Fire, Fury, Faith
Page 10
Alastar reached across the table, his warm, strong hand finding hers. “Tell me.”
“Old story, I’m afraid. Woman stays with her abuser, thinking she can change him, believing if she can only be a better wife or mother the abuse will stop.” That kind of thinking only gets you killed.
Alastar’s hand tightened, just shy of painful, forcing Zora’s eyes to focus on him instead of the image of Nina, dark glasses and makeup unable to hide the heat of her husband’s rage two nights before.
In that moment, when their eyes met, Zora swore she glimpsed Alastar’s soul, his own heat swirling in his pale-brown irises, a flickering flame threatening to ignite. But it held, just below his calm surface, slowly dimming as time stretched between them, their hands linked, Alastar’s thumb stroking Zora’s wrist. She wondered who Alastar was trying to calm by the gentle touch.
Her?
Him?
“Even after everything he’s done to her,” Zora continued, needing something to distract her from Alastar’s unsettling intensity, the odd potency of his gaze, his touch luring and strangely compelling, “I don’t think she’ll leave him. I’ve given her the names and addresses of several women’s shelters. But…"
Zora eased her hand away from Alastar’s, needing the cocoon distance always afforded her. He gave it, but there had been reluctance in his eyes.
“After she left, I decided to stay awhile.”
An hour later she’d spotted Jose watching her from the other side of the bar. Thirty-five minutes after that, Darnell had come rushing into the bar, cell phone up to his ear, glancing around Jenk’s, looking like the bodyguard of old. Those hawk eyes of his had found Jose almost immediately, who then nodded in Zora’s direction. She loved them both dearly, but sometimes…
“Contrary to what you may believe, Mr. Too-Quick-to-Judge, I do like hot wings.” She admitted with a sheepish grin, “I don’t, however, use my mouth to clean my fingers. I prefer hand wipes.”
Alastar’s eyes dropped to her mouth and licked those sexy lips she couldn’t help imagining on her most needy, intimate places.
“Pity,” he returned.
The heat in Jenk’s jumped a hundred degrees. Suddenly, Zora was aware of too many sensations assaulting her body. Racing heart. Sweaty palms. Aching nipples. Throbbing sex.
Hell, she wished she hadn’t thought about throbbing sex because with the way Alastar kept staring at her and the way she was surprisingly returning that heated look, there was no way the man didn’t know the effect he was having on her. And the fact that now all she could think about was having throbbing hot sex with him.
A stranger. What in the hell is wrong with you, girl? It hasn’t been that long.
Oh, but it had. Yet Zora knew whatever this was—and it was something—going on between them, it had nothing to do with Zora’s twelve-month bout of celibacy. She had never been one of those women who’d felt she had to always have a man in her life and in her bed. Zora was far too independent for that. So why was the urge to have this man so great?
Continue Reading Zora and Alastar’s Story Here.
ABOUT
N. D. Jones, Ed.D. is a USA Today bestselling author who lives in Maryland with her husband and two children. In her desire to see more novels with positive, sexy, and three-dimensional African American characters as soul mates, friends, and lovers, she took on that challenge herself. Along with the fantasy romance series Forever Yours, and a contemporary romance trilogy, The Styles of Love, she has authored three paranormal romance series: Winged Warriors, Death and Destiny, and Dragon Shifter Romance.
OTHER BOOKS BY N.D. JONES
Winged Warriors Novella Series (Paranormal Romance)
Fire, Fury, Faith (Book 1)
Heat, Hunt, Hope (Book 2)
Death and Destiny Trilogy (Paranormal Romance)
Of Fear and Faith (Book 1)
Of Beasts and Bonds (Book 2)
Of Deception and Divinity (Book 3)
Forever Yours Series (Fantasy Romance)
Bound Souls (Book 1)
Fated Paths (Book 2)
Dragon Shifter Romance (Standalone Novels)
Stones of Dracontias: The Bloodstone Dragon
Dragon Lore and Love: Isis and Osiris
The Styles of Love Trilogy (Contemporary Romance)
The Perks of Higher Ed (Book 1)
The Wish of Xmas Present (Book 2)
The Gift of Second Chances (Book 3)
Rhythm and Blue Skies: Malcolm and Sky’s Complete Story
The Styles of Love Trilogy: The Complete Series
Sins of the Sister (Dark Fantasy Short Story)
Fairy Tale Fatale Series (Paranormal and Urban Fantasy)
Crimson Hunter: A Red Riding Hood Reimagining
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