Beauty and the Brit

Beauty and the Brit Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Beauty and the Brit Read Online Free PDF
Author: Lizbeth Selvig
Tags: Itzy, kickass.to
I’m sure it’s too early yet for authorities to know what happened?”
    The direct question calmed her. She appreciated him not asking again how she was.
    “I don’t know. I . . . I have a suspicion, but only because of what happened earlier.”
    “Do you think your brother was involved?”
    That question took her aback. Paul? Even if Hector was involved, Paul’s friendship would never extend to something this vile.
    “No.”
    “Good. Perhaps one suspect eliminated.” He allowed a gentle, bittersweet smile, which she recognized as understanding.
    “It wasn’t an accident.”
    Saying so out loud for the first time ripped through the layer of numbness protecting her from her feelings. Tears of anger and the first edgings of fear welled in her eyes. Averting her gaze, she swiped the moisture away.
    “Aw, it’s all right, love. Didn’t you only just tell me how much of your future is wrapped up in this house? You’re allowed to cry. It’s not weakness.”
    His accent touched her, wrapped around her heart with less formality than earlier, but calm drifted further from her reach. Was she so transparent he could see how to obliterate her control with a couple of understanding words?
    Shit.
    She didn’t do physical displays. She needed to follow her instincts and shove him away, buck up, and take care of her crisis. Instead, she didn’t even object when he wrapped his arms around her the way Chase had done with Bonnie. Her tears won, and she sobbed.
    For a minute it was a relief—to let him shore up her wobbly knees and his broad chest to obscure the sight of the fire. To weep for things she was losing as she stood there. David didn’t move except to tighten his arms. He didn’t speak or use his power to take advantage of her, but power was what he had. Power to surround her, insulate her, let her believe it wasn’t her fault she’d lost control.
    His scent dulled her fear like anesthetic. His chest, rising and falling beneath her cheek, pulled her focus from the disaster and put it on him. A thought crept insidiously through her brain: she could hide within this stronghold for a long time and get used to it. The very idea slapped her back into reality. She didn’t know this man. To let him take away her fear and her focus was dangerous—fear and focus were her only weapons.
    Drawing self-control back around herself like a cloak, she slipped from his embrace and crossed her arms tightly around her middle, covering the flimsy T-shirt she wore as pajamas. As soon as she had escaped his embrace, however, she found she had no desire to escape his presence. Even without the drugging fog from his scent and his touch, he exuded calm protection.
    Chase placed a hand on her arm.
    “We don’t need to stand here and watch, honey. We can go back to Crossroads and wait. The police can come talk to you when the fire is out.”
    “Please, Rio, please, let’s go. I can’t stand this anymore.” Bonnie’s tear-tracked cheeks and wild eyes conveyed her fear.
    “Sweetie, I know.” Rio cupped her sister’s face with her hands. “But I can’t leave and not be sure they’re doing all they can. We could take you across the street to the Hansons’. Look, they’re in the front yard. I’m sure they’d let you sleep on their sofa.”
    “No! They’re nice, but their house . . . is—” At the word “house” she covered her face.
    “Why don’t you take Bonnie back to Crossroads?” David turned to Rio. “I can stay here if you’d be all right with that.”
    “It’s not necessary. I don’t want to make you stay.”
    The thought of remaining alone with David, but without Chase as a buffer, slightly terrified her. Yet the thought of David leaving left her stomach hollow. She didn’t really want to face the firefighters, the police, and the flames on her own.
    “You aren’t making me do anything. We don’t need to know each other that well for me to act as another set of ears and eyes.”
    Again his smile
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