Braden Read Online Free Page B

again. “No, I’ll be fine.”
    The conductor retreated into his rear compartment and Elisa
walked unsteadily down the train to the next car.
    What if Braden weren’t on the train at all? This was the
last train down and Elisa was pretty certain that none would be coming back up
tonight.
    She’d be in Pas City, alone, without escort, her robes
marking her as way out of place. Elisa could call a taxi, of course, but then
she’d have to wait for it. Alone. In Pas City.
    She opened the door of the third car along and stopped.
    Braden lounged in a seat at the end of the car, his arm
stretched across its back, his head against the window, his eyes closed.
    When Braden had first walked into her library, Elisa’s
tongue had stuck to the roof of her mouth and stayed there. Seven feet tall,
black hair bound at his nape, Braden had worn a sleeveless tunic that bared his
massive shoulders and tight, muscular arms. The black chain on his right biceps
announced what he was—all Shareem wore them.
    His face was handsome but stopped shy of perfection, giving
him a hard strength that most Bor Nargan men lacked. His eyes were blue, a
color no other native Bor Nargan had, a color that mesmerized her and drew her
in.
    With his eyes closed now, Braden looked almost harmless.
    Almost. His long legs stretched out into the aisle, his body
barely fitting on the seat, giving him the look of a wild beast at rest. A
desert lion from the hills, maybe, sprawled in seeming quietness but ready to
pounce.
    Elisa pictured Braden stretched out like that in bed,
smiling and warm, waiting for his lady. She shivered.
    She also noticed one more thing about him. Braden looked
lonely.
    Elisa wasn’t sure where that impression came from—maybe from
the fact that he sat alone, that no one else was near him or even wanted to
look at him. But a Shareem lonely was a strange idea.
    She walked toward him before she could talk herself out of
it. Gathering her robes around her, she sat down in the small amount of room
he’d left in the seat.
    Braden’s eyes popped open in surprise. Then he smiled. That
smile was all for her, his blue irises expanding as his focus switched to Elisa
and Elisa alone.
    Being the object of his Shareem gaze made her feel
strange—beautiful, sensual, wanted—all the things that no man had ever made
Elisa n’Arell feel.
    “My librarian,” Braden said, his voice warming her to her
toes. “Damn, but it’s nice to see you.”

Chapter Three
     
    “I’m sorry I’m late.” Elisa should have caught her breath by
now, but for some reason it lodged in her throat. “I had to—”
    “No.” Braden’s fingers touched her lips. “No explanations.
Leave it like this. That was one hell of an entrance.”
    His fingers were warmer than any human’s, the same as when
he’d brushed the back of her hand in the library. The touch was soft but
strong, mastering.
    Elisa was happy not to talk about how her boss had called
her to an unscheduled meeting to discuss an event the library was putting on
with the art museum. The minutiae of making certain members of the ruling
family were seated in the correct order, without snubbing the heads of the
library or the art board, had made her insane. The details had taken several
hours and Elisa had been lucky to get away at all.
    Braden moved his fingertip across her lower lip, wetting it
with moisture from her own mouth. “What are you thinking behind those beautiful
eyes, my librarian?”
    That she was bold and sensual, no longer a good celibate in
the Way of the Sky. “Questions I want to ask you,” she said.
    “Questions about you, me and whipped cream? You know we’re
headed for Pas City, right?”
    “Yes.” Elisa glanced out the window but could see little
beyond her own reflection. Though she’d lived in the metropolis all her life,
she’d never been to Pas City. “A new world for me.”
    “A shitty world.” Braden took his finger from her lips, to
her disappointment. “I’ll show