Free I Know What You Read by Keara Kevay

wine—yeah, that should make her day fade away.  She didn’t have to go into the office on Friday because she had three events to cover over the weekend, two on Saturday and one on Sunday, so she could sleep-in tomorrow morning.
    Once the water reached the right temperature, she put in the plug, added her fragrant pomegranate bubble bath then headed for the kitchen. Hell, she thought as she looked at the half bottle of Cabernet in her fridge, I’ll just take the whole thing!  She grabbed a glass and the bottle and headed for her slowly filling tub.
    She needed a long, hot soak to unwind her nerves before bed, and hopefully her brain would stop going over their expressions as she made her confession.  What was funny was that it didn’t seem to bother Ethan; she seemed to think that he found it a turn-on.  Julian, on the other hand, appeared to be genuinely upset, but she could tell he was trying to hide those feelings.
    After a forty-five minute soak, and two glasses of wine downed, she pulled her drowsy self from the comfortable bath. She dried and slipped on her silk night top and shorts and headed for bed.  She was chuckling as she considered the fact that Noah had a ‘prettier’ bedroom set than she did.  Not that she cared; her bed was comfortable and that was all that mattered, but it was still funny—or maybe it was the wine that made it so laughable—nah, it was funny. She turned off her bedroom light and crawled beneath the comforter and drifted into oblivion. 
    Something disturbed her sleep around two a.m., but not enough to wake her completely.  Her mind dismissed the odd noise and wandered back trying to recapture the dream she’d been having about finding a kitten in the oak tree in her front yard.  She felt something cold against her wrists and then a metallic sound so close and loud that she instantly woke.
    Shocked, terrified, and panicked didn’t come close to describing what she felt as she realized there was a dark, ski-masked figure kneeling beside her bed.  She opened her mouth to scream, but she barely made a squeak before a gloved hand covered her mouth.  Handcuffs were around her slender wrists and her arms were being brought over her head to be clipped to the wrought iron in her headboard.
    She was screaming, “No, no, no,” beneath the hand, as she struggled.
    She could hear this person shushing her.  He wasn’t saying more than, “Shhh, shhh,” at first as she continued to fight against him, but then he said something that froze her in place.
    He placed his mouth near her ear and whispered, “I—know—what—you—read.”
    The whisper had been incredibly quiet, practically no more than a breath. 
    She swallowed hard, “Noah?  Please, please, Noah, don’t do this.”
    He didn’t respond as he lifted what appeared to be a silky, padded sleep mask to place over her eyes.  Just as he was sliding it in place, and utter blackness was descending, she saw his sleeve slide back exposing several inches of his wrist.
    ‘Oh my God!’ was her only thought as she realized this man didn’t have a tattoo —it’s not Noah!
    She began sobbing uncontrollably as he gently lifted her head and slipped the band over her hair to secure the covering.
    He continued with his soft shushing sound, intermingled with the breathless whispers that he wasn’t going to hurt her. 
    She was trying to force herself to be quiet so she could identify him by his voice, but he simply spoke too softly.  Once she was secured and utterly helpless, everything stilled.
    “What do you want?” she choked.  She could tell by the soft sounds that he was removing his gloves and ski mask.
    “Sex,” he whispered.
    She panicked again, trying to scream ‘No!’, but this time she felt his bare hand cover her mouth.
    “Okay—shhh—okay,” he said with a slight increase in volume.
    She felt as if she could almost make out the voice.  She needed him to say more.
    “Please,” she continued begging,