Night of the Magician by Stephanie James, Jayne Ann Krentz Page A

ferocious willpower he kept his senses in check. It was essential that she be satisfied first. He had to know that she had given herself completely at least on this level.
    “Lucian! Lucian?“
    He caught his name as it left her lips and heard the uncertainty in it, the hint of panic. “Take the chance, Magic Lady. You have no choice. Take the chance!“
    He slid his hand below her tenderly rounded derriere and arched her tightly against his hips, his fingers clenching deeply. It was enough to send her into the final, delicate convulsion.
    “Oh, my God, my God!“ The low moan was half-stifled in her throat as every fiber of her body tightened and then went into shimmering release.
    Lucian felt the roaring exultation in his veins and surrendered to the mindless climax at last He had made her his, irrevocably his.
    Ariana came languidly out of the pleasant haze of the aftermath, aware first of the weight of Lucian’s body which still sprawled across hers in magnificent abandon. No, in magnificent possession.
    The second realization came quickly on the heels of the first, and Ariana stirred with a faint unease. There was a sense of complete and total possession in the way the magician lay along her body, his head on her breast, his hands somehow having caught hold of her wrists. The heaviness of his thighs trapped her legs.
    Ariana felt a return of the incipient panic that had blossomed just before she had surrendered completely to Lucian
    ’s lovemaking. Firmly she squelched it. There was no cause for panic. She was a mature adult, a woman with needs that had been too long held in check.
    But even four years ago when she had thought herself so wildly, blindly in love, the need and the desire hadn’t been like this.

    Nothing had ever been like this.
    And that thought brought back the hint of panic. After so many years of being so very, very careful how did she come to find herself in this situation? In bed with a magician, a man who was totally at odds with every one of the requirements she had set down for a husband. A man who didn’t even have any intention of becoming a husband!
    “What is it, Ariana?“ Lucian lifted his head, and she knew that he must have felt the tremor that had gone through her. His eyes smiled down at her, warm and tender but with an underlying expression of lazy victory that couldn’t be masked. His mouth crooked with indulgence and remembered pleasure, and he lifted a hand to stroke back a strand of hair that lay along her cheek. “Are you starting to worry already?“
    Her lashes shifted as she looked up at him with clear honesty. “I always worry when I take chances.“
    “You won’t have cause to regret taking this one, honey,“ he drawled reassuringly.
    “Won’t I?“
    “No. I can give you what you want. But I had to know that you would surrender first without demanding financial statements from the banks and an iron-clad contract. I was a little afraid to take a chance, myself,“ he added with a wicked little smile. “But now we’ve started off on the right foot Everything’s going to be okay.“
    She stared up at him in confusion. “What are you talking about, Lucian?“
    “Forget it. I’ll explain everything in the morning. Right now all I want to do is enjoy what’s left of the night Magicians always do their best work at night, you know.“
    He leaned down to kiss her, and the toe of his foot moved excitingly along the calf of her leg. Ariana felt the faint stirrings of renewed passion and wondered at it Magic. It was the only explanation. She let her arms circle his neck once more and pushed aside the confusion and doubts that had begun to assail her….
    In the morning both the storm and the magician were gone.
    Ariana stirred and woke, instinctively feeling for the warmth of the man who had lain beside her during the night.
    When she found only the empty bed next to her she sat up groggily, blinking away the last traces of sleep.
    There was still an indentation on