Love Beyond Expectations Read Online Free

and she let out a scream. Drew rubbed his forehead, muttering under his breath to a person not currently with them. "Come on, Marina. You can get it done."
    Drew and Marina were soul mates who, for some reason, had not actually mated. They circled each other, alternating between silence and hostility. If it was Ruby's soul mate on his way to the island—and maybe she shouldn't be thinking about it at that moment, but if she really focused on the fact that they were under attack by a demon, she might flip out—then she thought perhaps they could co-exist like Marina and Drew did. Without so much nastiness.
    "The house will survive this, won't it? I mean, we're warded or whatever."
    Drew cocked his head to the side. "They don't seem to be holding up particularly well at the moment."
    That didn't fill her with a great deal of confidence. "Do you think you should be, I don't know, helping Marina instead of me?"
    "I couldn't leave you in that room. You need to be gotten to safety."
    "Is there safety?" She shoved Drew off her. "I'd feel better knowing you were getting this handled than babying me. Point me to wherever safety is and I'll go there."
    "If you think you can." Drew indicated the kitchen. "Beneath the floor is a safe room. Unless the demon blows up the whole island, you'll be fine beneath there. It's a different location, different set of wards."
    All right. She could manage that. Maybe. "Thanks so much for getting me out of there."
    Drew nodded, but his attention had already moved on as he unsteadily made his way down the hall.
    The house lurched again, and Ruby's stomach threatened to overturn. She didn't like boats and airplanes. She really didn't want the structure beneath her feet to be moving.
    She. Really. Didn't.
    Feeling like she might throw up at any moment, she stumbled into the kitchen. Handling the demon was beyond her abilities. She could sometimes summon random things, and she could translate ancient texts. That was about it. Ruby felt perfectly fine with hiding belowground while the crazy people she lived with handled a mad demon.
    If she had a role to play in this war, it wasn't to fight the paranormal.
    The latch to the hidden room was open in the middle of the kitchen floor. Someone else must have gone down there so at least she wasn't alone in her cowardice.
    In two awkward strides, she made it to the opening and knelt down so she could make her way down without killing herself.
    "Hello?" she called into the darkness as she moved down the ladder. In two more strides, she reached to the floor. Drew had been right. As a separate structure, the demon wasn't shaking the lower level.
    She took a deep breath, loving the feel of solid ground beneath her feet. "Anyone down here with me?"
    "I am."
    Ruby jumped. She didn't recognize the voice as anyone she knew.
    She'd taken two steps backward when the man stepped out of the shadows. He was strikingly beautiful. Regal and well put together, like he'd walked out of the pages of a men's fashion magazine, she gasped as she covered her mouth with her hand.
    Marina had warned her—Sebastian was beautiful to look at. But the last she'd heard, he was supposed to be incorporeal. How could he be standing in front of her?
    He nodded. "Yes, that's a good question."
    The shaking house suddenly looked much better. "How are you reading my thoughts?"
    "Easy. I'm in your mind, which is how you can see me. Marina is correct. I no longer have a body, but it doesn't mean I'm not capable of doing even more damage without one."
    "No one has any doubt about that, you scumbag." She'd been raised not to curse. Scumbag represented the best she could do in this kind of verbal sparring. "Why are you messing with me? The people you should concern yourself with are not cowering in the basement. I'm not a threat to you."
    "Oh, if only that were true." Sebastian circled her. He smelled of expensive cologne. Or, she reminded herself, he made her think he did. As he didn't really have a