The Dark-Hunters by Sherrilyn Kenyon Read Free Book Online Page A

in her refused to take his pessimism to heart, just like the therapist in her refused not to help him. She’d sworn an oath to relieve suffering when she could and Grace took her oaths most seriously.
    Where there was a will, there was always a way.
    And come heck or high water, she would find a way to get him free!
    In the meantime, she decided she would do something for him she doubted anyone else ever had before—she was going to see to it that he enjoyed his reprieve in New Orleans. The other women might have kept him confined to their bedrooms or closets, but she wasn’t about to put chains on anyone.
    “Well, then, let’s just say that this incarnation is for you, bud.”
    He looked up from his food with sudden interest.
    “I’m going to be your servant,” Grace continued. “Whatever you want to do, we’ll do. Whatever you want to see, you’ll see.”
    One corner of his mouth lifted in wry amusement as he took a drink of wine. “Take off your shirt.”
    “Excuse me?” she asked.
    He set his glass of wine aside and pinned her with a hot, lustful stare. “You said I can see what I want to see and do what I want to do. Well, I want to see your naked breasts, and then I want to run my tongue—”
    “Whoa, big fellow, simmer down,” Grace said, her cheeks scalding, her body white-hot. “I think there should be a few ground rules while you’re here. Number one, there won’t be any of that. ”
    “And why not?”
    Yeah, her body demanded in a half begging, half angry inner voice. Why not?
    “Because I’m not some alley cat with her tail up in the air waiting for the nearest Tom to come over, stick it in, and leave.”

C HAPTER 4
    Julian cocked his brow at her wholly unexpected, wholly crude analogy. But even more surprising than her words was the amount of bitterness he heard in Grace’s voice. She must have been badly used in the past. No wonder she was skittish of him.
    An image of Penelope flashed through his mind, and he felt a stab of pain so ferocious in his chest that only his staunch military training kept him from wincing.
    He had much to atone for. Sins so great that not even two thousand years could begin to compensate for them.
    He hadn’t just been born a bastard; because of a brutal life of desperation and betrayal, he had truly become one.
    Closing his eyes, he forced those thoughts away. That was literally ancient history and this was the present. Grace was the present.
    And he was here for her.
    Now, he understood what Selena had meant when she’d spoken to him about Grace. That was why he was here. He was to show Grace that sex was enjoyable.
    Never before had he encountered anything like this.
    As he looked at Grace, a slow smile curved his lips. This would be the first time in his life he’d ever had to pursue a woman for his lover. No woman had ever turned his body down.
    What with her wit and stubbornness he knew getting Grace into bed would prove to be every bit as challenging as outwitting the Roman army.
    Yes, he would savor this.
    Just as he would savor her. Every sweetly freckled inch of her.
    Grace swallowed at the first true smile she’d seen from him. A smile that softened his features and made him even more devastating.
    What on earth was he thinking?
    For the umpteenth time, Grace felt her face flood with warmth as she thought about her crude words. She hadn’t meant to let that slip out. It wasn’t like her to betray her thoughts to anyone, especially a stranger.
    But there was something so compelling about this man. Something that reached out to her in a most disturbing way. Maybe it was the thinly masked pain that flashed in those celestial blue eyes when she caught him off guard. Or maybe it was just her years of psychology training that couldn’t stand the thought of having such a troubled soul in her home and not helping him.
    She didn’t know.
    The grandfather clock in her upstairs hallway chimed one. “Goodness,” she said, shocked that it had become so