Unmasked (New Adult Romance) (The Unmasked Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

foxes and other things that
made their homes in them. He was never allowed pets, not until his father died
and he got Schala and Sky, so those out in the forest were the closest thing he
had.
    And then, one day, he saw her.
    She popped out of the woods with a sack slung over
her shoulder. Preston always figured it was full of mushrooms, because
gathering mushrooms was one of his father's favorite hobbies as well, and he
always did it out in those woods, because he said it had the "right amount of
rot" and produced the tastiest specimens.
    He watched her with the binoculars, a little
confused because she was a few years younger than he – almost ten – but as
isolated as he was, it didn't feel wrong. To him, she was just another person,
and as much as he wanted anything, he wanted to talk to her, or to touch that
golden hair. But there he sat, alone, separated from the rest of the world
except what was allowed into his life through Gadsen's filter.
    Down there, picking through whatever it was, she
looked like a little beam of light. He couldn't take her eyes off her. And
then, every day after that, he always spent a few minutes watching that
particular patch of forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.
    "I pretended you saw me," he said into his empty
office. "I sat there with those binoculars, staring out the front of my house
and pretend that you waved sometimes. And then you just vanished."
    Preston reached for his ever-present stationery
pad and grabbed a pen, but then he thought better of it, and shoved it aside.
    "What on Earth are you thinking? Writing a letter
to some girl – to a woman, now – who has no idea who you are, and telling her
you watched her pick mushrooms ten years ago? I'm sure that's a wonderful way
to meet new people and all, but come on, Preston."
    He sighed and leaned back in his chair, absently
rubbing his scar. He didn't know what it was from, not exactly, because no one
ever told him. His father never addressed it at all, and Gadsen either didn't
know or refused to talk about it. Same went with his mother. Just a candle in
the wind, he thought. As soon as she was gone, that was it, no more talking
about her, except to say how she died in childbirth and that was that. He'd
long since given up asking for answers, though he never stopped wondering.
    "Alyssa Barton," he said again, the sound rolling
around in his mouth.
    A knock on the door interrupted Preston's
reminiscence.
    "Mr. Webb? Sorry to bother you again."
    "No problem, Gadsen, I was just thinking about
something. What is it?"
    "Well, I do hate to remind you of things like
this, but there's the matter of your trust that must be attended."
    "My trust? What about it?"
    "Yes, ah, well, as you know, when your father
died, he made me the interim executor of his estate, to oversee it until you
were ready to take the business."
    "And? I'm running the business, so great. Transfer
the money."
    "That's the problem. He has very specific
stipulations for what he meant by 'ready'."
    "I'm listening," he took a deep breath and let it
out in a heavy, impatient sigh. "I get the feeling you're going to say
something I don't want to hear."
    "That depends." Gadsen said. The slender butler
wrung his hands and then pinched the base of his nose again as was his habit.
    "On?"
    "Well, it depends on how much you want to be
married."
    "Are you proposing to me?" Preston plucked the
rose he'd cut off the plant earlier and held it behind him, chuckling. "It's a
bit sudden."
    "Sir, be serious."
    "Alright, alright. Married? I don't exactly know
you expect me to manage that when I can't even leave this damned compound. No
matter that I run an entire company or not. Here I sit, under house arrest,
except when you're with me."
    "It's not like that sir, it's for your protection.
You know that."
    "Protection from what exactly, Gadsen?" The
venom hissed in Preston's voice.
    "From outside. I promised your mother I would
protect you. Promised your father as well."
    "Well you've