Love Is Fear Read Online Free Page B

more in the morning.”
    “ Wait. What about my father?” Val asked, feeling numb and sick.
    “ He knew what he wanted, Val. He's going to be cremated, and then they'll send him back to us. He wants to be with your mom.”
    She thought of something else. “We're close to your home, right? Do you want to go there for a while first?”
    He looked at the floor, shaking his head slowly as he thought about her words. “No, Val. I don't want to go back there. And if you want…” His lips turned down unhappily. He had something to say, and he was fighting it. “You don't want me to go back there, either.” With a grim glance towards her, he closed the door, leaving her alone.
    She heard him in the room next door, opening the wardrobe to pack his things.
    Val stumbled into bed, her eyes burning with exhaustion. She pulled the sheets up over her head and slept.
    Almost.
    She turned over heavily.  Would  Lucas leave her alone? Could she sleep with Jack and not think of Lucas? Had she hurt Lucas’ feelings? Okay, that was stupid. He was an emotionless vampire who wanted her. At best, she’d given him a bad case of blue balls.
    Her and Jack were going to try to have a relationship. She didn’t really believe it. After all the years she’d spent wanting to be with him, now she would.
    How the hell could she sleep with Jack and not think about Lucas? No, it would be fine. Jack was the love of her life. Things with Lucas were over. Plus it wasn’t like they would get there and instantly have painfully awkward sex. They would canoodle, have noodles, and get used to each other before they got to work on the mind blowing orgasms and true love crap.
    Was it even possible to have a relationship with Jack—something she’d wanted for half her life—and have it be anything close to the dream?
    Chapter 3
     
    Jack stormed out of Valerie’s hotel room and went to his own, shutting the door behind him like it was made of fragile hand-blown glass. If he shut it with even the slightest bit of force, he’d lose it.
    Valerie and Lucas.
    She was  fucking  him. It was obvious. She told Jack she wasn’t, but she was. Had to be. Lucas had gripped her ass, pulled her up against him, and all she’d done was wiggle closer.
    How  could  she? After what vampires had done to her mother? To Jack’s family? Even her father. Everything she had seen and knew should have made that relationship an impossibility. He couldn’t trust her. She said she hadn’t slept with him and he didn’t believe her.
    But he knew just who to ask.
    An hour later, Jack was looking up at Rachel’s apartment window from the street below. She lived on the second floor in a good part of Rome. At least, it was one of her addresses.
    All the curtains were open, and he could hear music coming from inside. She walked by the window, and Jack watched as she took a sip of wine, then made a gesture—like a toast—but he couldn’t see who she was with.
    Was someone up there with her? She’d told him she was alone.
    She took another drink, and then shook her head, giving another toast. Her back was stiff, posture straight. Then she raised her arm and throw the glass, heard it shatter as she laughed harshly.
    He sighed. Vampire chicks were even more fucked up than human ones.
    Jack trudged up the stairs, checking his weapons as he went. Just in case she wasn’t alone.  And what if she is alone? Do you need that gun then? You won’t shoot her, will you?  He knocked loudly, pounding his fist against the door, so she could hear him over the music.
    Rachel opened the door instantaneously and stumbled a little, like she’d moved too fast with her super-vamp-speed. Her lips were red, and she wore a white camisole that had a few drops of wine spilled down the front. Must have been a hard night. Her pupils were wide and dilated, her cheeks flushed as she breathed rapidly.
    Drunk.
    She took a breath and frowned. “You smell like the little hunter girl. That’s odd. I’d