Bitten by Desire Read Online Free PDF

centre of the lawn. The ruffles on her wrapper trailed on the damp grass. The night air was sharp on her bare skin. Allegra wove around her ankles, her tail straight up in the air. Imogen stared up at the glowing moon and wished.
    A light breeze ruffled her hair. She sensed his presence before she saw him. The attenuated coolness of the air surrounding him, the way her skin tightened, her heart picking up and chiming with the beat of his. She looked over her shoulder and there he was. Allegra froze, the hairs on her back rising in a stripe, before she hissed viciously and shot off in the opposite direction from Vaelen.
    â€œI’ve never seen her react like that before.”
    He shrugged. He was standing directly in front of her. She sensed not only his power but his ire. “I told you to cease wishing for me.”
    â€œI can’t!”
    Though he was angry that she had not complied with his command, he was also exultant. She could not forget him. He did not want her to; he could not want her to, no matter how he tried. She was in his blood.
    â€œVaelen.”
    The way she looked at him, he could not resist. Not yet. “Imogen.”
    He took her in his arms and kissed her passionately. His mouth was cold, his lips frozen, but almost immediately he drew heat from her, and when their tongues touched the spark was fiery. He kissed her deeply, drawing a response from her that would not be denied, drugging her with desire, inflaming her so that she moaned, wrapping her arms around his neck, standing tiptoe to tug him closer, trembling as he kissed and pressed closer and tighter.
    Reluctantly, Vaelen broke away, breathing hard.
    Imogen clutched at his waistcoat. “Please, don’t just disappear again. Please, I need to know the truth.”
    â€œBelieve me, you don’t.”
    â€œBut I do. I need you. I know you want me too, but you won’t admit it, and I need to know why. Please.” Imogen rubbed her hand over her eyes. The ribbons of her wrapper had come undone. She pulled the sash tighter, unwittingly drawing Vaelen’s attention to her state of undress. He saw her bare feet, white and slender, on the grass. So beautiful. So vulnerable. And so mortal.
    His heart lurched as he finally acknowledged the depths of his feelings. No wonder he had lost all taste for others. A coup de foudre. A blow to the heart which would fell them both if he did not stop it. He was caught, but that did not mean he would surrender. Taking Imogen’s hand, he pressed a kiss to her wrist, his lips lingering over the pulse that jumped there, testing his reserve, relieved to find only desire and not hunger.
    â€œWhat are you, Vaelen? Are you some kind of sorcerer?”
    â€œI am no magician.”
    In the moonlight she could see his shape, his eyes, the pallor of his skin, but not the detail of his expression. He was still holding her hand. Anguish and desire, she sensed from him, a blue haze and a red mist. “If not a sorcerer, then what are you?”
    â€œIf we allow ourselves to succumb to this thing between us, I will be your murderer,” Vaelen replied bluntly. “I would not mean to kill you. It is the last thing—I swear on whatever god you choose that it is the last thing—but it would happen. Sooner or later, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.”
    â€œI don’t believe you.” But she did, for the blue haze of anguish had given way to a black cloak of despair.
    â€œImogen, if I show you, if I prove it to you, will you promise to do as I say?”
    She nodded. He wrapped his arms around her, tucking her head under his chin, her face into his chest so that she could not see. A breeze ruffled the flounce of her wrapper, and she had the sensation of weightlessness, the floating feeling she sometimes had when dropping off to sleep. Then the sensation of falling which was often the prelude to her waking. He let her go, and she blinked in astonishment, for she