Mated Read Online Free PDF Page A

took a bite.
    “This is actually really good.”
    His mouth quirked on one side, revealing an unexpected dimple. “Told you. It’s all about the seasoning and not overcooking it until it’s shoe leather.”
    He didn’t seem to be eating much himself. A sudden stray thought slid into her mind. Did he put something in my food? She berated herself silently for being so paranoid. Why would he need to? He had her locked up with no hope of escape, and it wasn’t like she could overpower him. Maybe he was drugging her so she wouldn’t kill him in his sleep.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing,” she said, taking smaller bites.
    “No, something’s wrong. Is it the food?”
    “It’s nothing.” It probably was nothing. She didn’t feel funny. Well, she felt different, but that was from eating a decent meal. She tried to change the subject. “Why aren’t you eating?”
    He looked at the plate of barely touched steak. “I prefer my meat raw, but I didn’t want to gross you out. I’ll hunt later.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at her, and she dropped her gaze back to her plate, unable to take his intense stare any longer. “You thought I put something in your food.”
    She shrugged, embarrassed now. “What are you going to do with me?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Are you going to hurt me?”
    He stood and paced. “Did you not hear me tell Anthony I don’t abuse women?”
    She mumbled, “Just because you said it to Anthony doesn’t mean it’s true.”
    “Fair enough. But have I given you any reason to think I’m going to start beating on you or cutting you or anything else?”
    “No.”
    “Okay.”
    She was silent for a few minutes, “Do I have to sleep with you? N-not that that would be horrible if you weren’t hurting me or if you didn’t share me with anyone.”
    His jaw clenched. “Ask me again why I’m not sending you back there.”
    She looked at him expectantly.
    “No! Rape is abuse. See earlier statement. And even if I would sink so low, you don’t know werewolves as well as you think if you think we share. I’ll sleep on the couch. You can have the bed.”
    He left her alone in the kitchen then. She was mortified by how the discussion must have sounded to him. How she must have looked. She wanted to believe she was safe here, but it seemed highly unlikely he’d just blow in and rescue her. She replayed the scene from earlier in the evening.
    When they’d first seen each other in the bar, he’d given her a look. What was it? Interest? Curiosity? Was it sexual? She couldn't remember. The second she’d recognized him from his photo she’d looked away.
    Why would he take her instead of ten thousand dollars? Especially when he said he wasn’t going to use her to pay off the debt. She took her plate to the sink and rinsed it off. Cole’s steak sat barely touched. She went through the cabinets until she found some plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. Then she finished straightening the kitchen.
    “You don’t have to do that.”
    She looked up to see him standing in the doorway. He’d changed into a pair of pajama pants. Cole didn’t strike her as a pajama-pant-wearing kind of guy.
    “Well, what else am I supposed to do? How many years of housework will pay off Paul’s debt?”
    He growled. “You’re not a slave.”
    “Then why am I here? Why take me instead of the money?”
    He ran a hand through his hair. It seemed to be something of a nervous tic with him, not that she could throw stones about nervous tics.
    “I knew I’d never see that money. If I hadn’t taken you, he would have whored you out for it. I would have felt responsible. I couldn’t have taken money like that, even assuming I could intercept it before he gambled it away. And now I can’t let you go because you’d just go back to him. Abused women always do.”
    Jane shook her head. “It’s not a matter of going back. It’s a matter of him not letting me out of his sight. He’d hunt me. And anyway, if it