The Cherished One by Carolyn Faulkner Read Free Book Online

could this man know about that kind of thing anyway?  And why would he think that she indulged in it?
    He gave her a chiding look, his chin lowered, head tilted to the side slightly, as if she’d disappointed him somehow.  “Come now, Cherie, I’ve tasted your essence – well, one of them, anyway.”
    Fawna refused to follow that thought to its natural conclusion, but her body went there of its own accord, and to her horror, her nethers began to tingle – and she was sure he knew it.
    “I knew all about you, and the games you played with Daggar.”
    Fawna snorted, thinking about all the times she spent bawling over Dag’s lap, or bent over the back of one of their straight-backed dining room chairs.   “It was not a game.”
    Since he could see where they were going and she couldn’t, he’d neatly maneuvered her until the back of the huge overstuffed horseshoe shaped couch in the den hit the backs of her knees and she fell onto it automatically.  He followed her there, taking her big bag from her before she noticed and commandeering her cell phone, crushing it to bits without much effort.
    Fawna swallowed hard.  That had been her last hope for rescue – not that she held out much hope that she had any bars out here, but at least had been something to hang on to.  What was she going to do now?  She was all alone for Lord knew how long with a vampire that had already bitten her once, and was now threatening to spank her.  Dag was nowhere to be found, the men Dain had thought would protect her were dead, and Dain had no idea that she was in danger.
    She was truly on her own.
    “It wasn’t?  So you learned from the lessons he taught you?”
    Fawna snorted.  “Yes, I did.  I thought twice about doing whatever it was that he had spanked me for the next time, believe me.”
    Max was nodding, but it was in that way that she knew that he disbelieved her.  “Well, you were in a very bad part of town when I found you this afternoon, and I think that Dag wouldn’t have been any too happy that you were there, even if you were only trying to discern his whereabouts.”
    Fawna bit her lip.  It was on the tip of her tongue to ask Max if he knew where Dag was, but she didn’t want to engage with him at all, much less be beholding to him for any information he might have, so she remained silent.
    “No, I don’t know where he is,” he lied smoothly.  “And even if I did, I’d hardly tell you.”
    “Stop reading my mind!”  As she said it, she realized how futile it was to say that – she always railed against the heroines in novels and movies who did that.  What villain wasn’t going to use every possible advantage at his disposal?
    “Very good.  That’s exactly right,” he chuckled low, the sound vibrating in places she wished it wouldn’t.  “And it’s a very interesting mind.  But I’d hardly describe myself as the villain in this picture, but we’ll come back to that.  For the moment,” he rose, and extended his hand to her imperiously, “there is the matter of your chastisement.”
    She swallowed hard, realizing she had no choice but to obey him, at least for the moment.  When she put her fingers into his hand, they were cold and somewhat clammy.  Max knew she was afraid, but she did as she was told, and his estimation of her rose threefold.
    What little there was left of his heart awakened even more than it had when he’d first seen her, when he’d first discovered that Dag had a new love, and just how lovely she was for himself.  No histrionics, no begging, no pleading.  She simply put her hand in his and let him pull her up.
     
     

Chapter Four
     
     
    They weren’t going far, but he felt that it was an important step that she had put her hand into his without a fuss.  He simply led her to the back of the couch, which stood well away from the wall.  He hadn’t noticed it before, but, in keeping with the natural look and feel of the entire dwelling, the wall looked like