Awakening Read Online Free Page A

words abruptly ended as the blond jerked to a stop nearly ten feet away from him. Adam tore his gaze from the bewildered expression on Celeste’s lovely face and looked at the blond, who stared at him with trepidation, her eyes wide in her face as she simply stared at him with alarm.
    “Kim?” Celeste asked softly, her gaze moving between his and the frozen blond. Longing and concern filled her eyes as she asked, “What is it?”
    “We have to go,” the blond breathed, clutching Celeste’s hand and dragging his prey, his new obsession, away from him. “Right now.”
    Annoyed, he followed them, slipping into the shadows to keep them from realizing he was there.
     
    *****
     
    “What the heck, Kim?” Celeste asked, once they were back at the hostel. She wasn’t sure if she was more annoyed or confused by her friend’s peculiar behavior; Kim had been so gung ho about meeting the gorgeous man and then she had a sudden change of heart. Celeste still had the whiplash from the speed Kim got them the heck away from him.
    Kim shook her head in bewilderment, her blue eyes even larger than normal as she stared at Celeste, “I don’t know; it just wasn’t the right time.”
    Celeste arched an eyebrow, her lips quirking upwards in a wry smile, “That makes no sense.”
    “I know,” Kim agreed, shaking her head. “It was just… a feeling I had; I can’t explain.”
    “Oh, well,” Celeste sighed, flinging herself down onto her tiny bed. Staring up at the ceiling with a smile on her face, she murmured, “I probably wouldn’t have been able to speak anyway; my tongue would have been tied in knots and I would have made a fool of myself.”
    “Somehow I doubt that,” Kim countered, lying down on the narrow bed next to her. Turning her head to the side, she grinned, “Didn’t you notice how he watched you? I don’t think you would have needed a lot of words.”
    Celeste felt the color in her cheeks as she laughed at Kim’s words, “I would have finally gotten rid of this pesky virginity.”
    “Hey, don’t knock it,” Kim scolded with laughing eyes. “I was almost twenty-one before I even knew what sex was.”
    The two girls giggled about the statement that was too close to the truth. For some odd reason Kim was completely asexual all throughout high school and the first few months of college. Then a few years ago something strange happened and it was a whole new Kim; she realized she was a sexual being and she took to sex with a vengeance. Her boyfriend was a very satisfied man.
    “Well, at least there are still two members of the V Club,” Celeste sighed in resignation of never losing her virginity since there was only one man she had ever had the least bit of interest in and he was a complete and utter stranger, one she would never see again. Of course, there were only three members to begin with….

Chapter 2
     
     

     
     
    Celeste looked at her reflection in the tiny mirror, pleased with how the black dress hugged her body, smoothing over the curve of her hips and showing a little thigh through the slit when she moved. She knew that it was silly putting the little black dress on when she had no place to wear it; she wasn’t even sure she knew why she even packed the damn thing. No, that wasn't true; she had packed it in the off chance a gorgeous and fabulously wealthy man swept her off her feet and dragged her off to Monaco to drink champagne and gamble the night away. More likely she would have worn it if she could have talked her friends into attending the symphony, if she had been able to afford the tickets.
    Of course, Kim and the other two girls who took the trip had decided to follow a couple of young French men to a club that promised to have anything the girls desired. Since the only thing Celeste desired was long gone, she had opted to stay behind and take a moonlit walk along the stone boulevards and absorb the Parisian air. It was only when she was getting ready to go that the little