Zurlo, Michele - Torment [Daughters of Circe 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Michele Zurlo Read Free Book Online Page B

refresh his memory of her taste. Finally, she looked up at him again. “But you know where she is? You know who took her?”
    That was a question he didn’t want to answer, not yet. He changed the subject somewhat. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want your powers.” That proposition was when he had been willing to let Soren have her. If she bequeathed the bulk of her powers to him, she would be beneath Soren’s notice when she was reborn. He might have to wait another fifty or hundred years to be with her again, but at least she would be safe from Soren.
    Her lips parted, and her breath sped up. He wanted to cause that reaction, but not this way. “I’m not asking you to fight him. If he’s too strong, that shouldn’t matter. I just want you to find him and broker the trade.”
    Shade shook his head. “I’ll retrieve your sister, but my terms have changed.”
    Torrey was on her feet, her head shaking in disbelief. “I have nothing else to give you, Shade. I’ve completed the paperwork to name you beneficiary of everything I have, and I’m willing to bequeath all of my powers to you. I don’t know what else of mine you could want.”
    Shade held up a hand. He didn’t want to make her cry, and he didn’t want to hear her beg. “I don’t want your money or your powers. I want you.”
    She blinked once sharply, rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands, frowned, and disappeared into the kitchen. The sound of running water was followed by the hissing of that same water as it made its way through hot coils. The scent of coffee laced with vanilla and cinnamon filled the apartment.
    Two steps put him inside her kitchen. Her rigid back was to him as she watched the steaming liquid pour from the little hole above the pot.
    He ducked under the header to the doorway and paused, his eyes on her. “Torrey?”
    Startled, she jumped and turned. Brown eyes regarded him warily. “I am awake.” It was more of a question.
    Recognizing her uncertainty, Shade grinned and came closer. The husky sound of her sleep-roughened voice beckoned to him almost as much as her heady scent. He remembered the feel of her lips against his and the pliancy of her body as it pressed closer during their one kiss. “You are, indeed.”
    Torrey shook her head. “I don’t understand. You want my life insurance, my powers, and my body?”
    Shade parked his hands on her hips, caressing the rounded curves through the stiff denim of her jeans. Her soft heat warmed his palms and the aroma of her arousal nearly sapped his control. “I just want you, nothing else.”
    The pink tongue that darted out to lick at her bottom lip tipped him into the abyss. Shade lowered his head and closed his mouth over hers, pleased when her body again softened into his and her mouth opened to let him deeper. Something in her remembered him.
    Her hands traveled a slow path up his chest to rest on his shoulders, fingertips digging into the muscle there sharply, reflexively. He liked the way she touched him, and the wild part of him wanted nothing between them, not even the thin cotton of his shirt that muted the power of her caress.

Chapter 5

    She was kissing a wolf. A day earlier, she had cursed the existence of the entire species, and now she was about to invite one into her bed.
    The only thing she had really ever heard about wolves was that they were a bad lot, mostly murderers and kidnappers. They were feral and untamable. Judging from the fire ripping through her, Torrey wasn’t sure that was a bad description. Shade’s passion was barely restrained, and it beckoned to something similar deep inside Torrey.
    Behind her, the percolator hissed and spat the last drops into the glass pot below. Cinnamon and vanilla filled the air, but she was aware of only Shade’s scent and taste. He filled her senses.
    Her feet were no longer on the ground. Like he had in the parking lot of the bar, Shade lifted her against him, grinding his pelvis into hers. The bulge there