Read Online Out of the Dark by Megan Hart - Free Book Online Page B

thinking there had to be a way to make sure she wasn’t just humoring him. The only thing worse than having her think he was some psycho maniac who believed he killed and burned monsters would be having her not believe they were real.
    She cut him off. “I don’t know why I believe you. Maybe it is some twisted thing inside me that always goes for the guys who are the most likely to run off, but at least your excuse is original. Freaking scary as hell, but original.”
    â€œIt’s not an excuse. It’s real.”
    â€œThe attack was real. I know that.” She paused with another small smile at what must’ve been his look of surprise. “The internet, Luke. I looked everything you told me up on the ‘net. It’s exactly how you said it happened, though the paper says the cave-in was from natural causes, your injuries from that. But do you know what else I found while I was searching?”
    He shook his head.
    â€œTwo days after your cave-in, a farmer two towns away reported three of his cattle had been mutilated. Half-eaten. Speculation was coyotes or even a mountain lion. They’re rare in Pennsylvania, but they’re around. I read one report on some wackadoo site that said it was probably aliens. Nobody claimed it was blood-sucking ghouls from underground…but I figure that’s just because nobody thought of it.” Celia drew in a sharp breath. Her smile this time looked a little pained. “You never told me where you were, all those times you called. But like I said, all it takes is time and a good search engine.”
    â€œYou believe me?”
    â€œI don’t know, Luke,” she told him. “Everything about it says I shouldn’t trust you. In fact, I should be calling the cops, not feeding you meat loaf and whiskey at three in the morning, or taking you upstairs to my bed.”
    Another flash, this time of her kneeling in front of him. His ears burned. A low noise escaped his throat, and she did that head-tilt thing again to look him over. Her tongue touched her upper lip for just a second.
    â€œWhen I was down there, in the dark,” Luke said, surprised he could speak with his throat gone so dry, “all I could think about, after getting away from them, was making sure there weren’t any of them left alive. So that nothing like that could ever happen to anyone else. To you.”
    Her lashes fluttered, and her lips thinned for a moment. She was, he saw with some alarm, trying not to cry. He was out of his chair so fast it rocked backward and hit the floor with a clatter. She was in his arms a second or two after that. He meant only to reassure her that he meant what he’d said, but just as she’d met him at the door with her mouth, Celia kissed him again now.
    â€œTake me upstairs, Luke.”
    Eight or even six months ago, he might’ve been able to lift her for a minute or so, made his way a few stumbling feet to a bed. Months of physical effort had honed his muscles, corded in his arms. Tightened his thighs and belly and chest. It wasn’t anything he’d worked at on purpose, not the way he’d once spent hours in the gym trying to push his body into making a six-pack. This new strength meant he could scoop her up, one arm under her thighs, the other around her back, and take her in several long strides down the front hall to the stairs. Then up them. Then to her bedroom, her mouth fused to his, her hands already sliding under his T-shirt.
    She cried out when he fell with her onto the bed. Her back arched as he pushed her T-shirt up over her belly and found the soft skin with his mouth. She smelled so good, tasted so sweet. He could only think about getting his lips and teeth and tongue against her. His hands tilted her ass up, her boxers already down her thighs. He found her pussy with his kiss. He drank her in.
    Celia’s fingers skated over the bristles of his hair, then traced his ears, skittered