Possessed by Desire (5 page)

Electricity gathered in her breasts before she saw it coming, shot straight to her center, and burst with a force that blinded her. It rippled through her limbs, encompassing every cell, causing her whole body to shake. In the distance, she heard his voice calling to her, and she tried to reach for him, but her hands wouldn’t work.

And then, before she could stop it, the world went black as if she’d stepped off a cliff and plummeted straight to her death.

* * *

“Claire, wake up. Claire!”

Ashur’s pulse raced as he shook Claire again and tried to revive her. Her body was limp beneath his, her head tipped to the side as if she were unconscious. “Wake up, Claire.”

Perspiration broke out on his forehead, and he pushed off the bed, his mind racing with what he’d just seen.

He had to be mistaken. She couldn’t be what he thought she was. Her whole body had
not
just pulsed with a light that lit up the entire room.

He tried to move back, but his foot caught in the pool of netting on the floor. His entire weight fell backward, and a ripping echoed through the room. He grappled for the bedpost but couldn’t stop himself from going down. The netting tore away from the canopy. Air rushed up his spine. He landed hard on his ass.

He sputtered, fought against the netting that was smothering him like a tidal wave. When he finally found the gap, he ripped it apart and dragged air into his one-size-too-small lungs.

He couldn’t breathe. And not just from the netting. Holy
fuck
. She was—

“Ashur?”

He peered up into hazy blue eyes looking down from the bed. Hazy, mesmerizing, angelic eyes. Her hair was a tangled mess around her head, her features relaxed but curious. But all he could see was that weird-ass light. The light that was now gone but had come from
inside
her.

“Don’t touch me.” He pushed up on his feet. Grasped the bedpost when he swayed.

“What’s wrong?” She sat up, lifted her hands to her breasts, covering the sensitive tips he’d just been teasing Tasting. Pleasuring. “Why are you…?”

He recoiled when she reached out to him, and she pulled her hand back quickly, the lazy, sated look in her eyes sharpening. “What’s going on, Ashur?”

He crossed to the opposite side of the room, as far from her as he could get. “That’s what I’d like to know. Touch the opal.”

“What?”

“Touch the damn opal! You’re not my assignment. This is a mistake. Send me back to my own fucking realm right now!”

Her eyes grew wide, and she stared at him like he’d gone psychotic. And he felt like he had too, but he didn’t care what she thought. Because all he could think about was getting away from her before it was too late. Before—

Her fingertips brushed the opal. And a cloud of black smoke swirled around him. Relief pulsed in his veins when he felt himself flying, but he still couldn’t breathe. He needed air. Needed to find out what the hell was going on.

He landed hard against the stone floor of Zoraida’s compound, his bare feet and legs taking the brunt of the impact. Air whooshed out of his lungs, and he fell forward until he was on his hands and knees, breathing quickly, the opal around his neck heavy where it lay against his throat.

“You are not expected back so soon. What did you do to the female to make her send you back?”

Zoraida. That was Zoraida’s voice coming from his left. Head still swimming, Ashur eased back on his heels and rested his hands on his thighs while he took in his surroundings. He was in the same room he’d been in when Zoraida had told him of his test. Only this time, Nuha was missing. Two guards, whom Zoraida had obviously been speaking with, stood to her right, looking as shocked as she.

Her heels clicked across the floor as she strode toward him, the skirt of her green gown whooshing in her wake. She stopped in front of him and cupped his chin, forcing him to look up at her. “Do not tell me you have failed already, slave. That’s a new record. And I had such high hopes for you. I guess you really are like your brother after all.”

He jerked out of her grasp and stumbled to his feet. “I am nothing like Tariq. But she…” Anger pulsed deep in his veins, and he threw his arm out to the side. “You set me up to fail.”

A bored expression settled across her face. At her back, a fire roared, but it did little to chill the ice washing through Ashur’s body. “Pray tell, how, slave?”

He didn’t even care if she sent him back to the dungeons. Given the choice between Claire and the dungeons, he’d take the dungeons any day. “
She
is not human!”

Zoraida barked out a laugh. “Not human? Well, what is she? Djinn? Not possible. Nuha was obviously blinded by your looks.” She turned. “Guards, this slave is of no more use to me. Take him—”

“She’s celestial.”

The guards’ armor clanked when they both moved forward, but Zoraida held out a hand to stop them. She turned to face Ashur once more. “What did you say?”

He ground his teeth. “I said she’s celestial. She had the whole white fucking light to prove it. You sent me there to fail. You know angels can strip djinn of their powers with a snap of their fingers.”

Zoraida pressed her fingers to her lips, her gaze roaming the room as if she were seeing it for the first time. “Celestial. When did you sense this?”

Did she really not know? She was acting like this was a surprise. “When she…” Shit.
Awkward
. He squared his shoulders. “When she climaxed.”

A slow smile spread across Zoraida’s face, followed by a laugh that seemed to grow from her belly in strength and intensity. “She’s fallen. She has to be.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means, djinni, that her powers are bound on earth.” She tapped her fingers against her ruby-red lips again, her gaze far off as if she were looking into another realm. Or the future.

Abruptly, she dropped her hands and faced him once more. “You’ll go back. And this time, you will not fail. I want her soul.”

“No.” He moved back a step. “No fucking way.” He wasn’t losing his powers to an angel. Zoraida might bind his powers here so she could control her slaves, but he wasn’t losing them for good.

Her hand shot out, and an arc of energy ripped through his body, hurling him back until he hit the wall. He slumped to the floor. Pain spiraled up his spine and stars fired off behind his eyes, but he struggled to stay conscious.

She lunged over him, her face no longer beautiful but taut with rage. “Do you think you have a choice, djinni? You are a slave.
My
slave, and you
will
do what you are commanded. Do you think the dungeons were bad? I have the power to make you feel pain like you’ve never experienced. And though you hide it, somewhere, someplace there is someone you care about. If you fail me, not only will I make your life a living hell, I will destroy theirs. I will make it my life’s work. Only then you will know the full extent of my power.”

Fear flashed through Ashur. Not for himself—he didn’t care what happened to him anymore—but for his parents. No, they hadn’t looked for him when he’d gone missing, but he didn’t want them dead.

Slowly, Zoraida straightened, but her fury-filled gaze never left his. “Bring me. That. Angel’s. Soul,” she ground out. “Do whatever it takes. Just do not fail.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Claire straightened the bed and tried not to freak the hell out.

Her hands shook as she smoothed the bedspread, then sank down to the end of the mattress.

She’d sent Ashur back without a fight. Nerves gathered in her belly, felt like a stone weight dropping. Whatever she’d said or done in that moment of release had obviously freaked
him
out. What had happened?

She couldn’t remember. All she knew was the way he’d made her feel had been electric. Amazing. The most soul-shattering thing she’d ever experienced. And she wanted to feel it again. Wanted more. Wanted him.

She blew out a breath, combed both hands through her unruly hair, tried to calm the nerves bouncing around in her stomach like Mexican jumping beans. He was good, she had to give him that. Hot. Sexy as hell. And now… Now she didn’t know where he was or even if he was coming back. And thanks to her epic lack of self-control, she also didn’t know if she’d just ruined her chance to find the opals.

A breeze blew the curtains from the windows, and a chill spread down her spine. Rising, she looked across the sand at the swirling black smoke, slowly fading to reveal the man—
djinni
—once again standing on her beach.

She swallowed hard, and those nerves kicked up even higher. He was back. Why so soon? What had happened in his realm? And what the hell was she going to say when she faced him again?

Heat crept up her cheeks, and a dark craving ignited in her belly. One that left her rattled.

Play it cool. Act like you don’t care. Whatever you do, don’t spook him again
.

She drew in another breath, let it out. Moved to the sitting area of her hut and eased down to the couch cushions while she waited.

Seconds ticked by on the clock in the kitchen, echoing through the small hut. What was taking him so long? What could he possibly be doing out there?

The door to her hut finally pushed open, and she looked up to find Ashur standing in her doorway, his dark hair hanging to his shoulders, his sculpted body taut with tension, his mouth set in a grim line.

One look at his cold, distrustful eyes and she knew. Somehow he’d figured out what she was and he was
not
happy.

She swallowed the knot in her throat and lowered the magazine she’d idly picked up while waiting for him. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

His eyes locked on hers, not warm and inviting as they’d been before, but icy. “This is not a game,
noor
.”

Noor
. The Arabic word for light. Except he hadn’t said it in an endearing way. No, there’d been very clear contempt in his voice. She’d been right. He knew exactly what she was, and he was pissed. Tossing the magazine on the coffee table, she pushed to her feet. “No one said it was.”

“What do you want from me? My powers?”

She should have expected he’d assume that. But it still stung. “I couldn’t take them even if I wanted. And I’m no longer celestial. At least not in the literal way. I’m fallen, or hadn’t you heard?”

“You lie.”

She blew out a humorless laugh and glanced around the barren hut. “I wish I was, but unfortunately, I’m not. I’m as mortal as they come. At least until my punishment is over.”

“You were banished? Why?”

It wasn’t a question but a demand, and she considered holding back, then figured, what the hell? He was djinn. Seduction was still the best way to convince him to take her to his realm, even if he did know her lineage. But in order to get him to do that, first he had to trust her. At least marginally.

“Because I posed too many questions to my superiors about humans and life in general. So I was banished here, alone, with a few…conditions, to experience it for myself.”

“Conditions?”

“The loss of my powers, for one.”

“And the rest?”

She bit her lip. Debated. Finally decided a partial truth would do her better than an out-and-out lie. “Free will. Just enough to make me…curious.”

His eyes narrowed. “Then why summon a djinni? I’m sure there are plenty of humans who could give you the thrill you’re looking for.”

She shrugged, ran her hand along the back of the chair cushion to her left. “Why not? According to my superiors, I’ve already sinned. Why shouldn’t I experience the full range of seduction with a being that was created just for that purpose? Humans don’t excite me.”

His eyes darkened with both heat and danger, and a shiver of apprehension washed through her. She was walking a fine line here. While he was a slave and technically bound to do her will since she wore the opal, it was clear he had very contemptuous feelings for celestial beings. And she’d just gone and revealed that not only did she lack powers but that she was now mortal. For the first time, she considered the possibility that this could end badly for her.

“And you’re saying I do excite you?”

Her stomach tightened when she remembered his mouth at her breasts, his tongue laving her nipples, that mind-numbing orgasm. And this time, she didn’t need to lie. “Yes. You do.”

He was silent so long, she didn’t know what to say. But the dark way stared at her and the steady rise and fall of his chest ignited more than just arousal. It sent a shiver of anticipation through her whole body.

“Take off the opal,
noor
.”

“What?” Confusion replaced excitement. That was not what she’d expected him to say.

“Take it off, and I’ll consider giving you what you want.”

This was a change in tactics. “You want me to release you? I already told you I don’t have any powers. The opal doesn’t change that.”

“Then it won’t matter whether you wear it or not. Take it off.”

She touched the opal at her throat. He was smarter than she’d thought. Humans who wore the necklace couldn’t remove it until their wish had been fulfilled, but he knew enough about those from her realm to know that wasn’t the case for her, fallen or not.

She considered what he was offering. The only plus to the opal at this point was that it bound him to her, not the other way around. Then she caught the spark of fear in his eyes.

He still didn’t believe her. He wasn’t planning to give her anything. And if she released him like he wanted, she had no doubt he’d disappear into the mist and she’d never see him again.

“No.” She dropped her hand. “I’ll not take it off.”

His jaw tightened. “This is not a game you want to play,
noor
.”

Oh, but she did. And not simply because winning meant she’d be able to pass into his realm. But because being with him, challenging him, made her feel…alive. In a way nothing and no one ever had before. For the first time since she’d concocted this crazy plan, confidence swelled inside her.

A slow smile slinked across her face, and she moved in front of the couch, then eased down to the cushions, draping her body over the seat in a way she knew would entice him.