Demon's Desire Read online

  It surprised her when Varik fell into step beside her. “Aren’t there some demon parties for you to go to?” she asked.

  He gave her one of his wry smiles and her stomach did a dangerous little flip-flop. “Nothing pressing.”

  No, she couldn’t become attached to him, everything about it was wrong. “But you’re off duty right now.”

  “Yes, thank you for that.”

  Lise’s gaze narrowed on him. “So why are you following me?” She waved a hand to the end of the exclusive street. Ah, she had chosen the right direction. “I live about ten doors along. I’m quite safe.” Varik’s soft laughter stopped her. She glared at him. “What?”

  “You have no idea what deal you made, have you?”

  “I gave you what you wanted for this night.”

  His finger stroked her jaw and she shivered, his warm touch heating her icy skin. “No. You gave me so much more than that, Lise Hansen.”

  He pulled a gentle kiss from her mouth. “’You stop playing bodyguard for the night and I’ll give you whatever you want.’ At night, I’m no longer your bodyguard and so the code of protection doesn’t bind me. The code that says I must not touch you.”

  Varik smirked, wicked demon that he was. “With my kind, Lise, you must learn to pin down every single word. I’ve been generous. ‘Whatever I want’ could open you up to anything I desire.” His smirk became something dark, dangerous and her heart squeezed. She tried not to think about where his demonic nature could lead her. “But what I want, and have always wanted, is you.”

  She gave him a sharp smile, hiding the twist of old pain. He wanted what everyone always wanted from her. “Because of my money.”

  “Maybe.” He teased a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. Leaning close, his lips brushed her skin. “Maybe not. We shall see.”

  Lise shivered, trying to deny the tingle coursing down her neck. She stepped back from him. What did Varik truly want from her? She wanted to believe it was something more. “So you planned for your...brothers to irritate me so I would break this code of protection? Do a deal with you?”

  His eyes held hers, the edge of fire burning in their darkness. “In the end, do you object?”

  Lise didn’t know what she thought as conflicting emotion strained her nerves. He was yet someone else trying to manipulate her life, but...

  She stared up and watched the flurries of snow fall towards her. As always, it lifted her heart and for the first time in too long, she felt peaceful and happy. And, strange as it was, that had a lot to do with the demon silently watching her.

  She’d made a New Year’s resolution to be inappropriate. What could be more inappropriate—and incredibly right—than starting a relationship with Varik? Her breath steamed as she turned to look at him. “No, I don’t object,” she said and a smile curved her mouth. “Of course, I’ll need to hammer out more of those fine details. As you said, I have to pin down every single word.”

  Varik frowned but his eyes gleamed. “Really?”

  Lise put out her hand, and Varik enclosed it in his, lacing his fingers through hers. She gave a squeeze and smirked at him. “Maybe I’ll just pin you down instead.”

  “More of your plan to be shocking this year?”

  She lifted an eyebrow and turned his words back on him. “Do you object?”

  “To you shocking me? Not at all.” Varik tugged her forward and set a steady pace down the street. He flicked a glance at her and the dark promise in his eyes made her flesh tight. “And you only have three hundred and sixty five nights left in which to do it.”

  Lise grinned at him and walked faster. “I love New Year resolutions.”

  The End

  About the Author

  USA Today Bestselling Author, Kim Knox brews sex, magic, darkness and technology in a little corner of North West England.

  www.kim-knox.co.uk

  Also by Kim Knox

  Strange Worlds

  Hunting Evander

  Flesh and Shadows

  Chosen One

  Warflesh

  Perfecting Naia

  Painted Promise

  Mythoi Series

  Emergence

  Slaughter Point

  Carina Press Books

  Agamemnon Frost and the House of Death

  Agamemnon Frost and the Hollow Ships

  Agamemnon Frost and the Crown of Towers

  Bitter Harvest

  Dark Dealings

  Synthetic Dreams

  Gambit

  Fantasy and Paranormal Romance

  At the Sorcerer’s Command

  Her Dark Soul

  Lightning in a Bottle

  Reiver

  Ruthless Beauty

  Skin Magic

  Under the Lion’s Curse

  Weaving Words

  Free - Red in Tooth and Claw

  Science Fiction Romance

  7% and Rising

  Breaking Chance

  Dark Immortality

  Satin Spar

  Free - The Zed Word

  Planetary Passions

  Magnetism

  Friction

  Current

  Fusion

  Frequency

  Available in print as: Planetary Passions

  Reiver

  November Eve. The Hunt Ball. And to prove her right to rule, Tate must capture a mate. It should’ve been simple. Snag a vampire barely turned and have him kneel and swear devotion to her. But Fate has other plans…and one of them involves the powerful son of the ruling Queen.

  Jager, a vampire she’s hungered after for years, allows himself to become her prey. But with his promise of sinful, wicked pleasure comes a catch. Jager only wants her as his slave. Nothing more.

  Tate has no plans to bow down to him…until Jager shares a shocking truth with her.

  Now will Fate enslave them all?

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  excerpt

  Eyes darker than shadow held mine. All of my previous logic vanished. Heat flared through me, hotter than the lingering burn of essence. My beast growled and the corresponding gleam in Jager’s gaze almost had me pushing away from the wall and closing the distance between us. But I willed my bare feet still and dug my toes into the warm wood. I made my smile arch, fangs catching sharp on my lips, and Jager’s eyes narrowed.

  I ignored the thrum in my blood, the wet ache between my thighs. Anger bubbled under my thoughts, evidence that my beast was not happy with the decision to turn down Jager’s challenge. And the bastard had challenged me.

  Did he want to add to his collection? He already had seven women bound to him.

  I put my glass on a cloth-covered table. Drinking more essence would only set my beast free, and I needed that like I needed a hole in the head. I snagged canapés from the table, needing to dull the fire scorching through my gut and taking the edge off my primitive hunger.

  I would try my luck in the darkened corridors winding through the great house.

  The anger eased and anticipation bloomed heat in my chest. Yes, my beast was appeased with the thought of the hunt, of scenting prey in the darkness. More guests parted before me, some of them scrambling back, fear streaming off them. I twitched a smile and more than one blood-male flinched. They’d picked up my scent, the soft, seductive spice of a fertile female, one on the hunt and planning to bring a man to his knees before her.

  A queen glared at me, fangs sliding quick and defensive of her brood of young, fresh blood-males. None of the ones remaining in the grand hall had any fear from me. Every male who could was out to find Zara. With one exception. And that exception had my skin prickling. Damn it, I could feel the hot slide of his gaze down my back and it had me wet. Spice-laden scent drifted around me, a heady aroma that burned power through my blood.

  I pulled in a deep breath and stopped at the dark doorway leading into the interior of the great house. My hand gripped the doorjamb. I was a queen, designed to build a new colony around me, turn deserving humans from food
to the ever-living. A queen needed a mate to father her daughters and to bring order to her household.

  I glanced behind me. The room had dropped to silence, all attention focused on me. A smile curved my mouth, fangs digging at my lips. It was a smile meant to taunt one man, a man not worthy of me. But Jager no longer stood beside the Queen.

  My smile deepened. Fire raced through my body. His disappearance could only mean one thing. He still meant to challenge me and a delicious growl escaped my lips.

  Yes, Jager, like all the others who wanted to be prey that night, had left the hall.

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  Ruthless Beauty

  Rachel Sutherland loves control—her job, her life and the men who pass fleetingly through. Yet she aches for someone who doesn’t care about who she is, who would take her for his pleasure and hers. Shame that man is only a fantasy.

  Jareth is a fae, bound to the mortal realm by a curse, and he needs Rachel. His curse has always meant a woman’s pleasure must come before his own, but to break his curse he must force a woman to submit to his needs. Rachel is that special woman, one found after centuries of searching.

  Now Jareth forces her to find pleasure in ways Rachel never thought she could. A pleasure that could prove more dangerous than she ever believed possible.

  Reader Advisory: Is deliciously wicked forced seduction your fantasy? Then prepare to sizzle as a sinfully handsome fae works his sensual magic in Ruthless Beauty.

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  excerpt

  Her eyelids grew heavy again. Sleep, she needed to sleep and the pull of it dragged her down.

  “Rachel…”

  Warm breath brushed against her breast. She twisted against the mattress, pushing down the weight of the sheets and blankets. Half-lidded and still groggy from sleep, her eyes focused on the hazy gold of the surrounding light and on the naked dark-haired man licking the underside of her breast.

  “What the—”

  He sucked her nipple into his hot mouth, his teeth grazing the hard nub, and it broke her words. Sensation rioted through her flesh. He looked up and his silver-cast eyes glittered. The hot curl of lust tightened in her belly as he tugged at her nipple with strong, white teeth and she couldn’t help the escaping groan. Her stranger grinned, something wicked, and her heart thudded. He was beautiful, sculpted perfection and she knew him. He was the stranger from her fantasy.

  She sucked in a quick breath. A dream, she was in a dream.

  “Want me to fuck you, do you, Rachel Sutherland?” His strong hands gripped her hips as he knelt over her, his breath hot over her belly. She ached for him to sink lower, for his mouth, his tongue to find her pussy. “Want me to take you?”

  “Yes…” The word escaped on a gasp.

  His tongue teased over her mons and he held her down as her hips bucked. “My first taste will be kind.” His breath brushed warmth over her sensitive skin and his silver eyes fixed on her. They glittered and fire rushed through her blood at the sinful promise shining from him. His words teased her. “A single memory to soften what is to come.”

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  Lightning in a Bottle

  Rebecca Marwood is trapped in her guardian's house, but something in the night draws her to the fire and steel of his exotic menagerie. And there she finds freedom in the strangest of places...

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  excerpt

  My guardian had always thought me ignorant of the goings on in his house.

  A vapid girl, alone in the world, who never noticed the dark robed men arriving in the dead of night. Or one who never wondered at the hints of sage and frankincense that drifted through the passages of his London town house in the early mornings. I knew, had known for quite some years that Henry Bellasis, Viscount Fauconberg was a warlock. And that he now planned to draw me into his world by offering my virginity to a stranger.

  I wrapped my fingers around the great brass key, the pitted metal warming against my skin as I stood in the shadowed passage that led to the cellar door. The place where my guardian had bound his great secret.

  Rumours from the footmen over the past week had run that Henry kept a dragon in the arched rooms that also housed his collection of metal automata. A great beast that steamed and groaned and licked fire into cook’s little parlour when the wind blew north.

  The maids shared darker stories as they made the beds or took a pan and brush to the ashes in the hearths. The dragon bound in the cellar did more than steam and groan. One maid had blushed scarlet and admitted in a rushed whisper that her dreams were full of a great, dark beast. A wicked beast…with a wicked mouth.

  Not that I believed their tales. My guardian set himself as a collector, an inventor, or that was the face he liked to present to the Fellows of the Royal Society. Those in his inner circle knew better. I knew better. There was no dragon in the cellar. There was something…darker.

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