back and his head cocked as if he were trying to decide whether to be angry or not. He wore his deep mahogany hair swept back in an impeccable cut, adding to the image of a sharp businessman, but the bulk of his body beneath that suit spoke of more physical activities and his silver eyes were flashing like the razor-edge of a sword.
Verin started to growl.
“Everyone just take a breath,” I said in an ironically breathless voice.
“No. Do not tell us to calm down,” Darc said firmly. “We've talked about this, my fire. He was supposed to be temporary. Vivian says that the spell will wear off, you just need to be more patient.”
Verin grunted—it sounded a bit like “fuck you and your patience.”
“Move away from her, Verin,” Slate's tone was even and calm. “Or we will tear you away from her and possibly tear you to pieces in the process.”
“She's not yours,” Gage added reasonably. “It's just the spell making you behave irrationally.”
“I promised him that if this was real, we'd accept him.” I craned my neck to look at my men.
“Yes, but it's not real, Elaria,” Declan argued. “We spoke to Vivian and she says that the spell is still active. I mean, look at yourselves.” He waved an elegant hand at Verin and me. “It's demonstrably still active. This cannot possibly be your natural response to each other.”
“You shouldn't have met him today.” Banning shook his head at me. “You know that the spell is still controlling you.”
“I gave my word,” I said, then shivered—Verin had started to move restlessly against me in a very intimate way.
“That's it!” Darc snarled as he stepped forward. “I tried to be reasonable but if you're going to assault my wife in front of me, reason can fuck off.”
Before Darc could make it three steps, Verin pulled me even closer and absconded with me. The last thing I saw before we vanished was Darc's terrified stare.
Chapter Three
I reformed with a gasp, standing instead of lying down, and clutching at Verin's shoulders. I caught the ending fade of his coral ring's glow. Lóng—those are a type of sea dragon—use rings set with coral in the color of their court to travel in a manner similar to that of a shining one traveling stone. Except Lóng rings weren't limited to crossing the Veil. Shining One traveling stones can take you anywhere you've been before but they were made specifically to pierce the Veil—the boundary between realms. If you wanted to go from one place to another on Earth, you had to first cross through the Veil to a different realm before looping around and going back to Earth. Verin's ring had no such restriction.
We were in Verin's bedroom in the Azure Palace. I knew this because I'd been there before. He'd been naked that time as well, though far less amorous. With a low rumble of anticipation, Verin drew me across a plush Oriental rug, toward an enormous bed with sin-black, silk sheets edged in gold. It looked both menacing and magical. As much as I wanted to jump in, wet dress and all, I pulled back, and Verin's rumble turned into a growl.
“Verin!” I shook him by his arm. “You need to snap out of it. We have to go back.”
The sounds coming out of him turned sinister and his eyes began to glow.
“Verin!” I slapped him across his face.
Verin shook it off like a boxer and refocused on me. He lifted me, his embrace becoming punishing, and covered my mouth with his. With the touch of his lips on mine, something snapped. I could vaguely hear the voices of RS and Kyanite—the shining one gemstone that I'm aligned with. Both sounded frantic. But there was this glorious muscular body just begging for me to touch it and the hard press of particularly interesting part of that body. Sweet stones, his tongue was magical. Verin stroked and teased and demanded, changing his amorous attack from second to second. All while his hands slid over my body—kneading, grasping, and stroking. My wet clothes slid away and my head spun.
Three months. This shimmering emotion had been growing stronger for three months. It should have been fading. Why hadn't it at least weakened? Instead, it had become this all-consuming obsession that I'd barely been able to suppress. Judging from the way Verin kissed me, it had been the same for him. And now the dam had broke—desire rushing out to drown us. It carried