Read Online Curve Charm (Paranormal BBW Erotic Romance) by Christa Wick - Free Book Online

"Leah and your mother are already there."
    Ignoring the grateful tear sliding down her cheek, she leaned over Dana's chest, her palm directly over his heart. She stroked his hair, using the caress to tilt his head back, his lips parting from the gentle force. Esme sucked a deep breath in, sealed her mouth against his and slowly blew.
    Sometime before the van reached Eckels, she blacked out.
    **********
    Esme woke in a room she didn't know by sight, but her nose told her Dana had frequented it. She stretched, her muscles as sore as when she'd woken up a week after Quentin almost murdered her. Her head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. Cautiously, she reached up and touched her scalp, her fingers gently exploring to make sure no one had actually hammered her skull.
    Finding no damage, she tried to focus her thoughts. They refused to coalesce. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. She searched for the last memory she could grab hold of.
    An eagle holding a cub.
    Blood.
    Black snakes writhing…
    She brought her hands up to her face, trying to block the images in her mind. If she didn't know better, she'd think someone had placed a forgetting spell on her. She needed to find someone -- Leah. Leah would help her figure out what was wrong. She needed to sit up, struggled like hell to do so. Her chest felt like it had a mountain lion perched on it.
    Something was wrong, very very wrong.
    Should she scream?
    Esme strained to hear voices or any sound that would tell her where she was at. All she heard was a slight ringing in her ears. Looking for more clues, her gaze moved around the room as she listened. It looked like a man cave. The surface beneath her was an oversized leather couch with thick layers of fur for extra padding. No television, just overflowing bookshelves.
    Drawing a deep breath in, she ran through the detectible scents. Dana at the front, every surface saturated with his honey-dipped fragrance. The ghost of his presence calmed her and she inhaled again to find a trace of Leah and Seth. The most recent scent was her mother’s.
    Esme released an inward sigh of relief. She was safe. Someone would return soon and tell her what was going on. Now that she was awake, she could assist in healing whatever blocked her memory. She closed her eyes, slowly starting to drift to sleep when she heard the door to her room softly open.
    Footsteps crossed the carpeted floor. Someone's small body indented the cushion. Esme knew without opening her eyes it was Camille, her mother’s scent hiding beneath a fresh mix of healing herbs. She brought a cool hand to Esme's cheek, brushing the tangle of curls behind Esme's ear.
    Esme thought it felt nice to have her mother do that, particularly since she couldn't remember a time when her mother had ever done it before. When Camille leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, Esme almost said something to let Camille know she was awake. Only the thought that her mother would be embarrassed and instantly turn cold stopped her.
    Camille started chanting. The slow curling rhyme wrapped itself around Esme's thoughts, gently blanketing them, her mind's ability to discern their meaning suffocated one word at a time.
    "Stop!" Esme's arms shot out, knocking her mother away from her. Sweat popping along her brow, Esme strained to remember the words, her tongue running them backwards as fast as they popped into memory. Everything rushed back to her at once -- Dana tortured, Dana in the van dying, her pouring all the life and magic she could into his body.
    Camille tried to shush her. "Baby, shhh, you need to rest."
    On her back and unable to raise her torso for any leverage, Esme struggled to keep Camille's hands from covering her mouth. Grabbing hold of the thin wrists, Esme resorted to a restraining spell. Glaring at her mother, she yanked on the woman's rest. "Undo your spell, mother. Now!"
    "You're too weak to move, baby."
    Esme shook her head. Her mother had