Read Online Wild Hyacinthe (Crimson Romance) by Nola Sarina, Emily Faith - Free Book Online

released as I pushed them to extremes of workout. Casual touch between me and an ordinary human during physical exertion fueled the incubus slightly and kept him at bay. Exercise itself helped to hold off my need to breathe life away from another, too. I worked out for an hour every morning, trained clients for four hours each day and worked out for another two hours every evening. As a result of all the exercise, I was in prime physical condition and had a hearty appetite, but Aria’s meal for me yesterday tapped me out at my limit of fullness. I didn’t think I could stomach another meal.
    But I wanted to go eat there anyway.
    The Lacy Teacupwas oddly chaotic and busy, but Aria was nowhere to be found. I had a coffee served by Bernadette and eventually asked for the manager.
    “She didn’t show up,” he scowled. “Third day on the job and already flaking out. Typical.”
    I finished my coffee, tipped double the cost of the bill as usual and left.
    My Super Car was parked in the same place as yesterday, and I found myself lingering outside the car, uncertain. Several women passed by and stroked the hood or flashed me flirtatious grins, but I was disinterested. Had I scared Aria off?
    A police car pulled up beside me. Killing used to leave me with paranoia around police, but I had dealt with the cop panic for so long that all I felt was a mild increase in my heart rate, a fight-or-flight response muted, and I uncrossed my arms, straightening.
    The cop stepped out of the car and opened the back door from the outside. Aria climbed out, looking disheveled and stressed, clutching her large purse. She thanked the cop and shook his hand, and I noticed with displeasure that a cut marred her skin above her left eyebrow. She approached me, her arms wrapped across her chest as the cop drove away.
    “Hi,” she whispered when we stood close enough to each other to feel the warm charge between us, residual from our kiss in that same spot the day prior.
    “What happened?” I demanded with unexpected concern for her well-being.
    “Um,” she tucked her long bangs behind her ear. “I hit a deer on the number three. Totalled my Camry. I saw you . . . told the cop I know you . . . ”
    I reached forward and brushed her blue bangs from her other temple, relieved to find no injury beneath. “Are you okay?”
    She glanced behind her and then back at me but couldn’t meet my gaze. “My car . . . there’s nothing salvageable. I hit the ditch when the damn thing was imbedded in my windshield. Funny part . . . the deer fucking survived. Limped away once it shook loose from the Camry. I had a few miles’ walk until the cop came around and picked me up.”
    “The deer survived! And of course, you have no cell phone, right?”
    Aria sighed. “Not all of us are rich.”
    I ignored the jibe. “Well, I assume you’ve been attended to, medically?”
    “I’m fine,” she insisted, squeezing herself tighter. I watched her shiver in the early-evening sunlight and realized she might be settling into both shock and denial. “Didn’t need medical care or the bill that follows.”
    “Let me drive you home,” I said, tapping the code to open my doors.
    “Um, no, I’ll be fine.”
    “Honestly, Aria, I’m not a stalker. I just want to see you home safely.” I hid a cringe at the hypocrisy of my words yet again. Stalker? No.
Just a murdering incubus who wants to fuck you to death, sweetie.
    Goddamn, what I would have given to have nothing to hide from her. To be a normal man seeing to a woman in trouble without the guilt banging on the back of my skull with every beat of my heart, reminding me I didn’t deserve this.
    “It’s not that,” she winced, avoiding my gaze again. “I just . . . ” She sighed, resigned. “I haven’t lived here long. Two weeks. I don’t have a place yet.”
    My eyebrows shot up with surprise. “You’ve been . . . what, living in your car?”
    She nodded, embarrassed, and buried her face in her hands as