Heart of Darkness by Jaide Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

this?”
     
    She nodded and was about to glare at him when
he prodded her tender jaw, then realized that he had just saved her
from a great deal of pain. “Thank you for helping me,” she murmured
stiffly.
     
    “You're very welcome.” His own fingers came
out to stroke along her bleeding one and he replied quietly, “You
must value your sorcery greatly, if you are willing to risk your
life for it.”
     
    “It wasn't a matter of risking my life
for it. It is a part of me. I cannot explain it and I don't see
that I should have to quite frankly. But it is rather unfair of you
to simply assume that it is a superficial thing. I cannot simply
take it off and hand it to anyone. It has been in my family for
many years. It knows me. As
crazy as it sounds, it's...it is in tune with my body and my mind
and has been ever since I started to wear it.”
     
    “Heal yourself,” was all he said, well,
ordered.
     
    Pursing her lips at him, she scowled but
complied. Allowing her dazed state of mind to relax and to flood
her being with healing energy, she felt the heat start to bubble
through her and soothe all the troublesome aches that the intruder
had just inflicted upon her.
     
    The bruises at her jaw suddenly disappeared,
almost as though they had been wiped away. The blood at her finger
shriveled away and returned to the cut before that too was sealed.
The mélange of injuries the man had bestowed on her were soon
cured, as were the remnants of the drug with which Wolfe had
poisoned her.
     
    Her eyes popped open and as she opened her
mouth to demand to know what the hell he had been about, attempting
to spike her chocolate with a sleeping draught, she suddenly jolted
to a halt as his hand reached out and cupped her own. She watched
with owl-like attention as he lifted them both until their fists
hovered at his mouth.
     
    When he separated the fingers on her hand and
slid the digit upon which the ring sat into his open lips, she
gasped as a flood of fiery sensations rippled through her.
Alternatively sending shudders of heat and ice cold sensations
along her nerve endings. The contrast was discomforting, but not in
any way she had experienced before.
     
    A slight quiver wracked her small frame as
his tongue slipped along the length of her flesh, around the golden
metal, between the flesh that joined finger to finger... Heat
pooled in her belly and she began to feel breathless once more.
     
    What surprised her was the recollection that
the ring wasn't reacting to being touched. Where it had once shot
bolts of pain swimming along her nerve endings to force her to
awaken and protect it and herself, when the intruder had attempted
to steal it from her, now it did...nothing. Simply behaved as
though it were a regular, normal, piece of gold jewelry.
     
    When he pulled her finger out of his mouth,
and with a slight pop, she felt almost flushed as he stared at her
with heavy eyes. Eyes that promised things that with her
inexperience, she simply could not understand, but how she wished
she could!
     
    She swept her tongue along her lips and froze
when he pursed his own together and blew air along the now moist
skin of her finger. Before it completely dried however, his hand
came up and he began to play with the ring. Slipping it from side
to side, edging it up and down.
     
    Throughout his play, she said nothing. Just
watched in bemusement as he handled the ring and again, it failed
to respond to his touch.
     
    Lulled into a sense of security, she watched
as he eventually managed to slip it from her finger.
     
    He turned the ring around and around as he
studied it minutely. He peered at the stone, inspected the facets
that allowed it to reflect light, looked at the setting in which it
had been attached to the circlet of gold. Wolfe contemplated the
inside--the metal which touched her flesh; analyzed the mark of
quality, which declared it an item of pure gold.
     
    When he eventually stopped studying it and
then popped it into an