Silent Daughter 1: Taken Read Free Page B

off with big eyes, framed by thick, dark lashes and the pale skin of the noble class. The Barringtons have three perfectly beautiful daughters, that’s for sure.
    But that is where the resemblances between the three of them end. Elizabeth is much taller than her sisters, her hair is darker and her eyes...
    I grit my teeth as she turns around to me and we are formally introduced. She looks up at me with those dark, iridescent eyes. Just like her hair, they are a lot darker than those of her sisters, but that is not the only way in which they differ. The color of hers appears to be a mix of both of her sisters, seemingly changing from a dark blue to dark green, depending on where she is looking.
    They are flickering, moving like the wild sea.
    It drives me insane.
    As does her touch. I expected her handshake to be soft and weak as it is with most women, but I was wrong. Her hand is cold, but her grip is strong and engaging, almost as if she was trying to pull me closer.
    She is not, though. As soon as our hands met, they part from each other and I watch her as she takes a step back, deliberately standing about half a foot outside of our circle as if she didn't belong.
    However, if she is one of the Barringtons' daughters, she belongs just as much as the other two, despite so many signs that say otherwise.
    I wonder what is wrong with her. I am intrigued by her even more, now that she is standing so close. She radiates something. Something dark. Her motions are careful and sophisticated, unnatural, in a way. As if she had practiced every gesture, every look she casts around. Even the way she is standing doesn’t seem natural. If her movements didn’t have that elegance and flow about them, I would almost call her robotic.
    I also wonder what it is that causes my insides to growl and my cock to involuntarily rise to attention as I look at her.
    "The youngest and the tallest," William makes a helpless attempt at small talk.
    "And the darkest," Lucia adds. "Our parents keep joking that the blonde is gradually dying in our family, as illustrated in the three of us."
    "Elizabeth likes to add the killing blow, though," Sandria adds, casting Elizabeth a nasty smile. "She would be a little lighter if she didn't put all that glop into her hair."
    Elizabeth doesn't show any reaction to what her sisters are saying and displays a helpless smile as she looks at William, then down on the floor, then back up, turning to me.
    "Oh, so this is not your natural hair color?" Pete asks.
    She looks at him and finally utters her first words.
    "It is not," she says. "As Sandria pointed out, naturally my hair would be a little lighter."
    Her voice is airy but deeper than I expected. She doesn't speak in high-pitched resonance like her sisters do, but in a very soft tone that is barely audible.
    She's not a screamer, I bet.
    "Sandria tells me you just returned from college?" Pete interrogates.
    She nods. "Yes. I graduated a few weeks ago."
    "What was your major?" Pete wants to know.
    "It doesn't matter," she replies. Her face is stern, frozen in an unreadable mask.
    A few moments of awkward silence follow before Sandria takes a deep breath to scold her sister.
    "Elizabeth," she breathes. "What an odd answer to give. You can tell him! Don't be embarrassed."
    Elizabeth's eyes narrow as she casts her sister an evil look, but again, she doesn't say a word.
    "What does she have to be embarrassed about?" I ask, talking about her in the third person while directly looking at Elizabeth herself.
    She turns toward me, returning to the same indifferent expression she has shown most of the time since she was forced into our little circle. Everything about her is calm, except for her eyes. They appear to be on fire. Dark green-blue, looming fire.
    She is hiding something underneath that pale, apathetic mask. A shadowy beast, screaming to be freed.
    The left corner of my mouth rises just the slightest bit as I reciprocate her gaze. Of course, she doesn't react to