Deadly Attraction by Calista Fox

rose and fell quickly. As with her pain, she acutely felt pleasure.
    But these were sensations she wanted to give in to. To bask
in. Drown in.
    When they finally came up for air, she was light of head and
unsteady on her feet.
    He let out a low groan. “I won’t be sticking to any
convictions about you with kisses like that.”
    “I’d told myself long ago they didn’t exist.”
    “Clearly, you were wrong.”
    She smiled, delirium seeping through her veins. “Clearly.”
    His jaw clenched briefly. “I want to see you, Jade. All of
you.”
    A modicum of self-consciousness skittered through her,
chasing away the delirium. Here she stood before a gorgeous, mammoth of a man,
with no flaws in sight, other than his internal scars. She hadn’t been naked in
front of another person since she was eighteen. And even then, she and Michael
had been shrouded by bedcovers.
    She couldn’t help but wonder about the female forms in
Darien’s past. Even Sheena was picture-perfect. Did he find her alluring?
    “No.”
    Her gaze snapped up to meet his. “Stop reading my thoughts.”
    “Easy pickings this time. I could see the doubt in your
eyes.”
    “Have you…” Her hand whimsically gestured toward the door.
“With Sheena? Or Jocelyn?”
    He let out a hearty laugh, cutting the previous edginess
that had set in as they’d discussed their precarious predicaments. “Absolutely
not. Both are in my service and I wouldn’t take advantage of that relationship.
But beyond that…I don’t find either one as appealing as I do you. Besides,
Sheena sticks to her kind.”
    A point that did not fall on deaf ears. “That’s a good
practice, I suppose.”
    He nodded, yet he didn’t relinquish his hold on her. “The
path we’re traveling is much more convoluted. But difficult to step off of.”
    She knew she’d be false to insist otherwise. So she boldly
said, “The slayers will come for me soon. I heard you tell Morgan to alert them
you’d brought me to the castle to recover. We don’t have much time together.”
    Fire lit his eyes. “And every moment wasted is one we won’t
reclaim.”
    Her need for him had turned into such a consuming, living,
breathing entity she found it impossible to ignore the desire gripping her very
soul. She wiggled out of his loose embrace and pulled her top over her head
before letting the garment drop to the marble floor. Anxiety didn’t stand a
chance of sneaking up on her as Darien gazed at her, lust and longing in his
eyes.
    She slipped out of her drawstring pants and stood before him
in nothing but her bra and panties. They were as simple and functional as could
be, and yet his irises darkened and his breath caught. Spurred on by his
reaction to her, she discarded the lingerie.
    A deeper emotion flashed in his earnest expression. He said,
“You are stunning.”
    His fingertips grazed her cheek, over her jaw and down her
neck. He trailed along her collarbone, then swept back to the hollow of her
throat. From there, the pads of his fingers brushed against her skin as they
moved slowly downward to the valley between her breasts, now heavy with desire.
    Jade reveled in the appreciative look he gave her. At the
moment, it didn’t register in her mind that he was a king. Or that he was
immortal, obviously elite amongst his kind. What she saw before her was a man.
One of flesh and blood and bone. One with a moral conscience. One with physical
wants and needs that mirrored her own. One who did not judge her, find fault
with her or consider her weak.
    She would never live up to the high regard in which his
expression suggested he held her, yet at the same time, she had no inclination
to give in to human insecurities. Somehow, they’d found themselves in a
scenario where the outside world and the severe differences between them ceased
to exist. If only for an evening…
    Jade reached for the fastenings on his leather pants and
undid them. He toed off his boots and she finished undressing him. Then