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continued. “They were as devastated as I was but they stayed by my side for the next sixty-seven years as she went about her life, finding someone else to love, someone else to marry , someone else to have children with.”
    He was lost in the past, his emotions playing out on his handsome features, the sorrow, the bitterness. Softly, she whispered “I am sorry, Armand. You didn’t deserve that.”
    Blinking, he looked at her and returned to the present, “For a long time I was so mad but now I think that it was for the best. If it hadn’t been for that one fleeting moment that we connected I would have been relieved that she had not accepted.”
    “Would you ever give up your nights again?” she asked, trying to keep the hope out of her voice.
    “Hell, no,” he vowed vehemently. “Hell, no.”
    She tried to laugh but it sounded forced so she ended up clearing her throat instead as she captured the intensity in his eyes. “So you plan on never falling in love again?”
    “Naturally,” he said, the arrogance oozing in his voice.
    Laughing uneasily, she shook her head in wonder, “How do you plan on preventing it?”
    “It’s not that difficult, Ferris,” he claimed matter-of-factly. “I don’t allow anyone to get close enough and I keep things simple: it’s only ever about the sex.”
    Wow , her quest to seduce him into offering her his nights was suddenly exponentially more difficult. Well, she didn’t have to have his nights. She could have a lifetime with him, grow old while he stayed young. It wasn’t what she wanted but it was better than nothing. Or maybe she could find the wizard that helped her mother and aunt and buy enough time to make Armand see that what he needed was right in front of his eyes.
    There was time.

Chapter 3
     
    Pushing the Boundaries
     

     
    A few minutes before the sun was set to rise, Armand tied the belt of his robe around his waist before he stood up, leaving his torso naked and nearly bringing Ferris to her knees with the sheer beauty of his body. His muscles gleamed beneath the bright, artificial light, flexing and bunching as he untwisted the material of his robe and slid his arms into the sleeves. He had devised the system on the third day, keeping the robe on until he was seated and then letting the material drape the chair beneath his body and denying her the pleasure of catching a glimpse of his gorgeous backside.
    The material gaped open and even though she had spent the past couple of hours ogling his chest, the peek-a-boo effect was still incredibly erotic. Her grip on the palette tightened until it felt on the verge of cracking and she had to forcibly set it down.
    “It’s much easier to sit in one position when I’m stone,” he said with a wry smile, twisting his torso first one direction and then the other, stretching the stiff muscles
    As his bones popped and cracked, Ferris grimaced. It was unfair of her to keep Armand sitting in her studio when he didn’t really have to be there. She could have taken a photograph and worked from the image. Hell, she probably could have done the entire painting from memory. Of course, it also would have gone quicker if she didn’t keep getting sidetracked by their conversations – or his jade green eyes or his occasional smile or his naked flesh… In actuality, she simply enjoyed spending time with the taciturn man who rarely grinned, chatting with him about anything and everything, even if he was oblivious to her seduction attempts. “It shouldn’t be too much longer.”
    He chuckled, the sound teasing her senses as if he was lightly drawing his fingers along her bare spine. “Nod would never have been able to sit still for so long and you know for damn sure the incubus would have seduced you long before now.”
    Her brows drew together in consternation at that statement. She had no problems resisting the considerable charms of Corvyn because she was in love with Armand. “I doubt it. He’s… well, he's