Of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Read Online Free PDF

deep breath. “Someone I … love … very much,” she inwardly cursed as she felt actual — not manufactured — tears rise to her eyes, “is being threatened, and I have to help.”
    • • •
    She’s telling the truth, the Voice whispered. Jericho had to stop himself from nodding. Yeah, that was the feeling he was getting, too. Those tears weren’t faked. She seemed embarrassed by them.
    Someone she loved very much? A man? Jericho rubbed the ache in his chest. God, that thought hurt . The heat from her body was drawing him in as though it had its own gravitational pull. Sitting so close to her had been a mistake. He’d just been trying to put her at ease. Instead, he’d placed himself within touching distance, and damn , he wanted to touch. Did her hair feel as silky as it looked? What would it smell like if he buried his face in it?
    It had been eight years since he’d touched a woman — eight years since Emily had died — and in all of that time, he’d never once looked in the direction of another woman. Emily had been the first woman he’d ever been with, and any desire for sex had died with his mate. Now he was feeling the strain of eight celibate years. His hands where they rested on his knees were shaking.
    He was surprised and relieved that his attraction to Dahlia didn’t feel like a betrayal. Despite what the others at the facility had told Jericho about Dahlia, she was now his mate. The Voice would not have chosen anyone less-than-perfect for him, just as Emily had been. His first mate had been an amazing, generous, understanding woman. And she would want Jericho to be happy.
    “Jericho, please,” Dahlia said, drawing him from his thoughts. “I know it’s a lot to ask. You don’t even know me. But I promise you, I won’t be able to live with myself if anything happens to — ” She stopped abruptly, and Jericho saw her shrug in the dark. Apparently, there was no more to say on the matter.
    Jericho knew exactly how she felt. Not being able to live with himself had been the status quo since Emily’s death. How many times had he relived their short lives together? Emily’s death had been his fault. He had gotten her pregnant. It had been his baby that had drained the life from her, stealing her away from him in an impossibly short span of days. If only they had known that the fruit was what would kill her. And what could have saved her. Jericho’s baby, strong from his immortal father, had taken more than Emily’s body could afford as it grew. If they had known that would happen, they could have given her the fruit as well, and Jericho’s life would not be hell right now. He’d have Emily. He’d have an eight-year-old child.
    He’d have everything.
    He heard a noise from Dahlia’s side of the closet, and when he refocused, it was to find her face a hair’s breadth from his own. He felt his mouth open slightly and heard his breath start to come more quickly. Maybe he could have everything. This time. Dahlia had eaten the fruit. If they ever started a family, his babies wouldn’t kill her.
    He got instantly drunk on the idea. His mate. His children. Oh, God, he wanted that.
    He noticed dimly that Dahlia’s breathing had sped up, too. He stopped thinking and just let the feeling of being close to her take him over. His eyes rolled back into his head. His fists unclenched and reached toward her.
    “Please, Jericho,” she whispered. The words blew across his lips. “I need your help.”
    And then she closed the remaining distance between them. He groaned aloud as her lips brushed his. His arms came up and dragged her to him, crushing her breasts against his chest as he pulled her into his lap. He felt the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ready its verdict on her, and he prepared to ignore it. He already knew what it would say.
    It rose up in his brain and breathed its answer throughout his soul: EVIL .

Chapter Five
    Jericho shoved Dahlia away, and she landed in