Convicted (Entangled Ignite) Read Online Free PDF Page B

lurching.
    Steps. He half slid, half fell down them, landing hard on his knees. He didn’t notice any pain, his fingers digging into the dry grass and dirt as his stomach emptied violently. Shame tried to push its way into him, but instead it was drowned out by the relief of gulping in a lungful of blessed air. Then another and another.
    But the burning in his lungs didn’t stop. The pressure wasn’t gone. It was worse. Fuck, he could taste the air but it wasn’t coming through. It wasn’t—
    “Shhh, slow down.”
    A new voice. Not Shana. Someone else. Husky. Low. Feminine. Familiar . Hands on his back. Touching him firmly. Wrapping around his torso and holding him tight.
    “You’re panicking,” the voice informed him calmly. Not gentle. Just…calm. Brooking no argument. “The air is here, you’re hyperventilating. Slow down and you can get it. One at a time. In,” she commanded.
    Maybe it was too many years in the Marines, but he responded to that directive. His body did what she said without any thought from him.
    “Out, slow.”
    He did it, relieved to feel the pressure give the tiniest bit. Over and over again, she spoke and he listened. Chaining one breath to the next. It felt like forever, but she eventually led him back to a safe pattern. His vision broadened bit by bit, until he could see the ground he knelt on. The sick he still hovered over. Until the pressure all over his body gave and the jerking slowed to a random twitch. Still, she held on. Anchored him.
    He couldn’t see her, but he could feel her warmth. The press of breasts, her body, to his back. Smell the leather she still wore, her soft perfume. Feminine, but not flowery. Dark hair fell over his shoulder, thick and lustrous. Silk on his cheek. He had the immediate inclination to touch it, rub the satiny gleam between his fingers. Most of all, he could feel her strength.
    She wasn’t small. Not like Shana, who couldn’t have wrapped her arms around him like this if she tried. This woman’s arms held him tight, her lean muscles long and firm. It couldn’t have been easy, grasping him this way for so long, but she didn’t seem any worse for the wear and she didn’t let go until he patted her hand and nodded for her to do it.
    Slowly, giving him time to change his mind, the last of the pressure on his body faded and her touch disappeared.
    He wanted it back instantly.
    The panic gone, and now her support as well, he felt as if someone had just turned his entire body into jelly. Weak, sweat dripping all over, he fell backward into a slump against the concrete steps. It wasn’t the first time he had to be grateful for a rock to lean against and as his temples throbbed, he had to remind himself that it probably wouldn’t be the last.
    He closed his eyes, giving in for a few precious seconds to the exhaustion. Just a few, because he knew when he opened his eyes, reality would seep back in. Humiliation. He no longer had adrenaline and panic clouding his thoughts. He knew exactly where he was. Who had helped him back from an edge that had felt like death but never was.
    Katrina Killian.
    So she was one of the kind strangers after all. Why else would she be here, in Carter’s house, if she wasn’t someone he trusted?
    Cade looked up, unable—unwilling?—to put off the inevitable any longer. The sight of her punched him in the gut almost as hard as the panic attack.
    Blue eyes, dark and sensuous, stared back at him, watchful and devoid of the playfulness from earlier. He took in the heart-shape of her face, the full pink lips, and the skin touched with the gold of sun and health. That tiny mole kissed the corner of her left eye, catching his attention the moment she blinked. The face of an angel, he thought, though he was sure he’d given up believing in such things long ago.
    “What are you doing here?” His voice sounded strangled even to him, but the gravel in it didn’t hide his confusion.
    She smiled. A slow spreading of her lips