Forbidden (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

you?”
    “ Of course not. Why would you think that?” She impatiently brushed the hair out of her eyes. “I don’t make people do things they don’t want to do.”
    Tom’s expression suggested he thought otherwise, but relief slumped his shoulders. Snow White was chagrined and disappointed at the same time – she wasn’t that bad, was she? But there was no time to waste.
    She clapped her hand on Tom’s shoulder and said solemnly, “You’ve been a good friend, Tom.”
    To her surprise, he hugged her fiercely. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as she thought it would be – his warmth pressing her entire torso, his hair in his mouth and his earthy, unwashed-for-a-night scent in her nostrils. In fact, it was oddly comforting. She hesitantly put her own arms around Tom.
    “ No,” he said in a muffled voice. “You’ve been a good friend, but I never realized it till now.” When they came apart, tears brimmed in his eyes.
    Snow White was at a loss as to how to behave next, so she just nodded awkwardly, staring down at her feet.
    “ I’ve got to be going,” she finally said.
    Tom wiped his eyes. “I know. Don’t you want to say goodbye to my Mam?”
    “ I don’t think it’s safe.”
    He nodded. “Is there anything you’d like me to tell her for you?”
    Snow White was at a loss. Then she allowed images and memories of Hanna Cherry to flood back – the pillow-like cushions of her arms, the milk smell of her bosom, the aroma of freshly baked bread in her hair, the tuneful lullabies from the foot of a warm bed. Snow White’s eyes moistened.
    “ Tell her, just tell her . . . I’m sorry for being such a pain.”
    “ You can do better than that. She loved you. More than the rest of us put together, I think.” Tom’s voice was fierce.
    Snow White shook her head. “I’m not so good at expressing myself, so . . . just tell her.”
    Tom sighed. “All right. Wherever you’re going, I hope you’ll find someone to love you as much as she did.”
    Snow White felt a little guilty as they made for the stables, but the words just wouldn’t come to her throat. She saddled her mare while Tom scrounged to fill a saddlebag.
    “ You’ll be needing food, water, a knife, a tinderbox. And what if the nights get cold?”
    “ Oh, Tom, it’s no different from an entomology expedition and I’ve been on plenty of those. Why, just the other month – ”
    A shadow fell across the doorway.
    Wolfsbane’s muscular bulk blocked the doorway. “Ah. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

CHAPTER THREE
     
    I’m a fool, I’m a fool, I’m a fool , Snow White repeated to herself as she rode her mare, Coleoptera. A sack larger than her torso was slung across Coleoptera’s withers, filled with bug examination paraphernalia: a magnifying glass, a sketchpad, a net, and various other instruments. She should have made a run for it while she had the chance, but the thought of Wolfsbane breaking Tom’s neck paralyzed her.
    Surreptitiously, she eyed Wolfbane’s large hands – hands which were equally capable of snapping a woman’s waist and pleasuring her stepmother, perhaps simultaneously. Would his palms be callused when he molded their contours around her throat? Or would he use the large hunting knife that swung in its leather sheath, tethered to his waist by a belt?
    The day was breezy and the sun floated above glorious pink clouds, enough to warm the hardest of hearts. But Snow White’s heart pounded with every clop of Coleoptera’s hooves. Alone with her assassin, riding deeper into the Enchanted Forest like a lamb to the slaughter. She wanted to bang her head against the onrushing trees. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
    She had started out with the best of intentions.
    “Your stepmother, the Queen, has asked a boon from you,” Wolfsbane said in the stable. He was flanked by two stone-faced guards in livery. “There’s a new species of bug spotted in the Enchanted Forest by the gamekeepers. She wants you to capture one and