Malakai by Michele Hauf Read Free Book Online Page B

creativity that
flowed through him was not something he or she could fight.
    "Rissa…" He sighed heavily. The man's hands
were wide and sun-browned as he clasped them before his face and
bowed his forehead to them. "About the curse—"
    "I understand."
    "No, you can't possibly. I like you Rissa.
Hell, I like making love with you."
"No argument there."
    "But it's more than that. I think I
could—"
    She pressed her fingers to his mouth. "Don't
say anything else. Just go."
    The man finally nodded and grabbed his shirt.
She hoped he would stay away, but sensed he would not. Because he
could not.
    She had to leave town. It was the only way.
But could she?
    "See you later, Casanova," she called, as he
walked to the door.
    "After a while, sugar cube."
    "I don't like that name, you know."
    Now his devilish brow arched and a grin
curved his mouth. "But you're all kinds of sweetness crammed into a
tiny little package."
    Well, when he put it that way.
    "Rissa."
    She shook her head and turned away from him
to hide the tear that spilled down her cheek. "Just go."
    His heavy sigh shuddered into her being and
as the door closed, Rissa broke into a sob.
     
     

Chapter Four
    This time she intended to buy food in the
grocery store and not go home with a sexy werewolf for a night of
toe-curling sex. Rissa placed a few peaches in her shopping basket,
and quickly moved toward the broccoli. She kept her eyes down and
her pace steady. If she sensed the darkly alluring, unavoidably
irresistible Kai she'd hightail it out of there.
    "The festival is over for the season," a
woman preening over the tomatoes said to her girlfriend, a tall
blonde who juggled garlic, cloves and avocadoes. "No more Irish
warrior."
    "That man wears the Sex God crown," the other
agreed. "Such a Casanova."
    The hairs on Rissa's arms twitched. They were
talking about him. Her wolf.
    "Have you been with him?"
    "Once," the blonde said. "Never again."
    "That awful?"
    "Are you kidding me? He was that incredible."
Her words hushed out with reverence. "But seriously? I couldn't
keep up with him. No one can. The man is insatiable."
    Time to leave before she started fondling the
fruit again. Rissa veered past the gossiping pair, head down, and
produce in hand. While standing in line to check out, she sensed
the usual weakness that always began in her shoulders and hips. As
if her muscles were strained from trying to hold up her frame. It
was the telltale sign that she needed another lover. Fast. She
required his life energy to maintain hers.
    She would not go to Malakai. She didn't want
to kill him. Much as it killed her to stay away from him.
    The man in front of her turned and smiled. He
was maybe late thirties and not unattractive. A pair of
black-rimmed glasses gave him a sexy geek vibe. Though she hated
beards. So scratchy.
    Rissa frowned and closed her eyes. No man
would match what she'd had from Malakai.
    ***
    It was almost finished. Ooghna stroked her
fingers along the ineffable sword blade that had sung to her for
days while the werewolf had forged it over flame. Watching from
within a glamour so he could not see her perched high in the open
rafters of his work shed, she had grown to covet this blade.
    It was, without doubt, a faery blade. And why
Malakai Saint-Pierre possessed such skill as to fashion the weapon
was beyond her. Though suspicious of its nature, he could not be
aware of its true power. With this blade, Ooghna could challenge
the Unseelie king and unseat him from the throne that she desired.
She'd been his champion, his underling for ages, fighting in his
stead, always at his beckon.
    "No longer," she said in a silvery whisper
that matched the sword's seductive hum.
    Dazzled by its song, she moved to pick it up,
but then paused. A thing of such value must not be taken or stolen.
The maker must gift it to the one he wished to own it, or else it
would be stripped of its power.
    The chances of that happening? Nil.
    She must find a way to trick Malakai