She came violently, almost painfully. Mortals shouldn’t know such pleasure, she would think later on. They weren’t capable of processing it all, of savoring it for all its massive details and tiny nuances. It was like having a wild seizure, her body jolting out of her control, sensation riding her as he was, pulsing into her as he was. Her release triggered his, and he lost all of his grace and strength, just as helpless to it as she was. There was so much delight in that for her that she crested again, way before she had even finished coming down from the initial high.
He dropped onto her only after long, hard, emptying thrusts into her that seemed to go on forever. His weight was heavy, restricting her breath when all she wanted to do was suck in oxygen. He tried to coordinate himself enough to move, but he couldn’t do it. She wrapped her arms around him to hold him tight, telling him she was just fine.
Telling him she was perfect.
And when he did finally catch his breath, he turned his head to whisper in her ear.
“I don’t love you.”
Remembering that he had insisted this went beyond love, the greatest emotion in the universe, she smiled.
“I don’t love you, too,” she said softly.
EPILOGUE
Jackson stood numbly inside the entryway of the Saugerties police department. The first thing he did was look toward Marissa’s closed door. He couldn’t help it. She was the only one in his present life, outside of Docia, who had shared what had just happened to him. He walked over to her, ignoring the questions and greetings of the others who had been waiting to hear from him for the past day as he’d tried to find some kind of reconciliation with his new existence.
At the very least, he had come to a decision.
He walked into the room without knocking, startling her. She jumped out of her seat, fussing awkwardly to smooth her skirt and the stray wave of hair he’d caught her twisting around her finger. Aha! Finally! The queen of perfect had a foible after all. Or perhaps it was newly formed after what she had gone through. The Bodywalkers assured him that she wouldn’t remember anything … at least not in a way that would make it seem like anything more than a vivid dream. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t affect her on a subconscious level.
“Sergeant Waverly, it’s traditional to knock,” she said with a frown as she walked around her desk to confront him. She was wearing a pair of stilettos in a hounds-tooth fabric meant to make them look respectable, but honestly that was impossible, because they were doing too fine a job of making already long legs look like walking sin. Hallelujah. And damn.
Jackson sighed.
“I’ve come here to …” He took a breath, and mentally his subconscious stepped back and let Menes come to the forefront. He leaned toward her. “I’m putting you on notice, Marissa.”
Marissa went very still, like the hunted creature she was about to become.
“W-what?” Her shock almost made him feel a little better about it.
“I think you can sense what I mean,” he prompted, coming close enough to drop his voice and whisper his next words against her hair. “I think you have sensed more than that all along.”
She swallowed, reaching nervously to tuck the loose coil of hair she’d been toying with behind her ear.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said.
“Then I suppose I’m going to have to enlighten you,” he said, smiling when she couldn’t control the shiver that skipped through her entire body. “I’ve come to realize that there is no one on this planet, in this time, more intriguing than you are. You are a puzzle, and a pretty one at that. I think perhaps it would be a terrible shame if I were to let you slip away from me.”
“Th-that would be highly inappropriate, since you are my—”
“I’ll quit the force, then. There. The professional relationship is severed.”
“What?” she gasped, a look of shock on her face. “You can’t possibly be serious!”
Menes smiled for her, the slow smile that had captured the heart of his queen over and over again, one century after another.
“Gorgeous Marissa, I have never been more serious in my life.”
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Table of Contents
Also by Jacquelyn Frank
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Glossary and Pronunciation Table
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Forbidden Page 32