Slumber Read Online Free Page A

if she was all right. While the others were doubled over with laughter, she seized the moment and ran out of the room.
    She heard someone behind her yell, “Chase!” and the sounds of scrambling. She looked over her shoulder to see the boy—Amleth—and the dark-skinned girl coming after her. The look on their faces was anything but playful—they’d turned intense and menacing, like wolves bringing down a rabbit.
    Ruby’s heart stuttered as she ran down the hall toward the front door. She knew if they caught her it wouldn’t be good. Headlines flashed in her head: Cleaning Woman Found Drugged and Beaten; Teen Girl Gang-Raped at Teen Sex Party …
    â€œThat’s enough,” a male voice rang out. “Amleth, Subira, leave her alone.”
    Ruby skittered to a halt in front of the stairs in the wrecked foyer, her heart beating wildly. A guy of about eighteen was crouched on the end of the banister, balancing as easily as a gymnast, gold hair spiking up from his head like a crown. At least this one was fully dressed, in jeans and a crisp white button-down. His feet, though, were bare, and his black eyes were a disconcerting contrast to his fair skin and hair.
    Ruby heard heavy breathing from behind and spun around but saw that the two teens had stopped chasing her. Their eyes were fixed on the guy in the jeans. The girl, Subira, danced on the spot like she was trying to choose whether to run toward Ruby or away from her.
    â€œLeave her alone?” Amleth asked. “But why?”
    â€œYou’re scaring her.” The guy in the jeans leaped lightly down from the banister, cat-like, and put himself between his housemates and Ruby. Her breath caught in her throat.
    â€œSo?” Amleth pouted.
    â€œSo I said to leave her alone.”
    â€œBut she looks like fun,” the ebony-skinned girl whined.
    â€œLet her be. Go on.” He spoke with authority, like he was talking to a child. “The party is fun. Go back there. Now.”
    â€œBut—”
    Ruby saw the muscles in the boy’s back flex under his shirt as he folded his arms. It seemed like the whole room around him dimmed, just for a second, like clouds around the bright sun.
    â€œI said, go back to the party. I won’t ask again.”
    Reluctantly, the two half-naked teens backed away.
    Amleth gave Ruby a look of regret over his shoulder. “If you change your mind…” he said, before he and Subira disappeared back down the hall.
    Ruby let out a breath and felt her heart rate slow to normal again.
    Man, that was intense .
    The blond guy turned to her, concern carving shallow lines into the creamy skin on his forehead. “Are you alright?”
    She nodded, though she wasn’t at all sure.
    â€œI’m sorry about that. They didn’t mean to scare you. They wouldn’t have really hurt you.”
    Really? Ruby wondered. But her panic was already fading. She guessed maybe he was right. What just happened wasn’t any weirder than the stuff she’d heard going on in rock stars’ summer mansions—she’d just never seen anything like it firsthand before. Don’t freak out. Just do the job, and get out of here.
    â€œThey don’t know when to stop sometimes, that’s all.”
    Without thinking, Ruby gave a pointed glance to the empty champagne bottles piled on a hall table. “Obviously,” she said. Then she bit her lip. She didn’t need to offend this guy, especially after he’d come to her rescue.
    But he didn’t seem offended at all. In fact, a friendly smile lit his whole face up, which— holy cow! —took his good looks to sky-high levels of smoking hot. Ruby found herself blinking at him, her heart racing with a whole new kind of thrill.
    â€œYeah, the party got a little out of control last night,” the boy said with a sheepish laugh. “I’m sorry about that too. We didn’t make it easy on