Read Online Deadly Promises by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, Laura Griffin, Cindy Gerard - Free Book Online Page B

to do her stretches at the gym. He’d been more interested in that damn cooler.
    When the familiar sound of a vehicle next door reached her, CeCe ran over to peek out between the slats of her blinds. Night had taken over the city. Jeremy drove his sport utility into his garage, then the lights went dark. She felt like she was sixteen again, watching for the cute guy in the neighborhood to walk by her yard.
    But back in high school she’d been warned against acting on a primal urge to go out and flirt with a boy.
    Tonight she intended to act on a primal urge that went way beyond flirting with Jeremy. She didn’t have experience in holding the attention of a man like him, but she had one chance to pull out all the stops and find out if she could.
    Spinning around, she strode over to her antique bureau that had one drawer filled with fabulous lingerie she’d been buying for a night like tonight. CeCe glanced at the pink robe lying across her bed.
    That had friends written all over it.
    Digging through the drawer, she shook her head at the pastel colors and paused when her fingers touched lacy red and black selections she’d purchased from an online store. Lifting two sinfully sexy pieces into view, she chewed on her lip.
    If Jeremy saw her in this and still wanted to be just friends she had no chance of keeping him.

    J EREMY SHOWERED, THEN pulled on a pair of jeans and shoved the wallet and cash he’d tossed on the bathroom vanity into his pockets. He’d finger combed his damp hair back off his face and strolled into the bedroom when a light blinked twice over the doorframe to the bathroom. Someone had tripped the silent alarm for his backyard, which meant he’d jumped the chain-link fence since his gate was locked.
    It could be an animal but he doubted it since there was nothing to draw a dog or cat to his yard. In his line of work he took any intruder seriously.
    Yanking on a shirt, he palmed his weapon off the nightstand. He opened a drawer where he found a pair of night-vision binoculars and moved silently through the dark house.
    Years of living on the edge had taught him to leave the lights off anytime he didn’t absolutely need them on.
    He checked his security panel hidden in a kitchen cabinet, which showed additional sensors being tripped. Someone was moving through his backyard. Jeremy shuffled over and barely lifted the curtain aside where he could scan the pitch-black area filled with just two trees and patio furniture.
    A stocky figure that might top out near six feet and moved through the shadows in a decidedly male way crossed his yard and climbed the fence into CeCe’s yard.
    Lucky for this guy neither he nor CeCe had dogs.
    But the intruder’s luck ran out at that point.
    Jeremy checked for any additional threats before easing out the sliding glass door that opened to his patio. He vaulted over the fence into CeCe’s yard and crouched all the way to where he found the sliding glass door open just enough to let a person pass through.
    She’d probably left it unlocked for him.
    He entered silently and paused in the kitchen. A deep voice rumbled low in the living room.
    Much as he wanted to race in there and slam a head, Jeremy couldn’t make a mistake that would put CeCe in further danger.
    A rough male voice said, “You’re Cecelia Caprice. Pretended to be a statue at the festival this weekend, right?”
    “Y-yes, but I don’t understand,” CeCe answered as Jeremy crept forward. “What do you want from me?” Her voice went up an octave every couple words. She was closing in on hysteria.
    Jeremy covered the last fifteen feet to the short hallway leading to the living room and paused again, peeking around the corner.
    The bulked-up intruder held a weapon to CeCe’s head. “Calm down. If you scream, I swear I’ll blow your brains out.”
    Rage sheared through Jeremy like a honed razor. He lifted his weapon and stepped into the room.

Five
    The intruder stood to the side of CeCe, who sat