Dark Magic (7 page)
Authors: Rebecca York
He shook his head as he delivered the ultimate truth. “You cannot save me. You are human, and you will grow old and die.”
She must have worked out an answer for that, too, because she gave him a cocky grin. “Are you forgetting that you are magic? You will discover how to keep me young. Because you want me to stay with you.”
He still couldn’t let himself hope. “You have too much faith in my magic.”
“We will see. We can figure it out. Together. We will change my destiny—and yours. We can make your life different, and maybe we can show the others of your kind what we have built together, if you will take me through the gateway to your home.”
He felt stunned. She was suggesting solutions he had never even considered. What if he gave her
his
blood? Would that make the difference for her?
She was speaking again. “And if my life is shorter than yours, I will be content. For it will be the life I have chosen for myself. A life of freedom, not the narrow existence my father planned for me.”
His voice turned gritty as he asked, “Where did you acquire such wisdom?”
“From the place inside myself where I spent most of my time. Because that was the only escape for me. Until now.”
He stared at her in wonder, feeling as though a heavy weight had been lifted from his body. “I was attracted to you, but I never understood your depths.”
“I have been punished many times for being…different.”
“Thank the fates you are.”
She clasped the back of his head and brought his mouth down to hers for a long, hungry kiss, and he responded to her with a joy he had never dared express.
They undressed each other, leaving a trail of clothing as they kissed and touched and staggered into the cave.
They managed to get as far as the carpet before they fell in a tangle of arms and legs, kissing and stroking, and driving each other to the peak of need.
When he knelt between her legs, she looked at him questioningly.
“I want to taste you.”
She flushed. “There?”
“Yes.” He lowered his mouth to her sex, stroking his tongue through her folds and up to her clit.
She dug her hands into the carpet, her hips rising and falling as he gave her pleasure, bringing her to the edge of climax, making her hover there until she gasped out his name as she tumbled over the edge and lay panting.
He lifted his head, grinning down at her before moving up her body and plunging his cock into her.
He gathered her hips to his, rolling to his side, staying deep inside her as he stroked her and kissed her, arousing her again, feeling the sweetness of her internal muscles clamping around him as her desire built again.
When he knew she was ready, he began to move in a rhythm that fueled her desire, building the intensity to a level neither one of them could sustain for long.
They spun off into space together. And when his teeth pierced the flesh of her neck, climax rolled through them both.
He was still inside her when he lifted his head. “I took only a little of your blood. It was enough.”
She reached to stroke his damp face. “I gave it gladly. Out of love.”
He caught his breath. “Love?”
“Oh yes.”
“You don’t know what I am.”
“Of course I do. You went to great pains to show me the worst that you could think of.” She smiled up at him, touching his lips, where a small red drop glistened. “But I saw more than you intended. Much more. Your power is so much greater than my father’s, yet you use it wisely. He is a petty ruler. But you are truly noble.”
He grappled with his shock. “How can you call me that?”
“Because it’s true. That and more. Your wisdom stretches beyond the reach of any man, but you do not always know what is best for yourself. Thank Rivana that you went looking for me.”
He reached to gently touch her cheek, her lips. “You asked me why I talked to you about the dragon. It was because I longed for something I thought I could never have.”
“But you can. Do you know that now?”
“Yes. And I pledge something to you. I will never lie to you again.”
“Or I to you.” She clasped him tightly, kissing his bare shoulder, stroking her hand over his back. “I know it will take time for you to accept everything I can offer. And it will be the same for me with you. But know this—I have found the one place in all the world where I can be happy. With you.”
USA TODAY
bestselling novelist Rebecca York (aka Ruth Glick) has been in love with the paranormal since her teens. Dyslexic as a child, she thought she could never be a novelist. Now she’s the author of more than one hundred books.
Her
Killing Moon
was a launch book for Berkley’s Sensation imprint in 2003. For many years, she has also written Harlequin Intrigue’s popular 43 Light Street series.
Her many awards include two RITA Award finalist books, two Lifetime Achievement Awards from
Romantic Times,
five NJRW Golden Leaf Awards and a Prism Award.
Rebecca has participated in numerous radio and TV interviews and speaks frequently at writers’ conferences.
She is also the author of fifteen cookbooks. She and her husband travel frequently around the U.S. and to countries such as Peru, India, Italy and China. In her garden are rocks she’s brought home from these trips. To capture the thrill of adventure, she’s flown in a two-person glider, descended in a submarine and dangled from zip lines.
Visits to the locations of her books are important to her writing process—unless she’s writing about a fantasy land and must use her vivid imagination.
Her website is www.rebeccayork.com. To follow her on Twitter: rebeccayork43.
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-9194-6
Copyright © 2011 by Ruth Glick
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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