“Why the interest in old books?” she asked in an attempt to steer her thoughts away from this touch.
He gripped her chin and turned her face toward him. “Do you always talk your way out of uncomfortable situations?”
Her eyes widened at his arrogance as well as the truth of his observation. She opened her mouth but found no words of denial.
Thankfully, Lann let her off the hook by dropping the subject. For a while they looked at the books in silence, Lann waiting patiently until she had had her fill.
When she returned the gloves, he left them in a basket on the side, and said, “Come. I want to show you something.”
“There’s more?”
She followed him to a narrow staircase in the corner. At the bottom, he turned to give her a smile, a gesture that almost seemed encouraging.
“What’s up there?”
“My den.”
She couldn’t help but be curious. He led the way to the top level where a landing broad enough to walk on ran around the shelves. There was a door in the corner. As she waited for Lann to unlock it, she had the feeling of being Alice in Wonderland, about to pass through a secret door. It was so low even Kat had to bend to pass through it. It made her expect something small, maybe a tiny storeroom with more books, but it was a big, comfortable room with a slanted ceiling and a skylight through which she could see the stars. The walls were covered with wooden panels and lined with shelves full of books. It was fitted with an oversized desk, a leather sofa and a wrought iron four-poster bed. The carpet was a rich burgundy color and the bed linen deep shades of red. Cushions were scattered everywhere, even on the floor. It looked like the perfect place to read. A den, just as he had said.
She smiled. “This is cozy.”
“It’s the vault. It’s fireproof. This is where I keep the most precious books.”
She looked at the skylight. “Even with that?”
“It’s fitted with a metal shutter that closes automatically in case of a fire.”
Her eyes flittered to the bed. “You sleep here?”
“No, I don’t sleep here. Sometimes I read here, until late, but that’s what the sofa is for. The bed is for making love.”
Her insides scrambled. Her body flushed. He’d stepped up to her, standing very close to her now. If she took a deep breath, her breasts would brush against his chest.
She shook her head, making her curls tumble over her shoulders. “Why are you showing me this?”
“Why do you think?” he asked softly.
She stood very still, the silence stretching between them. Lifting a hand, he traced the curve of her breast with a finger.
Desire and fear knotted together, making a confusing mass of both her body and mind. She stepped back, escaping the touch. “I have to go.”
He tilted his head. “Maybe, but do you want to?”
“Yes,” she said, putting assertiveness into her tone.
“I don’t think you do.”
“How would you know?”
“Your breathing is shallower.” He took her hand in his, tracing the lines of her palm with a thumb. “Your palms are sweaty.” His eyes lowered to her breasts. “And there are other signs.”
She gasped in horror, because he was right. “It’s nothing but shock at your boldness.”
“Whether it’s shock or need, the pleasure I’d give you would be no less intense.”
He was dangerous, much more than the media gave him credit for. A man like Lann would chew her up and spit her out. She was no match for him. Turning on her heel, she hurried down the stairs to the exit, eager to escape into the dark, cool night. She ran into the garden until she stood face to face with the statue of Saint Teresa.
Lann followed her outside, but he did so in his own sweet time, leaving her alone for at least a minute to calm down, or maybe to sweat it out. When he stopped short of her, she took a step back.
He frowned at her. “I never force, Katherine.”
His proximity was disturbing. “I’m going home, Lann.”
He seemed to consider it for a while. “Give me one good reason why you won’t stay.”
“For starters, I’m serious about my studies. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I don’t have time for relationships or casual flings.”
He nodded. “We can work around that.”
“No,” she said firmly, “we won’t work around anything. Thank you for dinner. I’m leaving now.”
“Alright,” he said, “I’ll tell my driver to take you home.”
The fact that he gave in so easily should have had her sighing with relief. Instead it scared her.
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Afterword
Dear Reader,
Thank you very much for joining me on Joss and Clelia’s adventure. If you enjoyed the story, please consider leaving a short review on your favorite review or vendor site to help other readers discover the book. Every review makes a huge difference.
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Hugs,
Charmaine
Also by Charmaine Pauls
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(Enemies-to-Lovers Dark Romance)
Darker Than Love
(Second Chance Romance)
Catch Me Twice
Diamond Magnate Novels
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Standalone Novel
(Dark Forced Marriage Romance)
Beauty in the Broken
Diamonds are Forever Trilogy
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Diamonds in the Dust
Diamonds in the Rough
Diamonds are Forever
The Loan Shark Duet
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Dubious
Consent
Box Set
The Age Between Us Duet
(Older Woman Younger Man Romance)
Old Enough
Young Enough
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Krinar World Novels
(Futuristic Romance)
The Krinar Experiment
The Krinar’s Informant
Seven Forbidden Arts Series
(Dark Paranormal Romance)
Pyromancist (Fire)
Aeromancist, The Beginning (Air)
Audiobooks
Standalone Novels
(Enemies-to-Lovers Dark Romance)
Darker Than Love
Diamonds are Forever Trilogy
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Diamonds in the Dust
Diamonds in the Rough
Diamonds are Forever
The Loan Shark Duet
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Dubious
Consent
Krinar World Novels
(Futuristic Romance)
The Krinar’s Informant
Book Blurbs
Diamond Magnate Novels
(Dark Mafia & Forced Marriage / Revenge Romance)
Standalone Novel
Beauty in the Broken
Six years ago, Harold Dalton framed me for theft and sent me to jail to steal my diamond discovery. He gave his daughter to Jack Clarke in exchange for the excavation rights. Today I’m walking free, and I’m coming for him with a vengeance. Six years of cruelty make beasts out of men. I’m going to take back what he stole from me, and more. I’m not interested in his properties or shares. I don’t want his small change. I want his biggest asset. Beautiful, mentally unstable, Angelina Dalton-Clarke.
Worth billions, she’s the wealthiest widow in the country, and also the craziest. Her self-harming tendencies had Jack declare her in
competent before he put a gun to his head and blew out his brains. Lina isn’t allowed to touch a cent of her riches. Her father manages her finances. He has all the signing power. As her husband, that chore will fall to me. But if she thinks I only want her for her money, she’s sadly mistaken.
Diamonds are Forever Trilogy
Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1)
Men like us, we see things.
We do things, things that make us unfeeling.
That’s the price of power and money, of living la belle vie and running the French mafia. Then she came along like a pretty wildflower pushing through the cracks on a dirty pavement—fragile yet resilient, a breath of beauty among the filth. She was supposed to be just another job, a nameless person I was to pluck from her life and hand to my brother, nothing but a pawn in the gamble of our diamond business.
There’s a psychological label for men like us.
We lack empathy and guilt.
We do things to have what we want, things that make flowers wilt.
Diamonds in the Rough (Book 2)
Girls like me, we know how to survive.
We each have our own little ways, but we acquire those skills at the same tender age.
If you ask me how many times a person can die, I’ll tell you many times. As many times as a man stabs you in the stomach with betrayal and wrings out your heart with lies.
Girls like me, we live.
We don’t get a choice.
We step over the cliff and fall.
Eat, sleep, die, and repeat.
Diamonds are Forever (Book 3)
My love is wasted like gemstones in the dust, walked over by an oblivious shoe. It takes many suffering years and layers of mountains to squeeze carbon into a precious stone. Now that I’m polished and hard like a diamond, he doesn’t get to kick me back into the dirt.
Men like him don’t love women like me.
They don’t love.
Period.
But he made me.
He’ll live with me.
Because diamonds are forever.
Standalone Novels
(Enemies-to-Lovers Dark Romance)
Darker Than Love
Once upon a cold, dark night, a Russian killer stole me from an alley. I’m dangerous, but he is lethal. I escaped once. He won’t let me do it twice.
The revenge is his. The betrayal is mine. But so are the lies to protect the ones I love.
We’re cut from the same twisted cloth. Both merciless. Both damaged. In his embrace, I find hell and heaven, his cruelly tender touch destroying and uplifting me at once.
They say a cat has nine lives, but an assassin has just one. And Yan Ivanov now owns mine.
(Second Chance Romance)
Catch Me Twice
If a man tells you he’s no good for you, best heed the warning. I learned the hard way. I had Jake Basson’s baby. He left to chase his dream. Now he’s back, demanding a second chance, but why should I give him anything after four years of nothing? No correspondence, no news. I finally have my life back on track. Jake has never been uncomplicated. He never follows the rules. I should’ve known he’d play dirty in his war to win me back. He caught me once. I’m not going to let him catch me twice.
The Loan Shark Duet
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Dubious (Book 1)
I’m a loan shark. Breaking people is in my blood. The Haynes’s were supposed to be a straightforward job. Go in and pull the trigger twice. One bullet for Charlie, one for his sister. But when I saw Valentina, I wanted her. Only, in our world, those who owe us don’t get second chances. No way in hell will my mother let her live. So I devised a plan to keep her.
It’s depraved.
It’s immoral.
It’s dubious.
It’s perfect.
Just like her.
Consent (Book 2)
When Gabriel broke down my door, he took over my body and life. Never with force, but always with clever manipulation. He stripped me of my independence, my defenses, and my clothes and turned me into an addict. My addiction is him.
Once, I had dreams and a future. Now I have fears, scars, and insatiable needs. I’m damaged beyond repair, but if I’m to survive the most dangerous man in Johannesburg, I can’t allow him to break me, because broken toys are destined for the garbage dump.
Box Set (Book 1 & 2)
The Age Between Us Duet
(Older Woman Younger Man Romance)
Old Enough (Book 1)
Society says I'm too young for her. What do they know? It's not my age that matters. It's my experience. I’m everything she never knew she needed. Meeting her was no coincidence. How and why our paths crossed are every shade of twisted and wrong, but she’ll never know. I'm taking those sinister secrets to my grave. I’m keeping her forever, no matter what it takes.
Young Enough (Book 2)
I thought I’d lost everything. My life was in tatters when a man half my age broke into my property and invaded my future. Our love is forbidden, but I’m single and he’s all the taboo I crave. For once in my life, why not? But what if I start wanting more than a fleeting love affair? What if his secrets will destroy me? I had no idea how much more I was about to lose.
Box Set (Book 1 & 2)
Krinar World Novels
(Futuristic Romance)
The Krinar Experiment
When Drako’s space pod malfunctions over Johannesburg, his secret reconnaissance mission goes horribly wrong. Wounded in the crash, he’s captured by the South African Secret Service who sees an opportunity to strengthen their army and make a fortune by using the alien pilot in an unorthodox experiment. They send a female to tend to Drako’s injuries, a human girl with the pretty name of Ilse who’s sweet and caring. The perfume of her skin is like a drug, her blood an aphrodisiac. He can still smell her and taste her on his tongue. Her betrayal cuts deeper than the testing and torture. No matter. His escape is pending. When he comes back to Earth, it will be to find her, and when he does, he’ll show as little mercy as she did.
These are the events that led to the Krinar Earth Invasion. This is the untold story.
The Krinar’s Informant
Zavir is a guardian. He’s the best the Krinar has. His assigned vocation is to uncover the Resistance movements popping up around the earth, and eliminate them. New information about a fast-growing Resistance camp sends him to Costa Rica, home of the largest Krinar Center. His informant is a human girl. She wants to make a deal—her traitorous family’s lives in exchange for information—but Zavir doesn’t make deals, and he takes no prisoners. When the time comes to wipe out the secret organization, his pretty, innocent little mole will learn the truth. She made a deal with the devil, and the price is something far more tantalizing than information.
Seven Forbidden Arts Series
(Dark Paranormal Romance)
(Each book in the Seven Forbidden Arts series reads as a standalone, but there’s also a series arc.)
Pyromancist (Book 1, Fire)
Fifty houses have been burned to the ground in a fisherman’s village in France. Who would do such a thing? Why target the quiet little village? The police say it’s arson, but their forensic scientists can’t find the cause. If Clelia isn’t the guilty party, then why did the fires start at the same time as her sleepwalking? Why is she dreaming about Joss, her secret childhood crush who abandoned their village nine years earlier? She doesn’t know why Joss is coming for her in her nightmare. All she knows is that she has to run. As fast as she can.
Aeromancist, The Beginning (Book 2, Air)
All that Russian aeromancist Lann Dréan wants is to enjoy a month of peace in the privately owned monastery in Santiago he is turning into a home. When an American literature student walks into his library of antique books, his holiday intentions change. The untouchable Lann is inexplicably enraptured. For all his famed control, he can’t stay away from Katherine White.
Gifted with a hunted talent and a price on
his head, the best Lann can offer Kat are thirty days of unrivalled passion before returning to his paranormal crime task force in New York. If Kat consents to his terms, she will agree to walk away on Day Thirty. Forever. But his uncontainable desire comes with an unforeseen and devastating price.
About the Author
Charmaine Pauls was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. She obtained a degree in Communication at the University of Potchefstroom and followed a diverse career path in journalism, public relations, advertising, communication, and brand marketing. Her writing has always been an integral part of her professions.
Pyromancist SECOND EDITION: Art of Fire (7 Forbidden Arts Book 1) Page 33