Hood's Obsession by Marie Hall Page A

take his lips, steal a kiss, and whisper a heated thank you. Twice now he’d saved her.
    She couldn’t understand why, but maybe it was nothing more than his determination to save her at whatever cost.
    That thought made her stomach bottom out, instantly banking the fire.
    “We need help, they can help us.”
    “Did you have any part in that theft, Lilith?”
    Pursing her lips, she wondered why he’d care. Would it have mattered if she had?
    “No.”
    Scraping his jaw with his thick fingers, he nodded and she could have sworn she’d seen a hint of respect flit through his gaze.
    It shouldn’t have made her body feel so warm, or her stomach quiver with anxious, excited nerves, and yet it had.
    “Fine.”
    Rayale’s voice snapped them apart.
    Lilith cleared her throat and nodded.
    Giles stepped forward. “I am the royal valet to the broker. I will see this transaction honored.”
    “Rumpelstiltskin?” Karis whispered with something that sounded suspiciously like awe.
    Nodding, Giles crossed his arms.
    “He is an honorable man.” Lilith grazed Giles’s shoulder, swallowing hard at the flex and pull of tight muscle beneath her palm. “Giles and I both will see your charm returned.”
    “Good, then here.” Ying stepped forward and before Lilith knew what was happening, she planted a kiss full on her lips.
    The moment they touched, Lilith shrieked. It was like touching flame.
    Ying had work a smirk when she stepped back.
    Lilith touched her lips sure they’d been charred, but they were as soft and tender as before.
    “That is called a dragon’s kiss. You need only to call my name and we will come.”
    Nodding, Karis and Ying disappeared back into shadow. Rayale glanced between the two of them. “I am trusting you, wolf. Not something I do with your kind much anymore.”
    “I’m…I’m sorry about Lleweyn,” she whispered, wanting them to know she truly did sympathize. Lilith could not imagine being forced to walk around without a part of her soul.
    It made her wonder why her brother would have stolen it in the first place. He’d been a lothario, yes, but never cruel.
    Or so she’d thought. It did not sit well with her that he could be so unkind.
    “It was a long time ago. I wish only to have returned to me what is mine and nothing more.” Then, lifting her flute, Rayale played a quick sharp burst of song and instantly the forest full of mice vanished.
    “We should return to camp.” Giles made to turn back.
    But the need to make amends overcame her sense of her pride. Moving into his body before she could talk herself out of it, Lilith grabbed Giles by the shoulder and swung him around.
    “Lilith, what are—”
    Slamming her lips to his, she thanked him the only way she knew how.
    With a kiss.

The sky was a shade of lavender that hinted at the coming of the rising sun. Giles had been unable to sleep all through the night. His emotions had been all over the place. Going between anger at her for running off as she had and placing herself in such a precarious predicament, yet again, to stunned by the ferocity of her kiss.
    The woman had moved on his body in a way he’d never known before. He was no saint; he’d whored aplenty. Especially after battle, with the adrenaline still pumping, he’d sought release in the body of many a soft female.
    But he wasn’t used to what she’d shown him last night. Boldness. Sensuality. A fierce wildness that could only stem from her being part wolf.
    She lay on her side beside the banked fire he’d stoked throughout the night. Her lips slightly parted, puffing out a gentle breath of air every so often. Looking almost sweet and innocent, even though her face was once more lined with wrinkles and marred by brown liver spots.
    Though she’d turned herself back to her crone form when they’d returned to camp, he had no problem picturing her as she truly was. A lush woman with bee-stung lips and keen blue eyes, inky black hair that spilled like a silky wave down