Read Online Preying on You by Elise Holden - Free Book Online

face pinch with concern. “It’s not what you
think. ”
    With each step I took away from him,
Ethan advanced. He stretched out his hand toward me, pleading.
“Don’t go, Ava. There’s so much that I need to tell
you.”
    “ How do you know my name?”
I reached the end of the table and sank back against the wall. The
main hall was only a few feet away. The door was just beyond that.
If I called out for Brian he would come at a sprint, but Ethan
would reach me first. “Do I know you?”
    When he hesitated and looked away, I
grabbed a beautiful glass blown sculpture and threw it at him.
Spinning on my heel I raced for the hall without looking to see if
I had connected with him. The shattering of glass brought Brian out
of a door at the end of the hall. When he saw me fleeing toward
him, he raced toward me and enveloped me in his arms.
    “ Stay back,” he ordered
Ethan as he came up behind me. I cowered in Brian’s arms, my
heartbeat thumping in my ear. A cut along Ethan’s temple told me
I’d struck my mark. He leaned back against the wall and raised his
hand.
    “ I’m not going to hurt her.
I just need to—”
    “ No,” Brian cut him off and
placed me behind him. “We’re through here.”
    Ethan shook his head. I noticed when I
peered around Brian’s arm that he looked like he was leaning
heavily on the wall for assistance.
    “ Let me go,” I whispered.
My words seemed to pierce through Ethan.
    “ Of course you can go.
Phillip will drive you back.”
    “ And you’ll leave her
alone?” Brian pressed.
    “ If that is what she
wishes.”
    “ I do,” I whispered again
and buried my face in Brian’s back. Ethan’s driver arrived at his
call and guided us back to the limo without a word spoken. I felt
sick as I was handed a large envelope, heavy with banded bills.
Twenty five thousand dollars, as promised. I held the money in my
lap and glanced back at Ethan one final time before Brian climbed
in beside me. In that moment, I would have sworn I’d seen his steel
eyes before. Somewhere.
    I fell into bed not long after the sun
rose over the desert, painting the land with beautiful pastels. A
wiping away of the darkness that the night before held. I curled
into my bed and wept.
    Ethan had never hurt me. Never touched
me in a way that made me feel fear. He was gentle when needed and
passionate when I wanted it most. He was intense, observant, and
knew how to do things to bring me out of my own head.
    There is little doubt in my mind that
if I had stayed the night, if I had not entered that den and seen
the pictures, I would have moaned his name before morning as he’d
hoped for. It would have been a night of passion the likes of which
I had not experienced since Levi, and that hurt all the
more.
    I had been vocal with Levi. He had a
way of making me scream out and beg for more, of releasing a
guttural moan to claim his name as my own when I came. With him I
had been free. I had let him hear every ounce of pleasure he
brought to me. But never since. I couldn’t bear it.
    Ethan came close to achieving that
with me. Fresh tears fell as I burrowed deep under the covers and
prayed for a sleep that never came.
    Sometime in the afternoon I rose from
the bed, blurry eyed and weak from crying. I cried for what little
taste I’d had of Ethan’s touch. Sick as it might be, I craved it. I
knew he was all wrong for me. He’d proven that by stalking me,
invading my privacy, stealing my picture.
    I glanced over at my bedside table and
my breath stopped. There stood my prom photo, exactly where it had
always been.
    Curling my legs up into my
chest, I held myself. Was that there when I fell asleep? I couldn’t remember. Glancing around the room, I
looked for any sign that he might have been in my house. I could
not smell him. Could not see any footprints lingering in the
carpet. The windows were all locked. I was a fanatic about
that.
    Fairly certain I was losing my mind, I
plunged my hands into my hair and held my