Worlds Apart (46 page)

She shook off the feeling and concentrated on studying him. He’d dared her, but was that really what he wanted? Or was he baiting her for a different reason? Still, she’d never backed down from a challenge and she wasn’t about to start now.

“You’re on, Doc.”

Nobility has its privileges…and its price. Sometimes it just sucks.

Noble Blood

© 2011 Dana Marie Bell

The Gray Court, Book 2

For Lord Duncan Malmayne, it was love at first sight with his true bond, the lovely half-Sidhe, half-leprechaun Moira Dunne. Yet something is missing from his relationship with the fiery redhead, something that prevents him from completing the Claiming and making Moira his forever.

As problems multiply in what should be a magical, idyllic time, the depression weighing on Moira’s Sidhe heart signals a potentially devastating condition. Mate sickness. Her instinct tells her what’s missing: Jaden Blackthorn, Gray Court vampire, Duncan’s bond brother and closest friend—who tactfully withdrew from their lives after Duncan declared his love.

Jaden is both heartbroken and elated that the two people he loves most in the world are together. It’s best he cut off all contact to give them space to complete the Claiming. But trouble is brewing in the Malmayne clan, and when Jaden’s forced back into their lives by the Hob, their extremely rare tribond clicks with a reaction that’s swift, sensual and all-consuming.

But not everyone looks upon it as a blessing. In fact, the price of their love could be a potentially fatal shift of power…

Warning: This book contains explicit sex, graphic language, and M/M/F love scenes between a Sidhe lord, a vampire and a leprechaun. And no, that’s not the start of a dirty joke no matter what my Beta readers said.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Noble Blood:

Moira wanted to kick Jaden and Duncan’s collective butts. How could they have danced around each other for so long? The heat between the two of them was burning her up! But the worry and fear in Jaden was reaching critical mass. She needed to diffuse it fast. “Duncan is suffering from mate sickness.”

Jaden turned on her so fast her head spun. He was quick, but she’d forgotten exactly
how
quick. “Why? Why won’t you complete the mating?” He stalked toward her, black bleeding out to the whites of his eyes. “C’mon, sweet. You can tell me.”

She shivered, the deep purr in his voice calling to her, a siren’s song she longed to answer. Where she found the strength to keep from responding to his vampiric lure she didn’t know. She took a deep breath, drawing in his coppery scent. “We couldn’t. Neither one of us could work ourselves up to it.”

Red flames danced in his eyes. “Why is that, Moira?” He stroked his finger down her cheek. “I can tell you that if I had you waiting in my bed there’s no way I’d hold off on making you mine.”

She smiled. He was trying to intimidate her. She shook her head, amused.
You’d think he’d know better than that.
She had to make him understand why they hadn’t been able to recite the Vow and complete the Binding. “How can you bond to your heart when your soul is missing?” He frowned, confused. Did he even understand what a true bond really meant? “Do you know what each step of the bond entails?”

He huffed out an irritated breath. “There’s the Claiming, which begins with a kiss and ends with a fuck.” She winced. He was being deliberately crude. “Then there’s the Vow and the Binding. The Sidhe recites the Vow, magic swirls, and the Binding takes place. Voila, you are married for eternity, life forces bound together.” He tilted his head to the side. “I hear Leo’s Binding with Ruby was quite the light show.” He smiled, the expression full of evil pleasure. “Kaitlynn was
so
pissed.”

She nodded. She’d been there. She’d known that if anyone had laid a hand on Ruby at that moment, Leo’s power would have destroyed them. It was never a good idea to get between a Sidhe lord and something he wanted. “It was. Do you know what was missing from my Claiming with Duncan?”

“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.” For the first time since Duncan left the room Jaden looked truly worried again.

She reached up and stroked his cheek, pleased beyond belief when he nuzzled into her touch. “You, Jaden. You’re the other third of our bond.”

He started to laugh. “Oh, that’s a good one. Try and sell me a bridge. C’mon. You know you want to.”

She kicked him in the shins.

He leaned down and clutched his leg. “Ow!” The surprise in his face would have been amusing if the situation wasn’t so serious.

“I’m not joking. You left, and Duncan and I
both
went into mate sickness. We were pining for you and didn’t even know it.” She figured the only reason she hadn’t been even
more
sick was her leprechaun blood. It must have shielded her. Duncan had taken the full brunt of it, the mark of his anguish left on his body for all to see.

“Uh-huh. Sure.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So how come after all this time I’m not bound to him? I’d think in the hundred years we’ve been together he would have popped wood over me at
some
point.”

Oh, he was going to be a pain in the ass about this. “My mother thinks—”

“You talked to your
mother
about Duncan’s erectile dysfunction?” He glared down at her. “Has he considered taking your TV away?”

She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a weary sigh. “Jaden.”

“Hey, it’s not like we were together for a hundred years or anything.” He tapped his fingernail against his teeth and sucked in a breath. “No, wait.”

“If you don’t knock it off I’m going to kick your ass so hard you’ll fart everything you say.”

He barked out a startled laugh. “God, I love vicious women.”

She smirked up at him. “Listen. We think the reason Duncan didn’t feel the pull toward you was because of your blood bond. We think it masked the need to Claim you. When you went away and cut off all contact the mating sickness set in.”

Jaden was shaking his head. “Duncan isn’t gay.”

“No, he’s not.” Jaden’s expression turned cynical. “He’s bi, just like you.”

Jaden frowned. “Honey, Duncan has never shown an interest in men. Believe me, I would have known.”

“Of course not. He had you.”

Jaden’s eyes rolled, which looked really weird. They were still vampiric, black with red hot flames in the center. “If Duncan was ever into men then he’s been so far in the closet he’s been living in Narnia.” Jaden turned his back on her. “Are you sure some other funky Sidhe sickness isn’t holding him back?”

“I’m positive.” She put her hand on the small of his back, smiling when he jumped. “He finally Claimed me today.”

“Good for you.”

God, the pain underlying that cheerful façade would drop a stronger man to his knees. She could feel it roiling within him. “Jaden, he
couldn’t
Claim me until you were here. Frankly, I think it was what you were doing in the shower that tipped him over the edge.”

His face turned bright red, his eyes leeching back to normal in shock. “Oh God.”

“Jaden, it’s all right.”

“No it’s not. He’s going to
kill
me.”

“Why?”

He shot her a disbelieving look. “I saw you naked. I rode,
uninvited
, in his head while he…” He gestured toward her body. “On the desk, no less!”

She laughed. Her sexy vamp sounded so prissy! “Are you kidding me? He was thrilled!”

His jaw dropped. “I have to get out of here.”

“Oh, no you don’t.”

His hand curled around her throat, but she wasn’t afraid. She could never be afraid of him. “Sweetheart, how are you planning on stopping me?”

”Like this.” She got up on her tiptoes and kissed him.

Jaden froze against her, his eyes wide. When her tongue reached out and tasted his lips he moaned.

She had to get him to stay. She
had
to. There was only one other man who tasted this wonderful, and no way would she lose either of them. She buried her fingers in the darkness of his hair and opened her mouth, offering herself to him. He tried to pull back but her hand in his hair stopped him. Unless he wanted to lose some of the silky strands or, worse, hurt her, he couldn’t get free.

Jaden would never deliberately hurt her. He’d go sunbathing first.

The tip of one of his fangs touched her lip. She ran her tongue along the tip, uncertain how he would react.

He sucked in a breath and moaned, his hands going to her hips. He held her trapped, unable to move as his mouth devoured hers, taking everything she’d offered and more. She allowed that small spark of Sidhe power inside her to rise to the surface, to surround them both. She dropped her Seeming, letting everything she was sink into him, needing him to accept everything she’d been telling him.

They were meant to be together. He was meant to be hers. If he tried to run again she’d hunt him down and tie his ass to her bed. That was, if Duncan didn’t get to him first.

He pulled back with a gasp. His expression was horrified. “No.”

She was panting, so aroused she could barely breath. “No?”

“You’re Duncan’s. He deserves you.”

She blinked. The way he’d phrased that struck a chord. “And you don’t?”

His jaw clenched. “Duncan deserves the best.” His smile was wistful. “Sweetheart, you’re the best.” He kissed the tip of her nose and let her go. “Let me go, Moira.”

“Can’t.” She grinned up at him. “I’ve begun Claiming you.” She patted his chest, feeling justifiably smug. “You belong to me now, and you’re not going anywhere.” She blinked up at him innocently. “You don’t want me getting sick, do you?”

Worlds Apart

Barbara Elsborg

Love has never been so close—or seemed so far away.

I love you.
Niall is in hiding, but not from the police. He’s trapped between the world he longs for and a place he can’t leave behind. Cursed to hold his tongue, unable to claim what he wants until it’s given, he’s allowed one year to capture his heart's desire. But speaking those three simple words, the most important words in his life, might very well kill him.

I can’t love you.
As a private investigator, Taylor walks daily through the ashes of love burned out. He’s witnessed the aftermath of love—destroyed marriages and wrecked lives that leave behind nothing but bitter memories of betrayal. He’s convinced that love will never plant a seed in his heart—until Niall sparks a completely unexpected reaction in both mind and body.

I want to love you.
Roo has spent her entire life bouncing from relationship to relationship, offering her heart only to get it trampled on. When she finds herself out in the cold again, she discovers love can come from the most surprising of places. Her choices are simple. Do the right thing. Do the wrong thing. Do nothing. The wrong choice could be simply devastating…

Warning: Beware faeries with killer tattoos and girls dressed as chickens—broken hearts can follow… Or lots of love. And lots of sex—three-way, two-way, every which way. But no chicken sex. Thank god.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Worlds Apart

Copyright © 2012 by Barbara Elsborg

ISBN: 978-1-60928-830-3

Edited by Sue Ellen Gower

Cover by Angela Waters

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: May 2012

www.samhainpublishing.com