How Beauty Saved the Beast (Tales of the Underlight) Read Online Free PDF Page A

reviewed the conversation in her head and breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh.”
    “What did you think I meant?”
    Good question to ignore. “Thank you for your concern, but I’m okay with what happened yesterday.” The bombs and guns part, anyway. What did that say about her? “To be honest, that didn’t scare me nearly as badly as what happened two months ago.”
    “In the temple?” He tensed. “Did something happen after I blacked out? Something you didn’t tell me about?”
    Uh , maybe . Two months ago he’d helped her rescue her niece from a cult. The whole thing had been a cluster-fuck from start to finish—magic and secret societies and Pagan temples. Not that Pagan was bad; Hauk was Pagan (or Heathen , as he liked to remind everybody as he tugged on the silver Thor’s hammer he wore on a leather strap around his neck). But The Order of Ananke, the group behind her niece’s kidnapping as well as the brain-dead Atropos guys from the slaughterhouse, was full-on creepy-movie Pagan, not normal, happy-person Pagan. They’d used magic to try to turn Hauk into one of their brainless Hands of Atropos.
    Jolie had woken him up with a kiss.
    She might have neglected to mention the kissing part.
    But that event wasn’t what she was referring to. “No, not in the Temple. I mean, that was whacked out for sure, but I was referring to getting attacked backstage at the show.”
    “Ah,” he said, a sound so full of meaning, and she knew he, too, was thinking about exactly how well you could get to know a girl from the other side of thin fabric.
    She shot him a saucy smile, the kind he never gave to her in the training room.
    His façade cracked a little, just enough for a hint of proud male to show through. But it quickly broke. “I’m sorry I didn’t stay longer. See them. Stop them.”
    “Not your fault, so don’t beat yourself up.” She rubbed his shoulder and headed for the bench and her water bottle. “Besides, you got to me before they did any permanent damage.”
    The cold water felt good and tasted better. They’d already been at it for nearly an hour; it was their usual time for packing up. As if reading her mind, Hauk stowed the pads they’d used for sparring before coming to the bench to gulp down his own water. She watched his patterned skin slide up anat slide d down his throat with the motion of swallowing. Even the most mundane movements were interesting when Hauk did them.
    “I got hurt then, you know. They gave me a concussion. That’s the only time I’ve been hurt. But I don’t think that’s what scared me.”
    She didn’t know why she was telling him this. But he put his water down, wiped his mouth with the scarred back of his hand and focused on her with his steady gaze. They didn’t talk much, but when they did, Hauk was a good listener, good at making a person feel like her words were important to him.
    Maybe that’s why she told him, “Yesterday at the ambush and two months ago at the Temple, that was dangerous, sure. But I felt like I had choices, like there were things I could do. The other time, when those three guys came at me, I was backed into a corner.” She shuddered. “I can’t stand feeling helpless.” Hauk’s eyes were now full of understanding and maybe sympathy. She turned away, embarrassed. “Not that you’d know what helpless felt like.”
    “Hey,” he said, demanding her attention.
    Lips pursed tight, she faced him again.
    “You think I don’t know what helpless feels like?” He tapped the ruined skin of his cheek. “Think again.” He pointed toward a corner. “Show me what happened.”
    Her eyes widened. He wanted to re-create the attack? She wasn’t sure about that. But she also didn’t want to look like a chicken in front of him, so with a thudding pulse she marched to the corner. Hauk followed. She really didn’t want to do this. What else could she think about instead of that night? She needed a different story to concentrate on to get her