The Perfect Kiss Read Online Free Page A

People would start to wonder, to talk….
    Somehow, she had to find a way to make Zach Christopher leave her alone. His very proximity made the ache grow and strengthen inside her. With one brief touch, with one possessive look, he had made her passions rage out of control.
    You can never know the love of a man, Anya.
    She closed her eyes, remembering Gershom’s final warning. Her mouth suddenly felt as dry as cotton. “Hurry,Karl,” she said hoarsely. “Lose him. For God’s sake, whatever you do, lose him!”
    The car shot forward into the darkness. Lights from the street grew dimmer and dimmer as they drew homeward. The dark streets, the abandoned neighborhood welcomed her. The desolateness comforted her. She could lose herself here, in a place time had forgotten.
    Up ahead, a traffic light changed to yellow. Instead of slowing, Karl stepped on the accelerator. The big car sped through, and Anya saw Karl quickly glance in the rearview mirror.
    “The light caught him,” he announced with a note of triumph in his tone. “We can lose him now.”
    “Thank God,” Freida murmured, her hands still moving restlessly in her lap.
    We can lose him now.
Why didn’t Anya feel enormously relieved by Karl’s words? Why didn’t she feel comforted by them? Why, instead, did she feel such bitter disappointment, such a keen sense of loss?
    You’re losing control, Anya, she told herself sternly. After ten years of living in relative isolation, her return to the limelight had taken its toll. No wonder she felt so disconcerted, so edgy. It had nothing to do with Zach Christopher and everything to do with her impossible situation.
    As the car turned into the dark, run-down neighborhood and glided down the street, Anya gradually began to feel stronger. The old houses, with their shuttered windows and their tightly locked doors, stood mute and blind. She was in her element here. The dark silence settled over her like a blanket. Anya snuggled into the anonymity. No one asked questions here. No one came to her door. No one cared.
    In this neighborhood, it was live and let live.
    Or die.
    * * *
    The gleaming black Mercedes slipped along the darkened streets like a hungry cat on the prowl. It lunged through a caution light and sped away into the night, red taillights blurring in the cold drizzle of rain that had begun to fall.
    The light turned red, and Zach ground his own car to a halt, cursing violently and rapping his fist impatiently on the steering wheel.
    Run the damn light,
he ordered himself.
She’s getting away.
    And he might have done precisely that had it not been for the memories he always carried with him, memories that were only a little paler with age, only slightly less painful with time. He closed his eyes briefly, vainly trying to blot out the image of Matthew’s face, forever young in his mind, laughing and shouting, “Just run the damn light, Zach. Show ’em what this baby can do.”
    The truck had come out of nowhere, tons of steel and horsepower and momentum that had broadsided the brand new sports car….
    Zach opened his eyes and saw the faint glow of taillights disappear into the darkness. “Damn it,” he muttered. The light changed, and he tromped the accelerator. The Viper shot through the intersection, tires whining on the wet, glistening pavement.
    His memories were gone now, carefully buried once again in the cold, vaulted recesses of his mind. He let the urgency of his mission consume him.
    He didn’t quite understand what had possessed him to follow Anya Valorian after the shoot except that, instinctively, he’d known, after talking to her, that he was in for a battle of wills. She wasn’t going to be persuaded so easily. He realized that now, but the knowledge was far from discouraging.
    His will could be strong, too—incredibly strong, as AnyaValorian would soon discover. Finding out where she lived had seemed a clever stratagem, an offensive maneuver that would make the ultimate resolution