Eversworn: Daughters of Askara, Book 3
Page 25
She shook her head and shifted her gaze from his, though his hands stayed in place. She couldn’t bring herself to dislodge his hold. “No. That’s…that’s wrong. You never… Not before. I can’t…” Why wasn’t her brain working? Now she couldn’t form a coherent sentence? She faced him again, intent on arguing, but as soon as her gaze met his, all the words evaporated.
Her pulse sped, and as she watched, his pupils dilated, nearly overtaking the blue of his eyes.
Suddenly she understood. Elf-fire. The pheromone that elves exuded whenever they were about to have sex, or at least wanted to very badly. The drug that drew humans to elves and was said to make the sex so amazing, humans often became addicted—which was why the pheromone was also nicknamed elf-tears.
Elf-fire couldn’t be faked. It was a physical response, completely out of an elf’s control. But they had to actually be attracted to their partner. While elves could have sex without attraction, though they rarely did, they could never pretend to have an elf-fire reaction.
Which meant, whatever else Ulric was after, he wasn’t pretending to want her.
As she studied his eyes, watched the black widen more, the reality of the moment pierced her resistance. He was as affected by her as she was by him. She wasn’t sure why. She just couldn’t imagine what he saw in her to invoke lust. But in that moment, it didn’t seem to matter. She’d dreamed about having him for so long. Even if it was just this one night. Even if she couldn’t trust his other motives. She could trust his desire. And for a few hours at least, she could give in to her own.
“Elf-fire,” she murmured aloud. She raised a hand to his cheek, then trailed her fingers along his neck, watching in satisfaction as he sucked in a breath. His hands tensed on her jaw, edging her closer.
“Now do you believe me?”
“I believe you want me.”
A low growl escaped as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist. “It’s about damn time.”
His mark could bind her forever—or finally set her free.
Demon Bait
© 2011 Moira Rogers
Children of the Undying, Book 1
Fifty years after a demon apocalypse devastated the world, summoners still bear the bulk of the blame. Marci lives in secret, hiding the gifts that could cost her a secure spot in one of humanity’s underground cities, and access to their virtual world. After all, her chances of avoiding the genetic-testing lotto are better than her chances of surviving topside.
The bastard son of a terrifying incubus, lust heats Gabe’s blood and sex fuels his magic. Innate charm and charisma help him navigate the cultural gap between the outcast town he calls home and the human settlements he infiltrates for trade. His latest mission nets him an unexpected asset—a summoner strong enough to soothe his darkest needs.
Trust a half demon, especially one who uses a lockdown to trap them together? Not in this lifetime. Yet Marci can’t resist Gabe’s offer to see her safely to a selective outcast settlement where she can live without fear. The journey alone is as dangerous as the way Gabe makes her heart race, but it could be her one hope of a real life.
If only she could be sure Gabe’s telling her the whole truth…
Warning: Contains a virtual world where humans flee to escape the demon-infested earth, a dangerously seductive half demon with sex magic to burn and a network-hacking summoner brave enough to make herself vulnerable to him.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Demon Bait:
His senses were more alive, his own voice like gravel in his ears. “What do you know about binding?”
Her lips parted, and her gaze locked with his. “I know I’d be powerless. Completely at someone’s mercy. Is that what happens in Rochester?”
Flushed cheeks, glazed eyes, short little breaths… She was nervous and aroused, and his pants were too fucking tight. “It’s always what happens. A literal deal with the devil. The mark keeps you safe from every other demon.”
Her brows drew together, though the desire pulsing through the room didn’t abate. “I don’t like not having a choice.”
“Who said you don’t have a choice?” It took everything in him not to reach across the table and touch her. “You give your partner the power. They don’t take it.”
“You can’t tell me no one would hassle an unbound summoner.”
“They wouldn’t do it twice.”
That broke the spell—mostly. “So the alternative is to get someone killed for trying to convince me? No, thanks.”
He felt his eyebrows trying to climb again. “If all they were doing was trying to convince you, they wouldn’t get killed. We’re not savages. Halfbloods would try to get to know you, and try to prove their worth. It’s courtship, not a hassle. But if it became known that you weren’t interested, they wouldn’t hassle you, because it’s against the rules.”
“Okay.” She leaned toward him, her eyes alight with challenge. “I’m not interested. Now is it against the rules for you to put the whammy on me? ’Cause that’s what you were doing a minute ago, right?”
It took effort not to back down and apologize. “Yeah. If you come back to Rochester with me, you can get my ass in serious trouble. Good enough reason, huh?”
She met his volley with silence, then shook her head. “You’re a tricky one.”
“Sometimes.” Gabe let himself smile as he leaned back in his chair. “I slipped. It happens when we’ve gone too long without taking care of business, but that doesn’t let us off the hook for it. Halfbloods are expected to behave themselves or get help.”
“Taking care of business.” Marci pushed away her mug. “Do you mean sex in reality, sex in the network, or plain old self-supplied orgasms?”
Somewhere, the gods—or demons—were laughing at him. “Honey, if jerking off solved that little problem, I’d have spent the last two hours with my hand around my dick.”
She blushed—hard—but didn’t look away. “And virtual sex?”
“Only makes the itch worse.” The urge to tease her rode him hard, but the need to make her understand the truth was even more important. “It’s not just about sex, though. If you’d been trained, you could wrap me around your little finger.”
Her tension didn’t ease, but the corner of her mouth kicked up. “Now that’s a mental picture.” Her amusement faded, and she gave him a thoughtful look. “I’m willing to try it, you know. On the off-chance that it works.”
His mouth went dry.
The demon purred.
“It’s—” He had to clear his throat and shift positions in his chair in a hopeless attempt to ease the uncomfortable pressure of arousal. “I wouldn’t know how to explain it. They fold magic around us somehow. Like a blanket.”
“I have—I don’t know how to explain it, either,” she said helplessly. “But I think I know how. It’s a…a sort of gathering. A force. I can feel it a little already.”
He’d been gone from Rochester for more than a week. Eight days without sex or soothing contact of any kind, and he didn’t know which need was going to swallow him first. “It feels different to everyone. For me it’s…sharp edges and water.”
Marci rose and rounded the table with determination, stopping to stand behind him. After a single long moment, she laid her hands on his shoulders. When she spoke, her breath stirred his hair. “Do you have to let me in?”
He was going to blow. Come in his pants like a teenager who’d hacked his way into an adult sector and discovered naked women. Just the touch of her hands set his pulse to pounding, half of the struggle tied up in how hard it was not to let her feel it. Trust was so fragile…
Too fragile for anything but honesty. “If I do, I can’t promise you won’t feel everything I’m holding back.”
Her breath hitched. “I thought you said this didn’t have to be about sex.”
“It’s not,” he whispered, closing his eyes. “Soothing the itch isn’t about sex, but the original condition sure as hell is. You might feel it befo
re it goes away.”
Her breath caught again, her hands shook—and he realized she was laughing. “You mean I’m going to feel like a voyeur?” She stroked her thumb over his shoulder.
“You’ll feel—”
The words choked off as magic pounded into him. Not slow or subtle, but an uncontrolled, glorious wave. She wasn’t a babbling brook, smoothing away edges over time. Marci was the ocean, powerful and wild, smashing rocks into sand.
He shuddered and closed his eyes, tasting her aura as it spun around him in dizzy circles. She was smart, but he’d known that. Cunning too—again, no surprise. She’d hidden herself amongst humans, had blended in until no one suspected she wasn’t one of them. And beneath that…
Hunger. Passion. Wild curiosity and a sensuality that was pure in a way that made him wonder if a man had ever touched her outside the network. Sex in the Global was clean. Sterile, which was the point, but it left the wildest orgies a fleeting dream that might never have happened at all.
His demon half was putty in her clumsy hands. His cock was hard as steel.
Her lips brushed his ear, so quickly he could have imagined it, and then her touch vanished entirely. “Uh, no,” she whispered huskily. “That is one hundred percent about sex.”
He took a deep breath. Another. “Did you want it to be?”
“That matters?”
If he hadn’t been turned on to the point of pain, he would have laughed. “Yes, Marci. That matters.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and took a step back. “I think I’m going to get a shower and turn in.”
It would be so easy to follow her. She’d let him. He could see it in her eyes, in the flush in her skin, the trembling in her hands. No need to lean, because she’d open for him and he could show her the sort of pleasure a man with sex in his genes could bring.
Soon, he promised himself. Knowing the advantages of a slow hunt was in his genes too. She was soft, but not melting. Not yet. “Thank you for helping.”
“Sure.” She nodded to a door on the far wall. “That’s the bathroom. The showers are through the—past the bunks.” Then she fled, turning on one heel to hurry away.
The urge to follow brought him to his feet, but self-control kept him from moving. Instead he rubbed his hand over his aching erection and eyed the door to the bathroom.
If Trip didn’t find his chip signal soon, Gabe was going to get awful familiar with that room. And the shower. And his own hand.
At least the thought of water sliding over Marci’s naked curves gave him plenty of inspiration.
Eversworn
Hailey Edwards
Steal the salt. Bind the grimoire. Escape the male.
Daughters of Askara, Book 3
When an exchange of stolen goods in the Feriana marketplace turns sour, Isabeau stumbles from the encounter bruised and laden with new orders to complete an even larger heist. With her child’s life at stake, there’s no room for error—or allies.
Armed with a lethal book of spells, she strikes a dangerous bargain with Roland Bernhard. Steal a shipment of salt from the Feriana colony, and she’ll have her freedom—and her daughter. It’s all she’s ever wanted. At least it was…until she runs into Dillon Preston.
Dillon is out of commission after a mine explosion, and itching for a distraction. He gets it when the female who saved his leg arrives at the colony with nothing but flimsy excuses and even flimsier attire. She’s after something, but is it him—or the salt?
Trapped in a desperate bid to gain true freedom, Isabeau is willing to sacrifice her life for her daughter’s, but Dillon has other plans. He wants a package deal, and he’s not willing to lose either female, even if it means the future king of Sere’s head will roll.
Warning: This title contains a heroine desperate to save her daughter and a hero determined to make them a family. It also includes wings, horns and other assorted appendages.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Eversworn
Copyright © 2012 by Hailey Edwards
ISBN: 978-1-61921-043-1
Edited by Sasha Knight
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2012
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
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
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
About the Author
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