A Hunger So Wild Read Free

one side. “I was telling myself how stupid it is to be irritated by your compassion and desire to mentor when I fell in love with you for those very traits. Among many others.”
    Char fisted his hand in her long hair, bringing the crimson strands to his lips. “I remember you in flight, Vashti. When I close my eyes, I can still see you with the sun at your back, its light shining off your emerald feathers. You were a jewel to me, with your ruby hair and sapphire eyes. I ached whenever I saw you. The need to touch you, taste you, push inside you was a physical pain.”
    “Poetry, my love?” she teased, although the levity in her tone was marred by the huskiness of deep emotion. He knew her so well. Read her thoughts so easily. Hewas her other half, the best part of her. While she was temperamental and capricious, he was levelheaded and constant. When she was impatient and easily frustrated, he was reassuring and forward thinking.
    “You are far more valuable and desirable to me now than you were then.” His forehead dropped lightly to hers. “Because now you’re mine. Totally and completely. As I am yours. With all my faults and traits that annoy you.”
    Catching him with a hand at his nape, she took his mouth in a deep, lush kiss that curled her toes and quickened her breathing.
    “I love you.” The words were spoken against his lips, her hands clutching him with the strength of all the joy inside her. It was too much sometimes, overflowing and clogging her throat with tears of gratitude. She was embarrassed by the strength of her feelings for her mate. He was in her thoughts at nearly every waking moment and many of her sleeping ones as well.
    “I love you, my dearest Vashti.” He crushed her naked body to him. “I know you’ve given me considerable leeway with Ice, against your better judgment. I think it’s time I repaid you by listening to your counsel and reining him back.”
    She adored that about him, too, his sense of fairness and ability to bend when appropriate. “You deal with him, I’ll deal with Torque’s problem, and tonight we’ll drop off the map for a couple days. We’ve both been working hard lately. We’ve earned a break.”
    Wrapping his hand gently around her throat, hesmiled. Eyes bright with sensual promise and affection, he murmured, “With an incentive like that, I’ll make damn sure I’m home early.”
    “We’ll see how cooperative Ice is with that. He might have his ass hidden in the most out-of-the-fucking-way place imaginable.”
    He arched a chastising brow for her ribbing, but vowed, “Nothing could keep me away.”
    “Better not.” She turned away and wiggled her ass at him. “Neither of you wants me hunting you down…”
    By noon, Vashti was sashaying into Syre’s office with a memento from her latest hunt in hand. The vampire leader wasn’t alone, but she felt no hesitation in interrupting. The woman with him was one of countless human females who’d caught Syre’s eye and lost it just as quickly. It didn’t matter if they were forewarned or not; they never believed he was completely unattainable until they experienced his dismissal firsthand. He was a passionate man, but physical enthusiasm was no sign of deeper interest. Syre had lost his wings for love, then he’d lost the woman he had given them up for.
    “Syre.”
    He glanced at her with the heavy-lidded gaze that drove women crazy. He stood with arms crossed and his hip canted into the short built-in bookcase behind his desk. Dressed in black tailored slacks and black silk tie paired with a crisp white dress shirt, he was both elegant and devastatingly attractive. His inky dark hair and warm, caramel-hued skin made him exotic in away that was impossible to classify. Eastern European, some guessed. Syre had been favored once, much loved by the Creator. It was why, she believed, their fall had been punished so harshly—he’d had a very lofty perch to tumble from.
    “Vashti,” he greeted, his