We're One by Mimi Barbour Read Free Book Online Page A

try, but I don’t know as how anyone can stop the freak. Until he does something against the law, and he hasn’t so far, he’ll be free to tail us all he wants. That’s why it’s vitally important to get you out of this neighbourhood. Someplace where we can keep you safe—where he’ll never find you. I want you to stay close to me.”
    If you’d cooperate, I’d be pretty damn close right now. To clear her mind of those kinds of cravings, she asked, “Is there a safe place in Bury to hole up for a short time?”
    “Trust me, I remember the perfect place. Now go to sleep. You’ll need your beauty rest.”
    Seeing his pouty face harden into a scowl, she sensed inflexibility. He wouldn’t budge, and she couldn’t beg. The idiot was going to waste a perfectly good night wanting a special setting, whereas all she wanted was his body, and those skillful lips teaching hers.
    And to keep him safe, a priority she accepted without question. She sighed deeply. Grabbing a blanket to wrap around herself, she lay on top of the quilt and closed her eyes. Her pets were all bedded down for the night, tolerating their new lodgings calmly. As long as she stayed in sight, they stayed unruffled.
    Her breathing evened out after a few minutes, and she slept, her bat horizontal on the floor beside her.
    How he had kept his hands off her, he’d never know. She was the most intriguing mix of “keep your distance” intermingled with “show me” he’d ever run across. He didn’t trust her signals, put them down to fear for her safety, plain and simple, but he could’ve sworn she’d wanted him tonight.
    Her blatant need to keep him in sight at all times didn’t fool him into believing she’d developed a sudden crush on him. Rather, it told him she was terrified to be left alone, poor darling. As much as his hands ached to caress her curvy little body, his mind accepted he was all that stood between her and the sick jerk who wanted to kill her. He needed to keep his wits about him and his mitts off her.
    The morning couldn’t come soon enough for him. Watching her sleep and not crawling into the bed next to her scored him an ace on his scale of tolerance. The pile of cigarette butts in the ashtray by the end table attested to his stress. Circling smoke wafted around his head as he guarded, while his mind was tortured by images of their bodies entwined.
    Blonde strands of silky hair, some nestling around her face while others spread in disarray, shimmered with golden highlights from the feeble light of the small bedside lamp. It illuminated her tempting form. Both birds, free to roam, huddled puffed up on the adjacent pillow, as if protectors of a sleeping beauty. Perfume, the provocative scent he’d noticed before when she’d been near, drifted towards him. The distracting smell reminded him of roses, which brought to mind the unique bush in England where an abundance of multicoloured roses spilled over a quaint old bench.
    Her small ringless hand reached towards the edge of the bed as if in readiness, beckoning. She slept, no sounds, no movement, as still as a picture—uncanny. He knew he himself was a roamer in bed, a wiggle-puss, a cover hog, never still. A thought entered his mind, and brought a smile with it. Their mating should prove interesting.
    Thinking about that possibility became physically uncomfortable, noticeably in his lower anatomy. He stood up and paced the room like a caged tiger, stopping every few minutes to move the grimy curtain aside so he could survey the parking lot. There were only two other cars parked there—not surprising—and they hadn’t moved all night.
    The first warming golden rays announced the coming of the sun as it rose over the desert hills in the distance. Soon highway sounds of long-haul trucks and traffic all heading somewhere could be heard. Time to move.
    She came awake with a start. Her gaze located him and softened.
    She was so lovely.
    He was in big trouble!
    Keeping his hands