Strange Academy (Hot Paranormal Romance) Read Online Free Page B

someone had had the sense to hide them from the Non.
    “Does this usually work for you?” A sneer tinged her voice, turning it caustic. When he looked up from her breasts, he saw the contempt on her pink lips.
    “What?” When had Nons started speaking another language?
    “Yeah. Definitely does. This—” she waved a hand at his chest “—gets you whatever you want from women. You just walk up, ring a bell and they salivate.”
    And it all became clear. She actually intended to fight him. He smiled inside. There was only one thing he liked better than an easy fix.
    A challenge.
    “But you feel nothing,” he said.
    “I feel something, Gray. Nauseated. I know everything, by the way.”
    A millisecond of panic, then his hunter’s calm clicked on. He looked her in the eye while his right hand slipped inside his charcoal gray sports jacket and touched the finger-slim vial in the secret pocket above his heart. Not a love potion. Something more permanent.
    “Please be a bit more specific about this ‘everything’ you know,” he said.
    “I know you don’t want me here. No one’s watching, so turn off the fake charm before I lose my dinner.”
    He relaxed and took his hand from his pocket. No desperate measures. For now . “I told Cross that stuff in confidence.”
    “A secret is something you don’t yell at the top of your lungs. The entire academy probably heard it. Montréal probably heard it.”
    He followed as she walked into Pippa’s small kitchen, though he doubted she was going to open a bottle of wine. The damp robe clung to the upside-down heart of her backside.
    “I don’t yell.” When he got pissed, he spoke lower than usual. But his heart pounded in his chest, just like now. That’s how he knew he was angry at her, not turned on by the way her slim waist twisted when she put the kettle on the ancient gas stove.
    “‘I don’t care if her aunt was Pippa Strange. She’s not one of us. She won’t fit into the environment.’” She mimicked his voice’s manly timbre.
    How had she heard that? He stiffened, feeling enclosed by the tight kitchen. And her.
    “You don’t want me here, so you move into Strange Hall. What’s the point? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”
    “And your lover handcuffed to the bedpost,” he added.
    The point of her chin jutted. “Not working. Knock it off.”
    Not working? Her nostrils flared. Her body exuded tension. He stepped closer and dismissed the tension in his own. He really needed to get laid. “If it’s not working, you won’t mind if I don’t stop.” He reached for a strand of dark wet hair hanging down her neck like a licorice whip. She wrenched her hair out of his grasp. He rubbed moist fingers and smiled.
    She lifted her lips in an attempt at a smile. “Sometimes I like to insult gorgeous men just so I can watch them walk away.”
    Her voice had trembled. Maybe he didn’t need a love potion. He backed her into the corner between the stove and the sink. “I won’t be walking away.”
    He slid his gaze down to the white teeth just showing between her rosy lips, down the subtle curve of her throat framed by the waves of drying dark brown hair, and over the vee notch in her collarbone pointing the way down further. She stood stock still, as if the journey of his eyes locked her in place. A deep breath strained her breasts against the kimono. His own breath fell into a matching rhythm as he moved his hips to—
    The teakettle blasted a shrill whistle, breaking the spell. She snatched it up and thrust it between them, forcing him to take a step back, hands raised in surrender.
    Now armed, she seemed to gather strength. “So, you’re the alpha male and I’m on your turf. So I can either be dominated or get out?”
    He took the harsh note in her voice as a warning. He settled himself against the kitchen counter and tried to look non-threatening. He knew she wouldn’t hesitate to dump boiling water on his head. Well, she might