Authors: T. C. Archer
She rose, aware of her nakedness, at once ashamed and afraid. Would he find her breasts too large? Her waist too thick? Her eyes too close together? His gaze raked her length. Something flickered across his face, but disappeared before she could define it. “I will grant your wish for a price.”
Her pulse accelerated. Everything came with a price. What would he demand? Her first-born? Her body? That she kill? She had heard such stories.
“What would you ask, lord?”
He spread his arms and a vial lifted from the smoke, then rose above her and poured its vaporous contents onto her. Familiar scents surrounded her; almond, olive oil, comfrey, lavender, and cinnamon. Her hair grew heavy and covered her shoulders in luxurious waves. Her chapped lips were soothed. A tingle began in her breasts and traveled down her waist and legs until the wood felt hard and cold beneath her now soft soles.
“Are you pleased?” he asked.
She lifted her smooth and manicured hands, soft, white and feminine, like a queen’s. Her throat tightened with emotion. Tentatively, she traced a finger along a cheek and down the chiseled flesh to her smooth neck. She ran her hands along the voluptuous curves of her breasts, her flat belly, and firm buttocks.
“Yes, lord.”
“Beauty such as yours can torment a man.” Aeden stepped closer. “Is that your desire?”
Memory rose of her lover’s touch, then sharp pain stabbed through her as it had when he walked away. Her heart hardened.
“Yes.”
Aeden gave a small nod. “Your beauty could torture the lustful souls
Down Below
for centuries.” He traced a finger along her cheek. “That is my wish.”
“Will I lay with these men?”
“No man will dare touch you while under my protection.”
Her heart fluttered. Protection? No man had ever protected her. “And what of love?”
“You shall have your chance to find love with a mortal man. Should you find what you seek in the allotted time, your bond with me will end.”
“What of my beauty?”
He gave a low laugh. “I cannot take what is rightfully yours.”
A weight lifted from her. She wouldn’t have to service men or the daemons and beasts from the underworld. “When do I begin my search for love?”
“A century is all I ask.”
“A century?” she repeated.
“If you do not find love, then you shall return Down Below for another century.”
A mere century for the chance to be loved? This was more than she had hoped for. The ancient magic was indeed powerful.
Lorna dropped to her knees, head bowed.
“I pledge my service to you.”
Chapter Three
Lorna kept her gaze locked on Aeden’s handsome face. His smile could—and had—disarmed angels. A feat no other
Mubbirum
had accomplished and proof that even the holy were corruptible.
“Do not fault me because mortal men find your beauty irresistible,” he said. “That was, after all, your wish. But why do you fret? Once the
Sa Belet
is complete, you will have no need for mortal men.”
Sa Belet
, the ritual that would confirm her as his queen, an immortal to rule with him in
Shade
, the land beyond the bridge that separated mortals from the underworld. Anger tightened her insides. Too late, she understood the unnamed emotion she’d glimpsed on his face before he transformed her into a seductress who mesmerized men as only the sirens could: desire. In the nine centuries that had passed since she’d pledged her service to him she hadn’t understood why he wanted her, but the fact was, he did.
Aeden traced a finger down her arm. “My pleasure will be complete.” His eyes lifted to hers. “As will yours.”
“Do not touch me.” Lorna shoved him—hard. Despite his formidable strength, he was forced back a step. “Another century remains before you own me,” she said.
His gaze sharpened. “A century? Telal has kept you too long
Down Below
. You have lost count. This is your tenth and final journey into the mortal world.”
“What?” she blurted before catching herself.
Too late. Triumph flickered in his eyes. Lorna cursed. It had been centuries since she’d given him a glimpse of her terror. She learned to hide the fear and the anger—especially the anger, for that best revealed her desperation. Disdain was what infuriated him.
“You won’t have me a moment before my time,” she said.
“No, you have seen to that,” he replied with startling honesty. “If I had my way, you would have remained in Down Below until I called you forth for the final rites. But you have Telal to thank for that.”
Lorna stared. “Telal? Even he, the lord of
The Land of No Return
, cannot keep me here on the day I am destined to return to the mortal realm.”
The words were bitter in her mouth. Her search for a man of honor was a double edged sword. When she spread her perfect thighs, what man could possibly resist? Memory stung hard and fast. Wasn’t that what her lover had said the day she summoned Aeden from the underworld?
“When a man’s cock hungers for a woman what does he care for honor?”
“Do not forget, you conjured me and begged for irresistible beauty,” Aeden said.
Lorna narrowed her eyes. “How was I to know you would enslave my lovers?”
He lifted a brow. “Everything comes with a price.”
His expression softened. She had once believed he loved her. Then she’d seen that gentle expression twist into rage without warning…without reason, and all too often.
“Why have you stayed
Down Below
?” he asked. “Surely you prefer the muted shadows of
Shade
to the near total darkness of
Down Below
?”
Lorna snorted. “I prefer blindness to your touch.
Fury flashed in his eyes. “The century since you walked among humans has romanticized your memory. Remember the last man you led across the bridge? A taste of the honey between your legs was all it took for him to betray everything he held dear.”
“How fitting that he has served you so well these years,” she said. “You and he are well suited.”
“No. It is you and I who are well suited, sweet.” Aeden grasped her wrist and pulled her against him. “Tomorrow, your fire will manifest in a more pleasurable manner.”
Dread slid down her spine. He was too sure. And why not? In ten centuries she hadn’t found a man who could break the curse. She hadn’t found a man who loved her.
Chapter Four
“I’m liking this less and less.” Jace stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets and turned from the crackling fire in the fireplace to face his business partner.
Ryan lounged on the burgundy colored sofa in the middle of the resort two-bedroom suite, an arm draped across the sofa top. He was as relaxed as Jace was wound tight.
“You agreed to this, Jace.”
He had. Now the trepidation he’d experienced when his step-mother announcement yesterday morning that she’d set-up this
date
was headed toward full fledged panic.
“I’m not so hard up that I need a dating service to get me a woman,” he said.
“Sure you are—we both are, if we’re honest. Running the Bar-S ranch has consumed our lives this last three years. And, in case you forgot, this is only a date.” Ryan’s mouth twitched. “A date guaranteed to last through the night, but just a date nonetheless. Besides,” he nodded toward the window that ran the length of the left wall, “even if it wasn’t snowing, the shuttles down the mountain quit running after three.”
“Montana isn’t the Arctic,” Jace said. “I can hire a car to get me into town.”
“Sorry,” Ryan said. “This isn’t the Bar-S, which means you’re not in charge.”
No, he wasn’t, and maybe that was the problem. A dozen questions were closing in around him—not the least of which was how he would deal with a flesh and blood woman writhing beneath him. His cock twitched at the thought. Hell, that reaction was the closest he’d come to wanting a woman in three years. Could he perform? Worse, what if his date walked out on him? Wasn’t the fear of rejection the real reason he’d remained celibate since Jenny left?
Jace lowered himself into the overstuffed chair to the left of the fireplace and rested his gaze on Ryan. “Don’t think I haven’t figured your part in this.”
“My part?”
“You’re the only one who knew this was my only free weekend for the next six months.”
“Don’t blame me. Paula’s the one who keeps your life on schedule. Hell, she runs you, me, and the Bar-S from her desk. She could have told Abby. You know how women are.”
Yeah, he knew how women were. When his father married Abby Morrison twenty-two years ago, she took to Jace like he was her own son. When his father passed away last year, Jace took over the ranch, along with Ryan, whose father had been Jace’s father’s partner. Abby had decided Jace and Ryan needed women. Then promptly recruited their assistant Paula in her crusade.
“Abby threatened to take out a full page ad in the Billings Gazette, advertising for a wife if I didn’t agree to tonight.” Jace laughed despite himself. “Seemed like a good compromise—at the time.” All amusement vanished. “One-nighters aren’t my style.”
“You haven’t had
style
in three years.”
“Haven’t had the heart for it since Jenny left,” Jace admitted.
“I know. So does Abby, which is why she set this up. You have to admit it’s time.”
Jace met his friend’s gaze. “I still haven’t figured it out.”
“What?”
“Why she left—like that, I mean.”
“Who knows why a woman does anything,” Ryan replied.
“Yeah, but she didn’t have to leave me standing at the altar.”
Ryan released a breath. “I know.”
“Abby heard she just did a show in Big Fork.”
“Abby should learn to keep quiet.”
Jace startled. “You knew?”
“It’s hard not to know,” Ryan said. “Jenny’s a well known artist.”
“How come I didn’t know?”
“Because you’re buried so deep in the Bar-S, you don’t know when it’s night or day.”
Big Fork was only twenty miles from the lodge. What would he do if Jenny walked through his door tonight? Apprehension cinched his gut tighter.
“I can’t do this,” he said.
Ryan shrugged. “It’s up to you. But when word reaches Abby that you ducked out because you couldn’t do it, she’ll have every doctor between Montana and California examining you—and I’m not talking about your big head. Besides, I’m looking forward to the woman she picked out for me.”
“What’s the difference between these women and hookers?” Jace demanded.
“Same thing that differentiates us from johns; we didn’t pay them to be here. Come on Jace, they’re here for the same reason we are, sex with no strings, no commitment, no pressure. Do it or not, as she pleases.” He grinned. “We know we’ll please.”
Jace eyed his friend. “Aren’t you just a little worried about what Abbey has in mind for us?”
“Abby described your date as sin incarnate. Made me a little jealous.”
Ryan’s mouth twitched in amusement. “But as long as the women are pretty and a willing participant we’re both ahead of the game. Besides, Abby knows us about better than anyone.” His expression turned speculative. “You’ve groused all the way from the ranch. There’s something you’re not telling me. You got someone back home who’s already broken you back into the saddle?”
“Hell, no,” Jace answered, as the unexpected picture rose of a pretty and willing woman kneeling naked on the floor in front of him.
Chapter Five
Lorna ducked back around the corner of the hotel hallway, heart racing. Aeden was exiting a suite around the bend with a man. What was he doing here? She’d never known him to leave
Shade
. Had Telal sent him? Her pulse accelerated. Had Aeden guessed her intention of not entrapping her intended victim on, this, her final night in the mortal realm?
“You are certain?” Aeden’s voice drifted toward her.
“Yes, sir,” the man replied. “The gentleman is already on his way up to suite 319.”
Room 319? Lorna glanced at the door opposite her. 310. She did a mental count of the room numbers and realized the suite Aeden and the man had exited had to be 319.
“I trust this will compensate for your trouble?” Aeden’s voice was closer.
Lorna stifled a gasp. They were headed her way.
“Very generous of you, sir,” the man replied.
She turned and grasped the handle of the door behind her. Locked.
“Remember,” Aeden said as she hurried to the next door.
“No one is to disturb the occupants until tomorrow morning.”
Another locked door. Panic weakened her legs. Lorna hurried to the next door and pressed down on the latch. She nearly cried when the door clicked open.