Allure Magnified (14 page)

Yet I couldn’t stop myself from laying a claim.

Calum’s face registered surprise. I saw it but it didn’t stop me. I stood on my tip-toes and pressed my lips against his, slipping my tongue right inside.

He tensed, making me think that he was about to pull away. Reality crashed in on me and I realized what I’d just done. I inhaled sharply, ready to pull back and find the nearest escape.

Calum let out a low groan, bringing me closer and tilting his head.

My hands became fists around his blazer, my throat muscles tight from holding back my whimper. He swirled his tongue around my own, kissing me as if he wanted to bend me over the nearest table and rip my dress off.

Dear God, I was all for it.  I was more than ready.

Calum broke away, panting. His hooded eyes focused on my mouth right before he turned to look behind him.

Diana was gone. The fact that he’d pulled away to look for her detonated another landmine full of fuck-no.

Shaking, aroused, and more jealous than I had any damn right to be, I moved away from Calum. His head turned back in my direction, his eyes narrowing as he refocused on me.

Too late. It’d happened. Jealousy had morphed into a straight-up demon, one that was writhing sickeningly inside me. And I couldn’t think past it enough to stay there another second.

“Liv? Liv.”

I turned, knowing there were eyes on us. I didn’t care, I needed out. Tears were gathering in my eyes from the fury in me. Even worse, that was his ex-fiance. I knew that if Calum wanted to hug her, he had every right to do so. I was being an idiot and that only made my anger worse.

A part of me knew that Calum was going to follow me. I think I wanted him to. I wanted us somewhere private
where I could irrationally let him have it. He’d been jealous the entire night before and had been distant since then. If he had a right to get pissed off when I saw an ex, why didn’t I?

I was still telling myself this
as I made my way toward the elevators. There were a few people milling about. I stopped, making eye contact with one or two, and wondering where I could go to get some time alone in this freaking place.

Body heat hit the skin of my back a breath before I felt Calum’s hand around my arm. He pulled me along with him, moving at top speed, obviously not caring that I was in heels and he was much stronger than me.

“Let me go right now, Calum,” I warned under my breath, trying not to trip.

He stared down at me over his shoulder, his eyes
blazing
. “No, Liv. You’re coming with me. I don’t want to hear it.”

He’d never talked to me like that. Ever. Calum had been nothing but sweet and intense since we met. He was being intense now, but in a totally different way than I was used to. The way he was commanding me to listen to him was sexy.

Considering my still roaring jealousy, it also pissed me off.

“No.” I tried to pull free. He didn’t let me. It would’ve become a downright struggle right there, but we turned the corner and passed a couple that knew my father. I plastered a smile on my face and waved back when they waved, pretending that nothing was wrong.

Calum went on ahead, his stare fixed in front of him.

“Where the hell are you taking me?”

“I know this building. I’m taking you where we can talk.” He kept going until we came to a door that was next to the beginning of a glass wall with multicolored lights and water following down like a waterfall. Behind it was what looked like a large indoor garden, complete with a stone walkway.

He took out his wallet and pulled out what looked like some sort of passkey. One swipe and the door before us opened.

“There’s no one in there. The door was closed for reason. I’m sure that means that only those with authorized access can go—”

I was ignored and all but yanked inside. I had to be careful not to trip down the short stairs leading down to the stone walkway.

“I am authorized access.”

I whirled on him right as he closed the door, his shoulder
s moving deliciously beneath his suit. Damn it, even angry I wanted to eat him.

No, especially then.

“How so?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“I’m related to the owner.”

Oh, well then. I should’ve known that, yes? But of course, I didn’t. I clenched my jaw to keep my comment to myself.

He swiped the card key on the inside reader. A beep and a light went off on it. Just like that, I was sure that he’d locked us inside this private garden during the opening dinner for the design festival.

My father was somewhere outside.

His ex, too.

“Come.”

“Why?”

He threw me a stare that almost made me shrink back.

“Liv, you need to get fucked. Now. Come.”

My mouth fell wide open, my eyes shooting even wider. I stumbled back, disbelieving, unable to grasp what he was demanding…and about to lose my mind at the image of him taking me right there.

Fuck, behind him I could see a bench, tucked inside the wall, low enough to be covered by the artificial fog they were pumping into the place. “What? What do you mean? I—”

Calum stalked up to me. I blindly stepped back, bumping into the metal railing behind me.

“Now, Liv.”

I swallowed, my body vibrating as he got closer. “Now?”

Calum stepped up to me, pressing his body against me. He cupped the back of my head in his large hands and tilted it back. His eyes searched mine. Sucked in, I could do nothing but stare back, fighting the need to arch into him.

When he stared at me like that, jealousy was forgotten. There was no way I could do anything other than give into the pull of that stare, the way he seemed to be fucking me in his mind.

“Tell me something, Livana.”

I swallowed again, realizing that I was having a hard time breathing.

“Were you jealous of Diana just now?” He asked the question so calmly, his voice pure silk. He fisted my hair, not caring if he ruined the bun I had it styled into. All I could do was stare at his lips, hungry for them. It became clear that he wasn’t going to budge, nor was he going to let me move.

He was waiting for my answer.

“Yes,” I admitted in a low tone. Closing my eyes, I blocked him out, feeling ashamed at the admission and not knowing why.

Calum’s response surprised me. He pulled me, using his hold on my head, and brought me flush against him.

His cock was hard, throbbing into my lower stomach the moment we made contact.

“Good.” He growled, his eyes falling back to my lips. “I want you fucking jealous. I want you infuriated at the thought of another woman near me.”

The mouth he was staring at fell open again as shock and anger shot through me.

He fucking
what
?

Calum licked his lips before leaning down and possessively tugging on my own. I was too shocked to move, too turned on to do anything but let him.

Even as I wondered if he had lost his God damned mind.

“Tell me how it made you feel, seeing her hug me,” he demanded against my mouth.

“Fuck you.” Galvanized and hurt because he wanted to make me jealous, I pushed and tried to get away.

“Tell me, Livana. Did it make you want to pull my eyes out? Hers? Did rage make you see red to the point that you wanted blood covering the walls?”

I froze, panting. That’s exactly what had fucking happened! Thinking back on it, that hug replayed in my mind, making me want the blood covered walls all over again. I’d never felt anything like this, had never drowned in such a miserable rage.

Not even when I found out my first and only boyfriend had been cheating on me with my ex-friend. Nothing could compare to the things I felt when I replayed Diana’s hands on Calum.

“Damn you,” I whimpered, surprised when my eyes teared up again. “That’s exactly what I felt. How dare you do it on purpose? What the fuck is wrong with you, Calum?”

He stared down at me with a hard, almost desperate look. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” He all but dragged me up the length of his body, his hold pulling on my neck. “But it worked out perfectly.” He fed a rough kiss right into my mouth, plunging his tongue deep.

As much as I wanted to punch him, I still couldn’t hold back the moan that left me. He’d always been intense.

This went far beyond that. Something was off. Something was wrong with him.

And I kind of loved it.

“You feel that, baby?” he pulled back to pant, his tongue tracing my lips. I gave in, opening for him, my tongue shooting out to chase his. “Feel that?”

I nodded, breathless. Desperation. Coursing through me. Leaking out of him. Palpitating  in the air around us.

“I need to claim you and you need to claim me.”

Those words almost sent an orgasm through me, my sex fluttering and pulsing in response to his words. I recognized that he was right; something was happening to us that was strictly biological and territorial.

We each felt threatened. Our exes had set off alarms, however unwarranted or based in reality. I couldn’t handle the idea of Diana near him; he had to deal with my ex-lovers being around.

If any weekend ever promised to be a fucking mess, it was this one.

“I need to have you.” Calum circled one arm around me, holding me still and thrusting into me.

“Take me,” I whispered, giving in. It was the only way we were going to regain some sanity. The only way I could get through the weekend, knowing that bitch was around with her hungry stare focusing on him.

Calum’s eyes flashed. Tugging me, he headed straight toward the bench that I’d been eyeing.

And I didn’t care. I didn’t care that there was a glass wall, that my father was around, or that people we knew could pass by.

I needed him. I needed him now. He needed me just as badly and no matter what, I couldn’t fathom denying us this.

Which was the first moment that I knew that I’d done the unthinkable. I’d fallen in love, and was so far gone that it bordered on obsession. He’d become the one thing that I was addicted to, and there would be no easy extrication.

He was it for me.

And I had to find a way to make sure I was it for him. 

Blood Flows Deep in the Empire

By N, Isabelle Blanco

Dyletri, God of Fertility, has locked away his powers. No woman is allowed to touch him, not until he can return his long-dead lover back to life. All he has to do is sacrifice one human girl, a girl who unlocks his powers and rips his dormant lust right out of his body. Trapped by his promise, Dyletri has no choice but to watch Ismini die, no matter how much he wants her.

Yet the darkness of his calling is spiraling within him, demanding he claim the human as his. If he goes back on his promise, the energy of the Fates will cause untold destruction in the Universe. That doesn’t change how Dyletri’s begun exhibiting symptoms that point to more than just lust. How does he allow Ismini to die when she’s come to own him from the inside out?

Desire and torment spiral into something much darker than obsession, more turbulent than an addiction, and something much more brutal than a mere soul-mating. As a war is being rekindled right under his nose, Dyletri will have to come to terms with a destiny eleven thousand years in the making. He thought he’d known what path his future would take, but he’d been wrong. Now the one woman he truly loves might pay the price for his decision.

Blood Flows Deep in the Empire is the first in a series that will pit free-will against Destiny, Destiny against Fate, and love against brutal desire. Everyone likes to think they have a choice as to who they end up with, but as they rise to face the greatest threat they’ve ever known, even the Gods will learn they have to bend to Destiny’s whim to survive.

Something caught Ismini’s attention, making her turn her head. There was a low sound coming from her far right, and as soon as she took two steps toward it, she knew what it was. Her whole body roared to life, and before she knew it, the mating rushed up on her and she was moving.

Ismini walked the length of the balcony with light but hurried steps. She made it halfway around the circumference of the compound when the moonlight illuminated a figure she’d come to recognize so well.

Dyletri stood in front of the stone balcony railing, staring off into the night. Ismini knew she should walk away, but something in his expression made it impossible.

His shoulders were slumped forward. He looked exhausted in a way that no being like him should have been. Even taking into account the moonlight reflecting off his white hair, Ismini could tell he was too pale.

Worry got the best of her, and before she had a chance to think better of it, she was approaching him and calling out his name.

“Dyletri?”

His entire body went rigid. So much that Ismini feared for a second that he was on the verge of jumping right off the balcony. There was something about him that throbbed with energy, but the way he seemed to tremble and refused to acknowledge her had her taking one more cautious step forward.