Stealing Kathryn by Jacquelyn Frank

for doing something wrong, and his entire face darkened with a mix of irritability and resignation. He looked back at Kathryn as if he hated the idea of leaving her in any way, and Kathryn couldn’t help the hot blush that raced over her in spite of her confused thoughts and emotions. She had a thousand questions and uncertainties, but it seemed her body was quite sure of itself and what it wanted. And it seriously craved the idea of being back in Adrian’s hands.
    Adrian gave a soft, short growl of frustration before he turned on his heel and marched off in Aerlyn’s direction. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she could swear the brother gnashed his teeth at the sister as he passed her. If he did, she made no sign she cared about it in the least. Instead, she beckoned softly to Kathryn.
    “Come, it’s time you were resting again,” she said.
    Adrian snarled fiercely at his sister, his fists clenching with the effort not to strike her again for keeping him from his precious treasure. She might be trying to force him to give her up, but he certainly didn’t have to like it, and he wasn’t going to waste his remaining time with her by pussyfooting around things. He was overwhelmed by the way she had responded to him. He had never expected she would…but then again, she hadn’t realized she was being touched by a monster. He could never have attempted anything close to that in his real form without ensuring she’d scream the world down on them all.
    The thought made him even angrier and he knew his sister could sense that because she took a cautious step back away from him.
    “You cannot accost the girl in such ways!” she scolded him fiercely. “And you cannot tell her things that are in her mind that she has not spoken aloud. You are going to ruin the protection of the dream!”
    “I don’t give a damn,” he bit out. “This dream was not my idea! I don’t know why I ever agreed to go along with it!”
    “Because you know that there would be consequences to your actions far harsher than me scolding you if we do not get her back to her home seamlessly, without her realizing just how real we are! How real you are.”
    “I like that I feel real to her. She is not afraid of me when I touch her.” He rumbled with appreciation, the sound accenting the expression on his face and hands that reached out as if they were ready to grasp Kathryn once again.
    “That is only because she doesn’t know your true face, Adrian,” she said as gently as she could, trying to remind him that this was all illusion no matter how they sliced it. “If she did, she would be repulsed and would run away as frightened as ever from you. You know that. Why are you making this so difficult?”
    Adrian clenched his fists, wanting to scream at her what was so obvious to him. Why wasn’t it obvious to her? Kathryn was his! Body and soul, she belonged to him, and the more he touched, the more painful it all became, the more certain he was of his choice. Just the way she had responded to him had convinced him of it. But nothing he said was going to make Aerlyn see that truth. His sister was determined to take Kathryn away from him. And as far as he was concerned, that made her the enemy. One that he had to defeat at all costs.
    He worked up a tight-lipped smile.
    “I will not make it difficult any longer,” he said.
    The capitulation made his sister wary. She loved her brother with all of her heart, but she didn’t trust him as far as she could spit, and that wasn’t very far at all. Tomorrow, she thought. This all must end tomorrow. For some reason Kathryn’s presence alone was like tormenting a savage dog with a treat, dangling it in front of his nose, yet yanking it away every time he got close to it. Eventually, the dog would lose patience and get to the snack no matter what, even if it meant biting off its master’s hand. But with the heart of a sister it was hard to suspect the worst of him all the time. She