Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page B

a second away from losing
my mind, and I don’t think you want to be dealing with a hysterical female
right now.”
    “I really don’t care.” He brought his gaze up to meet hers,
his expression indifferent. “Yell, scream, and cry— whatever you need to do. No
one will hear you all the way out here. It’s just the two of us.”
    She blew out a breath. She’d just about exhausted her
options here. “Are you trying to scare me?”
    He lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug. “Maybe.”
    She was scared, but she was also getting angry. She
had a feeling he was toying with her, taunting her to purposely get her upset.
He was taking some kind of sick pleasure in her confusion. She wished she had
something around to hit him with. She didn’t dare use her hand—the man looked
so solid she’d probably break her knuckles.
    “Tell me something,” he said. “What’s the fascination you
humans have with vampires?”
    She raised an eyebrow. “What does it matter to you?”
    “Watching everything being done wrong is getting a little
old. I can’t believe anyone would actually want that kind of a job.”
    “Look, buddy, I needed that job. It doesn’t really matter
why I did it, just that I was good at it.”
    The corner of his mouth rose in a half-smile. “That’s not
quite the word I’d use to describe your performance.”
    She sucked in a harsh breath, fisting her hands at her sides
before she did something irrational like attempt to break his nose. “I had to
do what I was told. That was the nature of the job.”
    He laughed. “And I’m sure someone held you at gun point,
forcing you to dress in next to nothing and run around like a brainless sexpot.”
    “Oh, and what would you have liked me to do, continue living
in a rat-infested studio apartment, waiting tables at a trashy bar to pay the
bills?” She’d done that for a long time before she got a break. She wasn’t
about to give in to some psycho with delusions. “The Midnight series was the
best thing that ever happened to me.”
    This was just crazy. She’d heard some horror stories about
stalkers before, but this beat them all hands down. It was her own fault for
opening the door and inviting him to take over her life, but in the end it
wouldn’t have mattered. He would have found another way in. He didn’t seem like
the type to give up easily.
    Vampires were fictional. If she kept repeating that,
maybe she’d be able to ignore the fangs that protruded from between his lips
and the hungry gleam in his eyes she doubted had anything to do with food.
    “Marco?” Her voice was more of a whisper than the forceful
command she’d intended.
    He raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
    “You don’t actually drink blood, do you?”
    He smiled slowly. “Do you want to find out?”

Chapter Four
     
    She shook her head. “ No! ”
    Marco did something unexpected. He burst out laughing. “You
look like you’re going to pass out again. Please don’t do that. It was bad
enough the first time.”
    Indignation rose in her, sharp and fast. She wasn’t some
sissy girl who couldn’t handle herself when things got a little rough. “I did
not pass out. I…I was faking it.”
    “Not at first, you weren’t.”
    No, she hadn’t been. But what did he expect? Getting kidnapped
by an escaped mental patient with a vampire fixation wasn’t exactly an everyday
occurrence. “Yes, I was. And stop laughing at me.”
    “I’ll stop laughing when you stop acting like a fool. I’m
not going to hurt you. I told you that before.”
    “Much.”
    “What?” His expression was confused.
    “Much,” she repeated. “You said you weren’t going to hurt me
much.”
    “Did I?” He shook his head, his eyes clouding over. He
looked mildly alarmed for all of five seconds before the smile was back. “I
guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”
    His smile widened and she noticed the fangs had gone away.
    “How did you do that?”
    “Do what?” He leaned against the