5 - Together To Join Read Online Free PDF Page A

The disgust in his voice told her what she’d see.
    “Whatever I needed.”
    His cheeks puffed out as he loosed a sigh, putting little brown whiskers on display. Masculine. The man was absolutely perfect male.
    “I mean, for these ropes. What the hell did you use?”
    “Oh. Hosiery.”
    “I’m being held down with pantyhose? Argh!”
    She had no trouble deciphering that gargled cry as he lurched up, thrashing against spandex and nylon. Angelique watched the bonds etch into his flesh, crisscrossing his chest and abdomen, and each thigh and ankle before he gave up.
    “I didn’t know what else to use. I don’t like seeing you tied down! But…I couldn’t risk chancing it.”
    “What?”
    “Losing you.”
    “I will never…live this down. Ever. You might as well just kill me now.”
    “Really?”
    He was breathing hard and turned his head toward her to tip his chin down. The result was an upward-cast glare that sent menace. Virility. And anger. All of it barely leashed. If Angelique were the swooning type, she’d have probably done it.
    “No. Not really. It’s an expression.”
    “Pity.”
    “You can just stop there, lady.”
    “Why?”
    She’d reached forward, placing one of her manicured nails along a thigh to trace along the indentation he’d made. The hairs whispered into an erect state against her finger-pad, lifted with his goose-bumps. She murmured the satisfaction, and then she reached the ankle she’d injured. Stupid man.
    “Don’t…you know a brush-off when you get it?”
    If he hadn’t caught the words mid-sentence and gone rigid beneath her touch, she might have stopped. No. That wasn’t true. He was too intriguing and fascinating. Every bit of him called to her, whispering of delights and intimacies and ecstasies she’d yet to experience. There wasn’t any way she’d stop.
    “This isn’t just hosiery, hunter. It’s a special variety. Compression support. Very strong. Expensive. Guaranteed not to run and snag.”
    “Thanks. I feel a lot better now.”
    “I cut it into strips and braided it to add strength. And resilience. You want to know why?” She’d reached the scraped section where the tattoo had been removed, and circled it with her fingers.
    “Not…especially.”
    “Because I don’t trust you. Not after you lied to me.”
    A look along his legs got her a full view of the bump at the crotch of his briefs, before she looked beyond it. Her gaze traveled over the twin humps of his pecs, to the bottom of his chin, where a nervous swallow couldn’t be disguised. Angelique had never had a man so fully in her control before. She’d never wanted one. It was exciting and illicit and sensually arousing…and everything she’d thought lost to her when she’d entered the convent.
    “Such a shame.”
    She bent down to his ankle and blew gently on the flesh, causing the scab to age just a bit faster. That was proof he’d been bitten and he’d fed. He might not know it, but the man had tasted vampire blood sometime in his past. Her fingernails bit into him before she could halt them at the jealousy. Angelique concentrated on releasing each finger, and then blew on the little pricks she’d made, closing in to lick the tiny drops of blood away. At the first taste, an instant and amazing flash of pure energy shot through her, turning her nipples into an itch of need, and the rest of her into wanton, quivering female. She nearly gave vent to the cry and had to stand and back from him; one step. Another.
    He was watching her when she reached five of them. He could have been watching the entire time. His eyes might still be vivid blue, but in the candlelight, they looked black. Deadly.
    “Which time?”
    “What?”
    “When did I lie? You running an interrogation or not? If a vampire has to up and claim me, the least she can be is intelligent. Or is that too much to ask?”
    “I scarred you.”
    “I have a lot of scars.”
    “True. But none that mar your perfection…too