by Marie Harte
Taking a soft breath before speaking, Arim remained locked in place, his face devoid of any expression. But his eyes, his eyes blazed hotter than any fire Darius could conjure or control.
“’Sin Garu has infiltrated the Royal House. Until the breach is found and eliminated, everything is held in the balance. You must remain vigilant in your guard, and you must remain here.”
Marcus, Cadmus and Darius spoke at the same time, their voices perfect echoes of frustration, anger and disbelief.
“The Royal House?”
“Mother! Is she safe? Does she know?”
“What are you waiting for? Send us back before everything is destroyed!”
Arim crossed his arms and shook his head, but Aerolus could feel the strain burdening him.
“We can help you,” Aerolus added in the sudden quiet.
Arim’s ink black gaze swept the room, lingering on Aerolus with a disturbing intensity before finding Marcus. “You need to hone your skills, and soon. Parlour tricks— moving glasses, pulling out a chair, and fetching a newspaper with your mind are one thing, fighting wraiths is another.” He turned to Cadmus. “You should be using your visions to counter future troubles, not questioning everything you believe you see. Open your mind and use your visions, Cadmus, before they begin to use you.
“And Darius,” he stopped to take a deep breath. “The most stubborn of the Royal Four. How appropriate then that you have found the first of the royal affai. You did not want to wed, yet here she is.” Arim strode to Samantha’s side of the bed and grazed her cheek with his hand. “A tender flower that can withstand any storm. Do not underestimate her power.” He narrowed his eyes. “And watch your temper around her. I’ve no wish to put out any more flames.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Darius stared down at Samantha with disbelief. “Are you telling me she did this? She cast a spell on me? A Netharat spell?”
“No. The Knowing Crystal had been tampered with. Someone had enspelled it with the Wraith’s Kiss. It worked on your magic, and because Samantha is your affai, it worked on her as well.”
“Because she and Darius share his magic,” Aerolus said softly, understanding.
Arim nodded. “The woman is of this world, yet she’s capable of withstanding elemental magic. Theoretically, she could learn to use fire, even to control the Wraith’s Kiss with proper training.” Arim turned to Aerolus. “You’re quite perceptive, aren’t you, Wind Mage?” he said softly, pausing as if in debate with himself. His eyes blazed. “Come with me.”
Aerolus vanished with Arim, back to Tanselm or wherever Arim spent his time. Darius didn’t know what to say or do, and his brothers looked similarly stunned. The room smelled of burnt wool, and the air remained uncomfortably warm, even to Darius. He was about to ask Marcus and Cadmus what exactly they had seen when Samantha blinked her eyes open.
Instead of the mysterious green gaze he expected, her eyes burned a bright, curious crimson.
Chapter Seven
Samantha stared from Darius to his brothers and back again. Nothing looked out of place in his bedroom, yet she smelled something burning, and had a definite impression she’d slept through something important. She sat up feeling rested and wondered how much time had passed.
“What did I miss?”
Darius had yet to blink, his gaze fixed on hers in what looked like shock, and she began to feel the first fluttering of fear.
“Darius? Tell me what has you looking so spooked.”
He shook his head and leaned closer to her, staring into her eyes. “I don’t believe this.” He snapped his fingers and orange flame appeared. Without giving her time to protest, he took her palm in his and placed the ball of flame in it.
She squealed to break free, instinctively wanting to distance herself from the fire, but couldn’t move under Darius’ grip.
To her astonishment, the fire didn’t burn. It felt warm, yes, but comfortable, a welcoming heat that made her insides flare with desire, with the urge to draw closer to Darius.
After a minute of staring from Samantha to the flame and back again, Darius cursed and released her hand. As he backed away, she saw her desire mirrored in his gaze, in his dark red eyes—a reminder that she was definitely living out her own episode of the Twilight Zone.
She swallowed the knot of nerves in her throat and stood up, needing all the presence she could muster in a room filled with gorgeous giants who stared at her as if she had three heads.
Unfortunately, standing put her that much closer to Darius, sparking her already overheated libido. She flushed and cleared her throat. “So, ah, someone care to tell me what’s going on? How long have I been sleeping?”
The men ignored her and began speaking amongst themselves. She caught vague snippets about Aerolus being missing and her eyes having gone haywire, though that made no sense considering she could see just fine.
“Excuse me,” she tried. When they continued to ignore her, she kicked Darius in the back of the knee, making him stumble. He turned to face her with a scowl mean enough to fell a tree. Odd that his anger only made him more attractive, his impatience infinitely more challenging than the bland businessmen she dealt with on a daily basis.
Shaking her head, she focused and tried again. “Let me say it a little louder. What the hell is going on around here?”
Cadmus had the nerve to grin. “She sounds just like you, Darius. How weird is that?” he asked Marcus. “Sexy as hell, but as surly as him?”
Seeing her eyes narrow, Darius glared in response but answered her question. “Easy, Samantha. As far as I know you just closed your eyes a few minutes ago.”
“Huh?” She felt way too refreshed to believe she’d only just fallen asleep.
“Yeah, you two weren’t gone more than a few minutes before Arim appeared with bad news.” Cadmus stared from her to Darius with a stupid grin, and she could easily see why Darius was so impatient all the time. His brothers were enough to drive her to drink.
“Would one of you explain this before I go postal?” Her voice rose with each word until she was shouting.
“Whatever that means.” Marcus shrugged. “You and flameboy left the living room.” With a wave of his hand, a shield of water demolished the fireball thrown his way. He continued as if nothing had happened, no doubt to further Darius’ annoyance. “Two seconds later Arim, our resident sorcerer, appeared with bad news about evil in between realms or something.”
“Actually,” Cadmus interrupted, “he said, ’There’s been a disturbance between the planes, a darkness pocketing the realms where there should only be waiting space’.”
Irritation swimming in his ocean-blue eyes, Marcus grumbled, “I hate it when you do that.” He shifted so that his back was to Cadmus. “As I was saying, Arim then freaked out and demanded to see you, Darius. Personally I thought he was going to fry you, Storm Lords and destiny be damned. But when I broke through your door, I found him freeing you from the Wraith’s Kiss.”
“It’s a magical spell created by ’Sin Garu as ammunition for his evil followers, the Netharat,” Darius said before she could ask. “You saw one of the Netharat in your dream, that ghoulish monstrosity with rows of sharp black teeth? We call them wraiths.”
She nodded slowly, uneasy that she was beginning to understand and even follow their incredible story.
“Anyway, Arim yanked off the Knowing Crystal, which now that I think about it,” Marcus paused, his eyes narrowing, “wasn’t a Knowing Crystal at all.”
“Treachery in the Royal House,” Cadmus said thoughtfully.
“Okay, I think I understand some of this.” Samantha should have had a headache fuelled by tension and confusion at this point, but her head felt fine. In fact, the only time she’d felt any better had been right after sex with Darius. She glanced at him only to see the tension leave his frame. His eyes widened before tilting at the corners suggestively.
Crap. That mind reading thing.
Schooling her expression, she
turned from his sensual gaze and asked Marcus, the arrogant one, as she’d come to think of him, “So why are you all looking at me like an alien, or worse, the enemy?” She hadn’t missed their suspicion earlier.
“Because Arim mentioned you’ve the capability of a lot of power, not to mention your encounter with ’Sin Garu—the greatest threat Tanselm has faced in a thousand years.” Marcus stared at her, as if gauging her innocence.
“You think I’ve got power?” She stared at them in astonishment. “I’m nothing like you four. Or should I say three? Where’s the grey-eyed one? Aerolus, right?”
Darius closed the distance between them and took her chin in his hands, tilting her face to his inspection. “Oh, you’ve power in you, sweet. It’s racing in you as we speak.”
She could only blink in confusion, the heat of his palm like warm honey, sweet and addicting.
“Your eyes turned red for a brief moment, Samantha, as red as mine. And the fire you withstand is elemental magic—my magic. It’s my fire that burns inside you. I can feel it.” His voice lowered, sounding guttural and needy and way more than she could handle this close to him.
“Not now,” Cadmus protested. “I want to hear her side of things.”
Marcus cursed and dragged his brother out of the room. “Come on, you idiot,” she heard through the doorway. “Darius isn’t big on sharing, and I’m not big on watching. Her, sure, but him? Borders on base perversity.”
The door suddenly slammed shut, leaving Samantha and Darius an inch apart.
“Darius?” she asked breathlessly.
“Later, love.” He kissed the corner of her mouth with a whisper-light touch and groaned. “You’re killing me,” he murmured before stealing her will to breathe, to think, to do anything but kiss him back.
Fast and furious, their desire fanned into a combustible inferno. Darius tore at her clothing, as desperate to enter her as Samantha was to feel him inside her. She helped him as best she could, needing him to soothe the ache only he stirred. Jeans and underwear followed her shoes, sliding to the floor. Then her back hit the bed as Darius crushed her beneath him in an erotic act of pure possession.
He fumbled at the clasp of his jeans briefly, then without warning plunged into her, no foreplay or teasing required to further the fiery desire they both felt.
Samantha groaned at the sensation of fullness, at how perfectly he fit her. She was wet and wild to have him and locked her ankles around his waist, making him groan her name. Over and over he thrust, the delicious friction of his cock against her clit ever present and growing.
And then she burst into a million fragments, staring into his taut face as he quickly followed her into oblivion. He continued to thrust, pummelling her into a second, consuming orgasm that siphoned the fire from her body into his. She could sense their hearts beating as one, their connection a living conduit of emotion and heat.
When at last her breathing slowed, she stared into his clear, deep red eyes now replete with satisfaction.
“I have no willpower when it comes to you,” he rasped lazily. His jeans rubbed against her legs and she realised he’d paused only long enough to remove her clothing and free his erection before making love to her.
Slowly withdrawing from her body, he took her with him as he rolled to his back. “How this keeps happening is a mystery to me,” he said and nuzzled the side of her face playfully.
Amazed at his mellowed mood, and her insanity for having sex with him yet again, Samantha wanted to scream her frustration but could only manage a muffled hmmph. Hadn’t she sworn off men, wanting to bolster her self-esteem before dating again?
And this, this wasn’t dating. This was hot sex—pure, untainted lust for a stranger. Well, at least on his part. She was starting to feel something for the impatient, arrogant, royal pain. She closed her eyes in dismay. That’s right, he was royalty, a prince in fact—from another world.
“I know you’re not happy with me, Samantha, and I can’t say I’m happy with the whole situation.” He held her in his arms, his ropey muscles easily caging her, and she prayed she’d been more circumspect in shielding her thoughts. She could only imagine what he’d think if he knew she was developing feelings for him. “But you won’t be safe anywhere in your world without me.” His gaze narrowed as he looked up at her. “So don’t make the mistake of thinking to escape. Wherever you go ’Sin Garu will be waiting. And after seeing how easily you wielded my fire, it’s a sure bet he’s planning to use you against me.”
She sighed, any euphoria after their intimacy completely fading. Worries about her burgeoning feelings for Darius and reminders of the blond with the nasty attitude took the wind from her sails.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured and hugged her tight. Two apologies in one day? Must have been a record.
I heard that. Instead of sounding annoyed, he sounded amused.
“I am completely confused.” She leaned up on her elbows and stared down at him. “I can’t be around you without wanting to jump your bones, and for a woman like me that’s saying something. Then there’s your buddy ’Sin Garu—”
“What do you mean a ‘woman like me’?” She squirmed under his regard. She didn’t know how to hide that festering wound. “A reference to Josh-the-Asshole, right?”
She flushed. “I told you to stop reading my thoughts.”
“I can’t help it. You’re way too loud when you’re upset.”
Bristling, she wanted to ignore him but sensed his honest interest and found herself explaining. “I met Josh through a company I worked for years ago. We started dating, and before I knew it a whole year had passed. We had fun, and it was comfortable. I cared deeply for Josh, enough to consider a permanent relationship.
“He was handsome, charming and successful.” She felt his arms stiffen. “But the more intense our relationship grew, the more I realised how much of my life I put on hold to bolster his.
“His clients, his parties, his pleasure came first. After a while I got sick of cancelling my plans to suit his. Instead of being honest with what he wanted, he would guilt me into giving in. If I loved him as much as he loved me, I’d skip my conference. If I had half his devotion, I’d agree to hostess his business social.” She frowned. “It took a while, but I finally found me again after too much time playing second to Josh.
“Now I find myself caught in your mess with an evil sorcerer from another world. And man, I cannot believe I just said that. It sounds like something from a bad movie.”
She realised she’d been talking nonstop, that Darius had yet to speak, when she paused to take a deep breath. “Darius?”
“Do you still have feelings for this Josh?”
She knew he could have probed her mind for answers, and appreciated the fact that he avoided doing so.
She thought about his question and answered slowly. “No, not anymore. At the time I thought I loved him, but what I really loved was the feeling of being important to someone else.” She exhaled heavily, gazing deeply into his otherworldly eyes. “You probably don’t understand any of this.”
Darius stared, his thoughts colliding with his conscience. He could feel the pain of her failed relationship throbbing in her heart. Samantha wanted to be first, and why shouldn’t she? She was a beautiful, caring, hard-working woman who deserved to be treated like a queen. Unfortunately, she once again took a backseat in a ‘relationship’, in this instance to the battle waging between ’Sin Garu and Tanselm.
Just as Josh had hurt her, Darius too played the part of self-important lover. Through no fault of his own, he’d been placed in the role, but unlike Josh-the-Asshole, he had no intention of letting Samantha go.
Why he was suddenly so sure of her importance in his life he had yet to understand. Their chemistry went beyond anything he’d ever experienced, and the raw emotion that chased their sexual encounters boggled his mind.
How could he put into words the irrational idea that he and she were destined to be together? That Darius Storm, the
Prince of Fire, had finally found a mate in a world so completely foreign to him? And that she would most likely be averse to being his mate, for the exact reasons she’d left Josh?
His head began aching and he closed his eyes, keeping his arms locked firmly around Samantha. All of a sudden he felt very tired, and he realised he hadn’t had much sleep in the past forty-eight hours. He wondered how much sleep Samantha had managed.
Just then she rested her head on his chest and sighed softly. In seconds her breathing evened and she fell asleep, much to his satisfaction. His need to be with her unmanned him and yet made him…happy. Though he hated to concede to Arim, he knew, deep down, that he’d met his affai. Now if only Samantha would play her part without too much persuading.
She twitched in her sleep and he tightened his arms around her. He snorted. As if the she-devil in his arms would make anything easy. Hell, since he’d met her he’d been in one unwanted predicament after another. And yet she excited him like no other, made him ache for her touch, for a whiff of her scent.
He’d found no fragile flower here, but a firebrand with as much passion as a firewalker. He grinned as he stared at her golden skin, glowing under a haze of stray sunlight beaming through his shuttered window. Fiery and confrontational summed Samantha Brooks in a nutshell. Not to mention passionate and sexy as hell.
He prayed to the Light for patience, a trait he sorely lacked. He couldn’t afford to screw up this one attempt at courtship, not for Tanselm and not for Samantha.
With any luck he’d have time to convince her to accompany him home, before he explained about the affai and that she’d have to give up everything she held dear to save both his land and his life.
Chapter Eight
Samantha had to credit Darius for being devious. He’d slyly advised his brothers to move her things into his room while she stayed with them, for however long that would be. As if she’d resist temptation sleeping next to him day in and day out. She’d insisted on privacy, and after much grumbling he’d conceded to a room of her own.
