The Secret by Elizabeth Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

the long practice of years living in hotel after hotel.
    “I know you’re mad at me,” she said as he walked up behind her. She was standing at a small dresser, arranging their clothes. “It wasn’t my intention, I’m just saying—”
    “Shh.” He bent down, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her cheek. “Ava.”
    “What?”  
    Her shoulders had been tense, but she relaxed as he held her and kissed her cheek. Her neck. They had few fights because they were still uneasy around each other. Both of them often retreated into polite silence, and he knew it wasn’t right.
    “I love you,” he said, drawing her away from the bureau and into his chest. His hands traveled up her torso, slipping underneath the thin sweater she wore. He hungered for her skin. “You are my hope.”
    “Malachi—”
    “You are. It is easy to forget”—he kissed the curve where her neck met her shoulder—“what I would be without you. There was a time when I was as hopeless as they were. I don’t think the Irin are like the Grigori, but I will think about what you said.”
    “I’m not saying I want to be friends with them,” she said, turning in his arms. “I just think there are things we could learn. Me, mostly. But maybe you too.”
    “You’re right.”
    A teasing light came to her eyes. “You’re so sexy when you agree with me.”
    “Am I?” He bit her lower lip as his hands ran back down to cup her bottom. “How about now?” he murmured against her lips.
    “Say it again.”
    “You’re right.”
    “Oooooh,” she said. “Even sexier.”
    He grinned as he kissed her. He loved it when she teased him. When she laughed. It was happening more and more as time passed.
    “You’re my hope too, you know.”
    He paused. “What?”
    “What was I before I met you?” she asked. “Lonely. Lost. Never fitting in anywhere. Ruining any relationship I tried to have.”
    “Human men would never have been good for you.” A sudden spike of jealousy. No other man would touch her. Not as he did. His mate belonged to him alone. He picked her up and carried her to the bed.
    “I know that now.”  
    She let him roll over her, strip her clothing off so that he could feast on her. Breasts. Knees. Thighs. He bit the soft swell of flesh on her belly. No inch of her body was safe from his ravening mouth.
    And she coaxed him with her words.
    “I love your mouth,” she whispered. “Love what you do to me. No one has ever made me feel like you do.”
    “Ava—”
    “I was so lost without you.” Her voice choked on the words. “So lost, Malachi. Only my dreams kept me sane.”
    He groaned and pressed his mouth to her breast, turning his head to listen to her pounding heart. To her, he had been gone. A painful memory. But to him, she had been a siren. His only touchstone in a world that made no sense. And he could only hold her in dreams.
    Now she was real. With him. Not a dream. Not a memory.
    Ava was everything.
    “Come here.” She pulled at his clothes, as hungry as he was. “I need you.”
    And when they made love, she dug her fingers into his shoulders. Anchoring him in their joined flesh, even as his magic flared. Reached for hers. He could see the glowing silver talesm on his arms.
    “Sing to me,” he whispered in her ear as they moved together. “Sing for me, Ava.”
    She remained silent, but he felt the curl of her magic wake, and her mating marks flickered in awareness.
    “ Canım ,” he said.
    “Malachi.” Her hands tightened in his hair.
    “My hope, Ava. You are my hope.”

    THEY rented a scooter the next day, climbing up the hills of the Italian Riviera where Jasper Reed had rented a secluded house. They told no one they were coming, and Malachi only hoped that the man who had disappointed Ava so many times would not do so again. It would pain his mate, and Malachi would be hard-pressed not to vent his anger on the human.
    Ava leaned against his back, her cheek pressed against his shoulder as they