The Impostor (16 page)

And that was when she knew.

He
did
understand. He understood because he had been a small, orphaned boy adrift in a terrifying new country, and because he had been a damaged and badly broken man adrift in a glittering and hypocritical society. He understood the world was capricious and cruel, and that it was not possible to protect yourself entirely from pain.

You could only hold fast to the love you were lucky enough to find.

She had been afraid, and now she saw she was wrong and foolish to be afraid, because the love they shared was bigger and stronger than all the world. Her hand went to her mouth as she looked into his dark, tender eyes, and for the first time she realized that leaving him wasn’t an act of courage, it was an act of cowardice. Because it hadn’t only been him for whom she had been afraid.

It was herself.

A roar filled her ears, and her heart beat so hard she thought it would burst in her chest.

“Oh, Sebastian,” she whispered.

He gazed back at her, steadfast and tender, a man who would love her until the end of time.

She sucked in her breath as the magnitude of what she had nearly thrown away struck her with full force.

Then he reached for her, first running his fingers gently down the side of her face before drawing her into his arms. Her hands locked convulsively behind his neck and she breathed in the scent of him, so familiar and so dear.

“I love you,” he said. “Nothing will ever change that. Do you believe me?”

She nodded against his chest, and his fingers went to work at the knot that held her towel in place. Then the towel was gone, as was his robe, and she turned her needing, wanting body toward him.

But he refused to let her wrap her legs around his hips and draw him inside her, as she meant to do. Instead he used his hands and his mouth to love her, and when he finally pushed into her, she cried his name. He gave a low groan and began to thrust, slowly at first and then faster, until they were clinging to each other and he was murmuring to her and she was telling him
yes, yes, yes
. And then great waves of pleasure were washing over them both, dragging them into a vortex where there was nothing but each other.

Gradually, they returned to themselves, their heartbeats slowing. Sebastian made a muffled sound before raising himself off her body and sinking onto the pillow behind her. He drew her very close, suffusing her in his love and the warmth of his body. Then he buried his face into the crook of her neck and pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

“We can be married tomorrow,” said Sebastian, his voice already thick with drowsiness.

“Yes,” she said, smiling and wiggling her bottom closer to him.

He was asleep. She stroked her hand gently down the muscular arm that encircled her waist, and as she rested her head against his chest, she could see out the window, the sun rising over the skyline, shedding the new day over the city and over their lives.

About the Author

Lily Lang lives in New York City, where she studies history, eats a lot of cookies, and may or may not dance on bars when the moon is full. To her dismay, she has no psychic powers. Visit her at
www.lilylangbooks.com
.

A ghost whisperer. A devilish captain. A killer thirsting to destroy their passion…

Silken Shadows

© 2012 Jennifer St. Giles

Killdaren, Book 3

On the day of her sister’s wedding ship, Gemini Andrews’s spirit heard the siren call of the sea. Over the past year it has become a friend that whispers to her heart, promising a full, blessed future.

That future is threatened by a string of gruesome murders that are too similar to those of a killer who vowed to destroy her sisters to be coincidence. She knows her psychic gifts can stop this evil, but her sisters think her too delicate. The enigmatic Captain Deverell Jenson, who stole her heart with one Christmas kiss, thinks her too young—for anything.

Determined to prove them all wrong, Gemini steals aboard Deverell’s Northrope-bound
Black Dragon
. Never realizing she is about to sail into a storm of passion as deep as the ocean…and a battle that will threaten not only their lives, but their eternal souls.

Only Deverell, a man too haunted by his past to believe in a future, has any hope of discovering the truth before the evil destroys them both.

Warning: Contains a devilish captain, scorching nights, and an evil that will chill you to the bone.
 

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Silken Shadows:

“Are you reaching for the moon or the stars?” came Captain Jansen’s deep voice from behind me.

Lowering my arms, I swung around, shivering from the timbre of his voice. He stood in the shadows, leaning against the castle’s stones, smoking a cheroot. That he didn’t immediately extinguish the smoke, as propriety demanded, quickened my pulse. I didn’t want propriety. I stepped a little closer to see him better.

“Both the moon and the stars,” I said as my breath caught, hitching on the devilish shadows darkening his face. They revealed a dangerous edge about him, one that I realized I’d overlooked. For in the night, in the shadows, alone, without the comforts of home and family surrounding us, I could well see this man not only leading his ship through the fiercest of storms, but also slaying any foe…with deadly competence.

“Wanting what can’t be had leads a man to his downfall.” His gaze raked down my form with the same heat that had sizzled across the parlor. Suddenly the moon and the stars weren’t in the heavens, but were on the balcony in the shape of a man just a few steps away.

Drawn to him, I moved even closer. Much closer than was proper. He dropped and ground out his cheroot with the heel of his boot before bringing his gaze up to meet mine.

“That goes for young ladies as well,” he added, letting me know that he was well aware of my interest in him and telling me it was an impossible want.

A bristle of irritation scrubbed at me. He made it sound as if the reason was because I was a mere schoolgirl even though he didn’t look at me that way. My petite size might lead many to think I was younger, but eighteen was past the schoolroom door. I lifted a challenging brow and instinctively acted on the fire in his eyes by leaving less than an inch between us. “You not only make me wonder if you speak from experience, Captain Jansen, but also have me curious as to who determines what is acceptable to have.”

The heat radiating from his body seeped into mine. All I had to do was draw a deep breath and my bosom would likely brush the open edges of his coat. He’d dressed for dinner, wearing a black coat over a silver vest and crisp white shirt, but no matter how stylish his suit, the length of his unruly hair and the rugged cut of his features would always place him on the bow of a ship at sea rather than a formal parlor. I wondered where his hovering ghosts were. It was the first I’d seen him without them.

“Reason,” he replied. “And fact.”

“Whose reason and what facts?”

After studying my face a moment, he swore under his breath. “Do you even have a clue as to what you’ve been asking from me all night?”

I dampened my suddenly dry lips, feeling compelled to swallow. Wanting him to kiss me was one thing. Having to boldly state that desire aloud was another.

“Of course. I’m not ignorant of such things.” It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been kissed before. Both Lord Percy and Lord Ashton had brushed my lips with theirs. And I knew there was more to it. I’d inadvertently seen Sean kissing Cassie a few times and had to back away from them before being discovered.

“Such things?” His words came on a snort of amusement.

Before I could respond, he caught my shoulders, pulling my body flush to his in a dizzying rush. Pleasure, like a line of fire, ran from my breasts to my toes, weakening my knees. I leaned into him, clasping my hands into the material of his coat and silken vest.

His lips claimed mine, hot and demanding. This was no Lord Percy/Lord Ashton ghost of a kiss. This was real and my pulse raced as my heart pumped with dizzying force. A sigh of pure pleasure escaped me and I pressed my breasts harder against him, wanting more of the burning sensations, wanting to feel him with every part of me.

He cursed under his breath and thrust his tongue between my lips, caressing inside my lower lip before delving deeper and tangling with my tongue. The intrusion surprised me, but not enough to pull away. The kiss was suddenly so much more than I imagined it could be, so demanding and intimate and exciting. I opened to him, tasting him, wanting to know more, eagerly responding to his exploration by matching the stroke and swirl of his tongue with mine.

He stiffened and set his hands on my shoulders, as if he were going to ease back from me. I pulled him tighter to me, unwilling to end the excitement that was making me feel more alive than ever before.
 

He growled—there was no other word for the primal sound—deep in his throat and thrust his leg between mine. He ran his hands down my back to clutch my bottom and lift me to the demand of his mouth. I wrapped my arms around his neck, threading my fingers into his silken hair. He swung around, pressing my back to the cold stone as his thick thigh made contact with my feminine flesh so thoroughly that my feet didn’t even touch the ground.
 

He kissed me harder then, his tongue relentlessly thrusting against mine, sliding out just enough to make me want more before he invaded again. Between my legs, his thigh jerked slightly in tiny repetitive contractions that sent hot pulses of pleasure through my most intimate places, matching the rhythm of his tongue. Tension curled inside of me, a wild, heated need that made me want to shout and weep at the same time. My breathing became ragged. I moaned deeply when his hand cupped my breast. Then, as his fingers caught the tip of my breast and squeezed, I jerked and cried out sharply from the pleasure that had me so crazy I could do nothing but demand he give me more. My legs opened wider, needing him closer. I slid my knee up and encountered the hard ridge of what I knew had to be his male sex. I’d examined the nude statues at Killdaren’s Castle rather closely and I’d read everything I could, even medical journals from the library, so I knew what I was feeling, but I didn’t expect for it to be so alive and on fire against me. I pressed again.

“Bloody hell,” he said, lifting his head from mine, forcing me to release him. His chest heaved and his hands shook. A gust of chilly, salty wind blew in from the sea, cooling the air between us and rifling through his hair and mine. His ghosts were back. They were staring at me over his shoulder, their eyes bulging as wide as their jaws hung open. I ignored them. I had to, or I would have shouted at them.

The captain sucked in air and that is when I realized I wasn’t breathing. That I was getting faint from the lack of oxygen. I drew in a bracing breath, only to drown in the exotic flavor of his scent. It was nearly as potent as his touch. My legs, still clasped about his thigh, contracted.

He caught me up under my arms and lifted me from him, almost with the air of lifting an errant kitten out of harm’s way. Then he set me on feet that I wasn’t entirely sure I could stand on.

“Miss Andrews,” he gasped. “I suggest you refrain from ‘such things’ until you’re older and you know just what end you’re headed to. I may be a murdering devil to a lot of men, but I don’t despoil virgin schoolgirls, no matter how desperately they ask.”

Murdering devil?

What was that supposed to mean? Surely I’d misunderstood him. “Luring devil” was more like it.

My head was still spinning and my senses were still burning, but I wasn’t so far lost in the storm of his passion that I didn’t realize he’d not only insulted me, but he’d adeptly absolved and denied his whole part in the passionate encounter. I knew enough to realize that. And, much to my chagrin, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say before he’d quickly turned on his heel and hurriedly left, going down the steps that led to the sea-swept shore.

The Impostor

Lily Lang

To save her true love, she must sacrifice her own heart.

Tessa Ryder's Gift, which allows her to take the form of anyone she touches, was invaluable to the British Army's secret Omega Group. The Peninsula War is over, the Omegas are disbanded, but she's learned of a plot to exterminate them—and free Napoleon.

Desperate to warn Sebastian Montague, one of the few remaining Omegas, Tessa takes on the guise of his ex-mistress. It's the only way she can face the man she loved. The man whose memory of her was telepathically wiped—at her request.

Sebastian knows a lie when he sees one, and it doesn't take long to strip the disguise of the unfamiliar woman he believes is his assassin. But before he can use his formidable Gift for illusion to wring the truth from her, bullets fly and they are both on the run.

Surrounded by traitors and spies, Tessa and Sebastian fight to thwart the scheme to plunge England back into the darkness of war. And, as their powerful attraction brings them closer and closer, Tessa fights to protect the man she still loves more than life—by keeping the secret of their shared history buried deep in her heart.