Lustful Cravings (The Seven Sin Sisters) Read Online Free PDF Page A

experience. Damn, she couldn’t think about that now. The events to come — the Acclimation, the Pronouncement — couldn’t be denied now and she was feeling trapped, suffocated and completely out of control. Everything Layla had ever feared was coming true. She was mated and it would never end.
    After at least an hour of edging herself from the bed, Layla sat in her library . It was nearly dawn and Madden still lay soundly sleeping in her bed . Layla couldn’t believe what she had done, what it felt like, what she still felt like hours later . Nothing her mother had ever told her and her sisters had prepared Layla for the overwhelming feelings that twitched in her belly or the need that gripped her with every movement she made. Her need for Madden was consuming her thoughts. She couldn’t think of anything but being joined with him again , even after feeling so fulfilled last night.
    “Mother,” Layla whispered. Her tone was perturbed and frustration color ed the edges of her words. She knew her call worked when she saw the quick puff of smoke and the unmistakable purple swirls that coalesced into her mother’s form. Layla was just as amazed by her mother’s ability to transport as she’d been the first time she saw the translucent figure bec o me more corporeal until it melded into the solid form of her mother. Her mother’s powers were extraordinary and Layla couldn’t imagine ever being so powerful despite her mother’s continual reassurances to all her daughters.
    H er mother cast her eyes upon Layla and seemed to understand right away how upset she was .
    “Layla, why so forlorn?” Chiara asked her daughter.
    “Mother, don’t you know?” Layla fought to keep her voice steady as she talked , but now that her mother was so close, she wanted her mother to h o ld her like a c hild again . She wanted to cry into her mother’s shoulder as her arms kept her safe from the world. But what might her mother think? Instead , Layla bowed her head and pulled a springy lock of her long hair across her cheek to block her face.
    “Just as you did as a child,” Chiara brushed the hair away from Layla’s face and placed her own hand upon Layla’s cheek. Layla leaned into her mother’s touch and a silent tear slipped out.
    “Mother…” Layla’s voice trapped in her throat by the raw emotion rolling through her. At once, she was drawn to Madden and desperately trying to hold onto her family, her innocence, and to everything she ever knew.
    “ I got news from your sisters that you’ve found your mate. Surely th at doesn’t have you in this sullen mood?” Her mother seemed confused. Heck, Layla was just as confused. She should ha ve known her mother would see nothing shocking about last night’s events.
    Layla continued to sit in silence while her mother continued, “Layla, my dearest one, I know you are the youngest and likely the least interested in the prophecy, in finding a mate but you have known. You belong to the Circle of Magdalen a .”
    Layla understood the prophecy, she knew she held one of the deadly sins — some sort of curse put upon them for the indiscretions of their ancestors hundreds of years ago — and that being claimed by a Valendite Breed would render the sin gone. Fulfilling their obligation to sustain this breed of men provides the women in the Magdalena Circle a long, illness-free life.
    “Mother, please see this from my point of view. I do not love him ,” Layla emphasized her words , completely frustrated that her mother was giving her no sympathy . Then she paused, slow ed her breathing to keep her emotions in check, “Now I am mated to him . I am bonded for life, for eternity.”
    “Madden is a good man from a good family . Father and I couldn’t be more pleased for yo u when we looked into his background , my dearest one. They own a local vineyard and another in Italy still, in our homeland.”
    “I don’t care about what he does for a living, mother. There is more to