Chapter 1 #3
“Release me.” She wiggled against his embrace.
“You won’t kill me.” He loosened his grip.
“Are you willing to bet your life on it?” She cleared her throat, knowing she should step away.
“Yes.”
“What are you?”
“I’m alone.”
Time slowed. Her eyes blurred with unshed tears for him. The tightness in her chest made breathing hard. Why does the thought of you alone hurt so much?
A magnetic center pulled them together. Her body refused to unlock itself from him despite knowing she could easily escape. People walked past but showed no hint they detected them. He must be shielding them.
“What do you want from me?” She longed for him to make this a beginning.
There’s a reason he was scrubbed from my memory. Remember that.
“What don’t I want from you?” he rasped out as if in pain.
My body might think you’re hotter than the fires of hell, but I don’t understand this. “Don’t come near me again.”
He slow-blinked, a lazy open and shut of his eyelids, clearly unimpressed with her threat.
Never one to miss the advantage of surprise, she gripped his head with her free hand and pulled his lips to hers while keeping the knife against his throat.
She had to know if this desire was real or magic.
Only surprise could break a magical hold he might have on her. Her rational mind screamed: run.
She should escape, but…
His mouth parted. A hiss emerged from him.
She gasped when his hand gently cradled the back of her head, and his tongue plunged into her mouth.
The sweetness of his taste and the confidence of each pulsation of his tongue suggested this man knew how to dole out satisfaction.
Longing like she’d never experienced, or maybe had been forced to forget, swamped her.
This could all be fake. It could be magic.
I don’t care. Her head fell back as he kissed along her chin and neck.
She grabbed the sleeve of his dark jacket with her free hand, crushing the material.
It had been so long since she’d been held by a male.
Ages since she’d been anything other than the matriarch who kept the family secure and found a morsel of joy in blowing off demon’s heads.
Eons since she felt like her breasts and skin were anything other than areas to be dressed up in stylish clothes. This mage made her want more.
The muscles of her shoulders tightened as that sense of familiarity hit again. Of rightness and…
He pulled away to make eye contact. “Admit it. No one, not even your new boyfriend, kisses you like me.”
What boyfriend? She had sensed something watching when she’d met with her deceased mate’s brother, Ian, last week. Not a romantic encounter. The lycan had threatened her.
Aha! Everything about the mage allowing her to catch him tonight made sense. Jealousy.
She teased her blade down the line of his neck while testing if he could pick up on her thoughts. She forced herself to remember a time when she’d seen Ian naked in his bedroom, an accident a long time ago. Not something she wished to repeat.
Every part of him tensed. If he could kill with a solitary scowl, she’d be dead.
Get. Out. Of my head.
He jerked as if she slapped him. Horizontal wrinkles spread across his forehead. “Was that the lycan you met with in the restaurant? That can’t have been Ian Lanzo. Tell me you didn’t…not with him.”
She pricked his neck with the blade’s tip and watched the blood bead. “Perhaps it was Ian. Perhaps I did.” Everything inside her chilled. “Are you a friend to him?”
“Never. He was a nasul sap. And vov si mulo. Don’t go near him.”
What was that language?
“Are you the person the demon warned me about?”
“What does your gut tell you?”
She gazed deep into his dark eyes, which held a strange glow. This mage might be deadly, but if he wanted her dead, she would already be gone. She whispered, “No.”
“This addiction of yours to go on solo outings to get target practice with demon heads is out of control,” a male with a British accent yelled at her.
“Roman is in a snit about the mess you left. You might be my fight or die, love, but…” Efrem’s voice trailed off.
“Who the bloody hell is this?” The lycan emoted 007 with his impeccable thousand-dollar suit and his Walther PPK now aimed at the mage.
Over the centuries, Efrem had become her caretaker, co-conspirator, bodyguard, general life manager, and partner in business as contract assassins.
She had no doubt he could hit the mage anywhere he wanted, even with their bodies entangled.
She held up her hand to call off Efrem.
With a forced lip scrunch of disgust she addressed the mage, “I had to see if I felt anything. I felt nothing. Also, too much tongue.” She pushed away from him. “My ride has arrived.”
As she strolled away and grabbed Efrem’s arm to pull him with her, she heard the mage whisper on the night air, “You felt it, miri thagarni.”
She paused to swivel. “Next time, I won’t show restraint. I’ll end you.”
His answer was a low laugh that shot a wave of longing through her center.