Embracing Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page A

explained the irregular scars away as a childhood accident.
    Trust. Treacherous, but necessary. He had to believe everything about her, down to the last detail. Shifting uneasily, she gave him a level look. In for a penny, in for a pound.
    “I’m a cutter.” Her voice quavered, but she quickly gained control. “Or rather, I was. When I was a teenager.”
    Warm hands touched her hips, holding her still and steady. Beneath his touch, her skin raised into goose bumps. “What happened to make you do that?”
    Callie shivered. Her stomach felt as if thousands of snakes writhed inside and her palms felt clammy. Her life hadn’t been easy or pleasant. What do you do when the state sends you to a foster home, and your foster father finds you more attractive than his wife sleeping down the hall?
    You close your eyes and endure .
    Racked by insomnia, fearing the man who would come and use her body in ways she didn’t then understand, Callie had turned to the only solution she knew to vent her fear and frustration.
    “What can I say? I was a fucked-up kid.” She struggled to get the words out. Shuffled in through the foster care system since her third birthday, Callie had never known the security of a stable home, much less a family who loved her—or wanted her.
    A muscle at the corner of his lower jaw jumped. “I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t be.” Her hands were shaking cold. The past was the past. Her intensity was out of place, leaving her too exposed. “When I was a teenager, I cut a little, drank a little, and fucked a lot. It was a fetish. I’m over it now.”
    “Let’s see if you are.” He reached for her hand.
    Dismayed, Callie resisted. She felt nauseated. “Don’t take me there.” Muscles tense, she stood, waiting.
    “I know the darkness inside you.” Succeeding in the capture, he raised her inner wrist to his mouth. Moist warmth spread across her chilled skin.
    She closed her eyes, heart skipping at the sheer primitive power of his lips on her skin. Her brain was totally paralyzed, trapped by his utterly sensual acceptance.
    Another warm, slow, wet stroke went straight to the center of her pulsing clit. The delicious skim of his tongue was followed by the scrape of his teeth. His move—sexy, amazing, enticing—gripped her fractured senses.
    “Harder,” she gasped.
    He obliged. More scraping. More sucking. More bliss.
    Dimly aware of the sensations pooling between her legs, a fierce shudder knotted her muscles. Body aching and straining with a need too long unfulfilled, she imagined his cock sinking inside her, stretching her until the last inch filled her.
    Another long stroke of his lips on her wrist sent her over the edge. Body going rigid, Callie climaxed. A groan vibrated through her as her inner muscles clenched tighter and tighter. Her legs trembled. Unable to support her weight any longer, she collapsed.
    Iollan caught her before she fell. Only dimly aware of what he was doing, Callie felt herself swept up into his arms as he carried her somewhere…toward the bedroom? As shadows closed in, Callie felt the softness of a mattress beneath her back.
    Forcing heavy eyelids open, Callie raised her head. Silhouetted by the light emanating from the living room, he looked ethereal and mysterious. Only the sound of ragged breathing betrayed his presence. He stood by the bed, unmoving. Though she couldn’t see his face, she felt his gaze through the darkness.
    She smiled, patting the empty space beside her. “Little lonely here.”
    “You won’t be for long.” Unbuttoning his shirt, he slid it off his broad shoulders and tossed it aside. The mattress sank under his weight as he stretched out beside her. Body to body, she felt the swell of his cock pressed against her thigh. His erection strained to escape its cruel prison, and he was so close she smelled the heated vibrations emanating off his body.
    Aware of her own nakedness, she hinted. “You’re still a little overdressed.” Having him so near,