
answered, “Nothing. You’ve possessed it all your life and it’s done
you no harm.”
    She clenched her fists. “Then it doesn’t make
me…” she left the rest unsaid, not wanting to make a fool of
herself. Too late.
    She saw him grin out of the corner of her
eye. “No,” he answered with an insufferable note of male pride.
“You can blame me for that.”
    Humiliated all over again, she kept her head
down and walked faster.
     
     
    Chapter 5
     
    “Are you all right?” Wiley demanded the
moment she and Lemming entered Jasmine’s room. The door closed
behind her, sealing off the illumination from the hall and
enclosing them in the deepening gloom.
    Jasmine looked at her broodingly from the
couch she was lying on. “Where’s your keeper?”
    Her friend waved an impatient hand. “Gone.
But how are you?” She knelt in front of the couch, concern etching
her brow. “Did he hurt you?”
    “No.” Not wanting to pursue that path any
further, she quickly asked, “How did he know? There shouldn’t have
been enough time for them to figure anything out.” She’d been going
over Keilor’s dreadful timing, but had yet to understand how they’d
given themselves away. They’d thought they’d been so careful.
    Wiley snorted and moved to an armchair,
tucking one long leg under the other. “Lights,” she ordered and
then, “Shutters.” Satisfied with their privacy and the improved
illumination, she said, “They figured it out right away.” Her lower
lip protruded just the tiniest bit. “The Haunt brought me back here
and Jayems told me that they knew.” She shivered, remembering what
else he’d said. Her eyes swept down. “I was afraid of what Keilor
would do when he found you.” She peeked through her lashes to see
Jasmine busily avoiding her eyes. Her voice ached when she asked,
“What did he do, Jas?”
    Hearing that note, Jasmine looked at her and
then up at the ceiling. If she didn’t tell her, she’d imagine the
worst and spend days brooding about it, convinced it was somehow
all her fault. Besides, this was Wiley. “He tied me up to a tree
and kissed me,” she confessed quickly, hoping she’d drop it,
knowing she wouldn’t.
    “ What ?” Wiley looked as if she didn’t
know whether to be outraged or titillated. Her expression became
thoughtful, even speculative, and her eyes moved as if replaying
something in her head. As if thinking out loud, she asked, “How was
it?”
    Jasmine bounded off the couch, putting an
armchair between them as if to stop the flow of curiosity. “Wiley!
How could you ask me that?” A casual friend would have raged over
Keilor’s behavior and called