Read Online Dead Perfect by Amanda Ashley - Free Book Online Page A

during the day, she would be on her own, though he didn’t think that would be a problem. He had implanted everything she needed to know in her mind while she slept. “I’m going to write for a few hours while you study.”
    She sighed. “All right. Um…”
    “What?”
    “My parents live in New York. Do you think we could visit them while we’re there? I haven’t seen them in over a year.”
    “Why didn’t you go home when you got sick?”
    “I did, for a little while, but they just…” She made a vague gesture with one hand. “They smothered me, you know? I mean, I know they love me and they’re worried, but I couldn’t breathe. Every time I turned around, they were hovering over me, telling me to eat something, telling me to rest, asking if I was feeling all right, if there was anything they could do. But now, well, since we’re going to be so close…”
    “I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
    “Thank you, Ronan.”
    Nodding, he went into his office and closed the door. He knew immediately that she had been there earlier in the day. Her scent was heavy in the air.
    Pulling up his current work in progress, he stared at the screen and then he began to write. His heroine changed from a rather plump blonde with green eyes to a slender young woman with inky black hair and sky blue eyes. Shannah. She had bewitched him with her smile and her innocence, with her quick intelligence and her rare flashes of wit.
    For centuries, he had resisted the allure of some of the most beautiful women in the world. How ironic, to find himself falling in love now, with a woman who would not even live a normal mortal life span.
    No doubt the Fates were having a good laugh at his expense.
    What would she say if he told her the truth?
    He shook the thought from his mind. In spite of the fact that she had come to his house seeking a vampire, he feared she would run screaming from his presence if he told her she had actually found one. He knew that her coming to him had been an act of sheer desperation. Taking her blood had enabled him to divine her thoughts and he knew that, deep in her heart, the thought of becoming a vampire filled her with fear and revulsion. He knew, too, that had he offered her the Dark Gift the day she had knocked on his door, she would have refused. He dared not take a chance on revealing his true nature, not now, when he wasn’t ready to let her go.
    He glanced out the window. He wasn’t ready to let her go, he thought, not now. Perhaps not ever.
    Forcing himself to concentrate on the work at hand, he lost himself in a world of his own making, his fingers flying over the keyboard, his breathing growing erratic as he wrote the first love scene between his hero and heroine. Never before had he written a love scene so drawn out or so descriptive, and as he wrote it, he realized he was describing, in vivid detail, how he wanted to make love to Shannah.
    “Wow, that is so hot! I’m surprised your computer doesn’t go up in flames.”
    He glanced over his shoulder, shocked to find her standing behind him, stunned to realize he had been so caught up in what he was writing, thinking, that he hadn’t even been aware of her presence in the room. Had she been a hunter, he thought dryly, no doubt there would be a stake through his heart.
    “What are you doing in here?” he asked. “You’re supposed to be memorizing your answers.”
    “I’ve been memorizing for over three hours,” she retorted. “I don’t know about you, but I need a break.”
    “Of course.” He saved his work and exited the program. “Would you like to go for a walk?”
    “Now? It’s awfully late, don’t you think?”
    “Not at all. There’s nothing for you to be afraid of,” he said, sensing her thoughts. “I won’t let the bogeyman get you.” Little did she know that the man beside her was far more dangerous and scary than any childhood specter.
    “All right.”
    They walked down the driveway and out the gate. It was