Read Eluria's Enforcer (The Argadian Heart Trilogy Book 1) for Free Online Page B

his
uniform. Reaching inside, she pulled out the folded garment and threw it at
him. “Your skinsuit, Enforcer. I suggest you clothe yourself. Unless, of
course”—she allowed her heavy-lidded gaze to glide brazenly over his body—“you
have other needs to assuage first?”
    When he’d been prone, lying on the bed
unconscious, his inert form enticed her. But standing, in full, firm glory
before her, Eluria wasn’t sure how she would succeed in keeping her distance,
or her control, for much longer. The enforced closeness was already eating
through her self-control.
    Devon uttered a sound of disgust, and
reaching down, picked up the uniform which had landed in a dark puddle at his
feet. “I don’t suppose there’s a water supply nearby?” he asked when he
straightened, ignoring her suggestive question.
    Eluria pointed to the passage leading to the
next chamber. “Through there is a pool. You’ll find the water is naturally
heated. It should serve your needs adequately.”
    Devon strode through the entrance, and she
admired the golden, molten lines of rippling muscle. Once he was out of sight,
she released a long-held breath and collapsed against the side of the trunk.
    A sob broke free as she speculated on how
little it would take to lose her control and surrender to her passion. Even
now, she was damp with arousal at the thought of him taking her, of the hard
need riding her, and how much she wanted to feel him pushing deep inside her.
By the look of him, he’d fill her so completely there’d be no room for the
empty longing now filling her heart.
    What would he think, she wondered, if she
informed him she’d never achieved completion as a companion? She’d never
spiraled to the place of total, spiritual balance she knew was possible, with
any of the companions she’d accepted.
    Instinct told her with Devon it would be
different. No, she corrected herself, with Devon it could have been
different. He could never want what she’d become. She heard the contempt in his
voice when he branded her with what she was— twilighter . Little did he
know all the hated name truly encompassed.
    What would happen when his memory was fully
restored? They would return to Ednos, and then what? He would take his rightful
place and she would disappear. It’s what she’d planned. From that point in her
youth when she discovered the betrayal, she’d centered on the need to right the
wrongs done by her father to Devon and his family. Every choice Eluria had
made, every breath she’d taken had been fueled by the guilt lying heavily on
her soul.
    But once Devon returned, what was left for
her? Her purpose would be served. Panic rose within her breast. The pain of
loneliness and a deep, dark abyss of emptiness loomed before her. She’d never
thought that far ahead. To the success of the task she’d set for herself. She
shook her head in denial.
    Once she’d held a young Maigin’s innocent
visions. Union with a taman she loved. No more—those dreams had been shattered
long ago. So what was she left with? More importantly, how would Devon react
when he discovered what her father had engineered—and the guilt resting on her
shoulders? How would he respond when he knew she was the one ultimately
responsible for his father’s termination?
     
    *          *          *
     
    Devon leaned back against the rocky ledge of
the heated pool, allowing the moist warmth to ease the aches still remaining
from the clash with zyflamite. His gaze rose to the ceiling dripping with
stalactites, seeking the source of the latticed patterns of light filtering
across the surface of the clear pool he relaxed in.
    His thoughts were filled with the
Female—Eluria, the remembrance of her soft body beneath him. Her scent, like
her radiance, had wrapped about him, seducing his intent to have answers. If
he’d held her longer, he’d have taken her, filled her savagely with the
completion he knew they both wanted. The arousal he felt in