Bound By Desire (The Acadian Curse) Read Free Page B

to leave," he said.
Smug satisfaction dripped from every word.
    Sarah stared at him. "Grant?”
    He shook his head, the only part of him not
tied up. “You don’t need to worry about Grant right now.”
    Worry about me. The threat hung in the
air.
    Sarah never responded well to intimidation.
She risked a step away from the wall. Her knees still trembled, but
they held. She narrowed her eyes. “What the hell just
happened?”
    “Come a little closer and I’ll tell you.”
    A shiver ran from her crown all the way down
to the soles of her feet at his low tone. It was not a cold shiver
of warning that she would have understood. No, this was worse. This
was an electric surge that awoke every nerve in her body. She
wanted to step closer…but she didn’t. There was a name for
creatures that fell for the seductive ploys of predators.
    Lunch.
    “I can hear you well enough from over
here.”
    “All right then,” he said, his voice dripping
with control. “Let me down from here and I’ll show you.”
    Sarah shook her head, even as she shuffled a
few inches closer. She glanced up at chains restraining his massive
frame. The links looked to be a good quarter inch thick. She
doubted even an angry tiger could bend them.
    “Grant wanted you restrained for a
reason.”
    He laughed. Even his mocking was alluring.
“Grant is an overly cautious man, never quite willing to take what
he wants. He liked the looks of you though.”
    Sarah shook her head, not quite sure what she
was denying anymore. His words? The transformation she had
witnessed? The pull this creature exerted over her?
    “This can’t be happening. None of this is
real,” she said. There was nothing in the realm of reason that
allowed for any of this. There had to be another explanation. It
didn’t matter how farfetched. “I must be dreaming. That has to be
it.”
    “You don’t believe that.”
    She didn’t. Everything—the crunch of the hay
beneath her shoes, the chill night air on her face, even the deep
rumble of his voice—was too real to be a dream.
    “Nothing else makes sense,” she said.
    “If this is dream, then there’s no danger in
coming closer.”
    “And no real reason to either.”
    “I could give you lots of reasons.” His smile
deepened.
    “I’m sure you have plenty.”
    “Oh, I do.” His gaze swept over her, pausing
on each of her curves—her breasts, the tuck of waist, the v of her
legs. Sarah squirmed under his scrutiny but tried her best to
temper her blush. It was obvious that this thing wanted a reaction
out of her. There was no way she could hope to control it if she
couldn’t even control herself.
    “You’re being crude,” she said.
    “And you’re burning so hot I can almost taste
it. You have been from the moment that you stepped down from that
truck and saw Grant standing there. He turns you on. And so do
I.”
    She shook her head violently in denial.
“That’s not true.”
    “Then why are you still sneaking toward me,
when all your better judgment tells you to run?”
    Sarah stopped cold. She looked back at the
stable wall. She’d made it halfway to him and hadn’t even realized
it.
    “I’m a doctor and a scientist. You intrigue
me. There’s a difference.” It was true, so why did it sound like a
lie?
    “Then by all means, come over and satisfy
your curiosity. Touch me. Examine me.”
    He watched her through narrowed eyes as she
took one step forward and then another. It was almost as his will
was the thing pulling her closer. She stopped an arm’s length away.
Maybe he’d only waited until she came closer to snap the chains.
She glanced up at the bolts screwed deep into the concrete wall.
They looked to be holding tight.
    Hesitantly, Sarah reached out her hand. Her
fingertips brushed against the skin of its chest. It felt normal
enough on the surface, warm and taut and smooth. But underneath she
felt an unnatural power roiling within him, an almost magnetic
force pulling her closer. She snatched back her