Bethany's Rite Read Online Free

their
clothes. If they had kept going, she might have found out.
    She gave herself a mental eye roll. Right. Given a couple
more minutes of close contact, he would probably have collapsed in agony on the
asphalt beside her car. Still, his pain, her gain.
    Blinking away images of Wyc bringing her to the point of
begging, she drew herself up straight. “If you’re trying to convince me to go
with you, you’re headed in the wrong direction.”
    “Perhaps this will aid my argument.” He pulled a delicate
gold necklace out of the front pocket of his jeans. At the end dangled a ring
of intricately woven silver and gold.
    “That’s my ring.” Her voice was a whisper of disbelief as
she reached for it. “How did you get it? It was lost when I was a child.” Even
in the muted glow of the streetlight, the ring shone bright as if reflecting an
inner fire that needed no external light to set off the intricate design.
    “Are you sure it’s yours?”
    She turned it over in her hand, looking at it carefully. The
elaborate scrolls ran around the entire ring and interlaced the two metals in a
complex pattern she had never seen the equal to. She tilted it to the side and
held it out to where he could see what she saw.
    “Here. If you look closely, you can see the name Ilyria.
That was my mother’s name. At least that’s what I think.”
    Wyc rolled the chain around his palm, bringing the ring back
to his hand. Silencing a cry, Bethany watched the ring disappear back into his
pocket. It had been the only link she had to her mother. When she was twelve,
it had disappeared in the same fire that had killed her third set of foster
parents. That ring was hers and she wanted it back.
    He had moved while they talked, and the sudden light thrown
from the back door of the bar when it opened illuminated his features. The eyes
she had thought were dark brown were actually a deep blue. A mesmerizing,
midnight blue. His thick black hair had a slight wave to it she hadn’t noticed
before. High cheekbones and a square chin framed that hard mouth she
desperately wanted on hers again, damn it. This man made her lose all sense of
modesty, and it pissed her off.
    Jim, one of the older bartenders, exited the building. He
headed across the lot, but stopped when he saw them standing there.
    “Everything all right, Bethany?”
    She waved at him and smiled. “Just fine, thanks. Have a good
night.”
    After a moment of hesitation, he nodded and climbed into his
truck. Neither she nor Wyc spoke until Jim had pulled out of the parking lot.
    “Does this mean you’re coming with me?”
    Bethany returned her attention to Wyc and frowned up at him.
“Hardly. It means I’m willing to listen to what you have to say. But not right
now. It’s late, I’m tired and I need to think. Something I can’t do at the moment.”
    The muscles around his jaw tensed for a moment. “Tomorrow it
is.”
    She shook her head. “No. I have a date.”
    “Break it.”
    “Excuse me?” Her voice sharpened in reaction to his command.
    He seemed to take no notice as he captured her between his
body and the car again, resting his hands against its roof, one on either side
of her.
    “I said, break it.”
    She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “I
don’t think so.”
    His leaned in until his eyes were even with hers. “Bethany—”
his voice rumbled in a low growl.
    “No. I am not going to break my date for you. He’s a really
nice guy, and I’m not going to stand him up. But I may change my mind about
talking to you.”
    Wyc lifted his head and stared out into the night. Angry
tension vibrated from him, and she resisted the urge to fidget. For a long
minute, he didn’t move. Then taking a deep breath, he unclenched his jaw,
dropped his arms and straightened. “I’ll meet you for breakfast then.”
    “I have plans.”
    “Damn it, woman. Are you always this difficult?”
    She smiled. “Are you always this bossy?”
    He glanced around the empty