Read Online Ivory Guard by Natalie Herzer - Free Book Online

new mattress that Raz had gotten from who knew where, she had a moment to be thankful before the utter exhaustion that had been clinging to her every bone took over, not leaving any place for bad dreams this time.
    Her mind and body told her that she’d barely closed her eyes as firm shaking awoke her again. “Get up and pull on some sweats.”
    Lillian mumbled something incoherently and turned onto her other side, snuggling back into the warmth of sleep. The next moment she yelped as her sleeping bag was abruptly pulled open and cold air kissed her bare legs.
    “What the hell?” Her searching eyes were wild until they found the source of disturbance. Raz.
    The angel stood in her room with a too happy grin on his face and arms folded across his chest, dressed in black sweatpants and tank. “Your training starts today. What did you expect?”
    Oh, maybe a snatch of sleep? After all that happened Lillian had thought it wasn’t too much to ask for. Apparently she’d been wrong. A glance out the window as she sat up confirmed her suspicions that the sun was barely flirting with the horizon, and she had to stifle a groan.
    “Come on, get up and get moving!”
    God, he was such a pain in the ass. She got up and stumbled over to her duffle bag to grab her sweats. Apparently satisfied that she would obey his commands he went back downstairs.
    “Coffee!” she yelled after him.
    “We don’ t have any,” he yelled right back.
    Now there was a definite hint of desperation in her voice , “WHAT?”
    This day got worse with every word he said.
    After she’d slipped into her sneakers and tied her hair up in a messy bun Lillian ran after him and into the kitchen. “What do you mean we don’t have any? What the hell did you go into the store for?”
    He looked at her as if she had gone mad and didn’t have some good arguments on her side. “Salt, pepper and cereals. You can have a bowl when we get back.”
    Her jaw very nearly hit the floor. “Oh wow, how gracious of you.” After staring at him for about a full minute, she shook her head. “Raz. We’ll have to work on this. The mornings, I mean. You drag me out of bed at who knows what abnormally early hour. Okay. I can do that. Training, that’s what we’re here for, so I can do that as well. But the rest? No. You want anything from me before the sun is up, you better have a cup of coffee in your hand. And,” she walked up to the counter against which he was leaning and grabbed the box of cereals he had referred to. It was the healthy kind, not the sugary variety. Ugh. “I need sugar, which means this won’t do.”
    He seemed to think it over. “Earn it.”
    “Come again?”
    “Earn the coffee and the sugar by adding half a mile to the daily jog.”
    Lillian shrugged and smiled. “Okay.”
    She should have asked for more details before settling on his offer. Her smile was a thing of the past over half an hour later as she ran behind the angel. In her mind he was leaving a cartoon-like dust trail - in the clouds of which she suffocated.
    Three miles.
    Three and a half if she wanted her coffee and some nice cereals.
    Damn that angel.
    She had managed half of it rather well and had liked gazing at the fields, the birds that were scattered here and there today, but the way back was torture. A hole in the sandy road made her stumble. She bit her lip, concentrating on continuing, on holding the pace, on settling back into her rhythm. Her only focus was her loud but regular breathing and the house, which she could already see again whenever she topped another lazy slope of the sea of rolling hills surrounding them.
    He waited in front of the house , sitting on the steps and leaning back on his elbows to enjoy the sun on his face, when she finally caught up with him. Lillian stopped, her thighs burning, and bent over, hands on her knees trying desperately to get some oxygen back into her lungs. How could she be so out of shape?
    And how could he look so relaxed and so