Free Seduced by Danger by Stephanie Julian Page A

Lady.”
    “I’m so glad to hear that. And please do rise. All the blood will rush to your head and you’ll pass out. Wouldn’t want to scare your son. He’s kept us entertained all morning. He’s delightful.”
    “Yes, Lady,” Michael said as he rose. “He’s…the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He and Cara.”
    Hinthial’s slow smile made the tightness in his chest ease just a little. “I’m very glad to hear you say that.” She tossed Nortia a smile. “You owe me five.”
    Nortia grinned back. “And I’ll gladly pay up. Cara’s fine, Michael. She asked to go to the temple so Sal sent her. She’ll be safe there.”
    Temple. They must mean Uni’s Temple. He’d never been there. The Mal weren’t welcome there.
    Nortia tsked , breaking through his thoughts. “You know, Michael, we get really sick and tired of the Mal using that old chestnut to excuse their manners.”
    “Oh, cut the boy some slack, Tilly. He doesn’t know any better.”
    If his head hadn’t been swimming already, Michael figured it’d be spinning around like a top now.
    Focus. You’ve got to focus.
    He needed to get to Cara, had to see her to know for himself that she was okay. The need felt almost like a virus in his blood, a compulsion.
    “Daddy.” Aron tugged on his hand and Michael automatically bent to pick him up. “Come watch with me.”
    “I can’t right now, luri . I have to talk to Salvatorus . But when I come back with Mommy, I’ll watch whatever you want, okay?”
    Aron gave a bright smile and smacked a kiss on his mouth. “Okay, Daddy.”
    Michael set Aron back on the floor and turned back to the goddesses, both of whom smiled at him, stunning him into silence.
    He’d been raised in a Mal household. His father had been Mal , his mother’s father had been Mal . He knew no other way of life.
    His parents and grandparents had ingrained in him from childhood that most of the Etruscan deities had forsaken the Mal , that they’d shunned them centuries ago. That action had caused the Mal to put their considerable forces into becoming the powerful entity they were today.
    With the exception of Veive , God of Revenge, the Mal now worshipped money and power above all else.
    Michael had been the same. Until he’d seen Cara.
    And what had started as him coveting a beautiful woman had brought him here. To a woman he loved and a son he adored. To the home of a male who should hate him yet had saved his life. In the presence of two goddesses who should want to zap him into Aitás .
    Who were smiling at him as if he were a decent man.
    But he wasn’t.
    His breath caught in his throat and he bowed then got the hell out of there before the goddesses changed their mind and decided he was a liability they could no longer stand.
    In a daze, Michael left the room and headed for the kitchen.
    Where Sal sat with the rest of the local paper spread out on the table.
    “You look like you could use some coffee.” Sal hopped off his chair and headed for the coffeepot on the counter. “Have a seat, son, before you trip over your feet.”
    He sat. What else could he do? “Why did you send her alone, Sal?”
    Sal poured a cup of coffee and set it down in front of him before answering. “Because she asked and she’s not a prisoner or a child. She’s an adult who went through one of the worst experiences a person could imagine and came through with her sanity intact and her heart pure. She’s a mother who’s raised a son on her own for the past year and she’s done a damn good job of it.”
    Okay, that pretty much put him in his place.
    For several seconds, Michael stared at his coffee, steaming untouched in front of him. Then he asked the question that was really bothering him. “So how did I know she was out of the house before I even got out of bed?”
    From Sal’s sigh, Michael knew he was going to like the answer to this question even less than the answer to his first.
    “You died, son. You were on your way to