Dusky pink nipples topped perfectly formed breasts that rose and fell with each gentle breath. Dark curls covered her mound and guarded the entrance to the tightest, hottest, and most delicious pussy he had ever known, one that had provided him unlimited pleasure.
And there was so much more than her incredible body. Intelligence, sense of humor, a wide variety of interests. And an open honesty, one that willingly placed trust in him. A woman who gave without hesitation, without making demands. A woman who made him feel fortunate even to be in her presence. There was nothing missing from the total and complete package that was Raina St. Clair. Being with her and knowing she wanted to be with him should have been enough to make any man deliriously happy. But something was missing, something very important.
As much as he admired her honesty, he had not been truthful with her. He had harbored a century long personal quest for vengeance, something absolutely against everything he believed in and stood for, a rule with no exceptions. And in spite of that he had conducted a twenty year active search for Raina’s sister…the elusive Miranda. In his head and in his heart he knew he could not transfer his attentions to Raina from his position as that of a High Priest instructing and guiding one of the bloodline in the ways of sex magick and into the position of a man wanting an emotionally personal relationship with her. Not unless he could be honest, fully disclose his deceit and share everything with her totally and openly.
Everything about her excited him—certainly physically, but equally as much emotionally. Too much emotionally? It was a question he didn’t know how to answer. How much was
too much
? Did
too much
even exist where she was concerned? And what would happen when she discovered the truth about his quest for Miranda?
When he first came up with the plan to use her to track her sister, he believed she would never know the truth—an innocent deception to achieve an important conclusion. Worst possible scenario would be a matter of
if
she found out. Now, it had become
when
she found out. He knew if they were to have any type of future together, he needed to tell her. But when? And more importantly—how?
With the information John had provided at lunch about Miranda being in town, that
when
now had an urgency attached to it that hadn’t been there yesterday. An urgency he needed to act on before it was too late, before Raina discovered the truth on her own. When he sat on the terrace at the Halloween party, waiting for her to arrive so he could initiate his plan, he never imagined how totally she would rock his world.
Miranda…the fact that he was truly falling in love with her sister did not change his feelings about her. Miranda consistently disgraced everything the witch community held as important, mocked the very existence of the bloodline and their beliefs.
Harm To None.
But harm was most certainly what he wanted to do to Miranda. Not physical harm, but definitely emotional and psychological. He wanted her reputation ruined, for everyone to know exactly who and what she really was. For the witch community to see her many transgressions and lack of remorse. A little ripple of anxiety darted through his body.
Destroy Miranda but without any fallout touching Raina? Was that possible? Something he would be able to accomplish?
And how in the world could he ever explain his intentions to Raina without it sounding like a blatant violation of their most basic credo? Without it appearing to be every bit as terrible as he knew it was?
She stirred, drawing his attention from his thoughts. He placed a loving kiss on her mouth as he stroked her hair. Somehow, he had to find the proper words…before it was too late.
He brushed another soft kiss across her lips as she opened her eyes. He couldn’t stop the warm smile of contentment that spread across his face. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
She returned his smile. Her emerald eyes sparkled with life and vitality. “Never better.” She brushed her fingertips across his cheek. “How about you?”
“I slept soundly,” a teasing quality surrounded his voice, “except for a series of highly erotic dreams.”
“And what in the world could you have been dreaming,” she ran her hand across his hard chest then down to his equally hard erection before finally coming to rest on his thigh, “that we haven’t done during the last couple of days?”
Raina saw the seriousness blanket his features but didn’t know what it meant.
He repeated her words. “During the last couple of days…I keep forgetting that it’s only been two nights and two days since we met at the party.” The same seriousness came out in his words. “This is the start of day number three.”
He brushed some loose strands of hair from her forehead then cupped her chin in his hand. His touch sent a tender warmth rippling through her body. She had fallen asleep last night with thoughts of love circulating through her mind. His words lingered in her consciousness.
This is the start of day number three.
Was it possible to truly fall in love in two days? Her entire reality had been in a state of upheaval from the moment she spotted him at the Halloween party. Were those feelings of love real or only a false emotion resulting from incredible sex with an extraordinary man?
He placed a quick kiss on each of her nipples, causing them to instantly pucker, then he got out of bed. “I can conjure up some coffee. Do you want to order breakfast from room service? We’re going to continue our tour of your city with a trip to the art museum today. Would you rather have breakfast out somewhere before the museum opens? Do you know a good breakfast place? Either way is okay with me, whatever you want.”
“As it happens, I do know a terrific breakfast place. A dozen different types of omelets in addition to the other standard breakfast items, fresh squeezed orange juice. And it’s close to the art museum.”
“Sounds great.” He glanced toward the bathroom, then back at her. “I know you soaked in a bubble bath last night. Are you planning to shower this morning or do you want to make the coffee while I grab a quick shower?” He shot her a sexy grin. “Or would you prefer to scrub my back while I’m in the shower and to hell with the coffee?”
She slid out of bed and grabbed her robe. “You know as well as I do that if we shower together, we’ll never make it out to breakfast. Or to the museum for that matter.”
He reached out and took her hand. “You are oh so right. I’ll grab a quick shower while you make the coffee.” He locked eye contact with her. It was a moment frozen in time, his steady gaze touching her heart as much as anything else. Then he headed into the bathroom. A minute later, she heard the shower.
Raina started the coffee, then quickly dressed. A few minutes later, he joined her in the parlor room of the suite, pausing long enough to pour a cup of hot coffee.
He sat across the table from her. “It’s still early. When does this breakfast place of yours open?”
She glanced at her watch. “In about half an hour. It’s a mile from here. That gives us just enough time to finish our coffee.”
He nervously played with his coffee cup, slowly turning it as it sat on the table. She didn’t understand his sudden change in demeanor. For a man who displayed total confidence in who he was, what he wanted, and where he was going, this show of uncertainty seemed totally out of character.
Reaching across the table, she placed her hand on top of his. “What’s wrong? You seem very distracted about something. Can I help?”
“I was just thinking about what your friend, John, said at lunch yesterday…about seeing your sister. Are you going to try to get in touch with her now that you know she’s in town?”
“I…I don’t know. Why?”
“Maybe you should…since she’s your only family, perhaps you should see if you can mend some of those broken fences.”
“You’ve changed your mind from yesterday when you suggested I sever all ties with Miranda and get on with my life?”
“I might have been a little hasty in yesterday’s comment. You can arrange to meet her here if you’d like, sort of
neutral territory
rather than having her come to your house. We could order lunch from room service, and you could talk here in private rather than meeting at a public place such as a restaurant where anyone could hear what you were saying.”
Very curious. It’s almost as if he wants to be involved in some sort of reconciliation between Miranda and me.
“I couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right to inflict my family problems on you.” She took a drink of her coffee as she collected her thoughts. “If I meet with her, I’d feel better if she came to my house.”
She took another sip of her coffee in an attempt to swallow the anxiety rising inside her. “It’s most likely a moot point. I’ve tried on several occasions over the last twenty years to reach Miranda, and she’s never returned my calls. I would occasionally get a hand-written note from her, always mailed from a different city without a return address. She made it very clear that she didn’t want to see me, and after all this time, I’m not really sure I want to see her, either.”
“I don’t mean to sound as if I’m trying to make your decisions for you, far from it. Everyone is an individual with the right to make his or her own decisions…and mistakes.” A reflective expression darted across his face then quickly disappeared before she had an opportunity to read any meaning into it. “We all live with the consequences of our choices. We need to accept responsibility for those decisions and make the best of it, whether those choices were right or wrong.”
She looked at him quizzically, not really understanding what he was trying to say. “Are you telling me it would be a mistake not to see Miranda? That to choose to ignore her will be a decision I’ll regret?”
“No, I’m not trying to
tell
you anything. I’m merely offering some thoughts…” His words trailed off and he didn’t finish the sentence.
She placed her hand on his arm. “Devon? Is something wrong? You seem to be dancing all around something and trying your best not to touch it.”
A wave of apprehension assaulted her senses. It seemed that something very serious churned inside him, something separate from the time they had spent together since meeting at the party. Then she recalled his comment when she asked why he was at a Halloween party for mortals, his response that he came there to meet her. At the time, she accepted it as a smooth line, but now she was not so sure. Could some of the things Miranda said about him be in any way valid?
“What’s going on…if I’m not out of line in asking? My intention had been to seek you out at the Samhain gathering for exactly the purposes I stated, but my guess is that our meeting was anything but a coincidence. I was at the Halloween party because the host is a client of mine and it was a necessary business situation. You, on the other hand, were at the type of party a witch would never attend without a good reason, a party where you didn’t know anyone including the host, and you offered only a glib comment that you were there to meet me, said as if it was nothing more than a smooth pick-up line.”
She searched his eyes looking for some type of reassurance, answers to questions not yet asked.
“Why were you at that party, Devon? What’s really going on here?” She tried to shove down her trepidation. “Am I nothing more than a pawn in some elaborate scheme being played out around me?” It sounded bad when she voiced the words in her mind, but saying them out loud was worse. Had she lost her heart to a man not as honorable as she had believed him to be?
Raina’s words struck a solid blow at Devon’s reality. His emotions and feelings for her had so quickly spiraled to a pinnacle that it had never occurred to him she would come to that type of a conclusion. He had to make this right and he had to do it now.
He took her hand, deriving both comfort and confidence from her warmth. “Do not, for even a fleeting moment, believe that my feelings for you are anything other than very real.” He leaned forward and placed a tender, emotion-laden kiss on her lips. “Perhaps I’m rushing things, speaking before you’re ready to hear the truth, but you’ve put me in a position where I must speak what’s in my heart.”
Her muscles tensed beneath his touch. He knew he had to say the words quickly before he lost her. “In the short span of only two days, I feel as if I’ve known you for a lifetime and I want that feeling to last for a true lifetime. There is only one person on the face of this planet who means as much to me as you do and that’s my brother, Dylan. And it’s because of my love for and devotion to my brother that your concerns exist.”
The look in the depth of her eyes changed from anxiety to confusion. He began to breathe a little easier. She wasn’t backing away. He pulled her from her chair and onto his lap where he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m not sure how to explain all of this. It’s something I’m not proud of, something I swore no other living soul would ever know. But I entered into this with my eyes wide open and the consequences of my actions firmly in my mind. It’s a knowledge I will always keep from my brother in my ongoing attempts to protect him, but I now believe you have the right to know the black moment in my heart…one that involves your sister and her total betrayal of everything we hold sacred.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Something Miranda did? Something so terrible that it would cause you to say that?” Shock surrounded her words and covered her face. “I don’t understand.” Her brow wrinkled into a frown as she bit at her lower lip. “I do know that Miranda has mentioned you several times over the years and never in a favorable light, but it did seem that she was attempting to cover her own fear rather than being disdainful.”
A quick sound of disgust escaped his throat. “And she has good reason to be fearful. If this had happened among the mortals, I’m sure she would have been dealt with swiftly and unpleasantly.”
“What in the world do you think Miranda did?”
Devon paused for a moment, as if trying to gather his thoughts and formulate the right words. “I don’t think, I
know
. She destroyed my brother—broke his spirit, broke his will, ruined his health, and left him a shell of the man he was. All my knowledge and capabilities have not been enough to heal him. Had I been able to help him, I might not have carried this around with me for a century. I waited…I allowed eighty years to pass hoping each day that she would come forth and admit what she had done and take responsibility for her actions. I finally started looking for her twenty years ago, and for twenty years, she’s done an excellent job of staying off my radar. Yes, she has good reason to be afraid.”