All for a Rose by Jennifer Blackstream

Author:Jennifer Blackstream [Blackstream, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: incubus, sensual, prince, evil stepmother, sci fi romance, sex, demon, Paranormal Romance, Skeleton Key Publishing, fantasy romance, werewolf, magic, twisted fairy tale, fairy tale romance, witch, blood, Romance, princess, alpha male, Jennifer Blackstream, angel, vampire, wizard
Publisher: Skeleton Key Publishing
Published: 2015-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Daman dove into the lake, cutting through the water like a blade through the heart of an imaginary enemy. He could still feel Maribel’s delicate wrist in his grip, the frantic beat of her pulse beneath the pads of his fingers. He pushed his hands, open-palmed—through the water, trying to rid them of the memory of Maribel’s warmth. To think he’d been so close to…

“Are you happy here?”

His own words mocked him, ringing in his ears no matter how deep he dove into the lake, no matter how hard he tried to lose himself in the frigid water, the caress of the currents. What had he been thinking? What sort of question was that? What had he expected her to say?

So what if she was happy? What would that mean? Did he think it would be some sort of sign that he wasn’t too scary to continue his duties, to start seeking out changelings in need again? Or was he truly so foolish, so deluded, so reckless…as to think it would mean more? What had he been thinking grabbing her, letting himself be overcome by the taste of her excitement in the air?

Where could it have gone?

He fought through the water, swimming deeper and deeper into the blackness at the bottom of the lake. The icy chill hardly touched him through his scales, but his upper body felt the bite. The sensation was a welcome distraction—a needed distraction.

I am a damn fool.

Spending the past few weeks with Maribel, playing in the dirt, basking in her laughter. He hadn’t even tried to maintain the pretense with himself that he was trying to find her a new home, get her away from her witch of a sister. Every day it was easier to pretend she would stay here forever with him. That they would sit down together every night to eat a meal she’d prepared from herbs and vegetables she’d gathered right here on his land, with meat he brought her, he killed for her. It had been a pleasing and dangerous dream.

She dreamed of me as a human. Dreamed of the dragon as something separate, something terrifying—a nightmare.

What a fool he’d been to think she could be attracted to him in his current form. What woman would willingly come into the arms of a man more reptile than human?

Screams echoed in his memories, the screams of changelings he’d tried to help after the witch’s curse—changelings he’d very nearly frightened to death. What had led him to believe Maribel would be any different?

Anger scalded his veins. Anger at himself for daring to dream of a life he had no business dreaming of. Anger at Maribel for putting that dream into his head. He’d been resigned to his fate until she’d come along.

His temper spiked again and not even the chill of the lake bottom could ease the burn. He cursed and shot up to the surface, breaking into the air in a surge of falling water. The sunlight seared his eyes and he blinked away the pain.

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