Lover Eternal: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Read Online Free PDF Page B

     
His eyes met hers steadily.
     
"I believe you." Except what did she do now? The hotline prohibited contact with callers.
     
Yeah, well, she wasn't about to kick the poor kid off her property.
     
"You want something to eat?"
     
He shook his head. Maybe I could just sit with you awhile? I'll stay on the other side of the pool .
     
As if he were used to people telling him to get away from them.
     
"No," she said. He nodded once and turned away. "I mean, sit down here. Next to me."
    He came at her slowly, as if expecting her to change her mind. When all she did was sit down and put her feet back in the pool, he took off a pair of ratty sneakers, rolled up his baggy pants, and picked a spot about three feet from her.
God, he was so small.
     
He slipped his feet in the water and smiled.
     
It's cold , he signed.
     
"You want a sweater?"
     
He shook his head and moved his feet in circles.
     
"What's your name?"
     
John Matthew.
     
Mary smiled, thinking they had something in common. 'Two New Testament prophets."
     
The nuns gave it to me.
     
"Nuns?" There was a long pause, as if he were debating what to tell her.
     
"You were in an orphanage?" she prompted gently. She recalled that there was still one in town, run by Our Lady of Mercy.
     
I was born in a bathroom stall in a bus station. The janitor who found me took me to Our Lady. The nuns thought up the name.
     
She kept her wince to herself. "Ah, where do you live now? Were you adopted?'
     
He shook his head.
     
"Foster parents?" Please, God, let there be foster parents. Nice foster parents. Who kept him warm and fed. Good people who told him he mattered even if his parents had deserted him.
     
When he didn't reply, she eyed his old clothes, and the older expression on his face. He didn't look as if he'd known a lot of nice.
     
Finally, his hands moved. My place is on Tenth Street .
     
Which meant he was either a poacher living in a condemned building or a tenant in a rat-infested hovel. How he managed to be so clean was a miracle.
     
"You live around the hotline's offices, don't you? Which was how you knew I was on this evening even though it wasn't my shift."
    He nodded. My apartment is across the street. I watch you come and go, but not in a sneaky way. I guess I think of you as a friend. When I called the first time… you know, it was on a whim or something. You answered __ and I liked the way your voice sounded .
He had beautiful hands, she thought. Like a girl's. Graceful. Delicate.
     
"And you followed me home tonight?"
    Pretty much every night. I have a bike, and you're a slow driver. 1 figure if I watch over you, you'll be safer. You stay so late, and that's not a good part of town for a woman to be alone in. Even if she's in a car.
    Mary shook her head, thinking he was an odd one. He looked like a child, but his words were those of a man. And all things considered, she probably should be creeped out. This kid latching on to her, thinking he was some kind of protector even though it looked as if he were the one who needed to be rescued.
Tell me why you were crying just now , he signed.
     
His eyes were very direct, and it was eerie to have an adult male stare anchored by a child's face.
     
"Because I might be out of time," she blurted.
    "Mary? Are you up for a visit?" Mary looked over her right shoulder. Bella, her only neighbor, had walked across the two acre meadow that ran between their properties and was standing on the edge of the lawn.
"Hey, Bella. Ah, come meet John."
    Bella glided up to the pool. The woman had moved into the big old farmhouse a year ago and they'd taken to talking at night. At six feet tall, and with a mane of dark waves that fell to the small of her back, Bella was a total knockout. Her face was so beautiful it had taken Mary months to stop staring, and the woman's body was right off the cover of Sports lllustrated's swimsuit edition.
So naturally John was looking awestruck.
    Mary wondered idly what it would be