Deep in You (Phoenix #1) Read Online Free

couldn’t save her. Not this time. She wouldn’t listen. She never listened. My poor sister…
    I moaned and rubbed my face, disoriented.
    Where the hell am I ?
    My head felt fuzzy. I blinked up at the ceiling, confused. It looked familiar. Right… the guest bedroom. I was in my guest bedroom having yet another nightmare about my sister’s death. I rolled over and found myself staring at the back of someone’s head. Damn, I couldn’t remember her name. What was it?
    Oh, right. Lily. Lily Campbell.
    Why was she still here?
    The memories slammed into me. How much did I drink? I added it up, but still had no idea how I ended up so out of it. Two double shots of whiskey and a few sips of wine should not have had this effect. And what the hell was that last night? I’d felt so out of control, like I was outside my own body. That never happened to me. At least I’d had sense enough to put on a damned condom.
    I sat up, shaking my head to clear it. Something was definitely wrong.
    “Lily?” The sound that came from my parched throat didn’t sound like mine. It was hoarse, dry, a stranger’s voice. She didn’t move. I turned her onto her back. “Lily?”
    Fear washed over me. I sat up and loomed above her naked body. She was so pale, and I couldn’t see that she was breathing. There was a dried puddle of vomit next to her, with a small chunk of something I’d rather not dwell on.
    “Lily… Lily, wake up. Please wake up.” Fighting my panic, I placed my fingers on her jugular vein. Her pulse felt rapid and weak, but it was there.
    I was torn. I barely knew this woman, and I was pretty sure we’d been drugged. It would explain both the way I felt and the state she was in. Should I call 911? Should I call the police? I’d make headlines nationwide. Damn it! How could this even have happened? Not the club, surely; that was an upscale club, not a dive. Certainly not the kind of place where you expected this sort of thing to happen… but to think otherwise meant it had been in my personal, sealed bottle of wine. It had to be the club, only why would anyone drug us both?
    It had to have been the martini. I drank some of it, but not as much as she had. Had to be. I needed answers, but I wouldn’t get them until she was awake. I carried her into the bathroom, stepped over the tub, and braced myself. I turned the shower on.
    Freezing water washed over us. I gritted my teeth and stood steadfast. Lily moaned and squirmed in my arms. I nearly dropped her, but managed to hold on tight.
    “Hey, wake up, sleepyhead. We need to talk.”
    “Fuck you, Xander. What have you done to me?”
    I was so relieved she was talking that I couldn’t be insulted at her accusation. Whatever it was she’d been given couldn’t have been too terrible; she remembered who I was, where she was, and she could talk. “Let me guess. Your head hurts, you feel sick, and you feel like you were hit by a truck, right?”
    “So you admit it. Put me the hell down,” she snarled. “What, didn’t think your macho act was enough to get in my pants? You had to drug me, you twisted asshole?”
    “Relax, Lily. I didn’t do this, honest. I would never do this to anyone. I couldn’t…”
    I trailed off. My sister was dead and buried, and it was ultimately drugs that killed her. I had always been anti-substance abuse, but after I lost her it had become almost a religion for me. I couldn’t explain any of that to the woman in my arms, though.
    Lily went silent, but not because she was digesting what I’d said. She’d passed out again, still under the spray of the water.
    “Damn it, Lily. Wake up!” I forced her into a standing position and held her there.
    She groaned. “Xander… what is going on?”
    “Come on. I’ve had enough of the water. Will you at least try to stay awake? Let’s talk about this.” I shut off the water and helped her out of the tub. “You need to keep moving. Stay awake. We were drugged, Lily. The only drinks we shared