The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2 by Tricia Telep Read Free Book Online

man she had once loved so very much, and she asked, “Why? Why this memory?”
    A long pause as Aaron gazed at her, his eyes sad, the lines on his face suddenly prominent. And he said, “Because it hurt me too much to keep it any longer.”
    This time, Caitlin can’t stop the tears.
    “I still love you,” Aaron says softly. “I wish I could just turn it off, or that it would have faded away. I wish I could say I’m not the same man I was when you left me, that I’ve changed. But I am who I am, Caitlin. And all the magic in the world won’t change that.”
    She closed her eyes and remembered the boy she had loved.
    She opened her eyes and saw the man who loved her still.
    The man she still cared for, still wanted.
    Still loved?
    She bit her lip and reached over to take his hand. “We travelled to Hell to save my sister. Why is this the hard part?”
    Aaron’s lips twitched in acknowledgment, but he said nothing as he waited for her to pass judgment.
    With her free hand, she brushed away her tears. “I don’t want you to change, Aaron. I don’t know what I want. But . . .”
    When her voice faded, he prompted, “But?”
    Caitlin took a deep breath. “But maybe we can both sleep in the bed tonight, and then take it from there.”
    Aaron’s eyes shone, and he lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles. “ ‘Maybe’ has never sounded so good.”
    Caitlin, smiling through new tears, had to agree.
    They left the coffee shop, hand in hand. And soon they were making new memories together.

 
Princes of Dominion
    Ava Gray
     
    One
    Just one glimpse. Camael knew it was unwise. He had been warned more than once and yet he found himself helpless to resist. Her beauty struck him on a level deeper than pleasure, deeper than pain. And so he stood on the other side of the Veil, hidden from her sight, and watched her brush out her long hair beside the river.
    Most women bathed in company. Soft laughter and splashing would accompany their ablutions, but not hers. She was quiet, almost sombre; it did nothing to lessen her loveliness. Her hair shone like polished onyx, streaming down her shapely back in a swathe of dark silk. Sometimes she sang, and he closed his eyes, buoyed up by the melody. But not today.
    For the first time, she spoke. “I feel you.”
    She could not possibly mean him. Camael held his silence.
    “I know whenever you are here,” she went on. “At first I took you for one of the river spirits, and I left gifts. But they went untouched.”
    Should he have accepted her tokens, then? She had left him seashells and beads, prettily strung. But he had no use for such things. He stilled, uncertain.
    “Show yourself,” she commanded.
    His brethren would do worse than talk of folly if they witnessed what he did next. But he could not resist the urge to speak with her. It went against every edict. Passing the Veil, he shimmered into her world and donned a human body. She rose in a silver ripple of water and turned to face him, clad only in her hair.
    “What are you, river spirit or demon?”
    “Neither,” he said.
    “Why do you watch me?”
    “Because you are beautiful.”
    Such a simple answer – and yet it appeared to please her. He could not have expected that, given how exotic she seemed and how little he knew of mortals. Camael only knew that he enjoyed watching them; they always seemed so much freer than he, unconstrained by the rules of heaven.
    “My father would cut off the head of any man caught dishonouring me so.” She tilted her head, speculative. “But you . . . you are not a man.”
    “No.”
    “What then? You wear a man’s form. Are you a devil come to seduce me?”
    Again, he said, “No.”
    But a flicker of interest stirred in him for the first time. It was impossible to look on her silken skin without curiosity – to wonder how it would feel to smooth his hands over her body. And she sensed it; a smile curved her lush mouth.
    “Pity,” she said softly. “I do not think I’d mind. I