Soul Deep: Dark Souls, Book 2 (43 page)

She turned in his arms, her breasts brushing his chest in a way that made his brain go numb and his body leap to attention. “Well, that’s just like you, refusing to talk when there’s so damn much to say. We’re having a kid together, the future’s one big question mark. Then there’s Cal and his stupid blood vow—”

He crushed her mouth, and Regan’s tirade ended on a gasp. Her hands rose to press against the hard wall of his chest. For a second he thought she was going to push him away. Then her fingers fisted over his shirt, grabbing a handful of fabric and trapping him there. He plundered her mouth, reveling at the silky feel of her tongue as it mated with his. A sound—half groan, half sigh—issued from their joined lips, but he wasn’t sure if it had come from him or from her. Right now, it was hard to tell where he ended and she began.

The scent of her, the feel and taste of her, made him burn from the inside out. He wouldn’t have thought it possible to want her any more than he’d wanted her the first time they’d made love, but he did. More and more every day. He’d spent his entire existence looking for a place to belong, and he’d found it in Regan’s arms. After nearly three centuries, Marcus had finally come home.

She broke the kiss and pulled away from him so abruptly he stumbled forward. “I don’t understand. I thought now that we’re back to reality—” She shook her head, her cheeks flushed, her eyes glimmering with a vulnerability that made him ache to shelter and protect her.

“After everything we’ve been through, did you really think I could walk away from you?” He met her uncertain gaze, held it.

The stunned look she gave him was like a blow to the gut. He ran his palm over his face, exasperated. “I’m really not that good with words, but I guess I’m going to have to spell it out for you. When I told you I love you, I meant it. I didn’t say it because I was drunk on souls or high on adrenaline. I wasn’t trying to get you into bed or make you feel better. I told you how I felt because the words needed to be said, and because I was going to explode if I kept them inside a minute longer.”

He bracketed her face, his voice dropping to a whisper, emotion clogging his throat. “I may be a soulless bastard, but I know what love is. Because of you.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she swatted them away with the back of her hand. “Look at me. I’m crying like a goddamn girl.”

Laughter rumbled in his throat. Only Regan had the power to make him laugh. It felt so good he nearly cried, too.

She straightened her back, pulled herself together. “What does Cal think about all this?”

“It doesn’t matter. I told him I wasn’t going to give you up. Like it or not, you’re stuck with me.”

A radiant smile lit up her face, and an impossibly sweet feeling fisted around his heart. “I think I can live with that, as long as you don’t boss me around too much.”

“Kiss me.”

“There you go already, bossing me around—”

He claimed her mouth in a kiss that was both tender and possessive.

She was his.
She’d always been his.
 

Need reared within him, springing from a well of emotion he’d spent centuries ignoring. In that moment, the past and present merged. It was as though he kissed her for the thousandth time and the first. She was everything—the very air he breathed, the ground he stood on, the blood pumping through his veins.

Tangling his fingers in her hair, he hooked his other arm around her waist and flattened her against him. Her body fused with his, and red-hot sparks of pleasure shot through his bloodstream.

He guided her to the bed, where he could worship and cherish her, where all realities became one. She moved with him, met each thrust of his hips with a graceful arch of her back, returned each of his kisses with a heated one of her own. Her touch awakened sensations within him he’d all but forgotten. Every sigh, every caress slowly brought him to life and infused him with this one certainty: He’d never let her go.
 

The Apocalypse could come crashing down on them, the entire world could be washed away by another great flood, the angels could all fall from the sky, and he’d keep holding on.

Because he had to. He was lost without her.

In Regan’s loving arms, Marcus had found not only his delinquent soul but something he’d believed well beyond his reach. Something he still wasn’t entirely convinced he deserved.
Redemption.

About the Author

Anne Hope is the author of emotionally intense romances with a twist—a twist of humor, a twist of suspense, a twist of magic. All her stories, however, have a common thread. Whether they make you laugh or cry or push you to the edge of your seat, they all feature the redeeming power of love and the heart’s incredible ability to heal.
 

Anne’s passion for writing began at the age of eight. After penning countless stories about enchanted houses, alien girls with supernatural powers and children constantly getting lost in the woods, she decided to try her hand at romance. She lives in Montreal, Canada, with her husband, her two inexhaustible kids, a lazy cat and a rambunctious Australian Kelpie.
 

To learn more about Anne Hope, please visit
www.annehope.com
, send an email to Anne Hope at
[email protected]
or sign up for her newsletter.

Look for these titles by Anne Hope

Now Available:

Where Dreams Are Made

Broken Angels

Dark Souls

Soul Bound

The one man she wants is the one man destined to destroy her.

Soul Bound

© 2012 Anne Hope

Dark Souls, Book 1

Sooner or later we all end up dead. Jace Cutler doesn’t have the luxury of staying that way. After receiving a fatal stab wound, he awakens in a hospital room in Portland, Oregon, with no memory and a big hole where his soul used to be. Worst of all is the glow. Everyone is surrounded by a strange white aura he hungers to possess, none more compelling than the one enveloping Dr. Lia Benson.

Lia has always been ruled by reason, refusing to put stock in such nebulous things as destiny. Until Jace dies in her arms, then miraculously comes back to life. Whenever he’s near, her soul responds and her body burns. And she’s consumed by odd dreams she’s convinced are Jace’s lost memories.

When Lia is kidnapped, Jace tracks her and discovers a shocking explanation for who—and what—he is. Something no longer human, a dark legacy that until now has lain dormant within him. Something that could destroy the one woman he’d sacrifice everything to protect.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Soul Bound:

Jace wasn’t in bed beside her. He’d slipped out of the room so quietly, she hadn’t heard him walk away, which was quite an accomplishment because she was a very light sleeper. A sense of loss she couldn’t explain swamped her, so she shot out of bed and went in search of him. He couldn’t have run off. Not again. Not before she could sort this out.

She found him in the kitchen, sitting at the table, staring at his joined hands. Relief flooded her veins. “I thought you left.”

“I considered it.” He refused to meet her gaze. “But I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

Heat again. Whenever she was near him, warmth spread around her heart like a pocket of sunlight. Crazy. Total insanity was what this was. Jace Cutler was all wrong for her. Hadn’t she seen what he’d done to Cassie? Even worse, her sister was still hung up on the guy.

“I can find out where you live, if that’ll help—”

“Can’t stay there.” He shook his head, ran his fingers through his hair until it stood out in uneven tufts that begged to be smoothed out. “First place they’ll look.”

Now it was her turn to be frazzled. “Who?”

“Don’t know. Them. The things that are after me.”

“Jace, you’re not making any sense. Let me take you back to the hospital, run that MRI—”

“No.” The finality in his voice silenced her. “If you don’t want me here, I’ll go. But there’s no goddamn way I’m going back to that hospital.” There was steel in his tone and a passion that bordered on fury.

He must’ve noticed the startled look in her eyes, because a mouthful of air whooshed out of him. “Sorry. I’m not myself today. Whoever the hell that is.”

Compassion prevailed over nerves, and she approached him. “At least let me take a look at that wound, make sure it’s not infected.”

He nodded noncommittally. Pulling a chair beside him, she prepared to help him the only way she could. Her spine tingled at the thought of what she would find when she peeled off the bandage. His was the strangest burn she’d ever seen. “Don’t move,” she ordered, then proceeded to unwrap the gauze.

Her hand suddenly stilled, surprise and disbelief lancing through her. The burn had healed. His skin was pink and virtually intact, marred only by a thin, silver scar where the wound had been. She traced the mark with her finger. An electric charge instantly traveled up her arm and shook her body. “I think I’m hallucinating.”

He slanted a glance at his arm, reached over to touch it. His fingers grazed hers, and the heat increased tenfold. “Then we’re both trapped in the same nightmare.”

“I don’t know how to help you,” she voiced honestly. “I don’t understand any of this.”

“Just don’t bail on me.” A river of pain, wrapped in a silent plea, swam in his eyes.

She felt him then, the boy in her dreams—felt his isolation, his self-loathing, the soul-ravaging desire to be something he wasn’t—and she knew beyond a doubt the flashbacks she was having belonged to him. Somehow, in that one moment when death had stood vigil between them, their spirits had merged—undeniably, irrevocably. Whether they liked it or not, they were connected, linked by an energy they couldn’t see or touch or taste but was more real than anything either of them had ever known before.

And it scared the crap out of her.

“Why you?” Emotion strangled her voice. “Of all the men out there, why did it have to be you?”

She didn’t need to explain; he understood. Need flared in his gaze, and for one endless heartbeat she was sure he was going to kiss her. His hands rose to bracket her face. His head fell forward. The world held its breath…or maybe it was just her. Some primal intuition told her that once his mouth covered hers, there would be no going back. The bond would be cemented, the deal sealed. Two independent entities would become one.

“If I asked you to kiss me, would you do it?” His words caressed her lips.

“Yes.” No hesitation. No doubts. Just honesty.

“Because you want to or because I told you to?”

She wagged her head in confusion. “Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know what’s real anymore.” He released her, and disappointment rippled through her. “I’m not what you need. I’ll only drag you down. That’s what I do. I don’t need my memories to know that.”

He stood, walked to the window and stared outside, where a blanket of clouds hovered beneath a flickering sun. “I destroy everything I touch.”

She wanted to refute his claim, but how could she, when everything inside her insisted he was right? What scared her was how little she cared. She needed to be near him, and damn the consequences. She’d always been the reasonable one, the responsible sister, the one who thought things through. But right now recklessness invaded her psyche, steamrolled every word of caution screeching in her mind.

“I’m not afraid of you.” He was dangerous, no question about that, but for some inexplicable reason she felt safe with him.

“You should be.”

His wings were made to protect her…but her heart is a no-fly zone.

The Silverwing’s Sorceress

© 2012 Cassi Carver

The Shadow Slayers, Book 2.5

Abbey Sellers has to get out of town for a few days while trouble at home sorts itself out. A getaway to her family’s mountain retreat with her friend, Jaxon, is exactly what she needs to relax and forget the wound etched into her stomach. Except since the scorching kiss they shared, spending time with Jaxon isn’t as relaxing as it used to be.

Grounded warriors, secret tunnels, and an ancient Book of Death are only part of the problem. How does any woman with a pulse stay “just friends” with a man who spent a hundred years honing his lovemaking skills in a harem? Besides, he’s immortal, and she has a shelf life. Jaxon, though, isn’t listening—or taking no for an answer.

Jaxon Hex finally knows what he wants, and he won’t let anything stop him from making Abbey his. Not even the devastating secret he’s been hiding from her. With the coven out to assassinate the woman he loves, and Abbey dabbling in death magic that could get her killed, his own blood could be the one thing that heals her—or separates them for all eternity.

Warning: This book contains a warrior with needs, a woman with willpower issues and a cabin that’s not what it seems. Watch out for no-holds-barred sex and a love that can move mountains…literally.