Read Online Blackthorne, Fiona - Moonstruck [Blue Moon 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Fiona Blackthorne - Free Book Online

Her thoughts chopped themselves in half, finishing sentences on the screen and wondering about the Molineaux brothers. Could gender construction have been something more than a passive labeling of women? What did Robert, Declan and Sean do for a living? Did women actively manipulate gender construction to provide themselves with a kind of escape route out of society’s constrictions? Why did everybody in the Double Rainbow freak out at the name of Goody Barrows? Did men unconsciously realize that gender role assignment as deviant allowed women more freedom, and was that why they persecuted that group? How on earth could she feel attracted to three men at the same time?
    A hard knock behind her made Ava jump, her heart lurching painfully at the unexpected sound. She looked behind her at the kitchenette and dining area, swathed in shadows from the firelight. Everything looked like it was in place, chairs pushed into the table, dishes in the drying rack. It was probably a branch outside or the old cottage creaking in the wind.
    Shaking her head and forcing a smile, she turned back to her laptop and studied the next paragraph. She needed a new word choice here, and that sentence wasn’t clear enough. Passive voice. Change it around to highlight the active acquiescence of women to the roles assigned to them as a point supporting their own passive-aggressive manipulation of social constructions and—
    A loud, clear knock to her right set her heart pounding fiercely. Adrenaline spiked painfully through her veins, and she forced herself to breathe deeply before turning to her right and looking over at the door to the bedroom. The door was open to let the heat from the fire warm up the room, but beyond the doorframe, everything was in complete darkness.
    When had night fallen? It had been light, even though it was storming, just a few moments ago. Hadn’t it?
    Ava looked at the time on her computer. Four hours? That wasn’t right. How had it gone from two in the afternoon to six? She knew how long it took her to edit, and she had certainly not finished as much as she usually did in four hours. That was so weird. Unwillingly, she thought of how she had lost time in the woods, and how Robert had warned her not to go into the woods again. Well, she hadn’t. She was right here, in her cottage. The adrenaline began to ebb, and she realized she must have been staring into the fire more than she was editing, thinking about the Molineaux men and the crazy situation she was in with them. That was it. Well, now, she would focus. Two more hours, and she’d eat some of that lasagna.
    She drained her wine and stood up to stretch and put another log on the fire. She shook her body to loosen it up and settled back down again. This time, as she worked, she glanced regularly at the time, and time behaved itself.
    The knock on her left was sudden and very close, as if someone had slammed a chair down right next to the foot of the sofa. Ava jumped, her laptop clattering to the floor. Instinctively, she backed up against her corner of the sofa, hardly breathing. That was no sound of a settling old house or a branch. That was a real knock against wood. Inside. Here. Three feet away.
    Knock! Her heart stopped as a knock sounded right by her side, as if someone was next to her. Her body was so tense that every muscle was stiff and painful. Frozen in place, she couldn’t bring herself to turn and look anywhere but at the fire, which burned brighter with the new log. It should have thrown more light into the room, but the room felt suddenly darker, the shadows a little thicker, more opaque.
    She bit off a cry as there was another knock from her bedroom quickly followed by one from the kitchenette. Two more sounded right next to her. Terrified past tears, she forced herself with every bit of courage she could scrounge up to jump up from the couch and grab the poker from the hearth. She shook as she held it up. Three knocks sounded to her left, her