Demon Crossings Read Online Free PDF Page A

and she rolled hers. Crazy and too stupid to be wandering around. Twenty bucks said there were no bullets in her gun when she left the house. “I mean…is it, you know, fresh from a cow?”
    “It’s from a dairy nearby. Organic but they pasteurize.” He smiled. “It’s safe. And that wasn’t a stupid question. Sometimes I have goat milk.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Good God. Why?”
    “Jill brings it over. Dr. Greene’s wife. There’s a health reason but I never remember what it is.”
    She held out her mug. He poured some for her then turned to put it away. He truly was a pleasure to watch, every motion neat and economical, graceful almost. He wasn’t much taller than she was which surprised her. Last night, he’d seemed larger than life.
    Turning his hips, he leaned back against the counter, took a sip of his coffee and watched her over the rim of his cup. His gray eyes were startlingly pale against his tanned skin. She was suddenly painfully aware of how awful she must look. Her hair pulled back from her face and that bandage covering most of her forehead. She’d used makeup to cover the bruising under her eyes but she imagined she still looked like animated road kill. Which was probably why he’d positioned himself as far away from her as he could get in the small kitchen. His polite reserve made her a little uncomfortable. Men usually found her charming. At least, they found the cleavage, short skirt and heels combination charming. Aiden’s eyes hadn’t left her face and it was throwing her off. She cleared her throat.
    “Can I pay you? For the tow or the room or the doctor? I should leave my information so he can bill me.”
    “I won’t take your money and neither will Alan.”
    “But…he’s a doctor.”
    Aiden’s mouth twisted with wry humor. “He’s also a friend.”
    “I’m not his friend. Or yours,” she said then flushed. “I mean—”
    “I know what you mean. You’re making this a bigger deal than it needs to be. I was happy to help. It was the right thing to do. Anyone would have done the same.”
    “Not anyone.”
    “Anyone around here would have.”
    She didn’t believe that either but thought he might. He was so serious. Quaint and sweetly old-fashioned like the kitchen they were standing in. Grace couldn’t help teasing him. She wanted to crack his shell, to see some sign that he recognized she was a woman. So she cocked her head to one side and gave him the smile that never failed her. “And you always do the right thing, Aiden?”
    The mug paused halfway to his lips and he lowered it without taking a drink. “Not always.”
    The way he said it made her shiver in all the wrong places and she realized her mistake. Aiden hadn’t been keeping his distance because he wasn’t interested. He’d kept his distance from some outmoded standard of decency. Like last night when he’d tried to find her another place to stay so she wouldn’t be uncomfortable alone with a strange man. And she’d sent him a clear invitation that she was interested in much more. When she looked at his face, she saw desire there, leashed. He let her see that—his desire and his control—and waited for her to make a decision on whether to take it further.
    She was tempted. God, he was tempting, standing an arm’s length away in his worn jeans, with his sweat-darkened hair, craggy face and intense eyes. Too intense. She drew back and looked away. He didn’t seem offended, just lifted his coffee cup and took another sip and the moment was gone. So quick she might have imagined it.
    “But you do,” he said, with a touch of regret.
    She smiled. “I’m not much of a rule-breaker.”
    “Sometimes it’s worth it to break a few rules.”
    “Sometimes rules are there to keep people from getting hurt.”
    He nodded and set his mug in the sink. “Well, I checked the car over again this morning and it should be fine. You might want to stop before it gets dark though. One of the headlights is