22 Nights

Table of Contents

“Allow yourself to be swept into a world where good and evil battle, where goddesses and princes fight demons and shape-shifters. This is a world Jones excels at creating, [an] exciting, colorful realm.”
—Romantic Times

 

“Linda Winstead Jones pens a perfect romance laced with strife, mystery, and an intense passion hot enough to singe your fingers.”
—Romance Junkies

 

“Punchy battle scenes and steamy lovemaking will please genre fans, but it is Jones’s gift for creating complex heroes and villains that lifts this story out of the ordinary.”

“Bewitching . . . A fabulous climactic romantic fantasy . . . filled with fascinating twists, beguiling.”

 

“Well done! Very sensual.”
—Booklist

 

“A fantastic denouement . . . For an action-packed and thrilling romance,
The Star Witch
is just what the doctor ordered.”
—Romance Reviews Today

“I can hardly wait to find out how she will [entwine] all the threads she has created! . . . This series is just too good to miss.”
—The Romance Reader

 

“An enjoyable romantic fantasy that grips the audience . . . Action-packed.”
—The Best Reviews

 

“A unique and imaginative realm . . . Prepare to be swept away!”
—Rendezvous

 

“[W]ill enthrall . . . Lushly imaginative.”

 

“Entertaining and imaginative, with a wonderful blend of worlds and technology and magic. The characters are different and engrossing; the villain is fascinating.”

—New York Times
bestselling author Linda Howard

 

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—Road to Romance

 

“She has a special, magical way about her . . . It’s Jones at her very magical best. I am very glad to see her back . . . She shines.”—Deborah MacGillivray

 

“Amazing adventures unfold . . . Marvelously captivating, sensuous, fast-paced.”
—Booklist
(starred review)

 

“Hot.”
—Affaire de Coeur

THE SUN WITCH
THE MOON WITCH
THE STAR WITCH

 

PRINCE OF MAGIC
PRINCE OF FIRE
PRINCE OF SWORDS

 

UNTOUCHABLE
22 NIGHTS

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

 

22 NIGHTS

 

A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

 

PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / December 2008

Copyright © 2008 by Linda Winstead Jones.

 

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eISBN : 978-1-440-64384-2

 

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ALL
evening, Merin had tried to avoid the woman who now literally cornered him on the stairway which led to his quarters on Level Four. He’d made an appearance at the palace festivities, as was expected, but once there he’d found himself the target of many curious and ambitious women. There was something about the arrival of spring which made females of a certain age and their mothers think of weddings and babies. What a disastrous state of mind.

None of those females had been more dogged than the woman who’d ambushed him on the stairs as he’d attempted to escape to the quiet comfort of his private quarters.

Cipriana Etain, wife of a highly placed secretary who was here on this night to celebrate the Spring Festival, blocked his avenue of escape—unless he was willing to appear a coward who would turn and run down the stairs. If her hips were not so wide, he might think of rushing around her. No, she obstructed the way quite well, with her hips and her voluminous gown and her glare. Her daughters stood behind her, pink-cheeked and intimidated and not yet so wide. They were actually bone-thin like their father, and seemed to be as reserved as Secretary Etain. All three women were breathless. None of them was accustomed to climbing so many steps.

“I thought I had missed you, General Merin,” Lady Cipriana said, trying to hide her breathlessness with a laugh. It didn’t work well, as she ended up practically wheezing. “You’re a difficult man to claim for an audience.” She rested a hand on her heaving bosom. “May I call you Tearlach?”

“No one calls me by my given name,” he responded. Not friends, not lovers, certainly not this irritating woman.

“Surely your mother . . .”

“You’re not my mother.”

Displeasure was evident on her plain, weathered face. “I tried all evening to claim a moment of your time,
General
, but you were always on the move. A dance here, a conversation there, and I swear there were times when it seemed you simply disappeared.”

He should be so lucky.

“You never did get the chance to dance with my daughters, Irinia and Ileana.” She indicated the girls with a wave of her hand, and they curtseyed, one after the other.

“That’s my loss, I’m sure, but it was a very busy evening,” he said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me . . .”

The older woman’s expression changed, her mouth and her eyes hardening. “Not just yet, General. I worked much too hard to claim this time with you to let you get away so easily.”

Merin met the woman’s glare with his own. If she did not feel it necessary to be polite, then neither did he. “What do you want?”

The woman placed her hands on those generous hips, her plump and stubby fingers looking pale against her dark gown. “You are three years past thirty, General, only a few years younger than I. It is long past time for you to take a wife. From all I hear, you are next in line for the position of Minister of Defense. A man of power needs a woman to soothe and aid him, to give him children and provide solace and stability and social acceptability.” She nodded decisively. “Either of my girls would make you a fine wife. They are both pretty and virtuous. I have taught them well, so you can be assured that no man has ever touched that which is a husband’s to take. They are healthy and do not speak much, and they have been well taught in the arts of homemaking.”

“That sounds lovely, but . . .”

“Whichever you choose will come with a substantial dowry, including a family house north of Arthes.” She grinned tightly. “You made your reputation the hard way, General Merin, with blood and sweat. My family can provide what you lack. Social standing. Respectability. A well-respected family name and all that comes with it.”

The woman had managed to praise and insult him in the same breath.

One of the girls looked at the floor and blushed. The other concentrated on a spot on the wall. He could only imagine how humiliating it must be for the sisters to stand there while their mother tried to sell them, using money and virtue to make the deal.

Merin stared at their mother. “Madam, I have had a long day, and this is a discussion for another time.”

“No, it is a discussion for now, General. I have waited as long as I can.” She pursed her lips tightly and then made an outrageous offer. “If you’d like to assure that one or the other would be to your liking, take one now. Whichever you pick, she will be yours for the night, if you wish.”