Sweet Seduction Shadow Read Online Free Page A

made slapping sounds against the concrete beneath my feet. My beads rattled in my hair, my bangles jangled around my wrists. And the saucer-sized peace symbol hanging around my neck, bounced up and down against my chest.
    Everything had a blue tinge to it, as the lenses on my round-framed glasses were a brilliant blue, hiding my natural eye colour. I was sick of contacts, Abi Merchant's only fault. My next incarnation would be au naturel . But even as I approached the bus stop ahead, I knew my new identity was already shot. I hadn't even received the $5,000 papers yet, and already I would have to move on from Chrystal Kerr.
    But what choice did I have, but to wait for the papers to be done. Chrystal would get me to Australia, or maybe London, I wasn't sure yet. Then she could disappear and someone else would get born instead. If I left Auckland now, without this latest identity, it would take too long for me to find a forger good enough to fool any border control. Those I had used in the past had been barely good enough for employment reasons, this latest attempt was to be my last here in NZ. My father had warned I needed to wait at least a couple of years before attempting the dangerous task of heading overseas through international borders. He warned me that Roan would watch the airports, I had to give it time.
    Life had meant two years turned into five, before I found a forger good enough for the task. Would it take another five years for me to find another? Could I continue to run and hide in New Zealand for that long? I didn't have it in me anymore, even though Roan was so close, breathing down my neck. I had to make a stand. I had to see this through and then I could leave. Then I could forget that night eight years ago, when I woke to Roan McLaren at the foot of my bed.
    Bile found its familiar path up my throat and coated my tongue. I gagged, stumbled, heard a sound behind me and felt panic well up my throat instead. Heart thumping, sweat beading across my skin, I spun on my feet, ready to face my pursuer, but not ready to face my imprisonment or death.
    Then lost my footing on the kerb, felt my ankle give out beneath me and went sprawling across the roadway in an undignified heap.
    A screeching sound rang out in the air, the smell of burnt rubber and the whine of a strained engine as it sped up - aiming straight for my head. I swung my stunned and mortified gaze towards the incoming beast, only to realise it wasn't speeding, but braking, and not doing a very good job of that fact. The rear of the car swung out to the side, as it fishtailed down the street. Smoke wafted up from the rear tyres and little bits of gravel spewed out from the ones in front, only a couple of feet from my face.
    It wasn't going to make it. Even if it wasn't Roan's men, I was done for sure.
    Then out of the shadows came a flash of dark colours, the steel feel of strong arms lifting me up off the road, and the sensation of air as it passed my body. My saviour slammed us into the patched grass on the other side of the road, his body twisting in mid-air to take the brunt of the force on his back and protect me. It didn't matter. Air pushed from my lungs painfully, and a sharp stab radiated from my side as the saviour's elbow inadvertently dug into my ribs.
    I screamed, then moaned. He made a low noise that sounded just as pained, and the car that had almost hit me finally stopped.
    Over a metre past where I had laid.

Chapter 2
And I'd Never Feel Anything Remotely As Beautiful Ever Again
    "Your hair has beads in it," a low, gravelly voice said at my ear, in an almost incredulous tone.
    I breathed through the pain and disorientation I was feeling, allowing myself a second or two to respond. It had absolutely nothing to do with the feel of the man's strong arms still wrapped around me. A feeling I hadn't allowed myself to experience for quite some time. It also had nothing to with the feel of his firm chest and legs beneath my side. Every hard