by Aliyah Burke
“Because—”
“Think very carefully about your response,” she warned.
He lowered his head to hers, eyes holding her immobile. One of his powerful legs had wedged its way between hers.
“I’m here because I love you, Chaya Stevenson. You and Danny are my family and I want you back.”
Tears swarmed down on her and she blinked furiously to keep them at bay. He loved her.
He loves me?
Her legs shook and she bit her lower lip.
“It’s not nice to play with people’s feelings, Linc.”
“Who am I playing with, Chaya? I’m right here, telling you I love you.”
“You…you’re a god.” Her heart pounded like a drum in her chest.
“I know,” he whispered along her lips.
She caught herself in time from following his mouth when he backed off. “I’m a single mother. Of two.”
“Two?”
Chaya hastened to explain. “Sara is living with us until she graduates. She didn’t want to have to move to a new school so close to graduation.”
“And you think her parents will not like me around her?” He shrugged. “I’ll go talk to them.”
“No!”
He looked at her one brow raised. “No?”
“You cannot continue to control people and their thoughts, Linc.”
His look was slightly amused. “I meant actually talk to them. Face to face.”
“You would do that why?”
Linc expelled a long breath. “Chaya. Listen to me. I have never given another my name to wear.” He held out the necklace she’d hidden in a jewellery box. “And I have never told another I loved them. I never will.”
The first tears spilled over. She wanted him so badly. “I…I don’t know what to say.”
Linc merely stared at her. In his gaze she read the truth. He did love her and that humbled her. Peering around him, she spied Danny and Sara watching them more than they were the game.
“I love you, too, Linc,” she whispered.
The familiar weight of the pendant settled between her breasts and the feeling relieved her. He moved his hands to cup her face and join their mouths. His kiss was gentle and powerful.
‘Forever is a long time with me, Chaya.’ His words danced through her mind.
‘You’re okay with Danny and Sara too?’
‘Of course. I love Danny like my own and Sara means so much to you both. How could I not be okay with it?’
‘Thank you, Linc.’
‘No, Chaya. Thank you. Thank you for bringing me into the light and showing me what love is.’
The kiss intensified and she knew that, while he’d be challenging and arrogant much of the time, he was hers. She had found love again, and this time…this time she wasn’t going to let it go.
Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:
Kemet Uncovered: Devi
Taige Crenshaw and Aliyah Burke
Excerpt
Chapter One
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The air flowed over her, crisp and cool. Devi Petner stared out over Cathedral Valley. Around her, rock climbers called to one another as they scaled different formations in the park. One of her favourite spots in this entire country—perhaps in the world. All the different visual displays, the beauty it exuded and the calm it brought her only enhanced her attachment to the park. You could see Pikes Peak when you entered the park, and the views offered were nothing short of spectacular.
Devi knew every inch of the place, having come here on numerous occasions with friends to hike, rock climb, horseback ride, bike and more. There was something for everyone.
She sighed and turned to leave, only to find herself face to face with a man she’d never seen before. He had a cap pulled low over his eyes, shielding his features from her and rendering himself unrecognisable. Tall and beefy, he could pose a threat…to most.
She blinked and glanced down at her watch. She was close to running late.
“Morning,” she said calmly, and made to move beyond him.
“I don’t think so,” he said in a low, gravelled tone. He moved one arm, opening his unbuttoned, long-sleeved shirt, exposing the butt of a gun stuck down his waistband. “You and me, over there.” He jerked his head to the side, indicating where he wanted her to go.
She sighed.
What a way to ruin my morning.
A couple with a young girl came around the corner of the path, and Devi nodded before stepping closer to him. She didn’t want him to panic and shoot one of the passers-by, because that would really piss her off. With a smile pasted on her face, she exchanged morning pleasantries with the passing trio. Once it was just her and the unknown man with his gun, he took her arm and led her into a small copse of trees at the base of a hogback rock formation, out of view. The ‘hogback’ name came from the ridge and its resemblance to the knobby spine between a hog’s shoulders.
“Any sound and I’ll shoot you,” he growled, shoving her towards a tree.
Devi righted herself, turned, crossed her arms and glared at him. “Like a gunshot won’t bring people running to investigate.”
He seemed taken aback by her unwillingness to cooperate with him, and withdrew the gun, waving it at her. “Undress.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Did you know there are over three thousand acres that make up this park?” she asked conversationally. “A person could be dead out here for a long time before anyone found them. I mean, really, how often do they conduct a thorough search of every single acre?”
“Shut up!” he demanded.
“Why? You’re not going to shoot me and I’m not undressing for you to put your slimy paws on me.”
“Are you stupid? I’m holding a gun on you. I could just shoot you,” he spat.
“You imbecilic human,” she growled. “Always thinking just because you have some form of weapon you are stronger. I dislike men who threaten women—especially me. Give me your gun.” She held out her hand palm up, beckoning with her fingers.
He gave a hysterical laugh and shook his head. He sniffed and wiped his hand under his nose, waved the gun again, then cocked it.
“I had hopes for your kind.” Devi lifted one shoulder languidly.
And she had, but it seemed that the further along time flowed, the older the Earth became, the worse humans treated one another. They had turned it into an art form, coming up with so many new ideas and new weapons with which to inflict pain on each other. It saddened her. If only they would deign to turn their energies to cures and ways to better and enrich their lives.
“My kind?” He seemed to shake off his uncertainty. “Bitch, I don’t care who the hell you are, what you think you are or what kind of karate shit you know. This gun will stop you in your tracks if you don’t give me what I want.”
In the air to her left, a golden hourglass appeared, rotating slowly until it stopped. She looked at it, then back at the man, who seemed suddenly hesitant again.
“What the hell?” he muttered, trying to back away.
He couldn’t move.
She strode to stand closer to him and tossed her head. “You should be more careful who you pick on, mortal. What I am is very important if you want to remain alive. And your gun wouldn’t even make me blink. You see this?” She gestured to the hourglass, which had drifted closer to her and had very little sand left in the top bulb. “This one is yours. Almost empty. Which means your death is nearly upon you.” She blinked, and another hourglass appeared at her other side, hovering in the air like the first. “This one, which will never empty, is mine.” She touched it, and the golden glow shone even more brightly until she took her hand away.
Devi lifted the man with a mere gesture, so that his feet left the ground, then she levitated herself to meet him eye to eye.
“I will not kill you today, human. At least not at this moment. But know this—I will be watching you. You even think of harming another—
aside from yourself—and I will snuff the very life from your body with nothing more than my mind.”
She demonstrated. With a single thought she shut his windpipe and as he gasped for air she mentally released her hold, allowing him to breathe again. “It is that simple for me to end your life.”
He fell with a grunt to the hard-packed earth, knocking his hat off, his chest heaving as he gulped deep breaths of the cool summer air, one hand at the base of his throat as if he didn’t think he would ever be able to inhale enough.
She remained above him, his gun with her, having taken it while he was suspended in the air.
The man bolted to his feet, hat gone, stared at her and took off running in the other direction. She removed the gun from existence and lowered herself back to the ground.
* * * *
At lunchtime, she sat outside and enjoyed the warm summer sun. She glanced up when her friend and fellow paediatrician, January Sheer, hurried to the small, round table. Her pale skin was flushed and there was a definite sparkle in her green eyes.
“Oh my God, Devi,” January gushed as she sank onto the half-circle bench across from her. “He is sooo good looking.” She fanned her face. “All he did was look at me and I… I couldn’t even remember my name.”
“I take it this man was handsome,” Devi said with a laugh.
“Handsome doesn’t begin to touch on what he was.” January gulped some water. “He’s like a gorgeous surfer dude, but not in a boyish way—he’s all man.”
“Well that’s good. Wouldn’t want him to be boyish or anything like that.”
“Oh, hush, Devi. I’m serious. You should go for him.”
Devi sighed and took a drink. “Why me? You’re the one who’s seen him and who’s all flushed.”
“Patterson and I are back on.”
Patterson was January’s on-again, off-again boyfriend. Half the time, Devi honestly couldn’t keep track of whether they were ‘on’ or ‘off’. He seemed nice enough, but Devi wanted someone for her friend who wouldn’t constantly turn her life upside down.
“Ahh. So I’m to assume that were you two ‘off again’, I wouldn’t be offered such a bone?” she teased.
“Hush.” January leaned across the wrought iron table. “I’m telling you, Devi, he was just…wow.”
“Tell me,” she said, her gaze drifting past her friend. It stopped on a man with the moves of a jungle cat, powerful and fluid. He halted behind January.
“He had dark hair, was in a uniform and—”
“Let me guess,” she interrupted. “Short dark hair. Spiked on top, the tips blond. Brown eyes.”
“Oh my God, yes, that’s him! Did you see him walk? He’s hot enough for me to want to lock myself in a room and—”
“January,” she broke in, eyebrows lifted.
January flushed and asked in a whisper, “He’s behind me, isn’t’ he?”
“I’m afraid so.” Devi lifted her gaze to the amused brown eyes watching her, and felt a kick to her gut. Her palms were a bit sweaty as she locked gazes with him.
January dropped her head to the table and refused to lift it.
Licking her lips, Devi asked, “Can I help you?”
The man stepped closer to her, a smile on his face, and she shivered slightly.
“I was told I could find Devi Petner up here. Is that you?”
“Yes.”
He handed her an envelope. “Just need your John Hancock.”
She pulled a pen from her coat to sign the paper he held out, and clicked it while her gaze drifted back up to the man standing so close to her.
His dark pants and light shirt highlighted his muscles. His skin was tanned and all she wanted to do was touch it. The name badge on his shirt read ‘Rhodes’, and she said it a few times in her head while she signed.
“Here you go.” Devi returned the paper.
His fingers grazed hers as he took the sheet back.
“Thank you.”
He smiled, showcasing a dimple in his left cheek, before he turned and walked away, leaving her staring at his retreating figure.
“He’s gone, January,” she informed her friend.
“I can’t believe he heard me. Look at you, staring after him. See? It wasn’t just me—that man is fine!”
And he was. Before he turned the corner, he paused and looked back at them. When he nodded his head, Devi’s belly clenched again and she could totally understand what January had been saying.
Devi was baffled and at a loss. No man had ever affected her like this. But the way he’d said her name…it had made heat uncurl in the most private parts of her body. She wanted more. And now she was staring after him, like every other woman in the vicinity.
No one watching her could even have begun to believe that her true identity was Renpet, goddess of time, immortality and the cycle of life and death. To those who had worshipped her in the past, she had been known as the Mistress of Eternity.
Rhodes Liatos chuckled as he headed back to his truck. That poor woman had been so embarrassed when he’d approached behind her and heard her comments. The other one, though…she was no laughing matter.
It had been hard to be professional while staring at her. Never before had a woman intrigued him so much from the get-go. She was a little thing—he’d bet she’d barely reach his shoulder, and he was two inches over six feet. Her black hair had been drawn back into a loose bun that sat at her nape. She had well-defined features and skin the colour of polished rosewood. His fingers had itched to touch it and find out whether it was as soft and smooth as it looked.
She had full, kissable lips and a small nose. Her eyes were large, dark brown and framed by thick, curvy, sooty lashes. Her hands were delicate and her nails had pale pink polish on them.
He’d noticed that there was no ring indicating marriage. She did wear two rings, though, one on each thumb. One dark and one light.
Dr Devi Petner was definitely a woman he had an interest in seeing again. And, from the intense way she’d studied him, he’d bet she felt the same. If only he didn’t have more deliveries to make today. He paused with one foot on the step and almost headed back to her to ask her out.
“I’m working, I can’t,” he muttered, and climbed into his truck.
Still he hesitated. There had been this draw between them, one he’d never felt before, and he wanted to see where it would lead.
Finally, he forced himself to get back to work, deciding that, if it was meant to be, they would run into one another again.
“What’s on your mind, Rhodes?”
The question snapped him from his mental undressing of Devi Petner. Smothering his frustrated groan, he closed his locker door and gave all his attention to Dave Hendrickson, another driver.
“Thinking about the weekend,” he said evasively.
“Big plans?”
“Hope so.”
I wonder if her breasts will overflow my hands. I couldn’t tell with her wearing that shapeless lab coat.
Dave’s eyes widened. “Hot date? Come on, man—tell me about her. I’m living through you, here.”
Rhodes chuckled. “Nothing to tell…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Yet.”
“You dog, man. I bet she’s hot.”
Hot wasn’t the word. He couldn’t explain it. Devi had this aura that had called to him on so many levels. All he knew was that he wanted to get to know her better. Much better.
“She’s…yeah, she sure is.” He hefted his bag and smacked Dave on the shoulder. “I’ll see you later. Have a great one.”
Rhodes left before more questions were forthcoming.
Sliding behind the wheel of his vintage Corvette—normally he drove his Cherokee, but it was in the shop, so he’d pulled this out of the garage—he couldn’t stop his mind from drifting back to Devi one more time. The way her full lips had formed words, how her tongue had sneaked out to dampen them. The way her eyes had sparkled as she’d listened to her friend talk.
“P
ull it together, man,” he said to himself.
The engine turned over with a smooth purr and he shifted into gear. Leaving the parking lot, he headed for his next stop.
* * * *
After returning from a six-mile run, he had just opened his car and withdrawn a bottle of water when a voice made him jerk upright, nearly smacking his head on the doorframe. He tensed as if preparing for battle.
Rhodes pivoted, searching for her. He knew it was Devi’s voice.
There. He pinned her with his gaze as she came into view from one of the side paths. She was with two others, but they headed off on their own, which left her alone—with him.
He knew the moment she realised it was him. Her mouth formed a little and absolutely adorable ‘O’. He hungrily ran his gaze over her. She was clothed in a tight, light blue top that showed off her toned and flat stomach. Short white shorts showcased lean legs, and she had on matching shoes and socks.
Her gaze moved up his body and it responded as if she’d actually touched him. She tossed her head, her ponytail swinging, then walked towards him.
He couldn’t be sure it wasn’t simply a trick caused by the low light of the evening, but her eyes seemed to glow, almost as a cat’s will at night when they’re hit with light. It was eerie and for a time he hesitated, sensing that there was more to this woman than met the eye.
It faded before he could think much of it, and a siren’s smile lifted one corner of her all-too-kissable mouth.
She halted before him and plucked the water bottle from his hand, uncapped it and took a healthy swallow. “Thanks,” she said, eliminating the lone, tempting drop on her lower lip with her tongue.
He reclaimed his bottle when she offered it back to him. “I didn’t expect to see you again today,” he commented, taking a drink himself.
“That statement implies you figured on seeing me again.”
“I did. I do,” he amended.
“I don’t even know your full name,” she whispered, stepping closer still.
“Rhodes Liatos.”
