Dark Moon by Lindsay Longford

Author:Lindsay Longford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Josie gasped as Ryder pressed a switch, and muted, glittering lights filled the room, a slowly rotating faceted chandelier sending prisms of light into the dim corners.

The room was fantastic.

Ten, twenty—so many that Josie couldn’t count them all, huge, six-by-six-foot squares of silk adorned the walls. One scarf had a picture of a man in a winged black cape waving a wand over boxes painted with mysterious symbols. In his chalk white face, the red of his mouth seemed perverse, the slash of black eyebrows menacing. The reds and golds of the silks were sumptuous, an invitation to the senses. Not all the scarves were picture designs. Stars and clear glass balls filled in the backgrounds of several, and some were blends of rich colors and gold thread in abstract designs swirling on black backgrounds.

And the mirrors.

In front of one mirror near the chair where Ryder stood was a square, open-bottomed table with a mat and a deck of cards.

In the others, Josie saw herself in a dozen pieces, her wrinkled skirt, bare legs, her wide eyes.

It was a wicked room.

A room that lured a woman, whispered to her.

It was a room that made a woman’s clothes feel too tight, constricting. Made her want to slip out of them, drape herself in one of the opulent scarves, see her lover’s eyes darken with an unnameable passion in the mirror.

It was a room that made her feel reckless.

Oh, it was a wicked room, and it spoke to the wickedness inside her.

It was the heart of the house.

Captured by the opulent images on the wall, she lingered at one scarf. An enormous green-eyed panther, mouth open in a ferocious growl, crouched in the foreground of one of the panels, while above him, the sorcerer arose from the sleek panther, one hand extended, palm down toward the head of the snarling animal.

A current of air moved behind the scarves, puffing the pictured animals and figures into a three-dimensional effect and rippling the fabric until the whole room seemed alive with creatures and magic.

Entranced, Josie studied the scarves. Reaching out to touch the one with the panther, she glimpsed Ryder off to the side of the room. “May I?” she asked, turning to see him standing near a winged burgundy velvet chair with a table beside it. “Is it all right to touch them?”

“Go ahead,” he invited, and Josie’s skin shivered at the abrupt roughness in his voice, the sound hinting of luxurious pleasures that matched the phantasmagoria surrounding them.

The silk moved under her light touch with a life of its own, the fabric a call to the senses. Following the lines of the panther’s body, its powerful muscles, she traced upward to the shape of the magician’s hands, the long, supple fingers, the pale face with its high cheekbones so like Ryder’s. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “Gorgeous.”

And she wasn’t clear whether she meant the silk picture or the man.

“That’s why I collect them. I like the look, the feel of them. They’re not art objects, though.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.