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  That night she sat on the side of her bed, toweling her hair dry, and thinking about the promotion she'd been offered that day. Here was the power, the money, the security she was after--everything she'd wanted falling right into her lap. So why wasn't she happier?

  She tossed the towel into a corner and began to comb out the tangles in her hair. Because she was alone. She had no one to share the news with. And at the back of her mind she knew whom she wanted to share it with. And what she wanted to do to celebrate her success.

  She slipped off her robe and climbed into bed. Alone. She pulled one of the pillows down and wrapped her arms around the cold, inanimate softness.

  "What do you want, Antoinette?"

  She could hear his voice echo the question inside her head--the one he'd asked her a month ago in the dimly lit bar as she drank down the chocolate martini.

  She closed her eyes and hugged the pillow tighter. After all these weeks, she found she still wanted the same thing she had been prepared to admit just before he'd sent her back here.

  "Dammit, I want a man who understands me--I want you."

  Chapter 9

  * * *

  She dreamed of Mercury--dreamed his tongue was deep inside her. She awoke to a powerful orgasm consuming her. Her eyes shot open and she sat up as she realized there was someone else in her bed.

  "What the hell are you doing?" she said as she looked down and saw a dark head between her splayed white thighs. He looked up and she saw the silvery flames of a gaze she recognized well.

  "Mercury," she breathed. Was she still dreaming?

  He rose above her. "Surprised?"

  She pulled herself up in the bed, now realizing she was naked, yet not particularly concerned about it. He had that affect on her.

  "I think I can safely say that's an understatement. You have some explaining to do."

  He sprawled out next to her on the bed and reached out to tweak her nipple and she gasped at the sensation.

  She saw his flashing grin in the darkness. "Did you miss me?"

  She glared at him. "Bastard."

  He pulled her toward him and captured her lips in a long, hot kiss. She melted against him, unable to resist him. He raised his head and the silver fire in his eyes seemed fiercer than before.

  "I missed you," he said as he lowered his head to nuzzle at her neck.

  "Then why the hell did you send me away?"

  "I had no choice. It may not seem like there are rules on Desirata, but there are. The moment you realized what you really desired deep in your heart, I had to send you back."

  "But--"

  Again, he kissed her, silencing her protest. God, she'd missed him. So much.

  He raised his head. "I'm not what you think I am. I'm not really a nice person."

  "Neither am I."

  "Yes, you are. The difference is that you just hid away the good part for a time. Essentially, you are a good person. I had to send you back. You want someone to love and who can offer you love in return. I felt your love reaching out. I'm not that person. Hell, I'm not even human."

  She reached up to stroke the side of his face. "I'm not mistaken, I felt you reaching out for me that last time."

  "No, you're not. Hell yes, I want you, but I'm not the loving kind. I want you--to be with you, to spend time with you--to fuck you, and to give you more pleasure and adventure than you could ever imagine. But you're a woman--and human--and you'd want more than I'm capable of giving you."

  He thought he knew her so well. Suddenly, she pushed him back on the bed and straddled his hips. "You don't know me at all, Mercury. I want to give to you. I want to be with you. Yes, I want the power, and the money, and the security. I love you for what you've shown me about myself. I love you for how you make me feel when I'm with you. I love you for not trying to control me."

  She reached down for his cock and poised it at her entrance, then slowly dropped down over it. As before, it stretched her as she consumed it inch by inch. She closed her eyes and dropped her head back.

  "God, I've missed you. I love your daimon cock, do you know that? I love how it feels, how it fits. I love fucking you slowly--like this. You free me, Mercury, in ways I can't begin to tell you. You make me more than I was before. And I can feel you wanting me--for now that's enough."

  "You're an amazing woman, Nettie. I had to leave you to find your way without corrupting your desire to succeed. But I couldn't stay away from you. I had to come here."

  She undulated on his cock, taking him fully inside her, rising and falling, feeling his length tunnel and spread her, the hot, seductive knowledge of possession. But it wasn't him possessing her--it was just the opposite. She ate at his fire, absorbed it inside herself.

  "I'm glad you did and this time we finish it. Do you hear me?"

  "Whatever you desire."

  Suddenly, she was on the bottom and he was atop her, driving into her. Her eyes flew open and she saw the dark passion in his expression.

  "If you want me, you have to know what that means." He drove deep and ground his pelvis against her. "I've given you space to learn what it is to receive and to open yourself up to give. But we are no longer on my island and I'm not a benevolent human who deserves sainthood. I'm a daimon and, on most occasions, all that encompasses. I will take from you without guilt." His thrusts inside her became a powerful, rhythmic force, driving and demanding.

  "I see the darkness," she gasped. "I feel it."

  "Do you fear it? Are you afraid to give to me? I am a demanding lover. I'll demand things you can't begin to comprehend. But I'll give as well. Is that what you want?"

  A haze of lust consumed her as she moved against him. "I'm not afraid of you. I want this, I want you. I want the power, the money, the security--and I want you."

  Suddenly, her arms were spread and her hands cuffed to the sides of the bed. She screamed as pleasure consumed her with his driving force, and she met thrust for thrust, arching against him, into him, surrounding him with her own heat.

  "Is this what you want?" he growled. "It's just the beginning, there will be more. If it isn't, tell me now, and we'll end it. I will not take what you don't wish to give freely."

  "You make me feel alive," she panted. He controlled her with the cuffs, yet it wasn't the same as with the professor, not at all. Mercury might control, but he didn't steal from her. He took with her consent, and she wanted to give to him--was eager to do so. For one second, it was all clear. He offered her freedom--her body might be confined by the cuffs, but she was free in her soul. "I want you. You can't take what I give of my own free will."

  He thrust deep as he razed his teeth across her breasts. She came with passion, violent waves of release washing through her, and screamed with pleasure as her juices surged around his cock. He pulled back and thrust once more, the tip of his cock pressing deeply against her womb, and she felt him flood her with his fiery cum. Deep and hot, pulse after pulse, bathing her vagina.

  His rampant fire flooded through her, and his fierce, silvery gaze possessed her as she accepted all of who he was. Half daemon, half human--all lover. And she eagerly embraced all of him. Suddenly the cuffs were gone and her arms were freed. He knelt above her, still fully embedded inside her, a smile of satisfaction on his lips.

  "You are now a part of me, Nettie." He raised one of her hands before her face and she looked at it in shock. She raised her head to survey her body.

  "I don't understand what's happening." Her whole body seemed to glow in the dark, a soft bronzed sheen that emanated energy.

  He chuckled. "My daimon's seed has passed my energy into you. The glow will dissipate shortly, but the feeling will remain with you."

  "You've changed me in some way." She felt different inside--and it felt wonderful.

  Slowly, he pulled his shaft from inside her. She saw the semi-erect cock emerge from between her glistening lips.

  "I think this is the first time I've ever seen you without a full erection."

  He gla
nced down and then looked at her in surprise. "It's never happened before." He stretched out beside her and took her into his arms. "You are an amazing woman."

  She snuggled against him. "Will you stay with me? They're giving me a promotion at work. With you here I'll have everything I want."

  He stroked a hand over her hip. "You know I can't stay here. I have other responsibilities." He rolled her onto her back and leaned down to kiss her. "But I have another proposition for you to consider."

  "A proposition?" Although the bronze glow was dissipating as he'd said it would, her body still seemed to hum with electricity. Now she knew where Cyn's luminescent glow emanated from.

  "Yes. You made me think about something--at least my human half did. I'm building a hotel on an island in the South Pacific."

  "Not in the Desirata Islands?"

  "No, Desirata is a world unto itself--it can never be commercialized, it is a special place outside of corruption."

  "I understand."

  "The hotel is an enterprise for my human half--a way to spread my wings so to speak." He looked down at her. "I want you to come help me manage it. As a daimon, I have unlimited--resources. You will never want for anything and you will have everything you could desire."

  She leaned back and looked up at him. "You can't be serious."

  "I'm very serious. According to the rules of the gods I serve and the requirements surrounding my duties in the Desirata Islands, I had to return you to your own reality. I did that and I waited. But then you called to me and I couldn't turn from you. Will you come with me?"

  She sat up and looked down at him. "Are you serious?"

  "My relationship with you is special to me, Nettie, and I want you near me, and I want to give you what will make you happy. But I also have others who require my attention and my time. I am not a man as other men are, nor are my needs and desires the same as other men. Can you really accept what I am?"

  "I assume that means other people in your life, besides me? In other words, no exclusivity. And that goes both ways, I assume?"

  She saw him nod. "I want you with me on this adventure, a part of my life. You are a special woman, Nettie, open to exploration and discovery. I wouldn't be here now if that wasn't the case--wouldn't have shared myself with you. Will you come with me?"

  She looked down and saw he was rock hard again and she crawled across his lap. "Will I see Cyn again?"

  He laughed as he lifted her and she sank onto his hard daimon's stalk. Oh, yes, she couldn't wait to explore more of the world he offered her. Yes, she loved him, but she didn't own him, nor did he want to own her.

  "Yes, Cyn will be working at the hotel as well. You'll probably see quite a bit of her as a matter of fact." He thrust deep inside her and she gasped at the full acceptance of his presence inside her.

  She was more than ready to enter Mercury's world and to experience all that he offered her--somewhere poised between heaven and hell--right smack in the middle of her own brand of paradise. She had wanted without understanding exactly what it was she wanted, and discovered what she truly desired. And now she'd received and was ready to give, and explore, and experience, as much as life--and Mercury--would offer her.

  Adrianna Dane

  Theresa Gallup uses the pen names of Tess Maynard and Adrianna Dane. Theresa has been writing since the age of 10. A legal secretary for 30 years, she is currently working on another erotic romance, as well as a full-length romantic mystery/suspense. She has been married for 30 years and has three grown children (a daughter and twin sons), and is a new grandmother.

  Writing as Tess Maynard, her first published short story appeared in the ezine, The Whispering Forest, in January of 2004. Writing as Adrianna Dane, where adding sensual heat to romance is her motto, Esmerelda's Secret was her first foray into the erotic romance genre.

  Having traveled and lived from the East Coast to the West Coast, Theresa receives inspiration for her stories from a variety of sources, including music and poetry, and her tastes are eclectic.

  For more information about current projects, visit Theresa's websites at www.tessmaynard.com or www.adriannadane.com.

  * * * *

  Don't miss No Choice, by Adrianna Dane, available at AmberHeat.com!

  Back in high school, Ginnie had dated both Mason and Derrick, two best friends. She had loved them both equally...deliciously...separately. But rather than make a choice between them and take a chance on destroying their friendship, she had chosen to leave town.

  Now, her old Mustang has broken down in front of the garage they own and she's going to be confronted by a choice she couldn't make all those years ago. Ginnie is also about to be faced with an unexpected revelation--one that could change everything and offer her a chance to snuggle into the very position where she truly yearned to be...

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