DarkInnocence Read Online Free PDF Page A

shoved it in my pocket.
    “When did you turn into such a slut?”
    His words cut through me. He was right, damn it. Now that I
was sober, the truth hurt. Pain started in my belly and moved up my torso to
squeeze my heart. Then the anger hit me. I spun on my heel and found Eli
directly in front of me. He was close enough that I had to crane my head back
in order to give him my full death glare. “What did you just say to me?”
    Eli was one of few people outside of my immediate family who
knew about my eidetic memory, so we were both aware I knew exactly what he’d
said.
    He shook his head and the fire brightening his eyes dimmed.
“I shouldn’t have said that, I’m sorry.” He lifted his hand and cupped my cheek
in his large palm. His voice dropped to just above a whisper. “This isn’t you,
Hannah.”
    I slapped his caress away. “And you aren’t you.”
    He cupped my hip. Heat melted through the fabric of my coat
and it almost felt like he was touching me skin to skin. He pulled me into his
body. Before I could protest, his soft, full mouth was moving against mine. I
gasped. Eli took advantage and swept his tongue inside my mouth with the same
dominance he’d shown the last time he’d kissed me.
    For one split second, I was tempted to give in to him. To
lose myself in his arms. To unbutton my coat and guide his hand between my
thighs. Maybe with Eli I’d actually like it. Maybe I’d even have an orgasm,
something no one had ever given me. Then I remembered the woman and what they’d
been doing less than ten minutes ago. I shoved him away and wiped my mouth,
hoping to hell his tongue hadn’t been in her vagina.
    “Don’t do that again.” I scooted out from between my dresser
and his body. Faster than should be possible in three-inch heels I grabbed my
stuff and fled. Eli didn’t follow.
    I took out my phone from my purse as I exited the house via
the kitchen door. I bypassed the ten missed calls I had, most from Mr.
Restricted, one from my uncle Roy, and hit a familiar number. He picked up on
the fifth ring, sounding out of breath.
    “I was starting to think you were avoiding me,” he panted.
    Surely Dante wouldn’t pick up if he was having sex. Right?
“Um.” I fumbled for a moment and struggled to juggle the phone and the steering
wheel.
    His deep chuckle drifted through the phone and straight
between my thighs. “I haven’t heard your sweet voice in three days and all I
get is an ‘um’? You speak more than a dozen languages fluently. You can do
better than that.”
    I drew in a deep breath. “I wasn’t avoiding you.” I was so
avoiding him. “Just getting my shit together. Are you at home?”
    “Yup. You caught me in the middle of working out. I’ve got a
shift at the Vault in about three hours.”
    Most men who were bouncers went to a bar or a nightclub. Not
my lion. The Vault, a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels and rooms, was a
dimension of hell. It was also a refuge for benign demons who wanted to live in
peace.
    “I get crap cell reception in the house, did I lose you
sweetheart?” he asked.
    It was now or never. Sweat made my palms slick. “I’m here.
Can I, ah, come over?”
    “Sure. I’ll finish up and jump in the shower. The door will
be unlocked, just come in and make yourself at home. We can have dinner
together.”
    We said our goodbyes and I pulled onto the highway that cut
through a forest of evergreen trees. The twenty-minute drive to Dante’s house
felt as if it took hours. My skin crawled with anxiety and anticipation the
closer I got. I parked behind his truck and shut off the engine. I withdrew the
medicine bottle from my pocket, stared at the little evil pills through the see-through
plastic and thought about popping two.
    No. This, whatever was about to happen, was something I
wanted to feel.
    I shoved the bottle into my backpack and got out of the car.
My heels clicked over the concrete driveway and for some reason I got this
image in my head of a hammer