Possessed by Desire (17 page)
Her eyes searched his familiar features. Dark hair hung like a fall of silk to his shoulders, and his eyes sparked with curiosity. And those firm lips she’d dreamed about were so close all she could focus on was kissing them again. Feeling them next to hers. Tasting them one more time.
“You didn’t take the opals,” he said softly. “Why not? I thought that’s what you wanted.”
She swallowed again. Searched for the right words. Knew she’d never find them. “I didn’t go to your world to get them. I went to help you.”
“Then why did you leave so fast?”
“Because I was tempted. The opals carry great power. I knew if I didn’t leave then, I might not be able to later.” She shifted her feet. “I’m not sure if you know this—I didn’t until I got there—but Zoraida wasn’t just a sorceress. She was celestial, like me. Fallen. And like me, she was tempted by the power in the opals. But instead of fighting that temptation, she gave in to it. Her light turned dark. There was very little of it left in her, but I could still feel it. I knew if I stayed, I’d end up just like her.”
“A fallen angel,” he said, looking down at the bamboo flooring. “Oddly, that makes a lot of sense.” His gaze swung back to hers. “What happened when you came back here? I searched for you in the human realm after but couldn’t find you.”
He’d looked for her? Her heart bumped, and her skin grew warm. “I…I thought I was crossing back into this realm, but my superiors drew me home.”
“To the Seven Heavens?”
She nodded. “It turns out everything I’d believed was a lie. Our emotions aren’t housed in the opals. That belief was just the setup for my test. You were right about that, by the way. I was being tested. But not by you. By the opals themselves.”
“I don’t understand.”
Neither had she, at first, but now that she’d had a week to think about it, she realized everything had happened for a reason. “I was banished because I became too interested in life, to the point where that interest was interfering with my job. I’m not the first from my realm to do that. I just didn’t know it happens to many of us. So I was sent here, and since I wasn’t used to feeling emotions, I didn’t really know what to think. Feelings, emotions came on slowly, and it took me a while to get used to them. And with a friend of mine in the realm feeding me information” —she frowned when she remembered discovering Sura had been in on the test from the start “—I honestly believed the angels’ emotions were stored in the opals.”
“But they’re not?”
She shook her head. “The opals were created thousands of years ago, by the High Seven. One for each of the deadly sins the High Seven banished from our order at the beginning of time—lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. The power within the opals comes from that—from how each person who comes in contact with them interacts with those sins. In Zoraida’s case, her powers grew quite strong because she was impacted by each one. The High Seven scattered some of the opals in the human realm, some in the djinn realm. Even though you have supernatural powers and humans do not, you both still have free will. And the High Seven are always testing mortals. They allowed the opals to exist to see how mortals would be tempted by them.”
He frowned. “Forgive me for saying so, but your High Seven sound like a scheming bunch.”
She couldn’t help it, she laughed. “Yeah, I guess they do. But then that’s their job. To see which souls survive temptation and are truly worthy of reaching the Seven Heavens.”
“Tariq said they gave you the choice to go back to your realm.”
He’d talked to his brother. She wanted to ask if that meant the two had mended their rift. Wasn’t sure now was the time. She nodded again. “They did.”
“So why are you still here?”
A tingle ran through her belly, igniting a flutter she felt everywhere. Could she tell him the truth? Indecision raced through her mind. Would he think she was a fool? They didn’t even know each other that well. But he was here. He’d come all the way from his realm. And he’d said he’d looked for her just after she’d left. That had to mean something, right?
Nerves caused her skin to tingle. But she knew if she didn’t take a chance now, she’d never have the opportunity again. And this was why she’d chosen to stay. “Because I wasn’t ready to go back. Because—” She drew a breath. It was now or never. “When I was with you, the emotions I felt were too strong to make me consider giving them up. I finally felt alive. Not from any opal, but from you.”
His dark eyes searched hers so long, her nerves shot up. What was he thinking? She didn’t know. Couldn’t read him. If he’d just come to find out why she hadn’t taken the opals, he knew now. And yet, he wasn’t leaving.
“Nasir said you’re mortal now.”
Wow, he’d really had quite a conversation with his brothers, hadn’t he? She nodded again.
“So does this mean you gave up the Seven Heavens…for me?”
Her pulse pounded hard. He didn’t seem excited by the news. She forced herself to nod once more anyway.
“And you can’t go back?”
“When I pass from my mortal life, I can. But only as a mortal, not as a celestial being.”
“And the High Seven are okay with that?”
“They felt I was worthy of the choice because I passed the test.” Or so they’d said. She’d never know what they really thought, nor did she care anymore.
“I never understood how Tariq could give up his heritage to be with Mira, but I think maybe…now I do.”
Was he saying…? Claire’s pulse picked up speed as he pushed to his feet, as he crossed the space between them, as he took her hands in his.
“I’ve been searching for a reason to truly live for a very long time. Since way before I became Zoraida’s prisoner. I just didn’t expect it to come wrapped in the body of an angel.”
Every cell in her vibrated. “We don’t really like the term angel. It implies—”
“Wings and halos.” One corner of his mouth tipped up. “I know. Tariq told me.”
He had? Her heart pounded harder. “Ashur—”
His big hands framed her cheeks, tipped her face up to his, sent tingles of awareness all through her skin. “I don’t quite know what the future holds, but I do know, if you’re here, then that’s where I want to be.”
He wanted her. Really wanted her. And by staying with her, he was giving up everything too. His life, his home, even his family. Her stomach clenched. “You—you’ll lose your powers if you stay in the human realm with me.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Then we’d better make the most of them while we can.”
Light and heat flared behind her, and she turned to look toward the bed on the far side of the room. Hundreds of candles of all shapes and sizes lined the tables, the windowsills, even the floor. And on the mattress, the toys he’d teased her with before appeared, including that purple vibrator.
She couldn’t stop the laugh that pushed up her throat. She dropped her head against his chest, smiled wide as his arms circled to pull her close. It felt so right to be held by him. So perfect. Why on earth had she ever thought some silly opals were more important than this? “That’s not why I chose to come back here, you know.”
“But it doesn’t hurt, right?”
She smiled wider and wrapped her arms around his waist, loving the way his body fit against hers. As if it were made just for her. “No, it doesn’t. I’ve sort of fantasized about those toys and what you planned to do with them before we were interrupted last time.”
He leaned back and looked down. “You did?”
“More than once.”
A devilish grin curled his lips. “Then maybe I’d better show you.”
His mouth closed over hers. And she gasped, then sank into the kiss. Into him. Into everything she’d never known she’d wanted.
True happiness didn’t come from somewhere else. She knew that now. It wasn’t found in magical opals or even in a life of ease. It came from within. From finding where you were meant to be. From risking your heart and loving someone more than yourself, even if that love wasn’t guaranteed.
When they were both breathless, he eased back. And in his eyes, she knew no matter what their future held, she’d made the right choice.
“I don’t know much about being mortal,
maya
.”
Maya
. He’d called her princess again. Desire shot straight to her center. She stepped back, clasped his hand and pulled him toward the bed. “Don’t worry. I’ll teach you everything I know. And then” —her lips curled— “you can teach me everything
you
know.”
He leaned to her side and pushed the toys to the floor, then lowered her to the mattress. “Your wish is my command.”
And as his weight settled on her and she opened to his kiss, she couldn’t help but think those were the most perfect words she’d ever heard.
Thanks for reading
POSSESSED BY DESIRE
.
I hope you enjoyed it!
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Other Titles by Elisabeth Naughton
Firebrand Series
(
Paranormal Romance
)
POSSESSED BY DESIRE
Eternal Guardians Series
(
Paranormal romance
)
Stolen Series
(
Romantic Suspense
)
Single Titles
(
Romantic Suspense
)
Anthologies
(
with Lucy Monroe and Jamie Denton
)
Read on for a sneak peak at
MARKED
book one in Elisabeth’s bestselling Eternal Guardians Series,
available now.
CHAPTER ONE
Some nights, a woman just wanted to bash her brain against a wall to keep from screaming. For Casey Simopolous, this was one of those nights.
“Yo, sistah. My tongue’s not getting any wetter over here by itself.” The blond frat-boy wannabe at the other end of her section threw his arms out wide with a could-you-be-more-stupid? look on his face. “We gonna get those drinks or what?” The two idiots seated next to him at the small circular table laughed and slapped him on the shoulder in a you-da-man move that made Casey grind her teeth together.
Oh, she could think of a number of comebacks for that one, but like the bad girl she wasn’t in this den of indecency, she bit her lip instead. She plastered on a smile she didn’t feel, dropped off the beers at table eleven and headed toward the troublemakers.
She hefted the full tray over her head as she zigzagged through XScream. Around her, heavy bass echoed from speakers hidden in the walls, vibrating the floor beneath her feet, sloshing her brain against her skull in the process. She had a killer headache, and that low-level buzz she’d been experiencing for the last thirty minutes was wreaking havoc on her usually cool-headed mood. If she hadn’t eaten recently, she might have chalked it up to low blood sugar, but since Dana had forced her to choke down a burger during her break, she knew that wasn’t the case. And she was tired of trying to figure out just what was wrong with her anyway.
Stop stressing already, would you? Sheesh
…
She shook off the thought and picked her way around tables, past loggers and teachers and even the town’s mayor. Far be it from her to judge who got their thrills in a place like this. To her right, Anna was onstage, working it for all she was worth, and from the corner of her eye, Casey caught a bra—or was that a G-string?—fly through the air, but she ignored that, too. Just as she did every night.
The college kids who’d been flicking her crap all evening whooped and hollered as they watched Anna turn with a lusty grin, bend over at the waist and shake her size-zero behind. They obviously didn’t catch the fact that Anna’s seductive wink and lip-licking was motivated by nothing but dollar bills, but then that wasn’t exactly a surprise. These three yahoos were anything but Rhodes scholars.
