Read Online Sweetened With a Kiss by Lexxi Callahan - Free Book Online Page A

was filling her nose, sliding down her throat and burning her chest. She heard someone crying.
    “Don’t cry, Lizzie,” she said softly, and everything went gray.

    When Jen opened her eyes, Stefan was watching her closely, his fingers stroking across her forehead and into her hair. She hadn’t seen that look in a long time. It was his be-careful-she’s-about-to-break look. “Lizzie,” she said, worried. “She was crying.”
    “She’s okay, Jen, just relax. You fainted.”
    “Fainted? That’s ridiculous. I don’t faint.” Then she realized she was in the downstairs guest room. Damn. “You’re supposed to be at work.”
    “Come to the office with me.”
    “So you can keep an eye on me?” she asked, and closed her eyes. Had she really fainted? Damn it. She was so tired.
    “No, so my silly sister doesn’t do anything else to upset you.”
    “Leave Lizzie alone.”
    He brushed a stray hair behind her ear. His fingertips felt so good sliding over her skin. All the bitter cold was gone out of his expression. “Do you remember what you were talking about?”
    Jen nodded. She was lying. She had no idea what they’d been talking about. She still couldn’t believe she had fainted. But she liked the way he was touching her. Maybe if she stayed still, he wouldn’t stop.
    “Tell me what it was,” he said gently. Of course, he knew she was lying because he could read her mind.
    She remembered making pancakes. She remembered Stefan eating pancakes. Of course, she could have dreamed that part. What were the odds Stefan had actually eaten pancakes? She vaguely remembered Lizzie crying. She sat up. He was the last person she wanted to know that her memory played tricks on her. 
    He took a deep breath. “You were talking about the accident,” he said, and she cringed. “Do you remember now?”
    The entire morning snapped back into place. Lizzie was telling her that she had been in the accident, but Jen knew that wasn’t true. She remembered the day Mac came to her school to tell her about the accident. He was so tall. She knew him but had always been afraid of him. She could remember him telling her that everything would be okay. Her parents were in heaven. He was going to take her home with him and she could stay in Lizzie’s room until they got a room fixed for her. He had made her feel safe while her entire world crashed down around her.
    “Do you know what happened the night of the accident?”
    “Yes,” he said grimly. “Most of it anyway”
    She took a deep breath. “I very clearly remember Mac coming to my school to tell me about the accident. But Lizzie says I was in the car.”
    He cursed under his breath.
    “No, I’m tired of everyone protecting me,” Jen said. The words came out stronger than she expected.
    She watched him struggle with something. Protecting her was second nature to him, but then blue eyes leveled with hers. “Do you know what time the accident happened?” he asked.
    “Around 8:30,” she answered automatically. Everyone knew that. “Oh,” she whispered, her breath hitching in her throat. The accident had been at night. There was no way she’d been at school. The world tilted on its axis and she closed her eyes. Why had she never put those pieces together? She had always known the accident had happened at night. Why did she remember being at school? Maybe she really was crazy. “I was in the car,” she said, the words skittered over her like bugs. Her skin crawled and the bottom of her stomach dropped out. “I was in the car.”
    “Yes,” Stefan said. “The car flipped and caught fire. You hit your head. You were in and out of hospitals for six months.”
    She shook her head, sure that he was telling her the truth but unable to call up a single memory of being in a hospital. Six months of her life was just a blank. And some rabbits. Her mind always wandered towards rabbits when she tried to remember the accident. Proof that she was crazy, so she never, ever