by Jaide Fox
“You bastard,” she said in a deadly whisper. “So it meant nothing. None of it?”
Dar caught her hands, trying to hold her, to pull her into a hug. She struggled against him.
“Don’t fucking pretend with me! I know you don’t want me.”
“Calm down, Jasmine. You’re so angry you can’t—you won’t hear the truth. Yes, at first I was only obeying orders, but that changed. I can’t resist you. I couldn’t. You stole my heart.”
“Pfft,” she blew out a sound, trying to break free. He dragged her flush against his body, dipping her backward out of balance on her feet.
He kissed her and she bit him, drawing blood. He let her go, touching a hand to his wounded lip. “I mean every word I say.”
“It’s lies. How can I believe anything you say? Do you know what it’s like to feel ugly and unwanted?”
Dar sighed, pulling something from his pocket. He held his fist out, encouraging her to take what was in his hand. “I had intentions of giving this to you tonight. It belonged to my mother. My grandparents pulled this stone from the mines and gave it to my father for safekeeping as a sort of dowry for marrying my mother. He had to find a jeweler who could be trusted to polish and set the stone without spilling the secret to others.”
Jasmine held out her palm, feeling the weight of warmed metal touch her skin. She drew her hand back, examining the contents. Misery stabbed her chest. “What is this? A proposal? A bribe?”
He cupped her hands, taking the ring and easing it onto her finger. Centered in a nest of small diamonds was a round purplish-blue stone as wide as her thumbnail. Fire glinted in its depths and when she turned it to the light, the stone shimmered with purple and red. He held up her hand and kissed her fingers. “We called it the heart of Chalcydon. She was never allowed to wear it outside our home, for fear it would be confiscated by the royal guard for the crown. When you shine a light through the stone, it changes to magenta. There is no other like it on this planet—like you. You are…like this jewel. The only one. Will you be my bride, Jasmine?”
She looked up into his face, trying to discern the truth. His stormy eyes looked hopeful and wary, awaiting a death blow from her when she would finally say no. “I want to believe you,” she whispered.
“Do not my actions tell you how I feel? Some things can never be faked. I never expected to feel this way.” He cupped her jaw, giving her a tender kiss on the lips and meeting no resistance when she parted her mouth. He nibbled the corners, warming her insides. “Can you not sense this is true? That I yearn for you? I would endure a thousand knives in my soul if it meant one more night with you.”
“I will. I accept.” She ducked her head, cuddling against his chest. She sighed.
“There is no desire to return to Earth?” he asked.
“I do, but not if it means leaving you. I’m ready for a fresh start and a new life. I understand now. I think maybe they were right. I remember Princess Adrienne saying I reminded her of herself. Maybe she knew I was stubborn, that we both were. Maybe she knew it would take being forced together to make love happen.”
He rubbed a thumb on his chin. “I think you are on to something. I’ve never loved before. When you are not around, there is this…soreness. An ache. It is hard to describe.”
She grinned. “I have an ache. And a soreness.”
He chucked her chin. “You have a dirty mind. I am being serious and you can think only of the bedroom.”
She rubbed her body against his, enjoying his stiff reaction and the jerk of his belly when she teased his waistband. She allowed her hands to trace the contours of his chest and stomach. He hissed when she reached down and stroked his groin. “You do too or you wouldn’t know what I mean.”
Dar gathered her into his arms with a throaty growl, taking her to the bedroom. She squealed and clung to his neck, kissing his jaw. “There better not be any more secrets in your closet.”
“Only that I need you as desperately as air,” he groaned before kissing her deeply.
She broke from his mouth with a gasp. “Keep talking like that and you might have me begging on my knees for more.”
Clothes hastily hit the floor, and they collapsed on the bed, naked and entwined. Dar’s hands roamed her skin, squeezing her breasts, urging her legs open. He scorched her with his mouth, branding her as his forever. She explored his back and shoulders with her hands, urging him to take her. He nestled against her, wrapping his arms around her back and shoulders as he pushed inside her willing, wet core. She arched, tightening her grip as he shifted his weight and planted his fists into the mattress on either side of her chest.
Ecstasy rolled in waves through her being. She felt a completion every time he stroked her. He was everything she could have wanted in a partner and more. Their lovemaking was fast and hard, frantic as if it was the last time, but it was only the beginning between them.
Epilogue
Orichal Matrix
Celestinos Mothership
The bank of screens flashed images of the Anehtar, Chalcydon and the crowd of angered men gathered before the palace. Limited surveillance of the distant colony had proved their reign’s fallibility. It irked him that their carefully constructed slave colony had fallen out of place before they could return to collect the ore that rightfully belonged to his people. The fools should have never abandoned their rule over the slave colony in favor of richer planets. Just because they’d been worshipped as gods once before did not mean that blind faith and fear would forever hold sway among the colonists and incur their wishes in spite of a lack of visibility and control.
Inath grunted. His emperor would have his head were he to discover this knowledge, and Inath had no intention of parting ways with his neck. He was left to clean a mess not of his own making.
The faster ships he’d sent should have taken care of the problem without needing him to intercede except to collect their intended mother lode of chalcedonite for his own planet. The previous crews failed, miserably. Disgusted by the images, Inath Kauldor waved his hands and the screens turned dark. He’d had to divert his path, and only the distance from his home planet had thus far saved him from discovery by the emperor. It mattered not that he’d had no control over events—someone would pay with their life.
Damn the speed of the behemoth he traveled in!
“I want the traitor’s head placed before my feet. Is that understood, Vakar?” Inath said to the man bowed before him.
Vakar’s long tail swayed, indicating nervousness or displeasure, though he did not dare raise his head and face the wrath of his ruler. “It will be done, my liege. Is there anything else you desire?”
Inath scowled. “If there was, I would have commanded it. The damage is done. The element of surprise has been taken from us. You may stand and face me, Vakar. Do not grovel. It is unbecoming of my best bounty hunter.”
Vakar stood and clasped a fist against his chest, nodding. “Their forces are weakened by the virus we intercepted.”
“Do not remind me of our population control failures. The virus was to take more of the men, not all of the women. We still face a battle when we arrive, and thanks to those damned Lamians, Chalcydon is armed with the latest in weaponry—bought with our own ore. The irony!”
He cringed, wishing he had said nothing at all. His tail flicked on the end. “By your leave then. We will seek out and find the thief who dared warn the Chalcydon Empire of our impending arrival.”
“See that you are successful, or do not return to the mothership. Your welcome here will be your last. For now, I must bear the undesirable duty of planning our invasion and the removal of King Anadaru.”
The End
Thank you for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed it enough to leave a review. If you’re interested in learning about my new releases, be sure to sign up for my newsletter on my webpage http://www.jaidefoxbooks.com or you can follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jaidefoxbooks I’d love to hear from you.
; Other titles by Jaide Fox:
Mating Heat 1: Mating Rights (Interracial Fantasy Romance)
Mating Heat 2: Bear Trapped (Interracial Fantasy Romance—Coming Soon)
Beastmen of Shadowmere 1: Marked by the Beast (Interracial Fantasy Romance)
Beastmen of Shadowmere 2: Seduced by the Beast (Interracial Fantasy Romance)
Beastmen of Shadowmere 3: Conquered by the Beast (Interracial Fantasy Romance)
Dark Lords 1: Captured by the Dark Lord (Dark Fantasy Romance)
Dark Lords 2: Seized by the Vampire Lord (Dark Fantasy Romance)
Dark Lords 3: Ensnared by the Dream Lord (Dark Fantasy Romance)
Captured by Aliens 1: Alien’s Captive (Interracial Futuristic Romance)
Captured by Aliens 2: Alien Insurgence (Interracial Futuristic Romance)
Captured by Aliens 3: Alien Intent (Interracial Futuristic Romance)
Captured by Aliens 4: Alien Resistance (Interracial Futuristic Romance—Coming late 2015)
Interstellar Mayhem 1: StarCaught (Futuristic Romance)
Interstellar Mayhem 2: StarRomped (Futuristic Romance)
Pleasure Masters 1: Ravaged (Futuristic Romance)
Pleasure Masters 2: Dominated (Futuristic Romance)
Pleasure Masters 3: Mastered (Futuristic Romance)
PleasureBot (Futuristic Romance)
Trained for Pleasure (Futuristic Romance)
Archangel (Futuristic Romance)
Summoner’s Captive (Dark Fantasy Romance)
Earth Girls Aren’t Easy (Interracial Futuristic Romance)
His Forbidden Fruit (Interracial Fantasy Romance)
Renegade (Futuristic Romance--in TAMING THE ALPHA Box Set)
SUPER READERS NEEDED!
Do you love my futuristic romances? Fantasy Romance? Or interracial love? I hope so. I’m looking for Super Readers to review Advance Reading Copies of my books. It helps if you’ve enjoyed my work before or if you’ve left a review for one of my books in the past. If you’re interested in receiving an ARC for review on release days, email me at [email protected] and let me know which of my books you’ve enjoyed before. I can’t guarantee an ARC for everyone every time, but I’ll do my best.
I’d also love your feedback about future books and stories or series. If you really want to learn more about the story of a character I hadn’t considered before, do let me know.
Here’s an UNEDITED sneak peek from Mating Heat 2: Bear Trapped (Fantasy Romance), Coming Soon:
Escaping the town of Fangor required little effort and subterfuge on Kimber’s part. Within the first few days after the attack on the city by rogue bears from the Ursine clan, her people—the wolf clan—were too busy in the forest finding suitably thick timber to replace the broken gates and ramparts that surrounded the town. She’d escaped granting mating rights to a man unworthy of her.
Unlike her friend, Mali, who’d found a love match worth envy with Jaxon, Kimber had been unable to drum up enough interest in any of the available males in the clan during the Moonlight Festival. Certainly there were handsome suitors, but she wanted more than just a pretty face. She wanted a man who would value and treasure her, as Mali had with Jaxon. She only had to observe them for a moment to see that Jaxon adored Mali, and nothing less would do for her. Perhaps it was wrong to desire such things. Her mama had told her to find someone she could be friends with, which made little sense to her. What about passion and lust? Why even bother mating at all if she could only muster lukewarm feelings toward a mate?
She wondered if her lack of interest could be pin-pointed to her lack of mating heat. Kimber sighed heavily, hefting her belongings into a better position on her back. Mali had invited her to travel with her and Jaxon to her parents’ home, but that had been out of the question for Kimber. She had no interest in being the odd wheel on that journey.
She could return to her own home, but the image of disappointment on her family’s faces was more than she could endure. With four small children still at home, they’d struggled to gather a proper cache of clothing and supplies to send her away with. They would not want to know that she’d neglected choosing a partner for something as silly as passion.
Winter approached, leaving the valley floor cold, moist, and misty as the weather settled over the land. Fangor was long behind her. What possessed her in this madness to think she could live in the wild by herself until spring? Glancing around with every step, she kept her eyes peeled for a suitable resting place for the night. The days grew shorter and shorter, and she didn’t relish the possibility that she would have to spend another frigid night under the stars without a den.
She’d never traveled this far north, however, and her ignorance of the area tempted her to turn back, swallow her pride, and face her family’s crushed dreams of her happily mated. Obviously, it was too far to walk to the coast—which was her original, poorly planned idea. Mountains seemed to cover the land for miles, reaching for the sky with jagged, rocky hands tipped in snow. Dried, brown leaves coated the ground, and soon even that disappeared as spruce and pine surged from hardened dirt.
This was no place for a comfortable night’s rest. She stopped and looked up, hoping for a depression against the wind. A dark shadow smudged the hill, and at first, she thought it just a shadow from an outcrop of rock. She realized after studying the spot for several minutes that it was a cave. A thrill raced through her but she tamped it down before she could get too excited. It could be occupied already, or not nearly big enough for her to sleep in.
Kimber scaled the hill, ignoring the sounds of rocks and gravel tumbling down the hillside as she struggled to the cave using roots for leverage when her thighs screamed at the abuse. She felt like a mountain goat when she finally reached her goal and stood victorious and out of breath at the entrance. The cave was bigger up here, a full two feet higher than her head and broad enough she could walk inside abreast of a companion.
Her keen vision allowed her to look into the space shrouded in darkness by the deep walls. A fire had once been kept in the mouth, evidenced by scattered ash and small bits of charcoal. Further inside, she could see dead, dried spruce bows where someone had once made a bed, but there was no sign of recent residence. Kimber hefted her bag from her shoulders and sat it on the dirty cave floor.
Beyond the dim shafts of light, the cave reached back another fifteen feet. There was no one inside—it looked abandoned. “Hello?” she called, receiving no reply except the scratch of leaves on rock as the wind howled through the walls.
“Kimber, you’ve just found your new home,” she said to herself. “Time to go on a hunt and get dinner for tonight.” The fact that she’d begun talking to herself didn’t disturb her nearly as much as it had before. She guessed having a roof over her head and a place to sit out the winter had given her more confidence in her ability to rough it in the wild.
Kimber peeled her long, red wool cloak off and followed it with her dress, dropping both on top of her bag. Her first priority was to hunt dinner. Once that was taken care of, she’d collect wood and clean up the space.
She felt positively giddy as she crouched to the ground and allowed her beast to take control, transforming her with practiced ease into the form of a sleek, silver wolf.
***
Heavily laden with thick wool skins, boar hide, and a bag stuffed with dried goods, pots and pans, and everything else he could think of to sustain him until the spring, Braeden lumbered up the familiar landscape to the winter cave he’d hibernated in every winter since he was a young lad. Breathing heavily from the burden and the accompanying sweat on his brow in spite of the plunging temperature, he didn’t notice the small depressions in the ground leading up to his cave until he was nearly upon it.
The scent of a wolf and fresh blood tickled his sensitive nose. He paused only for a moment before the blinding anger washed over his head and clouded his mind with the ferocity to protect his territory. With an agility that defied his enormous size, he bounded th
e final distance with two steps, landing in the mouth of the cave with a roar that rattled his own ear drums as it reverberated along the walls with deafening sound. No wolf was going to take his cave from him. He didn’t give a damn about truces. This was his cave.
His bags fell away as he bared his chest and shoulders and balled his hands into tight fists, ready for a fight. He was brought up short in his fury by the sight of a naked woman bent over a pile of clothing. Rich, dark skin imbued with reddish tones and curved over an ample backside and gloriously rounded breasts stunned him into stupefied silence. A lifeless boulder could not have been more frozen than Braeden.
The brown skinned woman stood and faced him, narrowing her eyes, unafraid and bold and obviously lacking good sense or one: she should have screamed; two: she should have run; three: she made no attempt to preserve her modesty.
She bared perfect white teeth in a grin that made her brown eyes look deadly.
Braeden realized his adrenaline has increased the blood flow from his brain to his groin. That or the fact that he hadn’t seen a naked woman in years.
Somehow, he kicked the stiff cogs of his brain back into rotation. He shook his head as if slinging off a shroud. “Are ye daft?” he roared, diverting his attention from her tits and the slit peeking from betwixt her legs up to her round face and evil brownish black eyes. “This is my cave!”
“This is my cave. I was here first,” she said through clenched teeth, lifting her chin with bravado.
“Are you daft? It’s mine. It’s been mine since I was a boy. Get out!” he roared again.
She didn’t’ flinch and didn’t back down. For some reason, her lack of response deflated his anger from a boil to a simmer. He stood there in the entrance, trying to think of some way to grab her and throw her out without hurting her or getting injured in the process. She looked lithe and small enough to slip through his arms if she wanted.
