Read Online Born of Betrayal by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Free Book Online Page B

there’s the familiar asshole I know so well and love for reasons still unknown.”
    Fain made an obscene gesture before he shoved his equally gargantuan brother down the ramp. He turned to catch Talyn staring at him with an arched brow.
    â€œWhat?” Fain asked irritably.
    Before he could respond, Chayden let out an obnoxious, “H-a-m-m-e-r! Be damned if it’s not an honor to work with you !”
    Talyn turned his scowl toward the Qillaq Tavali pirate. A light of familiarity darkened his eyes. “Chayden Aniwaya?”
    Chayden drew up short. “Ah crap … Do I owe you money?”
    Talyn snorted at his reaction. “I’m an old friend of Morra and Qorach. Qory talks about you all the time.”
    Recognition brightened Chayden’s entire face as he laughed and clapped Talyn on the back, then realized he probably shouldn’t have been quite that forward with someone who could put him through the titanium walls with a sneeze. He placed a little more distance between them as he continued to grin at Talyn. “So you’re Sexy Baby T! I should have known. Though to be honest, the way they talk about you, I thought you’d be about three years old.”
    Talyn visibly winced. “Morra swore she’d keep that between us. I’m going to kill her next time I see her.”
    Laughing harder, Chayden held his arm out toward Talyn. “Then it’s twice an honor to meet you. Any friend of Qory’s or Morra’s is a brother to me. And I know better than to threaten their Sexy Baby T.”
    With a sound of irritation that would have scared anyone with half a brain—which meant Chayden ignored it entirely—Talyn shook his hand.
    Chayden let out a low whistle over Talyn’s grip. His face a comical mask of awe, he grabbed at Talyn’s biceps with a loving intimacy that would have had most men searching the floor for their teeth over that groping audacity. Even Fain doubted he’d have been so tolerant of being pawed like that from the Qill. And for an Andarion, that kind of touching was strictly forbidden from anyone other than family or lovers, and reserved for extremely private time. “Whoa! You’re so much more massive than you looked on the monitors whenever I saw you fighting in the Ring. I can’t imagine anyone dumb enough to think they could ever take you on and win. Damn, boy. You are ripped!” Gaping even wider, he gave one more squeeze to Talyn’s massive biceps.
    Fain bristled at Chayden’s impressed tone. “He’s the same size I am.”
    Chayden finally quit molesting Talyn’s arm and snorted disdainfully at Fain. “Yeah, but he’s a lot scarier than you are, Hauk.”
    Talyn cracked a cocky grin that really didn’t help Fain’s foul mood, as Galene laughed.
    While Fain didn’t appreciate being the brunt of Chayden’s screwy humor, he’d take it to see the way her eyes lightened with humor. Damn, she was beautiful. That look made his stomach flutter and all the blood leave his brain faster than he could breathe.
    And to think, she should have been his all these years.…
    Bitter regret ripped through him as he drifted back in his mind to the last dance they’d attended together, the week before graduation. Knowing their time was limited—that he’d have to let her go and move on without her in his life—he’d treasured it with everything he had and committed every second of it to his memory. He could still hear the strains of the slow song that had played while he held her in his arms and swayed with her. Dressed in Batur blue, she’d looked up at him with eyes that radiated love and acceptance. Adoration.
    Total happiness to be with him.
    That had been the last perfect memory of his life.
    He’d sell his worthless soul if he could go back and stay there with her, forever. If he could just freeze that one moment and hang on to her.
    How he