Blood Entangled Read Free Page A

turned off the lights and picked up a book, but he didn’t open it. Instead, he studied Lena curling on her side under the quilt. He’d wanted her from the moment she’d arrived at Kaštel, and he’d had the good sense to stay away from her for those two years. It had been easy, because she wanted Andre. And that was good, because if she ever wanted him—
    “Kos?”
    “Yes.”
    “Would you read to me?” She propped her head on the back of her hand and looked toward where he sat with eyes unfocused by darkness.
    “What do you want me to read?”
    “Something you like. Anything. It doesn’t matter.”
    He opened up War and Peace and once his eyes adjusted to the nearly black room, he began to read it aloud. Long after her breaths evened out into the rhythm of sleep, he read to her. Her steady inhalations soothed him, melting the tension from his shoulders. There was no denying her effect on him, and deep in his heart lodged the certainty he’d made a terrible mistake.

Chapter 2
    L ENA A WOKE S LOWLY . Foggy tendrils of a dream curled away from her, receding deeper into her mind. It was the same one she’d been dreaming her whole life—she carried a tow-headed child in her arms. Only, for the first time in twenty-six years of dreaming, she recognized his eyes.
    Then his image dissolved, and she was warm and cozy in a soft bed. She’d slept there every day for more than a week, but it still felt strange.
    Through her half-open eyes, she saw Kos watching her. He sat in his ratty leather armchair near the foot of the ornately carved bed, his book open in his lap. She thought so—that baby boy from her dream had Kos’s light gray-blue eyes. How strange. Had she always dreamed them that color, or had her subconscious given Kos’s best trait to the dream baby? Probably so, after how much she’d been thinking about him in the last week.
    His dark blond hair, too short to comb, was tousled. The collar of his blue shirt hung open several buttons and revealed the top of his broad, fair chest. Pale coloring of his skin was so different from the olive complexion of his father. At first, she’d found Andre more handsome, but now she wondered why. Kos’s high cheekbones and full mouth were enticing. She’d imagined kissing them way too often since he rescued her. The scarlet bedspread nearly matched his lips. She pulled it up to her chin, stretched her arms overhead, and arched her back.
    “Good morning,” she said, smiling under his intense gaze.
    “Good morning.”
    There was an especially warm sound to his voice, like she’d said something funny. Was her hair sticking up?
    “What?” She patted her head. “Why are you laughing?”
    “I’m not.” Quickly, he looked down at his book and buttoned up his shirt.
    “How far did you get?” she asked.
    “About half way.”
    He read her War and Peace each night until she fell asleep. But, since he didn’t sleep, he’d finished it himself in just two and a half nights. Now, after she dozed off, he put it aside to read The Brothers Karamazov .
    “No offense, but I’m finding War and Peace pretty boring,” she said.
    “It is slow. I remembered it as more entertaining when it was first published.”
    Ooh, goody —what she did not find boring was Kos. “Were you still in Dalmatia?”
    “No, Hunters had driven us out. We were already here on the estate.” Kos examined the spine of the ancient, leather-bound book. “I missed Dalmatia terribly when we first arrived, so I read a lot to practice my English, and later for fun. California was the Wild West back then, and the only entertainment was go to a saloon—gambling and fighting, mostly. Got boring fast.”
    She’d seen enough Westerns to know the word missing from his list was whoring. It was nice of him to leave it off. He’d had lots of girlfriends since she’d known him. Several at a time, usually, but he always spoke about them with respect.
    She tried to get back to the thread of the conversation.