Anew: Book One: Awakened Read Online Free Page A

onto the gallery, jerks. I shift in my seat, suddenly
fighting for control.
    She opens her eyes, looks
straight at me, and smiles. “More?”
    Oh, yeah, baby, definitely more.
    She gets all the steak, every
little morsel of it along with most of the cabernet that I give her in small
sips from my glass. In return, I get to watch her. That’s enough for the
moment, if only barely.
    I’ve never seen a woman do
better justice to a meal. The little sounds of delight that I don’t think she
even knows she makes are uncannily like the run up to orgasm. I’m having
trouble breathing when, with a last lick of her lips, she sighs in contentment
and sits back.
    “That was so good,” she says.
    My mind is staggering from her
natural eroticism to the fact that I’m never going to be able to look at
another steak without getting a hard on.
    “Dessert?” I ask.
    Her eyes widen as she suddenly
seems to remember herself. Staring at me, she turns red. Not a delicate blush
but the real deal that flows down her slender throat and all the way to her
breasts. Through the fabric, I can see her nipples harden.
    Apparently, I’ve pushed a button
but how exactly? Purely in the interest of scientific inquiry, I sit back and
study her.
    “A fruit tart perhaps,” I
suggest. “Filled with big, ripe raspberries brushed with apricot glaze? Or a
crème brûlée, so smooth and creamy that it slips right over the tongue and down
the throat?”
    She squirms in the chair and
shakes her head.
    Undeterred, I persevere,
grinning. “Perhaps a cannoli? Or we could share a banana split.”
    She looks so damn delicious. I
lean forward a little, holding her gaze. My voice drops a notch. “With a shiny
round cherry on top? You know the kind I mean, drenched in thick, sweet syrup?”
    That last bit seems to push her
over the edge. She breaks eye contact and takes several deep, ragged breaths.
Softly, she says, “Thank you but I’m really quite full.”
    The devil who’s sitting
comfortably in his usual perch on one of my shoulders launches a laser missile
at the angel whose got barely a toe hold on the other, effectively vaporizing
it. Not even a feather is left.
    I stand and hold out my hand. “In that case, let’s take a
walk.”

Chapter Four

    Amelia
     
    W hat is wrong with me?
I should be focused on making it clear to him that I’m not some helpless female
to be kept in ignorance and ordered about at his beck and call. Instead, I’m a slave
to my own appetites. Not only did I eat all his dinner--allowing him to feed it
to me no less--but I lied when I told him that I was full.
    A hot, churning emptiness has been growing in me since I
stepped out onto the gallery and saw him again. No food, however amazing, can
slake that.
    The memory of his fingers against my lips, the taste of him
mingling with the lightly salted flavor of the steak, threatens to overwhelm
me. I have a sudden image of myself succumbing to temptation, drawing those
fingers into my mouth and sucking on them, his amber gaze darkening as I do so.
    A tremor races through me. I am on the brink of something I
can sense but not yet understand.
    I should be focused on the matters that really concern
me--who I am, why I am there, why I was asleep for so long, not to mention what
is going to happen to me. Instead, all I am able to think of is Ian. With every
breath I take, I am acutely aware of him.
    In a desperate bid for distraction, I look around the garden
and beyond. Clouds streak the blue-black sky directly overhead. A storm is
moving in but I can still see the silver arch of the Milky Way spanning from
north to south.
    “We’re in North America, aren’t we?” I say. “Somewhere in
New England?”
    Once again, I seem to have surprised him. “How do you know
that?” he asks.
    “The stars.” I nod to the east where Orion hangs beneath the
bright beacon of Betelgeuse. Later, I can wonder why I have at least some
knowledge of astronomy. For the moment, I just accept it.
    We