Page 41 of Rekindled Prophecy

“Besides, if I want you dead, I’ll do the deed myself. No one else gets that pleasure. No one.” His tone was teasing, but she suspected it was the underlying truth.

Strong, firm arms eased her back into a reclining position against the pillow-lined headboard as he pulled her shirt up. “Now, please be still so I can check this out.”

Greylyn slumped back onto the bed. His fingers lightly traced from her waist halfway to her spine where the gash had been, leaving behind a blazing trail of heat. It also did not help that he was leaning in so close she felt his warm breath and smelled the aroma of dark-brewed coffee.

Goose bumps raised the tiny hairs on her arms. All sound was blocked out except the thud, thud, thud of her own heart. As her eyes closed involuntarily, Greylyn uttered a soft sigh.

As if in response, she heard his breath catch and become more ragged. Even though there was not even a scar left to mark where the Tenju had sliced her, his fingers continued their path from her waist, dipping to graze over her hip bone, and then coming to rest on her abdomen. She was helpless to stop him.

His other hand came up to caress the side of her face and pulled a stray tendril of hair to tuck behind her ear. Greylyn half-opened her eyes. Kael had lost his usual cocky half-smile and was looking at her with a smoldering intensity that left no doubt what was on his mind. It was exactly what she was feeling.

Riveted in place, all she could do was take in every perfect detail of his face – his almond-shaped eyes that lured her in, the way his eyebrows arched ever so slightly as if in expectation, the wave of auburn highlights in his hair as it fell over his forehead in a roguish way. But those lips…

She had not realized she was holding her breath until he removed his hand from her hip to cup the other side of her face. An involuntary gasp escaped her lips.

He broke their eye lock to glance at her cheek where she had sustained another gash last night. It had most likely disappeared, but that did not stop him from caressing the side of her face with his thumb. The heat was so intense from the contact that Greylyn half expected to see flames spring from her skin or a trail of burnt skin branding her as his.

She leaned her face into his palm and closed her eyes. It felt right, and so natural.

Excitement revved up every nerve in her body, but somehow it was also a comforting feeling. Yet a small voice in the back of her mind screamed for her to run, to save herself from…from what she did not know. Even in this state, she recognized the jeopardy she was in. It was just that her body did not seem to care about the danger. It only yearned for him to continue touching her. The need was too powerful to ignore.

Opening her eyes, they were so close she could count the gold flecks in his eyes, but her brain was too muddled to remember how to count. As if of its own accord, her hand came up to touch his face, stubble scrapping against the pads of her fingertips. Kael’s eyes closed. A low exhale, almost a moan, pressed through his lips. The entire world had vanished. There was only Kael. There was only the desperate need to melt into him.

A shrill ringing penetrated through to interrupt the sweet torture. At first the sound was soft as if coming from another room, another place, another time. But it continued, demanding attention.

Greylyn pushed herself away just as her lips had been a hair’s breadth from his.

Disappointment curdled in her stomach, something she could not explain away. There was no denying what she had just felt. There was no explanation for it. But logic won the day.

Cursing, Kael broke away to brusquely answer the call. Pacing back and forth as far as he could with the attached cord, he raked his fingers through his lustrous locks of hair. His voice was low and Greylyn’s senses had not yet recovered enough for her to overhear the conversation. Suddenly, the invisible force that paralyzed her moments ago lifted. She was free.

Before her body betrayed her again, she jumped up, grabbed her things, and bolted from the room as if Hell itself was on her heels.

Chapter 17

An Unexpected Invitation

Greylyn burst through the door to her suite as if trying to escape the devil himself.

What have I done?

Collapsing against the door, her lungs ached as she gasped for breath. What she needed was an ice-cold shower. Bone-chilling, hypothermia-inducing burst of cold water. She would gladly bathe in a glacial pool if it would help tame her traitorous body.

How could she have allowed herself to be captured by her own desire for someone so… forbidden?

She stomped into the bathroom. A clatter on the tile floor jarred her attention. Glancing down, there was her cell phone. It must have fallen from the pile of her clothes she still clutched to her chest.

As much as I drop this thing, I really should invest in a protective case for it. Just peachy! Dead battery.

She turned back around to plug the phone into the outlet by the antique desk and stumbled over her own feet.

As it beeped back to life, she viewed the call log and voicemails. Five messages. Three from Thomas, one from Jasper, and one from Sofia.

She called Thomas and reassured him that things were fine. Without letting on everything that had occurred after her return last night, she did ask him to check why a Tenju would be guarding the psychic’s building.

“Tenju? Jinn? A banshee? Did you happen upon the Cirque du Soleil of demonic entities or what?” Disbelief carried in his voice. “Hon, Tenju aren’t even supposed to be in the continental United States, much less the nation’s capital.”

She laughed nervously before hanging up the phone. The creatures had been the least of her worries last night.

---