What Happens After Dark Read Online Free Page B

from both his girls. Keira was twenty, and Kyla a year younger, a freshman, also at Cal Poly; their sound-alike names had been Beth’s idea. But really, that’s all they’d gotten from their mother. They were far too much like him, both of them. That’s what Beth said to him, that she felt eclipsed around the three of them, like she wasn’t there, just a mere shadow.
    He had a lot of regrets, one of them being that he hadn’t even noticed Beth slipping away until that day five years ago when she told him she’d die if she stayed with him. He’d believed he’d been doing everything for her, a faithful husband and a good provider, the big house, any material thing she could want. Something in him had died that day, too. He’d buried the pain if not the guilt, but he couldn’t stop being proud of how strong his daughters were. He wouldn’t have it any other way. Though he would always be there to beat the crap out of any guys who broke their hearts.
    Of all the things he’d done in his life, that was the thing he was most proud of, raising daughters who didn’t need him. He’d been so intent on teaching his girls the lesson, though, he’d completely overlooked his wife’s needs until it was too late.
    Yet for all the strength he’d instilled in his daughters and his wife’s grievances, he’d chosen a woman who craved his domination. It was a completely different situation. And hell yes, he was looking forward to the intimacies he’d force on Bree in her own home tonight.
     
     
    LUKE WAS COMING TO HER CONDO. THE PLACE WAS CLEAN, HER dishes done, her bed made, no dirty clothes tossed on the carpet, no ring around the bathtub. Usually when Bree knew she was going to see him, the anticipation made her giddy. Now she was terrified. She wanted things separate. She wanted dominance in a controlled environment. She wanted to be able to leave when she needed to, if things suddenly got more than she could handle. Like the other night, when he realized she’d only pretended to climax.
    Bree took a deep breath. “Calm down,” she whispered. Then she went into the bathroom for her cosmetics bag and toiletries and continued packing for the stay at her parents in Saratoga, half an hour and a lifetime away. She’d loaded blouses, slacks, and work blazers into her hanging carrier. Her suitcase lay open on the bed, half filled with panties, bras, socks, jeans, T-shirts, nightshirts, her unfinished needlepoint, and her three favorite DVDs, the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast , the twelve-part Jane Eyre with Timothy Dalton, and Pitch Black . Okay, it was a sci-fi horror flick, but there was something about the pilot’s redemption at the end that Bree had to watch over and over. Redemption was a theme in all her favorites. If things got totally crazy at her parents’, she could plug in one of those DVDs and melt into it as if she were taking a hallucinogen. Alice down the rabbit hole.
    She hadn’t told Erin about the move to her parents. She wanted to go through the schedule with her mother over the weekend. Since her commute would be much shorter than it was from her condo in Newark—her parents’ house was only ten minutes from DKG—she could come in later and leave earlier. She could work from her parents’ as well, if she had to. It would be okay. She’d be fine.
    She couldn’t count the number of times she’d repeated that mantra to herself since talking with her mother this morning. But when she really thought about it, being in that house again, she felt so sick she couldn’t even eat.
    God only knew how she would manage to see Luke. That’s why she needed tonight so badly, because it could be the last time for a long time.
    Even if she was nervous now, she had to have the kick being with him gave her. He was like a drug; when she felt bad, he forced her to feel other things. He’d saved her from Derek. She’d been in over her head with Derek. She’d met him online, and things had seemed great