Read Online Embrace the Heat by Cassandra Lawson - Free Book Online

“That is not going to happen,”
he said angrily. “Until we figure this situation out, you are
staying in your home alone.”
    Layla panicked. Being stuck in the house was
not an option. She needed to get out. She was on patrol later that
day and really looking forward to the trip into the woods. “You
have no right to lock me up. I haven’t done anything wrong.” She
struggled in his grip.
    “This isn’t a punishment,” he said holding
her arm tighter. “Stop fighting me.”
    “Then let me go,” she said quietly. They’d
attracted an audience. More than a dozen vampires, all male. were
surrounding them. Layla’s instincts told her to fight. Those
instincts told her to run from Simon at the same time as they told
her to jump him and bite him.
    Bite him? She had no idea where the
hell that idea had come from. Looking around at the vampires, she
knew she needed to fight those instincts. Simon was part of the
leadership council for this territory. People needed to see him as
strong. Having a small and weak human refuse to take orders would
look bad.
    With great effort, Layla relaxed in Simon’s
hold and dropped her gaze. “I’ll go home,” she said as meekly as
she could manage. She’d never excelled at meek.
    “I’m walking you home,” he said with annoying
arrogance and didn’t release her arm as he walked her all the way
to her door.
    Could this get any more embarrassing? The
crowd followed them all the way to her house to see what Simon
would do after her outburst.
    “Go back to work!” Simon ordered the crowd
once he opened her front door and pushed her inside.
    Much to Layla’s dismay, Simon followed her
into the house and shut the door behind him. He leaned against the
door with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Thank you for
backing down. I know that wasn’t easy for you.”
    All of the anger drained out of her body.
“You’re welcome,” she said. “I’m sorry for acting like a child. I’m
just really tense lately.”
    “Then it’s probably a good thing you aren’t
going out on patrol today,” he said. “You need to have your head on
straight or you could get killed.”
    As much as she hated to admit it, he was
right. Still, he couldn’t be serious about her staying in her
house. “I can’t stay locked up,” she said. “It’s just the new soap.
Something about it must be causing this.”
    Simon let out a frustrated breath. He reached
for her but jerked his hand back at the last moment and walked
across the room. “It’s not your soap. I don’t know what the hell is
going on, but you’re causing too many problems. I’ll come by to
check on you tomorrow, and if things are better, you can resume
your normal activities. Until then, you stay in this house.”
    “You can’t do that!”
    “I’m in charge,” he reminded her. “Until
Connor gets back, you take orders from me. Your choices are to
willingly stay in this house, or I can put you in a cell.”
    Layla fought the urge to fight him. She’d
never been good at taking orders under the best of circumstances,
and these circumstances sucked. Part of her wanted to push Simon
and fight back to see how strong he was. None of what she was
feeling made any sense at all.
    Simon looked guilty, and that made it easier
to comply. He was her friend, and she knew he didn’t like doing
this.
    “Fine, but I want out soon. This isn’t fair,
Si.”
    “I know,” he said. He reached forward like he
might hug her but stopped and looked uneasy. There was an awkward
moment of silence. Simon had hugged her many times, but now he
seemed almost afraid to touch her. “We’ll figure this out. What I
said about you being alone was stupid. The male vampires need to be
kept away from you for now.” He breathed in deeply and then closed
his eyes. It looked like he was in pain. When he opened his eyes,
he wouldn’t look at her. “I need to get out of here.”
    Without another word, he left.
    The ominous sound of the door closing