Hunger Embraced (The Hunger Series) Read Online Free Page B

and bangy.
    A frown creased my forehead when I realized my hash browns lacked ketchup. A pair of thick, denim-clad legs suddenly appeared in front on me. I hadn’t even heard him move. He held a bottle of Heinz and the cup of tea out to me.
    “Peace offering,” he said with a small, genuine smile.
    I almost smiled back until I processed that he’d zipped into the kitchen and back out again in a creepy fast move. Instead, I accepted the proffered items and set the mug on the floor. The liquid looked like the right color, a milky blonde, but only a taste test would confirm if he’d put in the right amount of sugar.
    All right this was just getting too cozy. Time to serve some walking papers.
    “Look, I appreciate the food and all, but you really need to leave. I have to call work and try to talk my boss into not firing me, even though this is like the fifth time this month I’ve been obnoxiously late.” I popped the top on the ketchup and squirted it on to my potatoes in a thick red stream. “Then I’ve got to try to catch the next bus—which is in about twenty-five minutes.”
    I shoveled the hash browns down and surged to my feet, taking the mug of tea with me. An experimental sip revealed it was in fact perfect. One more reason on the list to speed him and his mind reading on outta my apartment. The guy was some kind of uber-powerful vamp and possibly a stalker. Or both. Neither of which I wanted to deal with. I’d have to do a warding spell after he left so he didn’t come wandering back in later. Ten steps transported me to the kitchen.
    “I’m not a stalker.” The low pitch of his voice did nothing to reassure me. T.T.B. had gone back to silent mode, capping his magic and any noise he made when he walked.
    The plastic lid of the ketchup bottle cracked when he closed the flap before tossing it at the counter. It bounced off the back splash and spun in a circle until I stopped it.
    I’d hit a nerve. Hmm. I focused on his statement as I righted the ketchup. OK, but that didn’t negate the super powerful part. The heat of his body rose to mine through the thin flannel of my robe, and I clenched my fingers against the cheap Formica, fighting the urge to turn around. He maintained a tiny space between our bodies, and if I held still, we wouldn’t touch. I wanted to close the gap.
    His right forefinger traced the back of my hand and skimmed over my arm up to my neck until it rested on my fluttering pulse. I tipped my head to the side, and he lifted my wet hair away, bent over, and licked the spot twice. When I rose to tiptoe to chase his retreating mouth, he reclaimed the skin, sucking it between blunt teeth.
    The sharp scrape of fangs sent a sizzle of lust traveling through my flesh straight to every erogenous zone. It also snapped me out of the spell he wove.
    I jerked out of reach and spun on my heel. The horny vampire before me disappeared behind a mask of indifference. It was creepy to watch. In a blink, all the heat and desire radiating from his body disappeared behind a careful wall of nothing.
    “Really? Not a stalker? Well then you’re damned rude. You can’t just go around plucking thoughts out of my head whenever you feel like it. You never told me how you knew my name or how you knew the phone number to the office.”
    “Does it really matter? The vampire world is shrinking. It’s not like there are thousands of un-Blooded Incubi women running around wreaking havoc. As for the mind reading, if you’d quit shouting your thoughts at me, I might be able to ignore them better.”
    He actually glared at me. I found the look refreshing and so much better than the smirk. If I angered him enough, perhaps he’d leave just to get away from me.
    “No, keep him… Don’t send him away… I’m so hungry…”
    I brushed the voice in my head aside. The voice was stupid and had no survival instincts.
    A perusal of the kitchen revealed a room cleaner than I remembered it being earlier, but no sign of what