by Opal Carew
“You’re damn right you did. That was so fucking stupid, Shea. Don’t ever do that again.” His eyes burned like lasers into hers. “Gods-be-damned, don’t you know if you had died, I would’ve let Dario kill me, too? Don’t you know that?”
Stunned by his vehemence, she didn’t move when he groaned and lowered his lips to hers. He kissed her with feverish intensity, his mouth, hot and moist, opened on hers, his tongue bullying its way past her teeth to engage hers.
This was exactly what she wanted. She wanted him to overwhelm her, to make her forget. She wanted—
He pulled back and took a step away from the bed, leaving her alone. She very nearly didn’t manage to squelch her small cry at his departure. She needed him here.
“Jesus, Shea, you nearly died.” He ran one shaking hand through his hair.
She couldn’t believe how fast she went from abject despair to a subversive happiness that outweighed all other emotions. It left her lightheaded. She grabbed for his arm but couldn’t reach. He was too far away. “Don’t leave me, Gabriel. Please.”
She held her hand out and waited, barely breathing when he hesitated. He stared at her hand for several seconds until finally he slid his hand into her, lacing their fingers together. When she scooted over, he eased onto the bed to stretch out beside her. On their sides, they stared at each other, and the tension eased from her body with each breath.
“How are Quinn and your mother?” she asked.
He nodded, his breath escaping on a rough exhale. “They’re fine. Quinn took her to one of the lucani safe houses in Philly since we don’t know what happened to Dario.” With a sigh, he pushed her onto her back, laying his dark head on her chest. Then he wrapped his arms around her, enclosing her in heat, making her feel safe. Protected. Loved. “I couldn’t let you do it, Shea. Not even to break the curse. We’ll find another way.”
So many mixed emotions rushed through her, she could barely focus on one. Frankly, she didn’t want to focus at all right now. She merely wanted to absorb his strength.
She didn’t know how long they lay there, silent. Gabriel’s large hands splayed across her back on her bare skin, warm and comforting. She felt each individual finger like a brand on her skin.
A sad contentment stole over her. Even the voices were silent. His chest rose and fell against her side with a rhythmic motion that led her to believe he’d fallen asleep. But just as the thought flitted through her mind, he raised his head and looked into her eyes.
“How do you feel?” he asked. “Truthfully.”
“I’m fine, Gabriel.” Physically she felt fine, anyway. “Honestly. Nothing hurts.”
Nodding, he slid off the bed, his gaze sliding to the door.
“Don’t go.” The words were out before she realized he’d bent to unlace his boots and toe them off before pulling his t-shirt over his head.
Shaking his hair over his broad shoulders, his gaze met hers before dropping to trail over her body.
Heat followed, licking along her skin as if he trailed his fingers over the same path.
“I told you, at Digger’s, we’d finish what we started. I’m not going anywhere.”
That heat began to spread, sinking into her skin and down into her soul, warming her where she’d been cold and heartsick.
Rising to her knees, she placed her hands on his shoulders. He had a few bruises here and there, but they couldn’t mar his otherwise perfect body. She slid her hands from his shoulders to his chest, brushing the hard tips of his nipples on the way. She heard him swallow and draw in a deep breath then his hands settled on her shoulders.
He didn’t pull her closer. He let her hands continue their downward path until her fingers slid into the waistband of his black cargo pants. Turning her head slightly, she rested her ear against his chest so she could hear his heart beat. The rough, accelerated pace let her know he was in the moment with her. Then his hands slipped up into her hair and he let his fingers tangle in the length.
The button on his pants provided a slight tussle, but nothing she couldn’t handle. And the only rough spot she encountered was when she pushed down his pants and found herself staring at his naked erection, hard and pulsing and right at her lips.
Looking up into his face, she found the heat in his eyes reassurance enough to continue.
With her hands on his hips, she kissed the tip before taking him in her mouth and swirling her tongue over him until he groaned. His skin tasted salty and musky, and she could have held him there all night, learning the flavors of his body, but when he groaned again and pulsed in her mouth, he gently tugged her head back until she stared up at him.
“Slow down, Shea. I’m not nearly ready to end this yet. Lie back.”
She obeyed, not because he’d told her to but because the look in his eyes promised more pleasure to be had. And when he reached out and flipped her over, he startled a laugh out of her.
But she wasn’t laughing when he began to lick a wet path from her left ankle to her knee then followed the same treatment on the other leg. She felt the bed dip, felt him straddle her and run his fingers down her back, quickly followed by the scrape of his beard against her skin.
It was the most erotic foreplay and she shuddered against him. Her fingers dug into the sheets and she moaned into the pillow beneath her head as he continued his sexual torment with his hands and mouth.
They were everywhere—trailing down her back, kneading her thighs, caressing the inside of her arms and palming her ass—until she felt ready to jump out of her skin.
Then he shifted, rolled her onto her back and let his hands drag from her shoulders to her waist and back up to cup her breasts.
She could barely keep her eyes open, her senses shifting into overload when he flicked one taut nipple with his thumb and moved his other hand between her legs. He rubbed the sensitive bundle of nerves there with his fingers, playing her until she was hot and wet.
Then he slid one finger into her sex and her muscles contracted around him. His groan mingled with hers as he felt her muscles pull him in. She cried out when he removed his hands.
It was only for a second, though, because he pulled back to spread her legs and settle his body between them.
Her eyes closed at the feel of his blunt, burning erection seeking entrance to her body and she shifted, trying to make him hurry and fill the ache he’d caused.
Instead he moved back and her inner muscles contracted around nothing.
“Gabriel, please.”
“Shh, slow down, love.” He leaned closer to capture her lips while she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “I’m not going anywhere. Not for a damn long time.”
Her heart flipped at his words and her lips tilted into a smile. “I do love you, Gabriel. And you couldn’t run fast enough to get away from me.”
His gaze darkened. “Are you sure about that, Shea? Because I love you more than I want to live. And if you’re sure…about me…” He reached for the bedside table and grabbed the knife he’d laid there. “Then be blood bound to me. I can’t lose you again. It was hell, and I can’t go through that again. We’ll be tied. Always.
Heart pounding in her chest, Shea wondered if she’d ever been so happy and so unsure at the same time. She was still the only link to breaking the curse. And to be blood bound meant that Gabriel would live his life yearning for her if she died before him. And the way her life was going, that could be tomorrow.
But in the next life, it would ensure that they found each other, and if it meant she got to spend every life with this man, she was game.
She held out her hand for the knife. When he motioned for her to take it, she shook her head. With a faint tremble, Gabriel drew the knife along her palm, barely hard enough to draw blood. Then he handed the knife to her and she did the same to his opposite hand.
Without hesitation, they laced their cut hands together as he nudged her legs farther apart with his own and slid into her. Just enough to make her gasp. He pulled back and thrus
t again, this time sinking all the way.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Shea.” He withdrew, delicious friction setting off shudders through her body. He slid home again, slow and gentle, setting a tantalizing rhythm.
She felt heat begin low in her stomach, felt the tension build until she sought his mouth with hers and slid her tongue into his mouth as he slid into her body below.
He refused to hurry, even when she dug her fingers into his ass and arched into him, moaning his name. His easy rhythm made her burn more than any furious motion could have.
But it cost him to take it so slow. His breath labored out of his lungs with the force of a steam engine, bathing her neck in moist heat. His skin dampened with sweat, intensifying his scent and making her hands glide over his back and shoulders as she sought to touch every inch of him.
When she reached his ass again and slid one hand between his legs to rub at the sensitive skin between his cheeks, he finally broke.
His hands tightened on hers, the blood smearing, meshing. His hips swung hard and fast, his cock rubbing every erogenous zone in her sex, overloading her brain with ecstasy.
With a cry, she arched into him as she climaxed, her sex clenching around him and milking his cock until he groaned and released into her, his seed bathing her in warmth.
Her world narrowed down to the two of them, bound together in love and sweat and blood. And then she felt something else. Something magical, something that broke apart from them and crested, making them cry out at the absolute joy of it.
It burned in their veins and sizzled along nerve endings until they were spent, gasping and drenched.
Gabriel collapsed on top of her, surrounding her with his scent and strength, his face buried in her neck. He was heavy, but it felt good. Right.
It took her a few minutes, but finally she was able to muster enough strength to turn her head and whisper in his ear. “What was that?”
He shook his head and shifted so he wasn’t covering her completely. Sliding his hand out of hers, he held it up for them both to see. When she saw nothing but a thin healed scar, she checked her own and saw the same.
A smile curved her lips and she looked up to find Gabriel staring at her with a ferocity that made her sex clench. “You’re mine now. And I’m yours. Whatever comes at us, we’ll deal with it together.”
Her smile grew. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Epilogue
Serena woke with a gasp, one hand pressed against the pain in her chest, the other going to her eyes.
They burned, as if someone had thrown acid into them.
Great Goddess, what now?
She drew in a deep breath—and the pain stopped.
“Serena, are you okay?”
Quinn’s voice came out of the darkness of his apartment in Philadelphia. He’d insisted on bringing her here after the debacle in Reading. She should have said no. But she’d been weak.
Now…now something was wrong. No…not wrong. Different.
“Serena?”
Jumping out of bed, she ran for the attached bathroom, threw the light switch—
And stared into the mirror at her own golden-brown eyes that she hadn’t seen in five-hundred years.
Excerpt of Seduced by Magic
by, Stephanie Julian
Through the window, Scarlata watched the man sleep.
The warm summer air caressed her bare skin, pebbling her nipples into tight nubs of pure sensation and drawing her womb into a ball of anticipation.
She’d come to kill him.
Not fuck him.
Still, her sex moistened and her breasts ached each time she caught a glimpse of him.
This man—who wanted to make her a pet. Or worse.
Well, the tables were about to be turned.
She shook her wings for a second before tucking them close to her back, merging them into her skin. Then she walked to the front door—the only door—and laid her hand on the cool brass knob. It turned, even though he’d locked it before stripping naked and falling into his tumbled sheets.
Science didn’t allow for magic. That was his first failing. Only the first of many, she was sure.
Walking through the door of the single-story cabin, she stopped to look around the room. To the right, a living area contained an upholstered chair, a table and a television on a stand, tucked neatly into the corner. She crooked a finger and the TV hummed to life. The snowy screen baffled her for a moment until the rectangular box next to it hummed and clicked. Then the TV screen cleared and people appeared. Two men and one woman involved in a convoluted sex act featuring grunting and awful music.
The man hadn’t been with a woman since he’d arrived at this cabin in the eastern Pennsylvania forest five weeks ago. He hadn’t taken his car anywhere and the only person to visit had been a food-delivery boy.
She knew he’d become frustrated in the past week, having found nothing to prove his theories.
A smile curved her lips. Obviously he was frustrated in other ways as well.
Turning, she took in the chaos that began on the far side of the room. Papers covered the dining table and the lone wooden chair. She ran her hands through the pages, creating a pale waterfall onto the floor.
Words like “subject”, “test” and “resistance” jumped out at her from those pages. The English language continued to sound harsh to her ears, even after more than two centuries.
Still, when he spoke with a voice that reminded her of the growl of a Lucani, it held a kind of magic of its own.
Leaving the dining area, she followed a paper trail down the hall to a small room on the left, where the chaos seemed to have a system. Books tottered on waist-high stacks, papers and magazines in piles. A slim notebook computer sat on a table under the window. Over the past five weeks, she’d watched—sometimes from a nearby tree branch or sometimes just outside the window—while he sat for hours on end, either typing or staring into the forest surrounding the house.
Fool human. He’d never seen her. Not even when she walked next to him while he hiked through the forest, watching the raptors that had given Hawk Mountain its name glide on the air currents. Her glamour allowed her to stand five feet in front of him without his knowledge.
Fool to think he could outwit her, to believe he could trap her and keep her in a cage to study like an animal.
She turned, letting her anger begin to heat her blood, and headed for the open doorway on the other side of the hall.
Walking into his bedroom without making a sound, she felt cool wood flooring give way to plush carpet, decadent against the soles of her sensitive feet. She stood for a brief second, eyes closed, as she dug all six of her toes into the luxurious wool rug. He’d brought this rug with him. She’d watched as he’d unrolled it beside the bed the first day he’d arrived.
When she opened her eyes, she let her gaze find him in the pale glimmer of moonlight filtering through the window.
A stream of silver cut across his back, leaving his head and shoulders in darkness but revealing a sleek expanse of back and the hollowed curves of his gorgeous ass.
Goddess, he was a beautiful specimen.
She cocked her head to the side, watching the steady rise and fall of his back. His skin gleamed with a slight sheen of sweat due to the heat of the night. Even here in the forest, the temperature hovered around eighty degrees.
This region of the United States was in the thrall of a heat wave. Temperatures reached one hundred degrees during the day, while barely dropping into the low eighties overnight. He’d abandoned most of his clothes the last few days, wearing only a pair of shorts that brushed his knees and hung low on his hips. He didn’t bother with underwear anymore.
She drew in a breath, surprised at how hard she had to work for it.
She wanted to touch him. Needed to touch him so badly her fingers ached and curled into fists at her hips.
An ancient spell to ensure his continued slumber whispered from her lips and
she watched it sink into his skin with a pale shimmer.
Spreading her fingers, she reached out to touch the warm flesh of his back. The smooth texture reminded her of new leaves and his scent… Oh, his scent was sweat and heat, musk and male. It made her lungs tighten even further.
It would be a shame not to have him before she disposed of him. It’d been ages since she’d enjoyed sex with an etera, a human with no magical abilities. Eteri had learned to be inventive in ways forgotten by her people, the folletti. A race of the mythic Etruscan Fata, folletti had long ago lost the ability to enjoy themselves.
Unlike the Enu, the humans of magical Etruscan descent such as the streghe and the shape-changing versipelli, the Fata, such as the folletti, the linchetti and the salbinelli, had non-human attributes—wings, pointed ears or furred legs.
Some Fata who could blend did so. Like the linchetti. But those like her, with hooves or wings, lived in hiding, in fear of being discovered.
Reduced to seeking refuge in the ever-shrinking parts of the world humans had forgotten, could not penetrate or simply didn’t want, those types of Fata cared more about survival.
This man threatened her existence. And those under her care.
Sprawled in the center of the bed, he murmured something in his sleep and rolled onto his back. Her breath caught in her throat at his masculine beauty.
Her fingers slid from his broad shoulders to his firmly muscled chest then dipped to caress his nipples. The little nubs hardened under her touch and she tweaked them before continuing a downward path to his flat stomach. By the time she reached the line of fine, dark blond hair that arrowed straight to his large cock, he had already thickened in arousal.
She allowed her fingers to curl around his hard length, smiling at the way his shaft pulsed in her hand as more blood rushed to the organ. The flesh became hot to the touch and her fingers tightened in response. When he moaned in his sleep, her sex clenched and the ache low in her gut became all-consuming.
