TheBrokenOrnament by Tianna Xander Read Free Book Online Page A

yourself to me for such a price. Taking you to meet my friend Gregori and his wife is no great hardship. I do not wish to sully it with such a bargain.”
    Besides, if the woman turned out not to be her sister, she couldn’t accuse him of using this as a ruse to get her to sleep with him.
    Hunter smiled inwardly. Sleep with him she would, but not today. Today, they would leave this place in search of a woman who should not exist—but, if what Arty said was true, the woman to whom he was quickly losing his heart fell into the same impossible category.
    As she smiled up at him through her tears, Hunter told himself that lovely curving of her lips was payment enough. It was as though she had stars in her eyes for him just because he agreed to introduce him to his best friend and his wife. The act was certainly no hardship and wasn’t worthy of such adoration. His chest ached at the thought that theirs was a precarious relationship. His chest ached as he stared at the one woman who had the power to make him feel again and he gave a mental shake of his head. Holy hell, he had it bad.

Chapter Eleven
    Cherie stared up at Hunter and wondered if she could love someone like him. Surely there were reasons that a woman shouldn’t love a man who professed to be a vampire. Was the man insane or had she really fallen down the proverbial rabbit hole and found herself in another world where the impossible happened?
    She thought back on the events before she went to bed the night before. She had gotten angry at the fates, at God, at the entire world because she had been left so utterly alone. She threw the ornament up against the wall and it had smashed its glass into hundreds of tiny shards.
    The little soldier inside seemed so mocking before she’d thrown it. Then, after she picked it up off the floor, his expression had seemed smug as though he knew something she hadn’t.
    What was she thinking?Goodness knew that she wanted to believe she was in somestrange and wonderful, alternate universe where her sister and Nikki were still alive. Under normal circumstances, Cherie would have laughed at the thought and dismissed Hunter’s claims before running as fast and far as she could away from the man.
    Still, she didn’t think it was too much to ask for a holiday miracle—just this once—especially after all she’d been through.
    “Will you take me to see this Kaylee and, if so, when?”
    “Today.After we’ve gotten you some proper shoes and a coat. You can’t run around in your slippers indefinitely.”
    “Okay,” she agreed reluctantly. He did have a point after all, even if sometimes she suspected that it was on top of his head. She pressed her lips together and tried not to smile when he laughed aloud. It was a strange and wonderful kind of man who could laugh at himself in such a way.
    Four hours later, Cherie was exhausted and antsy to get on the road. She looked at the bags they carried though the mall on the way to the food court and shook her head. “You said shoes and a coat. You never said anything about having an entourage in the department store picking out one of almost everything in my size.”
    “Don’t be silly, he admonished as he stopped at a table and set the packages down. “I didn’t buy one of everything in your size. Some of the things came in colors that were downright horrendous.”
    Pulling out his phone, Hunter tapped the screen a few times before pressing it against his ear. “We’re at the food court on the west side and we are going to need help carrying the things out.” He nodded and looked around. “Yes. After that, we’ll head up to Washington. They should be waiting for us. I’m sure Arty has called them by now.”
    Cherie set her burden on the table alongside the bags he’d set down. It seemed as though they’d been shopping for longer than they really had been, if the bags on the table were any indication. It probably didn’t hurt that the man had enlisted the help of every