Reluctance Read Online Free

warily for the photograph, and then Dahlia practically dragged Cam from the house.
    "I'm so sorry about that," she said, once they were both ensconced in his car.
    "No, it's fine, she's really . . . um, nice."
    She laughed at his hesitation.
    "You don't have to try to be kind, Cam. She's overbearing and pretentious . . .
    kind of like my house."
    "You don't like your house?"
    "Are you kidding? It's like a mausoleum or something."
    Cam laughed. "You know what a mausoleum is, right?"
    "Of course I do."
    "Okay, well, a mausoleum that size would house the cadavers of . . . a whole city."
    "Cadavers? Really?" Dahlia raised one eyebrow.
    "You have a better word?"
    She grinned at him. "Carcasses?"
    "That's terrible, Dahlia." Cam laughed.
    They arrived at the Mexican restaurant, Cam running around to open her door—
    a first for her. Before closing her door, Cam reached into the backseat, pulling out a single flower to hand her—a dahlia, of course. A pink one.
    "Thank you," she said. It was the first time anyone—any boy —had given her a flower. Her heart jumped a little at the gesture.
    "You know what the dahlia means?"
    "Yes. Everything I'm not."
    "Wrong," he said. "It means dignity and elegance."
    "Exactly," Dahlia said. "If Rose was going to insist on going with flower names all around for her daughters, she should have gone with 'Geranium' for me. It means stupidity."
    "Dahlia," he said, taking her hand in his. Her heart beat picked up . . . and so did his, loud and clear to her. She felt the edge of the hunger begin and pushed it down with effort. "You are the furthest person from stupid I know."
    "I'm not talking about book smart," Dahlia argued.
    "Neither am I."
    "I have no dignity."
    "Not true," he refuted. "I've watched how you deal with those who look down at you. You don't cower. You don't get angry."
    "I don't know if that's dignity or pride. And elegance is nowhere near being one of my virtues." She pictured herself—dressing like a grandma, stumbling through life . .
    . tearing into a victim like an animal. She saw nothing elegant in even the smallest corner of her being.
    Cam lifted her hand to his lips, and, for one second, she was reminded of the Old Ones, how they always maintained proper manners even when they committed their harshest acts. Then he turned her hand and laid it alongside his cheek.
    "The first day you walked into GCC, I knew there was something different about you."
    You have no idea , she thought.
    "Beneath every stumble was grace, in the line of your face there was poise, the way you held your head reminded me of the most refined ladies who live in town."
    "Did you read this somewhere, Cam?" she asked cynically, pulling her hand from his.
    He laughed. "It's mine . . . but I practiced—a lot ." He paused, then added, "And I used a thesaurus."
    She shook her head, crestfallen her first real compliment was just good use of a thesaurus.
    "But"—he interrupted her pity party, punctuating the word with a raised finger before placing both hands on her waist—"that doesn't mean that the words are any less true."
    He stepped closer, and she heard both their pulses ratchet up. His breath came heavier, igniting her hunger with fierceness as she scented the blood that pulsed through him.
    "I'm going to kiss you, Dahlia," Cam informed her. She fought the voracious blaze that flamed in her belly and raced up her throat. Her eyes dropped to the base of his throat, where his pulse beat like a siren's song—inescapable, irresistible. She felt her fangs begin to elongate. She could take him without any effort; all she had to do was—
    He pressed his lips to hers. A sensation she'd never experienced before flooded her body, washing away the hunger, the burning replaced with a sense of wonder. Her fangs retracted completely as his mouth moved on hers, and the only pounding she could hear as her arms slid up around his shoulders was her own pulse. When he pulled back, she could only stare at him in