Savage (Daughters of the Jaguar) Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes only. It looked like beautiful women circling and dancing to slow music, trying to lure me into their arms. I felt good. I felt relaxed and happy. Everything was going to be great here. I just knew it.
    “So are you going to play for us on that thing or what?” Danielle asked. She and Mike were in each other’s arms. I raised my head and looked at them. I felt a smile on my face. I had no idea where it came from. Then I grabbed my guitar and sat with it in my lap. How I loved this instrument that had brought me through so many sleepless nights of thinking about my mother. How I adored the woman that had held it between her soft hands before I did.
    “Don’t be sad, Chris,” Heather said, stroking my hand gently.
    I looked into her spectacular green eyes in the light from the flashlight. Her cheeks were blushing from the wine. Then I leaned over and kissed her cheek carefully. She was startled, I could tell, but she didn’t dislike it. Then she laughed and so did I. We laughed the laughter of a high person or a mad man—the kind of laughter that doesn’t stop and has no cause or trigger other than maybe a funny word or a look from someone.
    “I don’t even think he knows how to play that thing,” Jim muttered and caused us to laugh even harder. Mike and Danielle sensed nothing since they were all tangled in each other’s kisses and had only eyes for one another.
    Once the laughter had worn off I finally managed to start playing. Tears were still rolling down my cheeks as my fingers danced on the strings. Notes floated out of my mouth like water from a fountain and my music temporarily drowned the many sounds of the surrounding forest and swamp. Regina and Heather looked at me with their heads slightly tilted, smiles on their faces while Jim had turned his back on me. He obviously hadn’t expected me to actually be able to play. I sang one of my own songs and received a huge applause from the girls once I was done. Even Mike and Danielle had stopped to listen to me sing and applauded me afterwards. My music did that to people, I have been told on several occasions. It touched their hearts.
    The only one whose heart seemed unwinnable was Jim. As the rest of them encouraged me to keep playing another song, Jim got up and started walking towards the river with his beer in his hand.
    “Come on Chris, just one more,” Heather said.
    I shook my head and put the guitar down. I saw Jim empty his bottle and throw it in the water.
    “What’s the deal with you two?” I asked Heather.
    “We dated for awhile, but it was nothing. Really.”
    “That doesn’t look like nothing to me,” I said and looked in Jim’s direction. “I don’t want to come in between something here.”
    She smiled and stroked my hand again. Then she leaned over and kissed my cheek as gently as I had hers. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “He is not important.”
    I looked into her eyes and felt indecisive. Heather was beautiful and I was certainly attracted to her. But she was also the daughter of the people with whom I lived, who had taken me in and were taking care of me. If I broke her heart I would ruin everything. If I let this go any further I knew I would be in over my head. On the other hand I was certain that she would soon grow tired of me. Right now I was the new and interesting guy, the sensitive European Pretty Boy as she called me. But that wouldn’t last long. I figured she would grow tired of me very quickly once she realized that I was a pretty normal guy and even boring at times. I knew her type well. Heather was the kind of girl that owned things and threw them away once she was tired of playing with them. I was nothing but a new toy.
    Heather grabbed my hand and held on to it as Jim came back with a defeated look on his face. Then he sat down next to Regina while I let the joint and alcohol that was rushing in my veins like a river, take over my decision making. I leaned over and grabbed her neck and pulled