Dark Challenge. Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 5

I do not want you here.

Yes, you do, Julian countered calmly. I am in you. I feel your excitement at my presence. The same excitement is in me.

You feel my agitation. I have a job to do. Your presence is unsettling.

Only because you are afraid of your future. You know it lies with me. A major change in life can be frightening. But I can do nothing other than to make you happy.

Desari pounced on that. It would make me happy if you left this place. I do not want you and Darius to fight.

The first is a lie, cara. You seem to be able to tell untruths easily. But I will respect the second. I will avoid a confrontation with your guard if it is at all possible.

You do not understand. Desari was beginning to feel desperate. She had to find a way to make him leave. She didn’t dare risk his presence, even if what he said was true, that she secretly wanted him there. She had never felt so alive. Every cell in her body was like her music, wild, free, soaring. She didn’t understand it, but it was exhilarating. And he knew it.

I understand, piccola. His voice was tender, almost caressing. It slipped under her skin, producing an unexpected curl of heat in her bloodstream. Trust me.

Desari was battling unfamiliar emotions. In all the centuries of her existence, she had never felt such a sizzling chemistry. She had actually feared that nothing would ever make her feel the erotic longings she had heard and read of for so many centuries. Her body had been cold and unresponsive until now. She had never laid eyes on this stranger, yet he easily evoked this reaction. I do not know you. How can I trust you?

You know me. He said it in that same soft, arrogant voice. A statement of fact. Simple. Easy.

A loud knock on the door of her dressing room set her nerves jangling. She should have known someone was right outside. She had never before failed to be aware of the presence of the others. She rose and smoothed the silken sheath that fit her every curve. The slit up one side was nearly to her hip. The fabric was white with a garden of red roses. Her hair fell in a cascade of ebony silk past her hips and moved with a life of its own. For the first time in her life, it mattered that she looked good.

“Desari! Get a move on!” Barack rapped his fist against her door a second time. “The crowd is beginning to get restless.”

Taking a deep breath, she stepped out into the hall. Barack’s arm instantly swept around her shoulders. “What were you doing in there?” He glanced around, then lowered his head toward hers. “You are not afraid, are you? We are all on alert this time, even the cats. Those assassins will not have a second chance at you.”

“I know.” Desari’s voice came out low and husky. “I will be fine, Barack. Please do not say anything to Darius. He is already jumpy enough.”

“Do not mistake Darius. He does not fear a return of the assassins. He thinks the other creature will return for you this night.” Barack matched his longer strides to hers as they moved through the hall toward the entrance to the stage.

Dayan fell into step on her other side. “Darius will destroy this creature.”

Desari’s dove-soft eyes darkened to black opal. “Why do all of you insist on referring to him as the creature? Have you become as intolerant as the mortals now? I thought we were one with all of nature, with the universe itself. Because he is something we do not know, must we hate him? Reject him? He saved my life. That should count for something. Or would you prefer that I had died?”

Dayan caught her arm. “Little sister, you need not defend this creature.”

Instantly she heard a soft growl of warming in her mind. The stranger was not happy with another male touching her. Now they were all annoying her!

Desari pulled her arm free, gave Dayan a look of pure disdain, and swept out onto the stage. The roar of the crowd was so tremendous, it filled the dome and burst into the sky. She smiled, her gaze wandering over the mass of people rising out of their seats to pay homage to her voice, to her music. But she was looking for one man. Only one.