Crave the Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

him.
I must be
mad
.
    She looked up, seeing the same uninvited
interest in the set of his mouth. His nostrils flared slightly, as
if he were catching and memorizing her scent.
    The moment stretched on and on. They were
enemies and yet he’d reached out. That deserved a response.
    If only she could give one. She lowered her
gaze, staring at the toes of her shoes. When she spoke, her voice
was listless, almost sad. “My business isn’t yours, wolf, but I
thank you for asking.”
    Imagery flickered through her mind, a
montage of her childhood: Gilden Woods, rolling in the grass with
her sisters, the snow on their house the year the elk nearly walked
right through the front door.
    She blinked, and she was back in the cold
basement of the white-on-white prison that magic built. She was
here because she was in a fight to the death—and not just for
herself.
    Now there was pity in the wolf’s eyes.
Somehow he’d caught a glimpse of the real battle.
    Lila grabbed for her defenses, pulling them
around her like a protective blanket. Maybe pity was the key to
winning Rafe Devries over. With a sad story and some hand-wringing,
maybe she could get him to convince his Pack to sell after all.
    A wave of nausea caught the back of
her throat.
How low are you going to
stoop before this is over? Who is the real beast here?
    She turned and strode away before he saw her
cry.

Chapter Four
    Lila hurried back upstairs, but not to her
office. She slipped out the door to the poolside patio, feeling the
cool summer night through the silky fabric of her blouse. The
mountain air had the same snap as a crisp apple, bright and alive
with energy.
    It soothed away the heat of her
burning face.
How dare he?
    She wasn’t even sure what she meant by the
question. How dare he upset her? How dare he resist? How dare he be
justified in objecting to absolutely everything she was doing?
    Maybe, how dare he be so damned
appealing? She’d got an eyeful of werewolf
au naturel
earlier, but he was just as good
eye-candy fully dressed. Added to that, he had that smouldering
aura of a male beast in his prime. There’d been moments when she’d
been infinitely grateful for the silver bars between them. And yet,
even when he had been wrestling her to the floor, he hadn’t hurt
her. Rafe Devries might be a beast, but he wasn’t a
brute.
    Perhaps that was her,
La Belle Dame sans Merci
.
    She kicked off her shoes and padded to
the edge of the pool. The lights from the house reflected in
ripples from the dark water, dancing in time with the breeze. She
knelt by the edge, trailing her fingers through the pools of
brightness.
I was so sure what I was
doing was right, but every day that goes by makes me doubt more and
more.
    Her vows had been hasty, made in passion.
Made in front of her entire tribe of fey. She hadn’t thought
through the consequences, but the heart she’d poured into the act
had bound her fast. Fey held their honor dear, and promises bound
them tight.
    Lila never did things half-way when her
blood was up.
    Conjure in haste, regret
at leisure
. One of her father’s favorite
lines.
    But her intent had been pure. She sank
both hands into the water, cupping them to catch the water. She
raised the bowl of her palms, letting rivulets fall between her
fingers to bubble and splash in the pool.
Show me
, she willed the water and the
moonlight.
Remind me why I do
this
.
    Magic rushed through her like bubbles
through champagne. Borrowed magic, sacrificed by her two sisters
for a year and a day because Lila had forfeited her own long
before.
    The bubbles in the water began to multiply
and seethe, taking on new colors and forming into hills and trees.
The scene grew larger as more and more of the water drained into
the image. The trees stretched and grew, rising high above Lila as
the vision filled the pool to the very edges, floating above the
rim. The deep glow of spellcraft shimmered around it, like a nimbus
of starlight. Lila leaned closer to the