Awaken to Pleasure - Lauren Hawkeye 2 стр.


The eyes. The color made her uneasy. Shed given up ever again laying eyes on the man who deserved the blade of her knife, but still she found herself searching for him in the face of every blue-eyed man she knew.

This stranger was no different. And yet instead of the usual disappointment, or the mild repulsion that that color blue brought, Moira felt

Stirred.

The body. The body. The lean angles that pressed along the entire length of her softer curves had heat humming through her veins. It wasnt often that she was physically helpless with a man, any man, and the fact that she was now excited her a bit, even as it roused her anger.

Who are you? she demanded, for the attractive face wasnt one that she recognized.

I am Boone, she was told, and the husky velvet of the deep voice sent a delicious shiver skating down her spine. You called me. And before she could argue, she was pressed flat into the ground again while her lips were attacked with a skill shed never before experienced.

It was a full minute before she could think. Her body responded instantly to the taste of wine and of man on the strangers tongue, and the burning heat of the sand at her back and of the aroused male body shifting on top of hers had every nerve in her body on fire. A moan slipped unwittingly from her throat as the mans sapphire-blue eyes burned into her softer gray ones; when his tongue slipped between her lips to sample the wet inner cavern of her mouth, she felt an unbearable excitement begin to ball in the pit of her belly.

Boones booted foot nudged Moiras ankle. The resulting knife of pain brought her back to her senses. She shoved at his chest, hard, until he eventually rolled off her and they both lay on the ground, panting, shielding their eyes from the late-afternoon sun.

What the hell, buddy? Moira knew that, after the apocalypse, most people had begun to indulge in the physical comfort of sex whenever, and wherever, they could. Hell, shed been one of them, for the rioting sense of a blistering orgasm made her forget, for a moment, the horror of losing all that she had loved in the brilliant, horrifying fires of magic. But she had moved past that need now, or so she thought, and she was damned if shed fuck some strange man in the sand right outside of Gales little store. The perverted little man would watch the whole thing through his window, no doubt. Yuck.

She pulled herself to a sitting position and dusted sand from her cloak before turning accusing eyes to the slightly hurt face of the man who called himself Boone.

Is that not what you wished for? he asked, scratching his head. You rubbed the lamp and called me. You came through the door and pushed me to the ground; I thought that that was your wish. He seemed to think that this was a genuinely sufficient explanation and blinked, startled, at Moiras reaction.

Youre crazy, she informed him briskly as she pulled herself to a standing position. Absolutely certifiable. What lamp? I dont have a lamp. And whats all this wish nonsense? She shook her head, disgruntled, as she heaved her rice sack back over her shoulder.

But you touched me. That communicates your wish to fornicate. Boone seemed genuinely puzzled, and Moira wasnt sure whether to laugh or to scream.

Look, buddy, I touched you because I was leaving, and you were in my way. I am not going to fornicate with you, as you so quaintly phrased it, because you stopped in for a sack of rice and thought that you might get a bit of a bonus from the female. So good riddance. Muttering under her breath about idiotic, good-looking men, she stalked off.

* * *

Boone pressed his lips together as he watched her walk away. He hadnt understood half of the words shed hurled at him, but he knew from her tone that none of them had been complimentary.

And hed feltstrangepressing up against her that way. Hed watched her since she was little, after all, and that was something to think on.

But there were stirrings in the wind. When hed heard them, hed known that it was time for him to come to her again. He had seduced his last mistress into wishing him where Moira would find him.

And to keep the girl safe, she had to think of him as nothing more than what he wasa genie who granted wishes.

Not the banished witch destined to keep humanitys only hope safe.

Since most of the women who rubbed the sapphire on the lamp took one look at him and decided that their wish would be that he bring them physical pleasure, the safest disguise was for him to act as he had with the others.

But damn itdespite his best intentions, she had grown into a damn fine woman. He had enjoyed himself as best he could in the arms of those with whom he had no choice but to obey, but here

Here was a woman he actually wanted. A woman he knew was strong and true, as well as fair of face.

Shading his eyes, he watched her appealing figure grow smaller and smaller as she stalked off into the distance. She had a lovely figurecurvy hips, ample breasts. He sighed, then started after her. Since she hadnt rubbed the lamp again, he was stuck outside of its cool interiordamn curseout in the blistering heat, following around a woman whose touch would be tainted with the lie between them.

Some things are more important than your cock, he muttered to himself as he stalked his way across the sand. This woman was the one who was prophesized to kill the queen of the witchesand like a multiheaded serpent, once that head was gone, the rest would slowly wither away.

He didnt know where, or how. But since he was the one who had had the vision, he had known that he was the one destined to keep her safe. Knowing he had only enough power to save one on the night that the witch fires raged, he had chosen to save her.

And for it he had been cursed. Was condemned to live in a bottle, doing as his master or mistress demanded. And some of the things theyd demanded sickened him to the core.

But none had hurt so much as the disgust he had seen on young Moira Connors face the night hed saved her and let her parents die.

As he followed behind Moira, he tried not to torture himself with the sway of her hips.

The best way to keep her safe was to keep their relationship light and sexual, just as he always did. It was his skilla woman once seduced into his bed would do anything to keep him.

So Moira wouldnt make a fuss when he stayed close. Close enough to make sure that Shiloh would never find out about her.

And yet, as the winds that blew across the plains carried the whispers of magic to his ears, he sensed he was already too late.


Hell grant her one wish. What if she wishes for him?

When Moira Connor stumbles across a jewel-encrusted silver trinket in the desert, she plans to trade it for food. Then the brush of her fingers unleashes a surprise.

Freed from the lamp, Boone is bound to the woman who called him with her touch. She has one day to make a wish before he disappears forever. But Moira lives in the ruins of a world destroyed by witches. She hates magiceven when it comes in the shape of a dazzlingly gorgeous djinn. Will the exquisite pleasure of Boones caresses be enough to earn Moiras trust? And will Moira be able to save Boone from the malevolent creature who would possess him?

LAUREN HAWKEYE is a writer, yoga newbie, knitting aficionado and animal lover who lives in the shadows of the great Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. Shes older than she looksreallyand younger than she feelsmost of the timeand she loves to explore the journeys that take women through life in her stories. Hawkeyes stories include erotic historical, steamy paranormal, and hot contemporary.

Awaken to Pleasure

Lauren Hawkeye

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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For Suzanne Rock, without whom I could not write.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for picking up Awaken to Pleasure! This story is a bit of a departure from the books that I normally write, in which the creatures that go bump in the night are a secret from all of humanity. For this story, I tried to create a world in which the existence of supernaturals isnt hidden. The result was a place where humans were no longer the dominant speciesand where even in a world where witches are commonplace, there can still be surprises for the heroine.

I hope you will enjoy Boone and Moiras story! I love to hear from my readers, and can be contacted through my website, www.laurenhawkeye.com

Best,

Lauren

Table of Contents

Cover

Back Cover Copy

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Copyright

Prologue

Fifteen Years Ago

Moira Connor remembered the fire.

The dark sky, the ash that rained down, soft and hot, choking her with every breath until she wanted to rip open her own throat, just to get some blessed relief.

The fire had been all consumingthe unnatural emerald and amethyst flames devouring everything in its path. Its light had all but blinded her as she cowered in the corner of what had once been an alley between buildings.

The entire city of Jackson was being annihilated by the fire.

But she hadnt been blind enough to miss seeing what had been done to her parents. The witches had burned them alive, right before her eyes, and Moira hadnt been able to save them. Hadnt even tried, because she been so paralyzed by fear that shed run.

Not that she could have done anything. She knew that now, and yet it haunted her every waking momentand sometimes the sleeping ones as well.

It was guilt of the survivor. But she should have died with them. And the only reason she hadnt was because of a mana man with a pair of bright blue eyes.

If she ever found that man, she would kill him. Moira would rather be dead, after all.

Instead, she was still alive when, numb with grief, she and the other survivors of what the world had come to call the Great Witch War struggled to pick up the pieces of their existence, to save the last of their race. She scavenged on the streets, seeking out bits of treasure to barter for food while those who were able tried to protect their kind from the witches who would leach the energy from every last one of them.

And now she was a prisoner in one of these shelters. Those who lived in the enclosed villages called them havens, but she knew better.

They were prisons. Incarceration for those who had done nothing more than act on the basic human instinct to survive.

And so Moira existed, helping those who couldnt help themselves as a way of making amends to the parents she hadnt helped. And all the time, she dreamed of the man who had saved her life. Over the years, her hatred for the witches slowly bled over until it focused entirely on him. Why had he let her live but not saved her parents?

It was because of him that she was still here, trapped in the numbness of her grief.

Because of him she could commit the most cardinal sin of the survivorsshe could kill. Kill him.

The kicker of it all?

She wouldnt even know him if she saw him. For all she remembered was the color of his eyes.

Chapter One

Present Day

The late-afternoon sun glinted off the sand surrounding the haven village of Mavi, causing temporary blindness even as it mercilessly made sweat flow. Moira squinted against the glare, wishing that she had brought her goggles, but months of living in the cool comfort of Mavi had softened her once keen instincts for survival. While she had remembered to wear a hood to protect her tender scalp, her goggles had remained, likely buried at the bottom of the box that held all reminders of her former career as a treasure hunter.

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