Ensnare: The Librarian’s Lover #1 (Demon Paranormal Romance) Read online

  Chapter 3

  I dragged my feet back to the return slot and worked through the mess. My thoughts invariably drifted back to the offending book and its multiple personalities. First it was literate, then it wasn't, then it was again, and then the letters were gone. It showed me its title, but it wouldn't show anyone else. I would have felt flattered if the attention was from a boy, but not from a book. I didn't even know if the book was a guy. I paused and thought over my last, well, thoughts, and shook my head. "Now you're thinking a book's alive?" I scolded myself.

  I quashed any further thoughts and sorted through the books until I reached the spot where I'd found the book. There wasn't any note left behind, but I did notice a slip of paper. I grabbed it and unfolded the piece to see there were a few numbers written in a neat hand. "5th, third from bottom, two books from the right," I read aloud.

  "Sounds like a bookshelf," a voice behind me commented.

  I jumped and turned to find Marvin standing close behind me. "Could you all just please stop scaring me?" I pleaded. He ignored my request and snatched the paper from me. "What the hell? Give that back!" I demanded. I fumbled for the slip, but he stepped back and scrutinized the contents.

  "Did this come with the book?" he asked me.

  I scowled and turned away to resume the book sorting. "How the hell should I know? It was just laying here," I told him.

  "Very interesting," he murmured. I ignored his attention bait and resumed my sorting of the books on my cart. He shuffled and coughed. "How very, very interesting," he repeated.

  I sighed, rolled my eyes, and turned back to him. "I give, what's very, very interesting?"

  "This slip of paper is old parchment, and as I mentioned before, these numbers seem to refer to a bookshelf," he replied.

  "So?" I asked him.

  "Don't you see what it means?"

  "No, enlighten me."

  "It means this piece of paper came from the 5th floor of this library, and refers to a book on a shelf third from the bottom and two books to the right."

  I put a blank expression on my face and gave him a golf-clap applause. "Bravo, Sherlock. Now how about you go see if your theory's right and leave me alone?" I suggested.

  He rubbed his chin and slowly nodded his head. "I might just do that. During my break, of course."

  "Of course," I absently agreed. I turned back, tossed the last few books onto my cart and stood. "And speaking of breaks, if Hamish asks where I am tell her I went on mine." I strolled past him and down the main hall with the intention of burying myself in one of those comfortable couches on the third floor. I couldn't trust the cleanliness of the ones on the second floor. Like all good intentions, mine was ruined by a strange sound from Hamish's office.

  I paused and glanced down the hallway that led to her door. The door was partially open, but I couldn't see anyone in there. I walked up to the entrance and peeked inside. Nothing unusual except for the possessed book standing on its bottom on the desk with the cover facing me. Then, with all the creepiness of a haunted house complete with ghosts, lawyers and monsters, the book opened itself.

  My mind demanded I scream and run, but my legs had other plans, especially when my eyes fell on the taunting golden letters on the first page. They glowed so bright they flung shadows on the walls, and I found myself walking toward it. A foot from the desk I stopped and my hand reached for the book. The moment my fingers touched the paper I felt a jolt spring from the paper pages and into me. I yelped and knocked the book onto its back. The tingling sensation raced up my fingers and spread through my body like the warmth of a raging fire. My flesh burned with the flames of a sensual need I'd never known. I shuddered and wrapped my arms to myself. I both feared and delighted in these overwhelming emotions. A bright flash of light from the book caught my attention, and I looked at the pages in time to see the title letters swirl and morph into other words: Take me home.

  I gasped and stumbled back into a pair of thin arms. It was my worried boss. "What in the world are you doing in here?" she exclaimed in a voice that was most definitely not for library use. She noticed my pale face and looked me over. "Are you all right? What happened?"

  "T-that book shocked me and then the words did something," I stuttered. I pointed at the desk, but the book wasn't there. It was down in the box with the cover closed. "B-but it was just there on the desk!"

  Miss Hamish made sure I was steady before she stepped forward and snatched the book from the box. My eyes widened and I held out my hand to grab my boss. "Don't touch-!" Miss Hamish grasped the book, and nothing happened. I was dumbfounded.

  The head librarian looked over the page, and then to me with a worried expression. "I am very disappointed in you today, Leslie. First you don't answer your pager, then you make up wild stories about this book, and now I find you sneaking into my office to look at it." I opened my mouth to argue, but swooned when a final blast of heat hit me. Hamish put her hand on my shoulder and steaded me. "Are you feeling all right?"

  I frowned at the patronizing tone in my boss' voice. "I'm feeling just fine, but there's something wrong with that book. It was standing on its own and the words-"

  "There aren't any words here. See?" Miss Hamish held open the book to me and flipped through the pages. They were all blank. "Nothing there. No title, no words, nothing."

  "B-but they were there! I swear it!" I felt annoyed, confused, scared, and my body still tingled from the jolt of something that came off that book.

  Miss Hamish sighed and put a hand on my shoulder. "Maybe you'd better go home."

  "But-"

  "This isn't up for debate. Go home," Miss Hamish ordered.

  I hung my head and shuffled out of the office to my bag and coat by the exit. I was intercepted by Marvin, who noticed my glum face. "What was all that squawking back there?" he asked me.

  "It was nothing," I mumbled. "Finish the book drop for me, will ya? I have to go home." I pushed past him to the rear exit, grabbed my stuff and headed out to my dorm room.

  The late-day, crisp autumn sun was a refreshing difference to the stuffy library, but not even the beautiful sky above me could break through the confused and angry thoughts swirling in my head. Was I going insane? Had I imagined the book standing there and opening on its own? Had those words really stared back at me and literally begged me to take it home with me?

  I shuddered. No, I hadn't imagined it, or at least not all of it. There was no way I imagined that lustful sensation that raced through my body. I stopped and held up the hand that touched the page. My fingers still tingled, and a warmth still remained just beneath the surface of my quivering flesh. I let out a shuddered breath of air. Such desire and want, and all aimed at me, was both flattering and terrifying. It felt wonderful to be wanted, but it was a book that wanted me.

  I shook my head. "Get a hold of yourself, Leslie. That book probably had a ton of drugs stuffed in the pages and you're just seeing and feeling things," I muttered to myself.

  My mind was convinced, but my heart felt differently. It beat a joyful tune as I strode onward to my dorm across campus. I was lucky to have one of the new apartment dorms, the type that had all the amenities that most students only dreamed of. There was a kitchen, small living room-dining room mix, and a bedroom and bath. I climbed the three flights to my place, stepped inside, and collapsed on my worn couch. I draped my arm over my eyes and sighed. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't get that book off my mind.

  Outside night fell on the campus. It was quiet except for the parties that dotted the dorms assigned to older students. Though I was lucky with my apartment, luck didn't drive away the loneliness I felt in the empty, quiet rooms. To have something to come home to that was my own was one thing, but to have someone to come home to would be something far more grand. I sighed and shook my head. "There you go daydreaming again. What did Hamish tell you about doing that?" I scolded myself.
/>   After a long day in class and on my feet I just wanted to take a nap, but I couldn't get comfortable. That strange heat from the book, at first diminishing, jumped to the forefront once night slipped into my apartment. My body was awash in a desire I couldn't understand and couldn't fight. It covered me with a sensual blanket and pulled me toward the library, toward that book. Ideas swirled into my head about how I could slip in there and see it again. How I could touch and caress that cover, and feeling that warmth glide through me, exciting me with a pleasure I'd never known.

  I grit my teeth and shook my head. "Don't you dare, Leslie Faulkner," I scolded myself.

  My mind brushed aside the strong urge, but my relaxation was ruined. Instead I made the meal of college students, ramen, and sat on the couch with the bowl in front of me. I half-heartedly picked at the noodles and mechanically placed them in my mouth, but they had no flavor. They filled my mouth like sawdust while my body screamed and begged me for another look at that book. I tried to ignore it, but the need would not be brushed aside.

  I lifted another bland forkful of ramen to my mouth and a rush of heat crashed over me. I gasped and my fork clattered to the ground. My body was on fire. It was a warmth so hot that all I could do was lean back on the couch and let it have its way with me. It covered my body with grasping hands of fire that touched and teased my shivering flesh. I groaned and gasped as the flames pooled in my groin. My panties were soaked with a desire I desperately wanted fulfilled, but the fire refused. It demanded something in return, and that something was the book.

  I couldn't fight it any longer. I needed to touch that book, to savor the pleasure it brought me. I convinced myself I would just take a peak and run out of there. Nobody would see me, and I would see the book. I hurriedly grabbed my coat and raced out of my apartment to the library. The back entrance was deserted, and I opened the door and stuck my head inside. I could hear Marvin and Miss Hamish's voices echo down the hall, but the softness of the sounds told me they were at the front desk. I slunk inside, softly closed the door behind me, and tiptoed down the hall to Miss Hamish's office.

  The office door lay open and I crept over to the Lost box. On the top was the book, my book. It stared back at me with its empty face, but I swear there was a smile in the creases of that animal skin. I reach out to it, but hesitate. My fingers hovered over the binding as I was wracked by inner turmoil. My mind screamed at me to run, to flee from this strange, unexplainable thing, while my body screamed for the opposite. The carnal desires within me won out, and I grasped the book in my hand. I gasped when I experienced the same tingling sensation as before, and as before the warmth flowed into me from the blank cover.

  My pleasure was interrupted by a noise behind me. I was both furious and frightened at the interruption, but I grabbed the book and ducked beneath the desk. I clutched the book against my chest, and was awash in its lustful warmth. I leaned back against the desk and closed my eyes as the fire rolled over me like a hundred hands. It massaged every part of my flesh with invisible fingers and pressed against my sensitive clit with the soft insistence of a lover.

  I bit my lip to keep from groaning as I saw Miss Hamish's feet enter the room and walk up to a nearby bookshelf. The sensual heat slipped and slid across my tingling, aching body as my mind screamed at me to stop this insanity. I needed to reveal myself to Hamish and tell her what I was doing. I needed to burn this book before something bad happened. I needed to-

  -I needed to do a lot of things, but my own lust brushed aside reason and replaced it with desire. I knew I wanted-no, needed the book, and to hell with what my mind told me. Hamish didn't stay too long in her office, and in a minute I was alone. I slunk out from beneath the desk covered in sweat and gasping for air. My shivering hands tightly gripped the book and I raced out of the library before I was spotted. I didn't stop running until I got to the safety of my apartment where I could enjoy my precious new toy.