Copyright © 2008 Emily Ryan-Davis
All rights reserved, Freya's Bower.
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"Diane told me about a man."
He stilled. His fingers contracted and squeezed the bones of her wrists together until she gasped. "You're hurting me."
"What man?" He grabbed both her wrists in one of his hands and forced her face up. Her breath caught as he moved between her legs and gave away the physical proof of his arousal. "What man, Cora? Give me a name."
Focus on his face, not his body. She willed her nerves to numb and deaden, to pretend his muscles didn't fit so intimately against her softness. Pain hollowed his eyes.
Jealousy. Desperation. Knowledge of impending loss, and powerlessness. Her concentration slipped. Love words almost broke through the careful jail she'd built.
The dragons leapt into the crack splintering down the line of her weakness. Da'ar Es Saleem hummed confusion in hear ears, and Ii strained for release. He flooded her senses with a blast of possessive emotion that rivaled the scorching demand in Salim's grip. For an instant, she regretted the short sentence; she hadn't meant to throw it down as a sexual challenge. As the atmosphere filled with masculine claim, however, her regret ebbed away. A wickedness stirred low in her body where Salim's groin nuzzled against her softness. Every thread of her usual self cautioned against deliberate provocation, but she didn't feel usual anymore. Feminine authority vibrated in the marrow of her bones.
Hot from the rush of power, she smiled and whispered, "No."
His eyes flashed. "This isn't a game."
"No?" She flexed against his hold on her wrists, arched her lower back and deliberately ground against the bulge in his pants. "You're playing very competitive for something that's not a game. Withholding information. Refusing team work, refusing to share what you know."
He growled. "I'm not--"
"It's almost like you're holding out for a prize," she continued, cutting him off. "Or like there's something you don't want me to find. What is it, Salim? You won't help me learn because you want to keep me for yourself? Afraid you'll have to share my body with somebody else? With something else?"
"That's the point of this, isn't it?" Salim released her hands. He backed himself up and swung his thigh across hers until he knelt astride her hips. He traced the strip of bare skin between her drawstring waistband and her sweatshirt. "The change in you came right after I refused to turn our duet into a foursome. If I'd realized how badly you wanted it, we could have avoided all this."
The knotted tie gave way quickly, and he pulled the elastic down low enough that her breath caught. Doubt cartwheeled through her, followed immediately by determination not to falter. "It's not sex, Salim. It's completion." She rose up on her elbows. "I threw out a mating call, remember? They're both already mine, but it hasn't been completed yet. This is something I'm entitled to. It belongs to me. To my family. And I'm going to finish taking it, whether you're willing to be part of it or not. I know you're not the only one. I found another shaman just like you."