Ericka let out a cry as he swiped his tongue from the sensitive place between her anus and folds, all the way up. His hair felt silken between her thighs as he moved his head and drove his fingers in and out of her.

The intensity of his licking and sucking was almost too much to bear. So much, so much, so much! She had to climax. She was so close to orgasm she could almost scream.

She parted her lips with a louder moan while he continued to delve into her folds. Tingling sensations ran rampant in her body, and her mind spun with desire.

Just when she thought she was going to lose control, he stopped.

“Aedan!” she shouted and looked down at him. She felt dizzy, lightheaded, and had to have an orgasm so badly she was almost insane with it. “Don’t stop. Please.”

Tears stung the backs of her eyes from the incredible need to climax. Aedan raised his head at the same time she looked down and she saw a spark in his gold eyes. He was so good-looking, so masculine, so powerful, his muscles flexing with every movement he made. Her breathing grew harsher and her heart thundered as she stared at Aedan’s starkly handsome face. Her dark lover.

Always she’d thought of him as her demon lover, the way he came in the night and left her sweating and wanting. Was he going to leave her aching for fulfillment—even more so than before?

Not this time! Not this time. He can’t do it to me again.

Aedan smiled, an incredibly sexy smile that caused more tingling and wetness between her thighs.

He lowered his head and swiped her folds again with his tongue. She gasped as he began pounding his fingers in and out of her core again.

This time it seemed like her head was going to float away and only the heat and ache in her body kept her grounded. What he was doing to her was more than she could bear. Her body trembled. She was so close to losing total control.

She couldn’t think past what she was feeling. The edge of an orgasm so powerful rushed toward her—it was like she was burning in white-hot fire.

Oh, God, she needed to climax and climax now.

He stopped.

For a moment Ericka was disoriented, ripped away from the peak she had almost fallen over.

“Don’t stop,” she begged again. Perspiration coated her skin and her hair was damp against her scalp. She squirmed as he slipped his fingers out of her core. “Don’t do this to me.”

A predatory smile crept over his face. He rose up between her thighs and placed his cock at the opening of her core and nudged it enough to make her gasp. She held her breath, waiting for that moment of penetration that would bring her fulfillment. For days she’d prepared for this. He would finally be inside of her.

Aedan’s gaze caught hers and for a moment it was like he had cast a spell over her. Ericka’s body was still on fire but suddenly she felt suspended in time. Waiting. Wanting.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, then stopped. Again he started, then closed his mouth.

His expression changed to one of anger. “She’s not ready yet,” he growled, like he was talking to himself.

The spell fell away. “I’m ready!” Ericka squirmed, wondering what in the hell he meant.

He shook his head. “Not yet.” Ericka cried out as he moved away and rested on his haunches.

Tears flowed freely down her face. She rose so that she was sitting up and pounded her fists on his rock-hard chest. “You can’t do this to me!”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I am sorry.”

Frustration and fury tore through Ericka. “You bastard.” She slapped him as hard as she could.

Aedan’s head snapped to the side, and then he looked directly at her. She flinched when he put his fingers to her forehead.

Relaxation flowed through her, taking the edge off her need to climax. Not entirely, but enough that she didn’t think she was going to die if she didn’t have an orgasm.

Aedan drew Ericka into his embrace. She collapsed against his chest, her arms around his neck. And she cried. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak as Aedan rose to his feet and carried her toward her bed.

He laid her gently on the mattress and she stared up at him. The bedsprings creaked beneath his weight as he sat next to her. He stroked her hair from her face and he wore an odd expression. Regret? Sadness? Longing?

She didn’t care. This time she was pissed.

“Damn you.” She pushed herself up in her bed and shoved him away. “Why are you doing this to me?”

He shook his head. “It is difficult to explain.”

“What?” Ericka nearly smacked him again. “How can it be difficult for you to not give me a damn orgasm?”

“It is time for me to go.” He cupped her face and ran his thumb across her cheek. “I am sorry.”

She knocked his hands away and stared into his eyes. “Tell me who you really are. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing, sweet one.” He brushed his fingertips over her forehead and closed his eyes, the gold of them lost to her for a moment. “Be at ease.”

He opened his eyes and Ericka felt a little dizzy as he lowered her fully onto her back and drew a quilt to her shoulders. She needed to climax, she knew it. Yet the intensity she’d experienced moments ago faded a bit.

He kissed her cheek. “Sleep. I will return.”

Ericka’s eyelids drooped. She didn’t have the strength to fight off his kiss or tell him to go to hell. She was too limp, too exhausted.

She tumbled into a world of crazy, crazy dreams.

CHAPTER 3

AEDAN NARROWED HIS BROWS AS HE TURNED AWAY from Ericka, walked through the veil and the archway. What in the Underworlds had he been thinking? At that moment, when she’d been so close to orgasm, when he could have taken her, she would have given him anything. Even though she wouldn’t have realized what she was giving up, she would have said the words. He had sensed it, known it.

And he hadn’t asked her for her soul.

He half expected the guides to the Realm of the Dead to be waiting for him.

Instead, Kyne and Jett were.

“What the fuck was that about?” Kyne shouted, his gold eyes blazing. His muscles tightened as he clenched his fists at his sides. “You had her. She would have turned over her soul without thinking twice.”

“She wasn’t ready.” With a thought, Aedan dressed himself in a toga then tried to shoulder his way past Kyne and Jett, but both stepped in front of him.

“Are you out of your mind?” Jett was as loud as Kyne had been. She tossed her long black hair over her shoulder. “By all that crawls the Realm of the Dead, she was ready.”

“You are much too close to this one.” Kyne folded his arms across his chest, his look fierce. “Errol or I should finish it.”

“You hold no power over me.” Heat washed over Aedan and he scowled at Kyne. “This is my assignment and I will complete it. Neither you nor Errol will touch her.”

I will save her from you, whispered his mind. And from myself, too.

“You are coming with us.” Jett took him by his upper arm and tugged, her fingers pressing into his flesh.

He stood firm. “I am retiring to my quarters.”

“No,” Kyne said. “First we have something you must see.”

A low rumble rose within Aedan. “If it will get you to leave me in peace.”

Jett studied him. “That will be for you to decide.”

Aedan growled again, but walked between Jett and Kyne from the Chamber of Veils into the Hall of the Lost. The floor was cool and smooth beneath his bare feet, the silence thick and heavy between the three of them.

The vast hall stretched endlessly, yet it wasn’t long before they reached a chamber that Aedan had always avoided. It was the Chamber of Futures, and he had never desired to see what lay in store for him. His future would be whatever he made of it. He merely had to make the choice.