Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  Suddenly, he pulled back. “Oh, I almost forgot. I have something for you.”

  She cocked her head, bemused as to what could possibly be more important than what they were already doing.

  When he reached into his pocket, she rolled her eyes. “Don’t be cheeky.”

  He chuckled. “There’s that dirty mind I love.”

  He presented her with a small box.

  She raised a brow and took it, pulling off the lid. Inside, a delicate silver chain and a heart-shaped pendant sparkled in the light.

  She glared up at him. “Are you kidding me with this?”

  “Huh?” He glanced at the necklace and then at her.

  “There are no gift shops on this spaceport, and you had no idea I’d be here. So tell me, who did you really buy this for?”

  He took a step back, looking hurt. “I’ve had that since the day you left. I bought it for you after I left that club. Before I knew you’d gone.”

  Rocks tumbled in her belly. Her mouth fell open to respond, but for the life of her, nothing would come out.

  “By the time I left the club, I realized I fucked up. This was going to be a please-don’t-be-mad-at-me bribe. I was going to grovel, like this.” He dropped to the floor, his hands resting on her hips. “And I was going to say something like, ‘I’m sorry I’m such an ass, and that I got you a crappy gift for your birthday, and I’m an idiot, and if you don’t like the necklace, I’ll get you whatever you want.”

  Her face was frozen in shock. She glanced down at the box. The corners were old and worn, part of the veneer flaking away. When she examined the pendant again, a memory stirred. A few days before her birthday, she had not-so-subtly pointed it out.

  He’d gone back for it.

  Her throat suddenly tightened and her response came out breathy. “I would have said you are an ass, and I love the necklace, and if you ever even think of touching another woman again I will shove it in a place that will take many doctors, many hours to extract.”

  He gave her a heart-stopping grin and stood to kiss her with renewed hunger. Her arms clasped around his neck and she hitched her legs around his waist. Taking her full weight with ease, he carried her to the bed, following her down onto the mattress. He kissed her in quick succession, finding a new place each time: the corner of her mouth, her cheek, her neck, her shoulder, making his way to her cleavage.

  The sensation made her squirm.

  She clawed at his shirt. He sat up to shrug out of it, and then went for her clothes, peeling off her boots and pants. His belt and pants soon followed. As he crawled back over her, he made sure to trail his hands along her skin, making her shiver.

  Their lips crashed together and suddenly they were nothing but skin and breath and heat. Tangled limbs and passion.

  When he found her center and jointed them together, they both let out a soul-stuttering moan. As he began to move, euphoria took her and ecstasy assailed her. She became intoxicated by pure, unadulterated pleasure. She matched his speed with her hips, their bodies toiling and writhing. Soon his thrusts became frenzied, maddening, and she could only accept him and the ferocious bliss he offered.

  Only Vin could take her to this wild place where lust ruled and passion reigned. Muscles straining, he drove her closer to that tormenting, glorious edge. A powerful wave of ecstasy rolled through her, and her orgasm burst out in the form of a primitive cry. She tossed her head back and cried out.

  He roared, his release following hers. His rhythm slowed, drawing out the last bit of pleasure for both of them. Finally, he stilled. Arms propped on either side of her, his weight came to rest on her while they both too a moment to gather their breaths. Her fingers trailed over his back. He let out a rough purr.

  Then his head snapped up. “I love you, Priya. I never want to lose you again. Marry me.”

  She choked on a gasp and searched his expression. He looked sincere and anxious, but mostly determined.

  “It’s a little soon for proposals, isn’t it?”

  “Not for me. I’ve spent far too long without you. I know I only have a tiny sliver of your heart back, but I am going to hold onto it with everything I have. You want a ring? I’ll get you a ring. More necklaces? I’ll buy them all.” He paused. “Being without you was like being without my best friend. No. My soul-mate. More than that, it was like being half-dead. I don’t want to go back to that.”

  Her vision blurred. Could this truly be happening? He’d made a mistake that day, a humongous mistake, but so had she. If she hadn’t acted so rashly and jumped the first flight out of there, she might have saved herself countless nights of misery.

  “Would you really have come for me?” she found herself whispering.

  “Without a second thought.” His voice held no hint of doubt. “I will never forgive myself for missing your little clue.”

  She offered him a tentative smile, when what she really wanted to do was jump for joy. They had both fucked up, but maybe together they could fix it. Heal each other’s broken hearts, and then make them stronger than ever.

  Lifting her hand to the side of his strong jaw, she stroked his cheek. “Ask me again when we’ve won Phase Nine.”

  * * *

  The End...?

  Start the Shadow Quest Series with The Demon’s Possession.

  * * *

  For a limited time, Kiersten is offering a FREE book just for signing up to her Exclusive Reader’s Club today!

  https://www.kierstenfay.com/free-book/

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kiersten Fay is a bestselling author of the steamy romance series, Shadow Quest, in which she combines paranormal and sci-fi romance with loose concepts from lore and mythology. She won Favorite Story of August 2012 for Demon Retribution, the third book in her Shadow Quest series, and received a nomination for favorite author in that same year via Gravetells.com. When Kiersten isn’t writing, she can be found lurking on Facebook, doing research for her characters, or creating amazing covers for her books.

  Read More from Kiersten Fay

  https://www.kierstenfay.com/

  IN THE COVER OF NIGHT

  TIGRIS EDEN

  In the Cover of Night © 2017 Tigris Eden

  * * *

  All Rights Reserved. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews as provided by the United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at admin@tigriseden.net.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the work of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To you, the READER… THANK YOU for reading my words and enjoying my stories. It means the world to me that you welcome me into your reading device on a regular basis.

  As always, a big thank you to God. Without him nothing is possible.

  To you, from me. Thank you.

  IN THE COVER OF NIGHT

  A recipe gone wrong is more than one girl can handle.

  Being mentored by a world-renowned Chef is at the top of Onessa Sol’s list. But when an unfortunate storm delays her arrival, and she’s found by two unsettling characters who believe she is theirs. Things go from uncomfortable to disastrous in zero to sixty.

&nb
sp; To make matters worse, Chef Cyriaque Ravenueax isn’t at all what she expected. He’s broody, moody, and downright mean. He’s also the hottest thing since well, anything she’s ever been privy to have in her line of site for eye-candy.

  A recipe gone wrong and an attack by creatures that shouldn’t exist is more than one girl can handle.

  Cyriaque (Cyr) Ravenueax is seriously rethinking his decision to start mentoring again, especially over the anniversary of the deaths of his wife and son. But when his adversary from the other side of the swamp stakes a claim that isn’t his to make, Cyr realizes that he needs to man up and take action. Only the woman’s appearance in his life is more unsettling than anticipated when he catches her scent and realizes the fates have given him a second chance.

  ONE

  LIGHTNING ILLUMINATED THE DARK CLOUDS, followed by the rumble of thunder. Great! Just fucking great! Of course, she’d get stuck in a torrential downpour with no cell service and a broken-down vehicle. It wasn’t like anything else could go wrong. Oh, wait. You’re in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and have no clue where you are. Her flight had been delayed two hours. Causing her more of a headache. The only car they had at the rental place was a small Ford Focus when what she needed was an SUV.

  Darkness embraced her, much like the soaked shirt that clung to her breasts. As the rain pelted her, Onessa tried not to curse. The night held all kinds of hazards, from the thicket of bushes that snagged against her jeans to the murky mud sucking at her sneakers. Where is the damn sidewalk? She didn’t want to walk directly on the asphalt for fear of being struck by a car, or worse, picked up by some nut job. Nikes don’t fail me now. Trudging along, Onessa walked in the direction she’d been driving. Hopefully, a gas station or some sort of convenience store appeared soon. Not a single streetlight lit her path. Thunderous clouds covered the moon, her only light source. Still, Onessa kept moving. The rain fell faster, and as she picked up her pace, she noticed multiple sets of yellow eyes off in the distance in what she assumed was the woods. Please let it be my imagination. She hoped it was her mind playing tricks on her. But as luck would have it—especially her luck—those ominous eyes were real.

  A twig snapped to her left and the distinctive sounds of growling had the hairs on the back of her neck rising. Don’t be that girl. The one who didn’t try and get to safety. Looking over her shoulder wouldn’t help—it didn’t matter, the animal sounded far away from her. Heart racing, Onessa took off in a dead run.

  Except, the fallen tree limb she tripped over ruined her escape. Thunder cracked off in the distance and another flash of lightning struck giving her a hint of light. Right in front of her, stood a pack of wolves. Too afraid to move, she pulled in a deep breath, slowly stood, and backtracked. Only her foot caught on something else, and down she went. Again. Onessa’s head hit a rock, her vision blurred making her see double before she greeted the darkness.

  “Who is she?” A man asked.

  She rocked a serious ache, and her body felt like it had been run over by a Zamboni. Not once, but twice.

  “Don’t know, but she smells good.”

  The last thing she remembered was falling, and landing…hard.

  “She sure does, you think Beau will let us keep her, seein’ as she’s on Leabauds’ property?”

  Leabauds?

  She was supposed to be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. How in the hell had she messed that up?

  “No, says right here on these papers.” They rustled through her purse, but Onessa couldn’t be bothered with moving. She ached everywhere and a slimy film of mud coated her teeth making her want to gag. Fucking storm. “Her name be Onessa Sol, and she’s from California.”

  At least they got her name right.

  “So, she belongs to California?” the other man asked. They sounded almost child-like and ignorant, but she could tell by the timber of their voices, they were grown men. She’d somehow taken a wrong turn and ended up in Cajun country if their accents were anything to go by.

  “Yup, says so right here,” the other man repeated.

  A sharp pain entered her side, and she moaned. The agony overwhelmed Onessa’s senses.

  “We best take her to Beau. He’ll return her back to California.”

  They lifted her, rough hands pulling and twisting her in ways that were not conducive to her feeling better. The two men only made it worse.

  “I think I can walk,” she groaned, opening her eyes and taking in the scene. Mud covered Onessa everywhere. On her clothes and hands. The dirt caked her face, as well. No part of her left untouched. One male wore a pair of overalls, minus a shirt. His face dirty, and his eyes a sapphire blue. His orbs a startling contrast to his black hair. He looked like he’d either been stuck under a car all day, or he had no idea what a shower looked like. She couldn’t tell if he was her age or not with all the dried dirt on him.

  “Ed, put her down, she says she can walk.”

  The one called Ed mumbled something under his breath, and after a few more steps, put her down. He didn’t fare any better than the other man in terms of cleanliness. And he looked identical to the one in the dirty overalls; only he was bald and was missing his two front teeth.

  “I’m Onessa.”

  “We know, it said so right there on your papers. You belong to California.”

  No, she belonged to herself, but she wasn’t about to correct them. Instead, she asked, “You guys have a car?”

  “Nope, Beau’s property is right there.” The dark-haired male pointed to a clearing off to her right, and sure enough, there was a house. If only the damn wolves hadn’t startled her, she’d have made it unscathed and would have at least been able to phone for help.

  “Thank you for coming along to rescue me. I ran into a bit of trouble. My rental car broke down back up on the highway, and I couldn’t get a signal on my phone.”

  Both males snickered.

  “You got one of them fancy cellular phones?”

  Fancy? Were they stuck in the dark ages? No one called cell phones fancy.

  “Yes, just a regular smartphone.”

  “Let me see it. Never seen one up close. Beau doesn’t care too much for them modern toys.”

  Before she could stop him, he took her purse and rummaged through it, looking for her phone. She didn’t know these men, didn’t want to cause trouble, and if they planned to hurt her, they would have tried by now. At least, I hope that’s the case.

  “It’s all wet and soggy in there.”

  “Can you hand me back my purse, please?”

  He handed the bag to her, and the two men motioned for her to follow. With a slight limp and a hell of a headache, Onessa walked across the yard into a big house. They were greeted by a young man who held the door open for her.

  “Beau’s real angry at you, Ed. You, too, Eddy.”

  Ed and Eddy?

  “We brought Beau something. She belongs to California.”

  The young man at the door laughed before saying, “She doesn’t belong to California halfwit, she’s from California. It’s where she lives.” Then he looked her way, piercing her with his gray-blue eyes before saying, “Beau’s gonna like you, pretty lady.”

  “I’m just trying to get to my destination. If I could just use a phone to call a tow truck and a cab, I’ll be on my way.”

  Onessa wasn’t getting a good feeling about the three men. And she always trusted her gut.

  “Beau can help with that. Right this way.” The man motioned for her to follow him.

  They led her down the hall into a wide-open office where a man sat behind a large mahogany desk. Broad shoulders encased in a gun-metal grey three-piece suit straightened at her appearance. The man looked like a Roman aristocrat, with his aquiline nose, high cheekbones, and dark brown hair perfectly parted. Some of the tension left Onessa’s shoulders upon seeing him—until he smiled. Stark, white teeth flashed, and his canines appeared larger than a normal person.

  “I see someone got lost on their way to Gra
ndma’s house,” he rumbled.

  “I beg your pardon? I’m not on my way to my grandmother’s. My car broke down.”

  “Did it now? Well, then I guess I’m the lucky one. My name is Beau Leabauds, welcome to my home.”

  Huh?

  How was he lucky? The inkling of doubt she’d tried to dismiss earlier slid its way past her throat and into her stomach. Something was off with Beau. His bright eyes sparkled, but not with any kind of warmth. He reminded her of someone on the verge of a psychotic break. As if he barely hung onto a slowly decaying string of sanity. Glimpses of madness were evident in the way his nostrils flared repeatedly, and his eyes tracked her every movement.

  “I’m sorry, but if you’d just let me use your phone, I’ll be on my way.”

  “You’re not going to tell me your name?”

  She didn’t want to, but she did anyway for the sake of getting the hell out of his home in one piece. “Sorry, it’s Onessa, Onessa Sol.”

  The man behind the desk stood. A lot taller than she’d expected, she stepped back. Broad shoulders, inky black hair, and the same color eyes as Ed and Eddy, only the blue orbs appeared to glow from within. He sported uncommonly long fingernails for a male. And when he approached her, the creepy vibe she’d noticed earlier was in full force.

  “Who do you need to call, sweet Onessa?”

  “First a tow truck, then I need to call a cab, and my mentor. I need to let him know why I’m so late.”

  “Who’s your mentor?”

  “Cyriaque Ravenueax.”

  That brought Beau up short. Onessa watched as his face changed. There was a hint of aggravation before it cleared, and then Beau relaxed into his toothy grin.