Read Online Under His Skin by Jennifer Blackstream - Free Book Online Page A

spirit. He felt sorry for her. What kind of a man had such warmth in him? Even with his skin back, how could he look at her with such sympathy?
     
    Guilt began to gnaw at her, but she shoved it away. He had his skin back, she had nothing to feel guilty about. He’d been miserable for less than twenty-four hours. She’d had two years to suffer.
     
    “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay.”
     
    I don’t want you to stay anyway, you moron. Ana turned her face away from him so he wouldn’t see the anger she knew must be reflected in her eyes. She embraced her anger, relished the way it cauterized her pain and warmed her blood. She didn’t want his pity or his rejection. Go back to the sea with your precious fur and get the fuck out of my house.
     
    The bed shifted again as he stood up. Ana glanced back at him. He wore the same clothes he’d had on earlier when they first met. It reminded her of the attraction she’d felt for him when she’d first laid eyes on him. If things had been different, if her life wasn’t consumed with the need to heal her skin, then maybe . . .
     
    She clenched her teeth. None of that mattered now. His skin hadn’t worked for her, she’d lied her way out of his vengeance, and soon he’s be gone. She’d be alone again and that was just fine with her.
     
    “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay.” The arrogance! How dare he reject her when she hadn’t really wanted him in the first place? I was lying, you asshole she seethed to herself. I don’t give a shit if you leave.
     
    Narrowing her eyes, she watched him start around the edge of her bed. Just as the final piece of rope fell, a tiny shriek ripped the silence of the cabin.
     
    “Wait! Don’t let her go! Yours is not the only skin she’s stolen!”
     

     

Chapter 6
     

     
    Brec stared, dumbfounded, as what looked like a pixie hovered six inches in front of his face. The tiny fey’s pale skin looked almost pearlescent in the moonlight streaming through the bedroom window, his shaggy blue hair cut in a wild spike sticking up at odd angles all over his head. His fur clothing and little brown boots made him look like a Viking that had been shrunk to eight inches tall. Brec blinked, his brain trying to catch up with reality.
     
    “What did you say?”
     
    “You!”
     
    Brec nearly jumped out of his skin at the enraged shout that exploded from Ana’s lips. He whipped his head around to stare in shock as the female who had been crying like a lost child only seconds before suddenly scrambled to her knees on the mattress and pointed a finger trembling with rage at the pixie. Her eyes, still red from crying, blazed as she concentrated on the intruder as if she could set him on fire with only her stare. Only his body standing in front of her kept her from taking a swipe at the little blue-haired creature.
     
    “I set you free, you traitorous little bastard! When I catch you I’m going to fill your miserable body with iron and drop you to the bottom of the sea!”
     
    “She’s stolen skins from others, not just you,” the pixie insisted, his body dipping as his gaze flickered between Brec and the enraged woman on the bed. His little eyes bored into Brec’s, wide little saucers of what looked like a combination of fear and determination. Brec tried not to go cross-eyed as he tried to stay focused on the little man.
     
    “What are you talking about?” Brec sputtered, trying to resist the urge to swat the pixie away from his face. He turned his attention back to Ana, still taken aback by the way her beautiful face twisted with anger. His brain struggled to hold on to what the pixie was saying as he stared at her face, red from her earlier crying. His confusion began to ebb as the fey’s words sank in and the meaning of the accusation finally registered. “You stole other skins?” he demanded, the warmth of fresh anger stirring in his gut.
     
    With a sound somewhere between a shout of rage and a cry of frustration, Ana