A Veil of Secrets (20 page)

He watched with rapt attention as he slid into me, so deep I sank my nails into him in retaliation.

The hiss between his teeth gratified me. I kissed the side of his neck, letting my blunt fangs score his skin. His fingers dug into my hips, lifting me before burying himself in me a second time. With a little help from my wings, I braced on his shoulders and took control. His surprise made me laugh.

His grip softened, allowing me to set a gentle pace. I rested my forehead against his, loving how his eyes never left mine as he watched me seek pleasure. Sweat slicked my skin. My fingers slipped.

He caught me before my wings did, wrapped his arms around my waist and drove hard into me.

I bit my lip and tasted blood. I didn’t care. I loved the way he held me, the way he filled me.

The way he loved me.

Pressing scorching kisses up my throat, he raked his teeth over my frantic pulse before plunging his fangs into my skin. I bucked against him when his venom hit my system. It left my hands and my feet tingling, my lips stinging and my sex aching for more. While I was dazed, Asher took control.

His pace made my nails dig back into his shoulders to anchor me to the moment.

“Not so fast,” I teased.

“I was wrong,” he panted. “Faster is better.”

My laughter strangled when his hand found my sensitive core and his thumb set to work on me. I shuddered in his arms as he coaxed another orgasm from me. My wings juddered once, going limp. I slumped against him, too weak to hold on any longer. Asher buried his face where my neck met my shoulder and followed me with a harsh growl that might have been my name before he sank onto his knees. He fell back onto the sand, taking me with him. I stretched over the top of him, content never to move again. His fingers tickled up my sides until the tips brushed across my sensitive wing joints.

I came a second time from that small touch. Cheeks burning, I buried my face against his chest.

“Interesting.” He traced veins in my wings until I was writhing. “Are you always so sensitive?”

“No.” I propped my hands on his chest and studied him. “At least, I don’t think so.”

He was the first male I had been with as a fledgling, and I had never orgasmed from a touch.

Until Asher.

“Hmm.” He lowered his hands to my hips and rocked me forward. “I think we should find out.”

I braced on his chest, tempted to nibble the dip in that full bottom lip of his. “Do you?”

His fingers teased a line up my spine that left me shivering. “We can go slower this time.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said faster was better?”

“You know what they say…” His grin was wicked. “There’s only one way to find out.”

About the Author

Hailey is a wife turned mother turned writer, who loves her husband, her daughter and alone time with her computer. Whenever southern living strikes her as too ordinary, she can be found squinting at her monitor as she writes her next happily-ever-after or with her nose glued to her Kindle’s screen. Wings and/or cupcakes are usually involved.

She loves to hear from readers at
[email protected]
.

You can also swing by
www.haileyedwards.net
for all her latest news.

Look for these titles by Hailey Edwards

Now Available:

Daughters of Askara

Everlong

Evermine

Eversworn

Araneae Nation

A Hint of Frost

A Feast of Souls

A Cast of Shadows

A Time of Dying

A Breath of Winter

The most damaged heart can fly with the right pair of wings.

Everlong

© 2010 Hailey Edwards

Madelyn’s life is far from fairytale perfect. She is second in line for the throne of a corrupt, brutal monarchy. Or at least she was until her dark guardian sacrificed his life to hide her safely in a realm of infinite possibilities.

For years she’s lived among a colony of escaped slaves as her guardian’s widow. Even in this simple life, though, nothing is as it seems. Her hero kept a secret—a younger brother named Clayton Delaney. Warrior, winged demon…and the man who now wants to lay claim to her heart.

No longer cast in his brother’s shadow, Clayton meets all obstacles head on, including one named Maddie. His infatuation with her reaches the breaking point when she undergoes a royal rite of passage, going into heat and pushing them both over the edge.

Just as Maddie learns that some risks are worth taking, she discovers that her guardian may be alive. And she’s forced to make a choice between the man she’d thought she loved, and the demon willing to lend her his wings.

Warning: This book contains virginal angst, a hero who’s too nice for his own good, wings, claws, and convenient use of glamour. It contains heartbreaking loss, conversation with a woodland creature, and sweet, sweet demon loving.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Everlong:

Pushing up the trail harder than I should have, I almost missed the turn guiding me up the final incline to where the landscape dropped away before me. Trees and rocks jutted up off to my left and right, but ahead lay nothing. My legs ached from the effort of climbing to Emasen’s cliff edge, but the view made the burn worthwhile.

Exhausted, I shrugged out of my backpack, letting it slide down my arms to land with a soft thud on the compacted earth. Sweat stung my eyes. Perspiration beaded on my skin, struggling to squeeze through the coating of waterproof sunscreen Emma had made me apply before allowing me to leave the house.

I walked to the edge of the precipice and stood with the toes of my sneakers hanging over the sheer rock face of the cliff. My shoulders tensed, air whooshed into my lungs as I rolled to the balls of my feet, preparing for the impossibility of flight.

“Step back from the ledge,” Clayton’s soft voice coaxed from behind me.

“Clayton,” I groaned. “I wasn’t really going to jump.” I pointed towards my back. “No wings, remember?” As if either of us could forget.

I twisted abruptly, discounting the lingering tenderness in my knee, and lost my footing. Arms flailing, I tried to regain my balance and failed, toppling backwards from the ledge.

“Clayton!” I shouted his name as my body whistled through the air, plummeting towards the earth. Frantic heartbeats thundered in my ears, drowning out the sound of my screams.

As I fell, my earliest memories flickered through my mind. I pushed aside the barrage of images and settled on my favorite. That of a black-skinned boy with glittering onyx eyes. And wings. Tiny, ruby-red wings that had fluttered with his excitement and made my child’s heart long for the half of my heritage I lacked.

“Madelyn!” Clayton bellowed, leaping from the edge and following me into the sky.

I had only a fraction of a second to wonder if he would make it before his strong arms plucked me from my downward spiral.

His enormous scarlet wings opened wide, stretching out so far in either direction I couldn’t see the blackened tips and tiny, hook-like hands that topped them.

Clayton’s blunt chin dug into the top of my head. The muscular arms holding me close tightened until my breath wheezed from my lungs.

“Were you trying to get yourself killed?” he snapped. “What if I hadn’t been there? What if you’d been alone?” His skin trembled beneath my fingers.

“It was an accident.” I struggled in his hold, trying to free my arms from where he pinned them to my sides. “If you hadn’t startled me, I wouldn’t have fallen in the first place.”

“You can’t be so careless.” He held me dangling in the air before him, shaking me senseless, before tucking me back against his chest. His voice cracked. “What would I have done without you?” His thumb worked across a bony protrusion behind my shoulder blade, marking my absence of wings.

“It’s okay, really.” I rested my cheek against his chest since my hands weren’t free. “A fall from that height would have hurt.” I carefully avoided making a comment on my personal experiences. “But I would have healed eventually.”

“I don’t want to hear this.” His head tossed from side to side. “I don’t want to know how you know that.”

If I’d thought he couldn’t hold me tighter, I’d been wrong. I would wear bruises for a while, but for now, I allowed him to have what he needed, letting him squeeze until joints popped and pain blossomed. It was such a small hurt when compared to the anguish carried in his voice.

Using my chin to part the fabric of his shirt, I rested my face flush against his skin. His body shuddered beneath my cheek. His desperate groan filled my ear with his heated breath as he glided the last few feet and touched down.

Still gripping my upper arms, Clayton lowered me to the ground, sliding me down his body so slowly time felt suspended. With earth beneath my feet, I leaned into him, trying to calm his ragged nerves. Something hard pressed against my stomach, making me shift to get comfortable and him growl low in his throat. Oh.
Oh.

“Madelyn…” His voice grew husky.

I pulled back, meeting his gaze. “You really are worked up over this.” I twisted in a circle before him. “I’m fine. See?”

“Madelyn…”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it.” I touched his arm, the muscle beneath my hand pulled taut as a bowstring.

“Run,” he grated out over his lips.

I spun around, searching for another demon or a wild animal, unable to imagine anything Clayton couldn’t protect me against. We were alone in the ravine. No one or thing had followed us here. “Why? What’s wrong?”

Our eyes locked. I gasped and backed away slowly. Clayton’s pupils flashed silver, huge, luminous and spellbinding. His wings twitched with his effort to still them, but vibrant reds saturated his skin as his arousal heightened and called forth my body’s own response.

“Go.” He clutched his head, breaths ragged. “Run!”

I turned, but from the corner of my eye I saw him fall to the ground. Instead of leaving, I took a half step forward.

“Get away from me!” He slashed the air inches from my face with razor-tipped claws. “I can’t control myself. It’s too much. Your scent…” His wings stretched and then cloaked his body as he hid himself from me. “Find Figment, she knows the way.”

This time he didn’t have to ask twice. I spun on my heel and ran.

For a chance at love, he may have to offer up his last drop of blood.

Warrior’s Dawn

© 2014 Isabo Kelly

Fire and Tears, Book 3

Branded a traitor, Althir of Glengowyn has resigned himself to life as outcast from his own people—until he’s offered a chance at redemption. A suicide mission to retrieve a vessel bearing the ultimate weapon: the Sorcerers’ true names.

His companion on the journey is a human woman unlike any he’s ever encountered. Beautiful. Brave. Fascinating. And before he knows it, keeping her safe is more important than his own salvation.

Mina Dawnswealth’s talent for spycraft has kept her alive even as her dreams—and her family—have fallen victim to the war, one by one. Much as she hates the idea of helping the traitor elf, at least she gets the pleasure of burying a knife in his back should he decide to betray her people again. A much easier task if she didn’t find him so compelling.

Only when they’re beyond the point of no return do they discover just how much blood their mission will cost. And how much love it will take to overcome their pasts—if they survive.

Warning: Contains an arrogant ass of an elf hero and a human heroine with a bitter past who would like nothing better than to kill him. Danger, fighting, hard language, magical. mayhem, deadly Sorcerers and hot sex fueled by an addictive pheromone. Can we get a “Hell, yeah”?

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Warrior’s Dawn:

Althir stepped over the body, took her hand and hurried toward their exit. He paused before rushing out into the night, listening for signs of ambush from outside or that the alert had been raised inside. When he was sure their exit was safe, he pulled her into the streets. They raced back toward the road Mina needed to get them to their second hiding spot.

Once well clear of the storage hold, though, Mina jerked him to a stop and pulled him into an empty building. He was about to protest, but she put her fingers over his mouth to silence him. The contact was more of a shock than any real impediment to speaking, and he couldn’t manage to form a coherent sentence even if he’d remembered what he wanted to say.

Instead, all he could think was that her fingers were warm and held that very faint but elusive scent that defined her. And that it would be very easy to pull one of her fingers into his mouth to taste her. He was surprised at how desperately he wanted that taste. He held her gaze for a long, charged few heartbeats before she finally dropped the touch.

Motioning him farther into the dark entryway, she stopped when they were well out of sight from any of the windows. He glanced around quickly, taking note that they’d ended up inside what seemed to be a house, then he focused on her again.

“There’s no one here,” she affirmed in a whisper. “I wanted to… With this detour for your weapons, we aren’t going to reach the next place I wanted us to hide before dawn. We took too long.”

When he would have commented, she raised a hand.

“I’m not complaining. We couldn’t have done that any faster with so little complication.”

He raised his brows at the “little complication” comment.

She ducked her head. “About that. Thank you. For…”

When she trailed off, he smirked. “For not letting him kill you? If I’d done that, who would watch me to make sure I didn’t turn traitor again?”

She kept her head down so he couldn’t see her expression clearly, but he did catch her slight flinch. His satisfaction with the reaction mingled with another emotion he didn’t entirely recognize in himself and so didn’t bother to analyze.

“Well. Anyway, I do thank you.” She held out a hand and finally looked up to meet his gaze. “My sword, please.”

He wanted to mock her for the “please” too but didn’t as he handed her blade back.

She sheathed it then gestured at his sword hung looped through his belt. “We’ll try to find you a scabbard in our travels. That will be too hard to get at if we find ourselves in a fight.”

He just stared.

Flicking her tongue out to wet her lips, she said, “Since we won’t make our original hiding spot, I have a backup we can head toward. It’s closer but a little out of the way given our ultimate destination.”

“Fine.”

The glint of moisture on her lips from that quick pass of her tongue captured his attention. How this woman managed to irritate and entice him all at once, he couldn’t begin to guess. But at the moment, he didn’t really care. He was too busy wondering what that full mouth of hers might taste like, and if she’d still stick her sword in his gut if he tried to kiss her. Maybe not, since he’d just saved her life. Though he suspected he’d still get a sound slap for his efforts. He smiled, just a little, certain the sting of that slap would be worth it.

She sucked in a sharp breath and his gaze dropped to her breasts. Ah, but this woman made him forget where they were, what they were doing, the fact that she hated him, that a part of him resented her. Everything that should have put a halt to his growing desire got swept away under the need to touch her. To fill his hands with her full breasts and taste the skin along her throat, searching out her sweet flavors.

He didn’t think he moved, not even to step toward her and act on his growing fantasies, but she made a sudden sound and jerked backward a few steps. He met her gaze without even an ounce of guilt for staring at her breasts or considering all the ways he’d like to taste her.

Her pulse was actually visible in her throat, and he could hear the increased speed of her breathing in the otherwise silent room. She was affected by him. That was obvious. Despite her own distrust and hate.

Maybe she wouldn’t slap him too quickly if he moved in for that kiss…

Before he could, though, she said, “We need to move. We won’t reach our new safe spot if we linger here too long.”

“Then why did we stop?”

Her expression shifted through a series of emotions he couldn’t follow before she settled her gaze on his shoulder. “I wanted to tell you about the change of plans.”

“You could have done that while we moved.”

“And I wanted to pause long enough to thank you. For…”

“Saving your life,” he finished for her, amused that she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.

“Yes. Exactly.”

“You could have said that once we reached the safe spot.”

“It needed saying sooner rather than later.” She straightened her shoulders. “Let’s move.”

Without waiting for his response, she returned to the door she’d so recently dragged him through, studied the street beyond, then slipped out into the night, leaving him to follow.

He didn’t let her get too far away before joining her. He had no intention of letting her get too far away from him for the next several days. More often than he should, he caught himself watching her rounded ass as they skirted close to the buildings and down darkened streets. He might still get slapped, maybe even end up with one of her swords in his gut, but he would have the kiss he so desperately wanted.

Sooner rather than later.