Made By Design (Blood Bound Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

I rocked forward, quick fingers clutching the sill to keep me from falling to the garden below. “You’re okay with this?” I thought back to my total reluctance to meet Ty’s father while knowing our races were born and raised to be mortal enemies. “With meeting her and being in a house of vampires?”
    Ty laughed. “Well unless there’s going to be any surprise appearances, I think I can handle Dorian and Kendrick. And besides, mothers love me. Plus I was the one who wanted us to come out in the first place.”
    “Well yeah, I guess…”
    “Amelia, look,” Ty went on. “I’m not worried. I want this. I want us to be out in the open, together. Not hiding our feelings from everyone who matters to us. Deep down I know you want that too. So, when is this dinner?”
    “Tuesday night,” I said. The enormous elephant of my promise to never go all the way with Ty lingered in the back of my mind. With the bond keeping a gulf between us, it didn’t need to be said. Well, not yet.
    “I wouldn’t miss it. And I’d love to sneak over now to see you,” he said, a clank and clatter vibrating through the speaker. “But my father’s scheduled training for the next few hours. Call me tomorrow?”
    “Yeah sure. Tomorrow.”
    I hung up, swinging my legs back over the sill—and almost jumped out of my skin. Kendrick sat waiting on the foot of my princess-style bed. With our bond I could usually tell where he was at any time, but somehow he’d managed to surprise me.
    “So, the talk with your mom went well.”
    Of course he’d had a front row seat in my mind’s eye during the entire discussion. Thinking back now, it was amazing that I hadn’t sensed his pained emotions at my insistence to stay with Ty. “How did you do that?”
    Kendrick smiled and patted the purple comforter next to where he sat. “Do what?”
    I blew out my breath and dropped down next to him. “You know what. Block your thoughts from me. And it’s not the first time. You’ve slipped away before. I’ve felt it. Tell me how you did it?”
    “I’m not sure,” Kendrick said, leaning back on his elbows. “I guess I tried to focus on something small and mentally tried to form a barrier around it. I had no idea it would work, but I figured it was worth a try.”
    I knew the real reason behind his efforts. The inner turmoil he suffered at seeing and feeling Ty and I together crushed him. In all truthfulness he had been extremely well behaved considering what he was subjected to. If the positions had been reversed I doubted I would have taken everything this well. “Can you teach me?”
    “It’s worth a try.” Kendrick got to his feet, pulling me up beside him. “Try this. Stand with your back to mine, close your eyes, and focus.”
    I followed his instructions and faced away from him. Leaning against him I could feel the bones and slight muscles of his back through the thin material of his polo shirt. Kendrick breathed in at the touch of our naked arms. A split second internal image of his hands and long fingers running along my arms before settling at my neck scored my mind. My cheeks grew hot as I realized I’d just witnessed his physical desire for me. Oh God. What else had he imagined doing to me? The possibilities tied my stomach in knots and made me want to somehow escape.
    Kendrick cleared his throat, his arms retracting enough to break the physical connection. “Um…keep your eyes closed,” he instructed, thoughts snapping shut like a vault. “Imagine you’re building a wall around your mind. Once you’ve done that, hold up a number of fingers.”
    Trying to forget the internal imagery of Kendrick’s hands on me, I closed my lids, straining to focus on creating a solid wall. I imagined building it with bricks, piece by piece with cement, until my mind was locked away inside. It was the same brick wall that had been created around my memories at the Armaya by Caius and Marcus through compulsion. But rather than fighting to