Bitten by Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

door behind her creaked, heart banging against her ribs.
What the hell? No one lived here! She'd been coming to sit on the steps of this
abandoned mansion for ten years. She whirled around, preparing to run, but when
her gaze fell on the man standing at the top of the stone stairs she paused.
    “Sienna.” Jasper closed the door behind him with a hollow boom, as if the space beyond
was vast. Empty.
    She
stared. He wore jeans again. A white shirt, unbuttoned. He was barefoot. She
couldn't make herself run. Or speak.
    “What are
you doing here?” he asked gently, as if she was easily startled.
    She
wasn't. She was just … shocked. Yes, shocked to find someone here after all
this time. Shocked that it was him .
    “What are you doing here?” she challenged, willing her heart to calm the hell
down.
    “I live
here.” He started down the steps.
    She held
her ground. She'd be damned if she was going to run away like a little girl.
    “No one
lives here. I've been coming here for years and no one has ever lived here.”
Her head spun, as if she couldn’t get enough air. The closer he came to her,
the more she realized just how beautiful a man he was. His dark hair looked
infinitely soft. His chest was smooth and his golden skin
made her want to touch him, see how warm he was. Even his hands were
lovely: well-formed, strong, capable .
    “I've
been away.” He halted in front of her and lifted a finger to her face,
smoothing away the strand of hair that clung to her cheek. “I've been away a
long time.”
    “How can
you live here? In the middle of a state forest?” She
ignored the heat that curled low in her body from his casual touch.
    He
shrugged. “Long-term lease with the government.” He
ran his hand down her arm. “Ah.”
    She
swallowed. What was she doing, standing here letting him touch her? “What—” She
had to clear her throat. “What are you doing?”
    His fingers
lingered over her wrist for a moment, then let go. He smiled. “How did you get
here?”
    What? She blinked. “I walked. Hiked. From the trailhead.” She wondered if he perhaps wasn't very
bright. It seemed obvious how she got here. The only way to get to this part of
the trail was to hike up.
    His face
tightened briefly. “I see.” He turned, looked into the woods. “So you've been
coming here for a while?”
    “Yeah. After my dad…” She broke off, tried again. “It's peaceful. No one bothers me
here.” She looked at him accusingly.
    “What
happened with your father?” He rubbed the thumb of his right hand against his
palm.
    Sienna
fought to keep her eyes on his face. His jeans are too damn tight, she thought.
She looked up to find him observing her with amusement. Her face burned.
    “He left
my mom when I was eighteen. We don't talk,” she said.
    The
sympathy that chased across his face shocked her. Who was he to care? How could
he possibly understand, anyway?
    “I'm
sorry for your loss,” he said quietly. Then, “How old are you?”
    She
huffed. “Don't you know it's impolite to ask a woman's age? How old are you ?”
    He
grinned. “Old.”
    She
laughed, even as she berated herself for hanging around, talking to him. “Oh
please, you can't be any older than I am. I don't see a single grey hair.”
    “So how
old are you?” He put his hands on his hips, challenging her.
    “Twenty-eight.” She waited for the look of disbelief to cross his face,
the usual response when guys found out how old she was. She looked eighteen,
courtesy of the weird genetics inherited from her mother. The
same genetics that left her feeling out of place practically everywhere. She waited for it, but he didn't say a word. Instead, he took her hand and
gracefully bent over it, kissing the skin on the back of her hand. What the
hell was he doing? She gasped as a tingle ran through her. She jerked her
fingers out of his grasp.
    “What the
hell?” she asked, disconcerted.
    He didn't
react. Just let his hand fall to his side, as if her question was