Read Online The Shifters by Alexandra Sokoloff - Free Book Online Page B

playing,” she snapped at him, and tried to push him away.
    â€œNeither am I,” he said, as he continued to hold her against him, legs against legs, hips against hips.
    She could feel the live heat of him, warming her body to the core, and his sheer raw power. There was no question that she would not go free until he decided to let her go, and as he stared down at her, Caitlin felt herself turning to liquid, knowing he was going to kiss her again.
    Instead he released her and moved a step away—just as Jagger pushed back in through the door. Hestopped in the doorway, looking at the two of them, the distance between them obviously not fooling him for an instant.
    â€œYour sisters are fine,” he told Caitlin in a clipped voice. “I’m taking you home now.”
    Caitlin was about to protest that she wasn’t a baby, and how dare he, then realized that would only make her sound like the baby she claimed not to be, and be sides, her alternative was staying with Ryder, and she didn’t want to talk to him, much less…everything else that could and obviously would happen if they were alone together.
    â€œGood,” she said, and shot Ryder a superior look.
    Jagger held the door for her, and she marched out of it. Ryder followed. In the dark hall outside, Jagger locked the door behind them, then turned to Ryder.
    â€œI suggest we meet for breakfast, and you can fill all the Keepers in on what you know.”
    â€œI’d be delighted to meet the family,” Ryder said with a straight face, but his eyes slid to Caitlin.
    She felt herself tremble again, and instantly was furious with herself for even responding.
    A shifter. The last person—make that nonperson—you can trust. Get a grip.
    She stuck close to Jagger all the way out of the building.

Chapter 8
    C aitlin was uncomfortable—squirming, actually—in the passenger seat of Jagger’s unmarked Cavalier as he drove the few short miles back to the Quarter and the small compound she shared with her sisters.
    His too-perfect vampire profile was chiseled, stony, beside her, and his disapproval rolled off him in waves. Still, he managed not to say anything until they were through the security gates and parked inside the compound, and he was finally walking her across the courtyard to her front door. Vampires and their eternal manners.
    He stopped outside her door, under the shadows of magnolias. “Caitlin, we don’t know each otherwell yet. But I knew that one about a century ago.” He didn’t use a name, and he didn’t have to. Caitlin’s face was already burning in the shadowed dark.
    â€œAnd I don’t want to see you hurt. You shouldn’t trust him,” he finished, earnestly.
    â€œI don’t need you to tell me that,” she flared. And then she couldn’t help herself; she went on to say something unforgivable. “You don’t have to worry about me. Keepers and Others shouldn’t mix, period. It’s a conflict of interest.”
    She pulled open her door and flounced inside, but not before she’d seen the startled look of pain on his face.
    She regretted it even before she’d closed the door, and she had the impulse to pull it back open, to call out, “I’m sorry,” after him. And in fact, before she’d even made it to the staircase she was turning around, crossing to the door….
    But when she stepped outside, she could see him across the courtyard, in the light of the moon and the sprinkled lights from Fiona’s balcony. He and her sister were already locked in an embrace, as if they hadn’t seen each other for years, and they were completely oblivious to her.
    Caitlin stepped back inside her doorway and closed the door, roiling with emotion: resentment, regret.
    Then she hardened herself, locked the door behind her and stalked up the stairs to her bedroom.
    Â 
    After she’d shed her clothes, she stood under the steamy