There's no such thing as a chance meeting.
There’s no room in Avery Nicolis’s life for an obsession, yet why else
does he stalk Emeline Gamble. Lurking in the shadows, he hungers for a woman he
can’t have. Between the secrets he guards and anarchy roiling in his soul, his
only solace are his glimpses of Emeline. He will resist her, protect her from
himself, and deny his desire to claim her heart.
Emeline Gamble was a Watcher for the Order—a secret society of women
charged with monitoring the offspring of the gods. For months,
she;Avery Nicolis, an elite mercenary, Descendant of Ra, and
enemy of the Order. Never knowing he had her in his crosshairs.
Trapped in a lie, Emeline is forced to accept Avery as her bodyguard.
Compelled to spend time with him, she learns to care for his tortured soul and
see the hero lurking beneath the assassin’s façade.
But every word out of her mouth is a lie. Every action a betrayal.
Because to save her family she is forced to accept a new assignment,
deliver Avery Nicolis to the Goddess of Chaos, alive…
And do not fall in love with him.
A shift in the air alerted
him that he was no longer alone. The hesitant whisper of feet gliding across
the carpet revealed his intruder. And her scent. She smelled of him—of
sandalwood and the night—mixed with her womanly aura that spiked his blood. A
growl rumbled in his throat. Could he not have a moment alone? Maybe if he
didn’t move she’d go away and leave him to finish meditating.
Silence stretched
painfully until curiosity made him open one eye. She sat in front of him, so
close he could count the treasure of gold flecks sparkling in her hazel eyes.
Her gaze skimmed his face, leaving a trail of hunger he no longer wanted to
deny. Her eyes widened when they dropped to his scars. Pity welled.
“Leave. Now.”
Her gaze shot to his.
Questions danced in her eyes. Questions he refused to answer. It would serve no
purpose to spill his guts to a woman who considered him damaged, less than any
other man. Her hand stretched forward. Avery almost leaned into the touch, he
craved her that much. But not while pity surfed in her hazel eyes. He’d have
none of it.
“Don’t,” he snarled and
grabbed her hand.
“It’s…” Her voice wavered.
He held his breath,
waiting for her to finish her sentence with any of the words on his personal
list: ugly, grotesque, monstrous.
“Beautiful.”
Huh? He hadn’t heard right. Didn’t she see the scars, ravaged skin,
and muscles beneath the ink?
“It’s changed. It didn’t
look like this before.”
Shit! Sometimes his Ink did change from one indiscriminate mass to
a slightly different indiscriminate mass.
“Now it’s intricate with
swoops and swirls. Curlicues.”
Curlicues? Not possible.
Her hand kept coming. He’d never let anyone touch it, not even during sex. Yet…he
wanted her to touch him—all of him—but that was not going to happen. “I did it
to hide the scars. Make it pretty. Didn’t work.” He lied.
Again, her hazel eyes
filled with skepticism and her hand kept coming, as if he hadn’t ordered her
not to. He was about to push her away when her fingers veered to his face. His
breath caught, stilled by the possibilities of the moment.
She traced his face with
soothing, lazy fingers. Her eyes, fringed with long, sooty lashes, were
focused, intent on the torture she inflicted on his flesh. A gleam of interest
sparked in their depths and a sultry smile tugged at the corners of her full
lips. He’d dreamed this fantasy, never expected it come true. It was wrong to
want more, yet her gaze caressed his skin.
Her hand dropped and she
swept her thumb over the slight scar on his forearm, a reminder from the fight
with her intruders. A jolt raced through him and he sucked in a startled
breath.
She studied the slight
demarcation. “Your wound? It’s gone. Want to explain?”
Kiss her, part her soft pouty lips and taste her. He shrugged.
“Genetic anomaly. I heal fast.” He waited for more questions, but she surprised
him when she cupped his face, and rubbed her palm over his day-old stubble.
Desire flooded his system, turning the darkness within him into a sea of need.
Take her. Take what you want. Spread her. Fuck her. Take. Take. Whispered,
taunted, and finally screamed. Avery balled his hands and kept them at his
sides, anything to keep from humiliating himself. If only he could lock away
his unending need, treat her as a client and not the only woman who’d ever made
his blood simmer.
If he could do that, then
he could walk away, but a little bit of Emeline wouldn’t be enough. And if he
couldn’t have all of her, he’d rather have none.
He had to leave.
Her hands slid down his
neck to his shoulder, and brushed his burn. Avery jerked away. The skin
sizzled, as if freshly torched, but it wasn’t pain that seared his body.
“W-what? What did I do?”
Her lovely eyes filled with concern.
Her stuttering mimicked
his fluttering heart. When she touched his scar, all his nerve endings were
zapped. He felt her soft hand stroking him, when his damaged skin hadn’t sensed
anything in more than two decades.
“How did this
happen?”
Though he never wanted her
begging for anything, ever, Avery shook his head. Those dark memories didn’t
belong here, tainting this moment. He took her hand, caressed the smooth back,
and brushed her knuckles.
“Tell me,” she whispered
and squeezed his fingers.
He brought her fingers to
his tortured skin. “Touch me again.” The unspoken ‘please’ hung in the air between them.
Emeline hesitated, and for
long seconds he suffered in anticipation. Then she slid her hand from his elbow
to his shoulder over the burned skin. Bliss roared through him, leaving his
restraints in tatters.
His head dropped back.
Lust, potent and violent, clawed through him as never before. Did he moan or
did she? The blood storming through his body and pounding in his ears muffled
everything except her hand on his flesh. No one had ever come close to making
him feel this way. No one, but Emeline with her luscious lips and arresting
eyes. With her coy scent and fat curls bouncing on her shoulders, making her
eyes do a peek-a-boo dance. Beneath the towel, his cock turned to stone.
She moved away and he
nearly screamed at the loss. He grabbed her, couldn’t stop himself from hooking
her around the waist and sliding her body under his.
Her hand braced against
his chest. “I-I’m not having s-s-sex with you.”
Sex? Is that all she
thought this was? He wished the feelings she evoked in him were so simple. Sex
he could get anywhere, with anyone. With Emeline, he wanted all that she would
give…and more. More he could never have.
She’d said no, though her
half-mast eyes were dreamy, waiting for his next move while her tongue flicked
out and stroked her bottom lip. Damn, burying himself inside her and never coming
out sounded like an epic plan, but her breathy words shackled him.
“Just touch me,” he said.
He was ready to demand that she place her hands on his skin.
Her bottom lip trembled
and a sliver of fear entered her gaze. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she rasped.
Her words already had.
They doused his desire and delivered an unwanted dose of reality. This was
wrong on every level and at least one of them had the balls to admit it.
“Same here.” He didn’t
want to hurt her either, and that’s exactly where this would lead. Nothing
about him had changed. He was still a mercenary, dealt in death. Family
obligations came before all of his longings and always would. Let her go, whispered through him.
I will…in a minute.
Slowly, her hands went
from fists, ready to push him away, to warm palms and splayed fingers on his
pecs. “Why did you agree to be my bodyguard? The truth.”
Heat traveled from her to
him, straight to his cock. He leaned into the touch, seeking more. “Because I
couldn’t take my eyes off you. Still can’t.”
Tmonique Stephens
wrote her first novel about a reporter and a hockey player after the U.S.
hockey team won gold in the 1980 Olympics. She loves writing flawed characters
who reflect the emotional baggage we all carry. She writes complicated stories
for complicated people. Paranormal romances and fantasy novels are her favorite
genre.
Eternity, Everlasting, and Evermore
are the first three novels in her Descendants
of Ra series. Currently, she is working a contemporary revenge series and Encore, the fourth novel in the Descendants of Ra series. She will read
anything about fairies, demons, or angels.
She also enjoys Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Preston and Child.
Born in St. Thomas
USVI, Tmonique Stephens grew up in The Bronx, New York one mile from Yankee
Stadium. She loves SyFy, the History channels, and also Asian cuisine. But her
heart and stomach longs for anything from the Caribbean.
0 comments:
Post a Comment