Marie Harte - The Fire Within

God, had it only been last night?

Swallowing hard, she forced herself to move back, needing to preserve what small sense of self she had left. In just moments he was going to tell her she was nuts, or worse, call the men in white coats to pay her a visit.

He frowned when she withdrew, and opened his mouth as if to say something. Here it comes, she thought.

“Samantha,” he paused, “it isn’t safe for you here.”

She blinked. “What?”

“I want you to come with me.”

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” She eyed him shrewdly. “What is it you’re not telling me, Darius?”

He stood and stared down at her with a familiar gleam of impatience. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but the end result will be the same.”

She stood, absently noting the pain in her throat had completely vanished. Her eyes narrowed. “You’re an arrogant bastard, you know that?”

“It isn’t arrogance that makes you feel this.” And in an instant he sealed her protest with a soul-shattering kiss.

Lips like silk slid over hers, hot and supple with promise. Like catching a flaming tiger by the tail, she was well and truly snared. Much as she wanted to deny what he did to her, she couldn’t resist him.

“Tell me I am alone in this,” he muttered as he trailed his mouth over her neck, his hands roaming lower. He undressed her before she understood his intent. And by then, she was too far gone to care. “Is it my touch alone that makes us burn? I am consumed with need, on fire to have you, no matter the cost.”

So saying he sought her mouth again, showing her with his lips and tongue the passion he claimed. His hands found her thighs, rubbing and pressing her closer to him, to the steely length prodding her core.

He slid one hand between her legs and groaned when he met bare skin. Then he plunged a finger inside her, making her arch into him despite her irritation that he could so easily control her.

“You’re so hot, so wet,” he said thickly and began thrusting his long finger in and out of her, mimicking the action with his tongue in her mouth.

Need welled within her, her desire so strong it bordered on pain. With trembling hands she reached for the fly of his jeans and reached inside. At her touch he groaned and swelled, his shaft like iron, a burning testament to the passion between them.

She quickly freed him from his jeans, briefly enjoying the velvety steel of his erection before he took control of the moment. Almost desperately, he shoved her hands away and threw her to the bed, immediately following. He landed between her thighs, his focus intent and unbreakable.

Sealing his mouth to hers, he drove deep inside her, sliding through her welcoming warmth with a moan. Then he began pumping, harder and harder, until they were one heartbeat. Over and over he plunged, riding her with a fierceness that fuelled the animal heat roaring for release within her.

“Samantha,” he rasped and stared into her eyes, his body pounding hers. “I need you. I can’t stop…” His loss of control pulled her deeper into the abyss until her heart felt as if would explode.

“Now, affai .” He rotated his hips, the friction on her clit unbearable, and thrust so hard she saw stars. She cried out his name as she climaxed, dimly aware he found his own release.

When she could catch her breath, she realised this time had been better than the last, that she hadn’t imagined his sexual potency. Her one irresponsible fling had turned into two flings, and irresponsible or not, she felt too limp, too sated to regret it.

“Good. Regrets are futile since we can’t undo what’s been done.” He flexed and she bit her lip, the feeling of him inside her deeply satisfying.

Unfortunately, he sighed with regret and withdrew. “But we do need to get moving. You’re hell on my discipline, woman.” Standing, he waited while she threw on the clothes she’d set aside to wear for the day, then helped her to her feet like a gentleman.

Surprised at his manners after his aggressive, sexual behaviour, she opened her mouth to tease him but shut it when the peculiarity of his comments dawned. She watched him in awe as one dark eyebrow quirked in an arrogant gesture he seemed to have perfected. Have you finally figured it out?

Her temples throbbed and her dry mouth made it difficult to swallow. As if dreams of demons and hearing voices weren’t enough, she’d just made love to a mind reader, one with blazing red eyes that couldn’t possibly be human.

Darius could feel his eyes sparking with heat. Making love to Samantha hadn’t been smart, not at all. It had done nothing to sate him, and everything to make him want her again. Not a good time, considering what she’d recently been through.

Swearing under his breath, he brought his power under control, enough so that he knew his eyes cooled under the uncomfortable dark contacts he was forced to wear. Samantha simply continued to stare and he thought maybe he’d pushed her too far.

Sighing, he took her by the shoulders and looked down into her wide, stunned green gaze. “Look, I know all this is hard to believe. Trust me, I know the feeling all too well.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair.

Maybe ordering her to come with him had been harsh. His eyes lingered on her vulnerable neck. After what she’d been through, not only with ’Sin Garu but also with the combustible chemistry they seemed to share, she had a right to be wary.

“Samantha, I’m asking you to please come with me. I promise, once we’re at my house, I’ll answer all your questions and tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know.”

She stared at him, her gaze deep and assessing. “I’ll go with you,” she said slowly. “But I want you to promise you’ll stay out of my mind.”

He nodded, though it would take no small effort on his part to give her the space she desired. For some reason, his mind tuned to hers naturally, and the more he was around her, the less he was able to remain distant, both mentally and physically.

He didn’t feel comfortable with this sudden need for a constant ‘mental touch’, and the desire he felt when around her had not abated. Not at all. No, the orgasm he’d just experienced hadn’t sated him, merely made him hungry for more of Samantha’s delectable body.

As he watched her throw her things together into a bag, he wondered at the lack of spark in the crystal embedded in his skin. If Samantha was his true affai , the crystal should have been pulsating or doing, well, something. But it did nothing, merely sat like a scar on his chest.

Samantha finished packing her clothes in record time and he gratefully grabbed her bag, using the motion to take his mind off anything related to the word ‘ affai ’.

They walked to his truck in silence, his attention on the dark world around them, conscious now of the Djinn threat. Samantha, he imagined, was trying to come to grips with what had happened in her hotel room.

He had driven halfway to his house before she spoke.

“What is an affai ?”

He turned to her in shock. “What?”

“Watch the road!”

He barely managed to avoid the car in front of him. “Where did you hear that? ”

“From you.”

“When?” He didn’t remember mentioning anything about an affai to her. Hell, he had planned to avoid explaining that part of the story until he absolutely had to clarify it. The thought of marriage still made his stomach roll.

“When we were making love. You called me affai .”

His gaze remained on the road but he could see her blush out of the corner of his eye.