by Vivi Anna, Sylvia Day, Delilah Devlin, Cathryn Fox, Myla Jackson, Lisa Renee Jones
She blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
Of course it had been a dream. A very real, vivid, sexually satisfying dream. She must have simply kinked her shoulder in her sleep. Her mind urged her to believe none of it was real, because the alternate was much too scary to consider. Yet something in her gut compelled her to examine this further.
Desperately trying to shrug off her worries, she showered and grabbed a quick bite for breakfast. Before she headed out her front door, she took a moment to look at the locket draped around her neck. A cold shiver ran through her veins as her hands closed over it. When she brushed her fingers over the incantation a movement in the corner of her room caught her eye.
She turned in time to watch her cat jump up on her side table. Misty sat perfectly still, staring at the portrait of Zarek. The tiny hairs on the back of Caira’s neck tingled as Misty starched her spine in apprehension.
The poor animal looked spooked. Caira crossed her arms and hugged herself. The cat wasn’t the only one spooked. “Misty, come here.”
The cat didn’t budge. She sat there, immobile. An uneasy feeling closed in on Caira as she glanced around the room. Her gaze settled on the clock. If she didn’t get moving she was going to be late. That wasn’t good for business. She’d have to deal with her cat when she got home.
Stepping outside her apartment, she locked the door and made her way to her car. The whole time something in the back of her mind kept nagging at her. She’d never seen Misty act like that before.
But that wasn’t what was bothering at her. It was something else. Something else in her apartment. Something wasn’t right.
With her thoughts consumed by Zarek, Caira’s day flew by rather quickly. She’d delivered the cake to the wedding reception and had run a few other errands. Before she went home for the night she wanted to speak with the gypsy from The Magic Boutique. She needed to find out if she was crazy, like her mind urged her to believe, or if the Legend of the Lover’s Locket was indeed real, and her life was in danger, like her gut instinct suggested.
Darkness had fallen as she quickened her pace and turned the corner onto Fifth Street. She stopped in front of the antique shop, wrapped her fingers around the metal door handle and tugged. It didn’t budge. Caira stepped back and looked for a sign indicating the store hours. Perhaps they were closed for the day. She moved to the window and peered inside. A small lamp burning in the back of the store gave sufficient light for her to see inside. Except for a few old crates, the store was empty.
Her heart lodged in her throat.
How could everything have been moved so quickly?
She needed to get home. To sort matters out in her mind. She wanted to call on Nikki, but if any part of this legend were true, she didn’t want her best friend’s life in jeopardy. She rushed back to her car and hurried to her home. Drawing a deep breath, she knew she needed to get hold of herself and gain control over her emotions.
As her fingers closed over her doorknob she drew another deep breath. She needed to be able to think with a clear, rational head. She twisted the knob open and stepped inside. The minute she walked into her apartment she became instantly aware that all was not right. An uneasy, foreboding feeling closed in on her. Danger. Evil. Lurking nearby.
She felt it. It was all around her. All over her. In her skin. Crawling over her flesh. Her gazed fixed on the portrait.
“I am with you, Bella.”
Zarek. She heard him. Clearly. He was in her mind. Reciting encouraging words of love. Her mouth opened in a gasp, her hand closed over her stomach. Oh God, it was real. The legend. The locket. The curse.
It was all real.
A dark figure moved in the shadows of her room.
Caira gripped the doorknob, ready to bolt.
“You can’t run from him, Bella. He will find you no matter where you go.”
She could hear the helplessness in Zarek’s voice.
Caira swallowed past the lump in her throat. “What do you want?” she cried out, searching the room for something, anything to use as a weapon.
The figure moved out of the shadows. Caira’s heart nearly failed. Her knees went weak, and she locked them to avoid collapsing.
Cloaked from head to toe in a black hooded robe, his face was masked in darkness. For that she was thankful. At least she didn’t have to see the evil that lived beneath.
“Why have you awakened me?” His deep insidious voice crept over her flesh. She shivered.
Caira took a breath, centering herself. “To break a curse. To right a wrong.”
“Be strong, Bella. Do not let him smell your fear.”
“And you have no fear of the darkness you have brought forth in order to right that wrong?”
She did. With every fiber of her being, but she heeded Zarek’s warning and fought to conceal her fear.
She worked to keep her voice steady. “No.”
“Then you are most foolish, Ma Petite Princesse. Your lover’s soul is the price you must pay to right a wrong and change the past.” He moved toward the portrait.
Her pulse leapt, her heart skipped a beat. Her vision went fuzzy around the edges as light-headedness overcame her. She couldn’t let him harm Zarek and steal his soul. She wouldn’t allow it. She’d fight to her death to protect him. He had died because of her, and now she would die to give him back his life.
She gathered every ounce of courage inside her. “No!” She challenged with an unwavering stare as she took a threatening step toward the dark shadow.
“No?” There was amusement in his voice.
She knew she was no match for the Keeper of Darkness. She did not possess the strength or the wisdom needed to defeat him. He would leave here tonight with a soul and there was nothing Caira could do to change that.
“No. Let him live. Take mine.”
“Bella, no. Let him take mine.”
There was a long moment of silence before the cloaked darkness spoke. “You will sacrifice your life for your lover’s?”
“Yes.” Her voice was unwavering.
“Very well then.”
“Bella, I love you.”
“I love you too, Zarek.”
She took a step closer to the Keeper of Darkness and stood proud. “Take me.” The last thing Caira saw before she fell to the floor was the sharp blade of his sword cutting through the air.
“Wake up, Bella.” Zarek touched her cheek and ran the pad of his thumb over her lips.
Slowly, her eyes fluttered open. “Zarek. Am I in hell?”
He gave a soft chuckle. “No, Bella, look around, you are in your apartment.”
Her voice was not quite steady. “I don’t understand.”
He held his hand out to her and she eagerly accepted it. “The Keeper of Darkness could not take your soul.” Zarek brushed her hair from her eyes.
“Why?”
“Because you showed him the true meaning of love.”
Her beautiful eyes softened as they met his. “I did?”
“Yes, sweetness. You were willing to sacrifice your life for mine.”
Her blonde brows puckered. Panic rushed across her features. “I couldn’t let him hurt you, Zarek. I love you too much to allow anything happen to you.” Her voice ended in a soft whisper.
Zarek’s body shook as his heart filled with the love he felt for her.
Her small, shaky hands reached out to touch his cheek. “You’re no longer blue.”
He smiled and gathered her into his arms. “That is because the curse is broken. I am here, Bella. In the flesh. To stay with you. Forever.” He carried her to the bedroom and laid her on her bed.
Her eyes fixed on his mouth. “What we did last night. The lovemaking. It was all real.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Yes, Bella. It was all real.” He moved in beside her, resting his chin on his palms.
She laughed softly. Desire flickered across her face. “So that is why my body hurts all over.”
Her eyes opened wide. She pushed her pelvis into his and he immediately hardened as heat and desire whipped through his blood. “Yes, perhaps you should,” she purred.
Zarek planted his mouth over hers and kissed her possessively. She matched the passion and intensity of his kiss.
Joy sang through his blood. He’d waited a lifetime to claim her, to have her back in his arms, his life, and his bed.
And now, armed with the gift of true love, they would have the power to fight and destroy any evil that tried to come between them.
He inched back to gaze at her beauty. “I love you, Bella.”
She gave him a wry smile and whispered into his mouth. “The name is Caira.”
He chuckled. “Yes, of course, Caira.”
She grinned. “But you can call me Princess.”
This time Zarek laughed out loud and smothered her smirk with a kiss.
CATHRYN FOX graduated from university with a Bachelor of Business degree, majoring in accounting and economics. Shortly into her career Cathryn quickly figured out the corporate life wasn’t for her. Needing an outlet for her creative energy, Cathryn turned in her briefcase and calculator and began writing erotic romance full-time. Cathryn enjoys writing dark paranormals and humorous contemporaries.
Kili’s Ice Man
Delilah Devlin
One
Kili couldn’t help it. As Ice Man’s exhalations came sharp and harsh, her own shortened and rasped. Perspiration gathered on her upper lip. Each powerful thrust caused muscles along his glorious arms, buttocks and thighs to bunch, then stretch, as he reached to deliver another mighty drive. Kili’s body tensed, her nipples tightening hard as diamonds, heat coiling low inside her belly—
“Are you feeling all right, sweetie?”
Kili fumbled to flip off her bio-plasma screen before looking up at her best friend and cubicle mate, Willa. “Fine!” she said, her voice a little sharp and high. She cleared her throat. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Did her arousal show on her face? She plucked away her blouse from her chest.
“You look a little hot and bothered. Got a fever or something?” The sparkle in Willa’s green eyes contradicted her concerned words. Willa knew full well about Kili’s dirty little obsession. “Honestly, I don’t know how you can watch that stuff—those gladiator matches are so barbaric,” she said, shivering delicately.
“I was just prepping myself for the pitch to the Centurion reps. Have to know what I’m selling, right?” she said, reaching for her purse beneath the desk.
Willa lifted a finely arched auburn brow. “Uh huh, and that outfit’s what you usually wear to a marketing meeting?”
Kili glanced down at her short-skirted suit. “It’s black and covers everything.” She tugged down the hem in back. “Mostly. It’s slimming. ’Sides, I’ll be seated the whole time.”
Willa shook her head. “You know they’re probably going to send the home office management boys—pencil necks—to the meeting. Don’t get your hopes up they’d take anyone off tour for a little sales pitch.”
Kili stifled a twinge of disappointment. “A girl’s gotta dream,” she muttered.
Willa looked beyond Kili’s shoulder and stiffened. “Come to Mama!” She pursed her lips and whistled softly. “Spoke too soon. Looks like they sent at least one gladiator.”
Kili glanced over her shoulder just in time to see her boss, Wilson Pickering, and an entourage winding their way down the aisle. Behind Wilson strode the pencil-neck management team, but bringing up the rear was the man who set her pulse quickening faster than a starship caught in Black Hole gravity—
The Ice Man! The man she’d fantasized about for weeks since he’d been drafted into the major leagues. As he towered above the men in the lead, she forgot how to breathe, staring at his chiseled jaw and the unbelievable shoulder span that just got wider the closer he came.
“This is Kili Wilder,” Wilson said, smiling although he lifted one questioning eyebrow in her direction. “She’ll be presenting our pitch for the new network spots after lunch.”
Kili clamped shut her slackened jaw. Now was not the time for her to go starstruck over arms that looked like they could bench press a hover car. She shook hands with the management team, and then drew a deep breath to fortify her jellyfish legs as Ice Man reached for her hand.
She thought she was ready, back in control, until his large hand engulfed hers. One look up into his ice blue gaze and her tongue stuck to the top of her mouth. “Uhmmmm.”
Humor wrinkled the corners of his piercing eyes. “Nice to meet you, too.”
Kili almost melted into a puddle of goo. The low timbre of his voice wrapped around his words like a caress as his gaze swept over her face and down her body, lingering on the length of her bare legs.
Wilson cleared his throat, drawing her attention away from the way the gladiator’s blond hair brushed the shoulders stretching his wine-colored team jersey.
“We’ll meet back here at one o’clock sharp. Right, Kili?”
Wilson said the last with just enough emphasis to make her flush. Lord, had her lust been that transparent?
As the men walked away, Willa snickered behind her. “Wow, you sure made an impression.”
Heat flushed her cheeks as she stared after Ice Man’s amazing ass. “Some friend you are—you could have warned me he was coming.”
“And spoil the surprise? Oh my God, the look on your face!” she chortled, and slipped her arm through Kili’s. “Come on. Let’s do lunch. Give you time to lower your blood pressure. Think about it—he uses brute force and a saber. You’d be bored talking to him inside an hour.”
Checking her makeup in the mirror hanging on the cubicle wall, Kili snorted. “Remember, I’ve had smart. Daniel was clever enough to figure out how to date three women from the same department without any of us catching on. I don’t want smart. I want…”
“Ice Man?”
Her stomach still quivering, Kili assumed a bland expression. “Someone like that, yeah. Not too bright. But strong enough to make me feel overwhelmed.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Can you imagine stroking those arms?”
Willa leaned into her side and snorted. “I’m thinking his ass would be even finer.”
Kili groaned. “This isn’t helping. I need to get my mind off those glutes.”
“Girlfriend, I have just the thing to get him out of your system.”
Staring through the shop window, Gunnar Thorsson didn’t know whether to strangle the woman or haul her from The Lunch Break chair and kiss her breathless. The way she wriggled to snuggle her butt deeper into the contoured, black-upholstered chair succeeded only in raising the hem of her little black skirt centimeters higher. He wasn’t the only man in the vicinity to notice.
The technician in the lab coat who’d fitted her virtual-vacation helmet to her head had to readjust electrodes glued to her temples and chest because he couldn’t stop ogling her long legs.
Gunnar swore again. A perverse throb centered in the knot of flesh rising between his legs. Perverse because he shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be lusting after a woman who was as shallow as a mud puddle.
One thing for sure, he’d liked her better before she’d un-tangled her tongue to speak. The way she’d stared with those chocolate eyes when they first met, a blush rising above the collar of her pale blouse to flood her face with hectic color—her lips parting as she’d moaned—had him hard in an instant.
Instinctively, he knew she’d wear the exact same expression when he took her to bed.
He’d left Pickering and the management team and circled back to Kili Wilder’s desk, intending to ask her to lunch and arrived just in time to hear a mention of his name. Curious about her first impression of him, he’d ducked into a neighboring cubicle, feeling foolish as a boy with his first stirring of lust, and listened to the tail end of her conversation with her friend.
So she
wanted him…or someone just as dim-witted. Disappointment, unaccountably sharp, pricked his irritation. She was just like all the “gladiator groupies” who’d thrown themselves at him since he signed. They wanted the “fierce warrior” fuck, not the real man inside.
He’d almost blown her off. But then he recalled her soft brown hair, slender figure and endless legs and thought, why the hell not? He’d give her exactly what she wanted—while taking his own pleasure.
So he’d followed the women to the food court in the belly of the office building, keeping well behind and taking a separate elevator so they’d never know their next meeting wasn’t an accident. When they’d passed the food kiosks, he continued to hang back, curious about their destination.
“Wow, you’re the Ice Man! Can I have your autograph?”
Gunnar started, surprised to find another Lunch Break tech standing beside him, his face flushed with excitement. The younger man must have rushed out of the store when he found a sports celeb gawking through the window.
A thought, reprehensible as it was delicious, crept into his mind.
“Tell you what”—Gunnar paused and glanced at the tech’s name tag—“Oscar, I’ll do you one better. Can you hook me up with her?” he asked, nodding toward Kili. “But sit me somewhere she can’t see me?”
The technician’s eyes widened. “I don’t know, sir. Co-vacation is supposed to be consensual. She’s already engaged with the computer.”
Gunnar reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. “Want ringside tickets when the Centurions come to town? I wanna surprise my girlfriend.”
Kili sucked in a deep breath and blinked as her eyes adjusted to white, searing sunlight. Her first glance at her vacation setting sent her stomach plummeting. Where was the desert island with the horseshoe strip of pale sand and navy sea? Sure, heat radiated off the ground in suffocating waves, but where was the cabana boy in the Speedo?
Instead, an endless savannah stretched in front of her with tall, golden grass waving in the hot breeze and gnarled, stunted trees dotting the horizon. “What the hell?”