Dark Destiny: Book One of the Destiny Novella Series (Destiny Novellas 1) Read Online Free Page A

told my mom, and that night she started teaching me how to turn the aura read on and off. And I’ve intentionally kept it off. It’s overwhelming, it’s too much! And who needs to see groin auras all over the place?”
    He lightly cleared his throat. “So, you’ve never read mine, right?”
    “Oh geez.” She put her head in her hand again and closed her eyes, feeling all kinds of sorry for herself that she was a descendant of witches.
    “I mean, I’m just asking. No particular reason.”
    Ugh. The thought that she might have seen his underlying attraction for Steph made her want to puke. “No. I’ve never read yours. I’ve never read anyone’s. I’ve turned off the visual, the emotional, all of it. It’s too much, Bennett.” She looked up at him. “I don’t want it.”
    Bennett signaled for the check. “You may not want it, baby doll, but I’m afraid you’ve got it.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    By the time Bennett pulled into the circular drive and stopped at the front of the grand antebellum house in one of New Orleans’ beautiful old neighborhoods, Lily was fighting to stay awake. She couldn’t discern much in the dim light of the tall lamp posts that graced the walkway to the door, but his family home looked just as it had the last time she’d been there. The porch that ran the length of the house and circled the whole of it around to the back was mirrored on the second floor with a balcony that embraced the family’s and guest’s rooms. Sets of large French doors led out onto the balcony from several suites on the second floor, and as much as Lily had wanted to stubbornly maintain her independence and stay in a hotel, she was relieved at the thought of sinking into one of the soft beds and maybe leaving the balcony doors open to smell the magnolias that grew in profusion around the yard.
    “Now. Just sit still for a minute while I grab your shopping bags. Then I’ll help you into the house. Ok?”
    Lily nodded, exhausted and aching too much to argue. She’d fight for her independence tomorrow. Tonight it was enough to be with someone who cared about her, who wanted to help her. She and Ronnie had other casual friends, but over the last several months, Lily had kept herself so busy growing the business that she’d cut out much of her social life. She wasn’t sure who she’d have been comfortable calling if Bennett hadn’t stepped in and taken control of everything, much to her chagrin.
    Her phone rang as Bennett opened the trunk and she frowned, fishing for it in her purse. The number wasn’t listed, and she considered letting it go to voice mail. But the thought that it might be the hospital prompted her to unlock the screen and answer it.
    “Miss Bordeaux, how is your aunt?” The voice was deep, smooth, rich. And entirely foreign to her.
    “I’m sorry?”
    “You survived, I see. The message, of course, was for her; she might lose one niece, but then risk the other two? And yet how fortuitous for me that you are still here, as she is now entirely out of commission. It was to have been her morning to go for tea, your morning to open the shop, no? But you went together, both of you, and twenty minutes early. Very much a break in routine.”
    Lily’s heart pounded in her throat. Cultured accents, precise and exotic. A blend of Creole and something else she couldn’t identify. “Who is this?”
    “Veronique knows the location of something that belongs to my family, but she has been most stubborn in sharing that information. I will now need you to find it, naturally.”
    Her hand shaking, Lily lowered the phone and put it on speaker as Bennett opened her door. The terror must have been evident on her face; he froze immediately and looked at the phone as she put her finger to her lips.
    She fought to keep her voice steady as anger and fear warred for equal territory in her brain. “Tell me who you are, I don’t know anything about