Driven to the Limit Read Online Free PDF Page B

stretched
out on her back on top of the spread. Her eyes were closed, and plastic buds
sat in her ears. They were connected to a tiny music player that rested on her
stomach, just below the slogan I heart Yosemite on her sleep shirt.
    Jake stood staring   at her.
    She seemed so innocent with her hair mussed around her face.
Her breasts rose and fell softly as she breathed. Even her feet looked cute
with their high arches and the pale pink polish on her toenails.
    He shut the door, walked to the bed, and sat down. That
seemed to startle her as she opened her eyes and sat up abruptly. Then, she
took a breath. “It’s you.”
    “Who else?”
    She removed the buds from her ears. “No one.”
    “What are you listening to?” he asked.
    “Music.” She moved to put the player aside.
    Jake took it from her. “Let me listen.”
    He put the buds in his ears, and she turned on the controls.
Immediately, music filled his ears. He looked up at her. “Beethoven?”
    “The Moonlight Sonata.” She shrugged. “It makes me feel
centered.”
    He removed the buds from his ears. “Beautiful music. It’s
nothing to be embarrassed about.”
    She smiled at him. “It’s kind of weird, don’t you think?”
    “Nothing about you is weird.” He stroked her chin with the
backs of his fingers. “Everything about you is perfect.”
    She laughed. “You’re biased.”
    “I’m blessed.”
    She took the player and set it onto the table next to the
candle. “You say Klaus designed you for me. How could he even know about me?”
    “No one understands Klaus but Klaus. Most people don’t even
know he’s still alive.”
    “Tell me about him.”
    How to explain Klaus? His was such a remarkable story. Many
people wouldn’t believe it, despite the obvious fact that he could create motorcycles
that could assume a human identity. “Klaus is well over one hundred years old
and has seen a great deal of evil in his time on earth,” he said.
    She crossed her arms over her chest. “That old?”
    “He’s immortal now, although he was born as human as you
were.” Jake paused to organize the facts of Klaus Mannhof’s life in his mind.
“He started out as one of the early psychoanalysts, but he never found the
theories satisfying. Especially the way they looked at women.”
    “In those days, psychoanalysis wasn’t exactly
woman-friendly,” she said.
    “Klaus had a wife and daughters he adored. He couldn’t
accept the way some of the men belittled them.”
    Her eyebrows went up. “As in Freud’s complaint ‘what do
women want’?”
    “Exactly.” He took her hand in his and toyed with her
fingers. “I hope I know what you want.”
    She laughed, but not with enjoyment. “If you figure it out,
let me know.”
    He leaned toward her. “I won’t tell you. I’ll show you.”
    “Very tempting,” she said. “But first, tell me about Klaus.”
    “Yes, well.” He kissed the tip of her nose before
straightening again. “Klaus became fascinated with the concept of Anima.”
    “I’ve read about that. That’s Jungian. The internal female
that even men have.”
    “Quite so,” he said. “But Klaus came to believe that Anima
was a real entity. Not just a concept or a part of a theory.”
    She gave him a quizzical look as if contemplating the idea.
It must take a lot for a modern human who’d been raised with her feet firmly
set in physical reality to accept the idea that a spirit like Anima could be
real. He’d heard the story from his designer and so had had no reason to doubt
it. “The more Klaus became convinced that Anima existed, the more he wanted to
meet her,” Jake continued.
    “Where would you even start looking for a creature like that?”
she asked.
    “He read as much as he could about the ancient goddess
religions. The rituals, the symbolism. He finally tracked her down to a cave in
France.”
    Her eyes got wide. “You mean, he found her?”
    “She was angry at first, but eventually, he convinced her
that he’d