TheBrokenOrnament by Tianna Xander Read Free Book Online Page B

female in the damned store.
    Apparently, Hunter had finished his phone conversation while she’d been distracted. He sat down and smiled at the three pretty women at the next table.
    “Hello, ladies.” His smile actually transformed his face from the expression of authority that he seemed to always wear, to one of smug appreciation.
    That figures. The man was obviously a womanizer. Wasn’t it just her luck?
    So much for her being his mate. Cherie barely stopped herself from scowling at the creep. She wouldn’t have a relationship with the man now if her life depended on it, and if what he said about her arrival here was true, it just might be. She sat back in her seat with a sigh.
    “Are you tired?” All of a sudden, his attention was back on her and it made her uncomfortable.
    “Yes.” She was exhausted. Her stomach picked that precise moment to growl angrily and he grinned.
    “Apparently, the breakfast we had on the way here has worn off as well.”
    “Worn off?” she asked with a laugh. “What was there to wear off, really?” I had an English muffin with an egg and a half of a slice of cheese.”
    “You could have had more.”
    Of course she could have, but she didn’t want to look like a glutton in front of the man. Besides, it had already been four hours since she ate.
    “It has been several hours.” She checked her watch with a smile. “How long do you think breakfast should last?”
    He laughed and she was mesmerized by the little crinkles at the corner of his eyes. “I keep forgetting that—“
    “We humans need to eat more often than vampires?”
    One of the women at the next table gasped. Cherie looked, but she wasn’t sure which one it was.
    “Yes.” The word came out clipped and short as though he was angry.
    Was he angry? Didn’t he want people to know? He didn’t seem to mind the soothsayer woman knowing. “I’m sorry. Shouldn’t I have said that out loud?” Were vampires a part of some secret society? She’d assumed that since the psychic knew about them that everyone did. Did they exist on her world as part of some secret occult group? She sighed. Why was she even buying into all of this? “Doesn’t everyone know about your kind?”
    “Yes and no.” He said as he watched one of the women from the other table scurry away, presumably out of fear. She was an older woman. Maybe she had a difficult time dealing with change.
    “What in the heck is that supposed to mean?”
    “It means that my people have went public, but even though there are now laws to protect us, we are still hunted by slayers who now hunt us illegally.” He shook his head. “They consider it no worse than poaching animals.”
    “Oh.” Cherie wrung her hands in her lap. “And you hadn’t…gone public, I take it?”
    Hunter pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No, I had not.”
    “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to out you.”
    “I know that.” He turned toward the restaurants in the court. “Would you like something to eat? We have a few minutes before Joseph arrives.”
    Cherie bit her lip as she looked up at him. He certainly was an even tempered man. His earlier angst at her goof-up appeared already forgotten. Had that happened to her, she would probably have been screaming mad. She could only be glad that he was so tolerant. As a vampire, he could literally be deadly without that level of control.
    “Just get me a chili dog and an order of fries.”
    “What would you like to drink?”
    “A glass of water will do.” She didn’t need a soft drink. As it was, the chili dog and fries would go straight to her hips. Besides, she’d spent enough of this poor man’s money today—and she hadn’t even wanted to!
    She watched as he made his way to the counter of the hotdog stand. He certainly was put together well. Broad shoulders tapered down to a narrow waist and hips. She could do worse, even if the man did have a strange diet.
    “We’re going to go now, miss.”
    Cherie turned