Dante's Marriage Pact Read Online Free PDF Page B

thin air in a delicious freefall.
    â€œDraco…!” His name burst from her lungs in a half sob.
    â€œI know, I know, I know,” he chanted.
    He drove home, losing himself in her heat. His head reared back and his throat convulsed. Then he said one single word. Shayla . He stamped it with such passion and possessiveness, it was as though he laid claim to her, changing the meaning so that it would forevermore be linked to him. Just as her body was linked to his. Just as her heart had become linked to his.
    No. Oh, no, no, no .
    She struggled to deny the possibility of it, scrambled for some other explanation. She was being foolish, caught up in the newness of their lovemaking, lost in a moment of intense desire. There was no connection, nothing to this Inferno that burned in her palm. Their joining was only temporary. Come morning she was leaving, and this night with Draco would fade to a fond and distant memory.
    But even as she fought, sleep settled over her, just as she settled into the warmth of Draco’s arms, accepting his possession. Accepting the rightness of his protective hold. She reached for him, cleaved to him. And with a tiny sigh of surrender, she linked her hand with his, palm to palm, cementing their bond.
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    When Shayla awoke she felt the morning through the darkness swathing the room and discovered Draco missing from the bed. She glanced toward the windows. They were tightly shuttered once again, delaying the advent of a new day—her birthday.
    She stretched sore, abused muscles and sat up, shoving her hair from her face. Time to get up and leave. She hada lot to accomplish in the next few hours. But part of her regretted. Regretted the need to leave both the bed and the man. Regretted that she couldn’t squeeze in one more day and night of pleasure. Before she could escape the bed, Draco returned to the room. It took only one look to realize something was terribly wrong. It also stripped her emotions bare. Acutely self-conscious, she covered herself with the sheet.
    â€œDraco?” She despised the hint of nervousness that tripped through her voice and slithered down her spine. “Is there a problem?”
    â€œWhy don’t we start with this?” Her beaded bag dangled from one hand. In the other he held the leather pouch.
    Shayla stiffened in alarm. How could she have been so careless? Even more damning, how could she have let her purse and its precious contents out of her sight for even one short minute? She must have lost her mind. Had lost her mind the instant Draco had put his hands on her. His mouth on her. Had taken possession of her, body and soul.
    He took a step toward her, moving from the shadows that enshrouded the outer edges of the room to a position beneath the recessed spotlights in his bedroom ceiling. The light haloed him, giving him the appearance of a dark angel bent on vengeance. Or maybe he’d transformed himself into the dragon for which he’d been named.
    â€œThat’s my purse, as you well know.” She held out her hand. “If you don’t mind?”
    â€œOh, but I do mind.” He untied the leather pouch, extracted one of the six parcel papers from inside and unfolded it. A diamond tumbled into his palm, burning with brilliance. “This is a fire diamond,” he said.
    Or was it an accusation? An odd roughness crisped the edges of his voice, something bitter-hot and laden with long-ago pain, the words overflowing with a subtext she couldn’t begin to understand. But it was definitely there.
    â€œHow dare you rifle through my purse?” Her response escaped in heavily accented Southern affront. “You have no right—”
    â€œThese are all fire diamonds,” he stated, more forcefully this time, the statement slicing like honed steel.
    The overhead light gathered up the unmistakable sparkle captured within his palm and reflected the brilliance, seeming to fill the room with a fiery