Rosko, Mandy - Mate of the Wolf (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Online Free PDF

bacon, fruits. She’d never be able to eat it all, but she was going to do her damndest to try.
    He was trying to take care of her, was being nice to her, and it annoyed her to no end. She didn’t want to soften toward him like she was doing when he was a playful wolf. He was keeping her here against her will, and he had to know that just because he brought her this wonderful, totally amazing, breakfast didn’t mean she’d forgive him.
    She pushed away the little plate of green apple slices. “I only eat Royal Gala.”
    He paused as he sat down to his own eggs. “What?”
    Shelley grabbed a syrup packet for her pancakes and peeled it open. She didn’t look at him. “I hate Granny Smith. They’re sour. Disgusting.”
    She felt rather than saw his confused blink. “Oh, well, there’s caramel to go with them if you like.”
    She slammed her hand on the table, and her juice cup jumped but didn’t spill, miraculously. She wanted him fuming. Yelling. At least that way she could yell back at him without feeling guilty. “Stop being nice! It’s irritating.”
    “Irritating?”
    “You’re kidnapping me. You’re not supposed to be nice.” Because when he was nice she was at ease around him, felt bad for going through his things and didn’t mind so much that he’d kissed her, which was another thing she should be pissed about but wasn’t.
    He opened his own breakfast box and salted his eggs with another paper packet. “Would you rather I tied you outside and left you to starve?”
    Shelley clutched her breakfast box protectively. He seemed to see it, and his lips lifted in a smirk.
    “That’s what I thought.”
    Asshole. That same helplessness from before rose inside her. “There are going to be people looking for me. I can’t stay here.”
    He paused with the tiny plastic fork in his mouth. He pulled it out, swallowed, and eyed her without making her feel threatened. “I know. I know who you are.”
    She blinked, not having expected that. “You do?” All the way out here, without a TV in sight, she didn’t think he’d recognize her.
    He nodded. “Shelley Star. I have to admit I didn’t recognize you at first, but I go into town sometimes and see your face in the gossip magazines.”
    “You do?”
    He nodded. “You never really look happy in those pictures they sneak of you. Even when you’re smiling you look like you’re,” he waved his hand, “faking it, I guess.”
    She blushed, but had to agree with him, reluctantly. “I guess.”
    The good old entertainment papers. She used to read them herself, but now she hated them. Not long after getting the starring role as both Catherine Linton and Earnshaw in the new Wuthering Heights movie did her pictures start appearing. More parts came, more money, too.
    And a lot less privacy.
    It had been a year since she’d made it with that movie. She’d once prayed to become rich and famous. Seriously prayed. Thought it would ease the stress brought on by her parents, who thought their daughter, the only blonde in a family of brunettes, so beautiful, they started putting her in pageants and working to get her parts in commercials at a very young age.
    But ever since, it had been nothing but pictures of her not wearing makeup, eating, and even that bikini shot with the close-up of the cellulite on her ass. She’d had double gym time and was on an even stricter diet than usual for that little photo.
    While her father did smile in approval more after the parts and money started coming in, there was still the hinting tone in his voice that suggested he’d wanted her to go even further.
    He wanted her to star next to Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., and Will Smith in their next romantic movies, never mind that Shelley thought they were a little old for her. Her father saw Oscars in her future and red carpets and film festivals.
    And Mindy, well, she was a good friend, sometimes, and could listen for a long time while Shelley poured out her woes, but in the end,