Cassandra's Dilemma by Heather Long Read Free Book Online

there, Wizard?”
    “My job.”
    “Mine as well. Her leg. See the mark—poison in the blood.”
    “What the hell was it?”
    “It doesn’t matter now. We must get it out. You draw the poison. I will ease the pain.”
    Cassie drifted along, listening to their odd conversation. Warm fingers cupped her cheek. The scent of vanilla and soft spices tickled her nose. Opening her eyes took extreme effort, but she managed to drag her eyelids open.
    Helcyon’s face was just centimeters from her own. She looked into eyes the color of the deep, green forest. She’d thought his eyes were black, but they were dark, like the woods at night, filled with mystery and promise. The scent of vanilla mingled with pine, loam, and rich earth. She inhaled deeply, sighing at the heady combination. His breath whispered across her face. Her lips parted in anticipation. The soft velvet of his lips rushed across her mouth, capturing the gasp of pain she released as jagged ice and fire ripped through her leg.
    The fingers on her cheek caressed away the tears. Her mouth parted under the tentative probing of his tongue. Pain faded away, leaving only the sensations of his lips moving on hers. Languorous heat spread through her body, leaving her limp. She whimpered a soft sound as he pulled away, but his finger stroked across her lips. “Sleep, Cassandra. Sleep.”
    Robbed of the effort to fight the compulsion, Cassie slept. Somewhere beyond the thick wraps of satin and silk muffling the world she heard a snort of derision.

Chapter Five

    Stretching her right arm out, Cassie suppressed a yawn. The sunlight tickled the back of her hand, nudging her out of sleep. She turned her pale hand from side to side in the sunbeam. The sound of the ocean’s waves lapping kisses at the shore drifted in the window.
    The sun was on the wrong side of the bed.
    Ocean?
    Cassie jerked upright and looked around—her bedroom. The room with its cool shades of peach and rust reminded her of a distant sunset. A long brace of windows facing the western shore splayed wide to catch the morning breeze. The sun came from the lone eastern-facing window that assured her of natural light in the morning. The pale, sanded-wood floors boasted a series of thick, hand-thatched rugs she’d picked up on a trip to New Mexico.
    Everything in her room was how it should be.
    The bed shifted next to her, and a warm, tanned hand slid along her hip to splay his fingers on her abdomen.
    Okay, everything is as it should be except for that.
    Helcyon gazed up at her with sleepy intensity. His black hair lay tousled around his face, and what she’d thought of as beautiful before was heartbreakingly gorgeous against the soft, creamy sheets. A devilish look came into his forest-green eyes, inviting her closer. No one should look so damn lickable, not this early in the morning.
    “Oh hell.” The memory of the day before rushed inward. Cassie shoved her fingers into her hair and sighed. Her frustration went to war with the disappointment as she met scalp and stubble instead of longer tresses.
    “I doubt you mean that as attractively as you put it.” Helcyon’s chuckle shivered through her.
    Cassie lowered her gaze to focus on his mouth. The lips were full and even, as though carved by an artist perfecting his technique. Her lips tingled at the memory of how his lips caressed hers. “You kissed me last night.”
    His eyes darkened with inexplicable emotion. “Are you planning to protest your virtue?”
    “Hardly.” And she was not a nun. She’d been kissed before. She’d been far more than kissed. But aching heat pooled in her belly just thinking of how his mouth shaped over hers, how his breath feathered her cheeks, how his taste lingered on her tongue.
    He brushed the back of his hand down her cheek, the gesture a shocking mixture of both intimacy and innocence. “Then what?”
    “Why did you kiss me?” Her gaze drifted over his lips and along the line of his jaw before drifting down to