“Her sisters, Ohni and Ooma, are the goddesses of justice and balance, respectively. According to this passage, when a certain incantation is recited, and the price met, an acolyte can bind an unbeliever into servitude to the sisters for eternity.”
“Oh God, that’s terrible!” The blurry picture of what happened to Perez came into focus. He’d betrayed Aramina, and Aramina used the power of an old spell book to enchant him. She locked his soul away inside the cold, golden pocket watch, totally expecting him to pay for his betrayal with his soul.
What a heartless bitch!
If anyone knew what heartbreak and betrayal felt like, it was Haven. She’d fallen in love with Elgin, a gorgeous, charming seducer. It wasn’t until after they’d spoken their wedding vows and rumpled the marriage bed that the truth of his duplicity came out. He loved to gamble, and he’d lost more money than he could ever pay back. He’d met her, saw her innocent naïveté and his chance to get out from under the thumb and threats of his investors. He married her, informed his bookies that his new wife would take on his debts, and skipped town.
Two months after he’d abandoned her, shady, shark-toothed bruisers came knocking. She was horrified, shocked, scared for her life, and heartbroken. She had never felt more violated.
Yes, she’d experienced betrayal, but she would never curse Elgin’s soul into slavery to three vindictive sister goddesses. No one deserved to lose their soul. Not even Elgin.
She looked up in time to catch Logan staring at her with a questioning expression.
Let him look.
“What else does it say?”
He stared at her a moment before glancing down at the book.
“Those who’re bound must do as the goddesses command, for eternity.”
“So there’s no way to free his soul? Get him out of the watch? There’s no way to get me home?”
Hope faded.
She sagged where she stood, trying to swallow the lump of tears forming in her throat.
Logan studied the words before him, a deep furrow marring his handsome face. “There’s nothing here about time travel, so I am not sure if your situation is at all related to Perez’s enchantment.”
“Ithasto be! Why else am I here?” There had to be an explanation, she just didn’t have enough of the pieces to put the puzzle together.
He looked up then, his gaze meeting hers. A look of tenderness warmed his expression.
“I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
Unfolding his large frame, he stood straight, turning to place his hands on her shoulders. In what was surely meant to be a gesture of comfort, he rubbed her arms. The warmth of his fingers against her sensitive skin turned her attention from puzzles to pleasure. What was meant to bring comfort brought prickles of awareness, and a new level of tension hijacked the room.
As tension built, his hands stilled, but he didn’t remove them. The warmth of tenderness filling his eyes before was replaced by a much hotter emotion.
Ravenous want.
His gaze burned into hers, leaving her gasping for air. She couldn’t stop the rapid rise and fall of her chest, nor the quickened beat of her heart, nor the overwhelming urge to feed his hungry want with the entree of her body.
She must have stepped forward, or he did, or both, because the space separating them shrank. His lips were inches away, and his hard, hot body strained against hers.
His lips met hers, and he groaned.
Haven answered with one of her own.
She parted her lips to sigh her appreciation, and he deepened the kiss, driving his tongue in to entice hers into a dance, age old and decadent. Wrapping her hands around the strong cord of his neck, she laced her fingers through the silken strands of hair brushing his collar.
Oh God, he was too damn sexy. Since she’d wound her arms around his neck, she couldn’t stop him from wrapping his around her waist and crushing her tightly against his body. She wanted to be reasonable, to push him away, but his embrace was so secure, his lips so tasty, and his body against hers so damned exquisite. She wanted to pull her arms down, tear away, break their kiss, breathe deep and figure out how to get home. But the moment the idea crossed her mind, delicious sensation robbed her of her intentions, and replaced them with the urge to get closer, breathe him in, and spend the next few minutes being something other than a little lost time traveler.
He tightened his hold, securing her within his embrace. The bliss of their kiss quickly turned to pure rapture when the rigid evidence of his arousal pressed against her belly.
Oh. My. God.
Memories of the night before swept through her mind. His body against hers, deep inside her, filling, plunging, making her scream in mind blowing pleasure under the brilliant moonlight.
