Awaken to Pleasure Read Free Page A

rugged appeal of the man.
    As her hormones went crazy, rioting around her in veins, she tried to remember that the intense sexual tug that she felt for him was likely just the result of going so long without the physical act. But as her eyes dipped to trace the planes of his flat belly, which was lightly dusted with golden hair, her mouth went dry and she had to physically take a step back to restrain herself.
    More than that, the sight of him brought her a calm that she hadn’t felt since…before. Before her life and her world had been changed forever.
    Boone eyed the silver in her hand and gave a snort of disgust, which brought Moira to her senses; she realized that she had been staring, mouth agape, like a baboon. “You couldn’t have rubbed the sapphire just a little bit earlier?” he grumbled, and her spine stiffened at his offensive tone.
    “I don’t think it’s appropriate to follow me to my home and then to insult me,” she informed him, icicles dripping off of her every word. “And I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about, at any rate.” Planting her hands on her hips, she narrowed her eyes in a glare that would have had most men running for cover. Boone, however, merely snorted again, cast her a seductive smile that seemed more than a little bit practiced and pushed past her, making his way toward the wooden bathing tub that sat in the corner of the room.
    “Just what do you think you’re doing?” She scurried after him as he bent over the water, splashing it over his sweaty face. Dripping, he turned to face her, his expression caught halfway between a sneer and sheer puzzlement.
    “I do not understand you,” he told her, reaching for the rough linen cloth that hung on the wall above the tub. Scrubbing it over his face, he cocked his head. “You summon me, and yet you do not want me. And you are angry. No woman has ever done this before. If you do not wish for sexual pleasures, then what is it that you wish for?”
    At his words, Moira would have sworn that she could feel the nerve endings in her brain sizzle. As the confusion played over her face, Boone sighed.
    “Because you have the lamp, you are to be granted one wish. And you must make your wish within one day. If you do not, you will lose your privileges, and I will cease to exist.”
    He reached out to twine a strand of Moira’s soft curls between his fingers as he spoke. Her breath caught at the touch; she struggled to listen. And a struggle it was, for his words made no sense to her at all.
    “There is a connection between us, is there not? More so than what I have felt with any other woman.”
    Moira was startled by Boone’s directness. She was rarely caught off guard…and she didn’t know quite what to do about it. So she found herself stammering out an answer. “It might be that that’s true. But it doesn’t matter.”
    Her well-trained eyes caught a hint of guilt flashing over the man’s face, but when he held out a hand, sparked a small blue flame in it, she forgot all about it.
    “Witch fire.” The screams of her parents echoed in Moira’s head as she rapidly backed away from the tub where he was perched, her ankle shooting little darts of pain through her body as she searched frantically for a weapon. “You’re a witch. One of them.”
    Her heart pounded a rapid tattoo in her chest, her fight-or-flight instinct screaming at her to get away from him, to get him and his dirty magic the hell out of the haven. The instinct didn’t blend with what she felt from him emotionally, but adrenaline wasn’t rational.
    But how the hell had he—and his magic—gotten through the force field?
    “Get out of my house.” Reaching out blindly, Moira’s fingers made connection with the knife she’d used to cut bread that morning. Pointing the blade toward Boone, she gestured to the door. “We don’t have magic in the haven.”
    To her consternation, Boone looked crestfallen.
    “The flame was a poor choice.” He