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On her way out, she’d passed by a locker with a familiar nameplate: ORIK.
Her grin must have looked evil, because that was how she felt.
A balmy breeze kissed her skin, and she breathed it in. As she stepped over another downed log, she sheathed her blade and stowed it on her belt. Maybe Orik would lose his shit, and maybe later she would care, but having it with her now was like having a flashlight in the pitch of night. It just felt necessary.
And she was feeling pretty damn good about her decision…until she came upon a tall man with a scar down the side of his face…wearing a fur cloak.
13
I am going to kill her!
The woman whose ridiculously sexy voice had kept Orik hard as stone over these last grueling weeks had once again disobeyed him.
He’d been alerted to her treachery when he’d returned to the castle and found his locker had been robbed.
The little hellion.
After checking the surveillance recordings, he caught a glimpse of her coolly strolling out the front entrance, passing along a two-fingered salute to the hapless guards at the door…wearing a soldier’s uniform. Thinking she was a new recruit, they had simply craned their heads with interest as she’d wagged her pert little ass down the front steps.
Fury rode his veins, but then fear gripped him.
He knew where she would go. It had been her single-minded focus. He’d been almost jealous at the way she pined for the forest, rather than for him, but she didn’t know the danger.
There had been recent reports of shifty witches spotted in the forest. More so than was usual. After mobilizing a small brigade of soldiers, he’d flown to confront their allied coven, hoping it was merely them testing the boundaries of the treaty. Unfortunately, the coven’s matriarch gave assurances that none under her authority had ventured from their camp in weeks.
On the return trip, they had discovered a decomposing body. One of their citizens had been attacked. The body was possibly a week old, but the scent of magic still permeated the area.
Orik had immediately declared that no one be allowed to enter the forest alone until his men had secured the area.
And now Jessie was out there.
With his blood on fire, he raced after her, heading to the spot where the cameras had lost her and charging straight into the forest. He caught a faint trail of her scent immediately and followed that thread, seething both with worry and anger. The jungle was teaming with conflicting scents, almost obscuring hers altogether. It could take hours to locate her. Danger could be lurking anywhere.
The growl of thunder echoed in the distance. Legura’s storms were notorious for coming in swiftly and violently. No dragon dared fly during one unless absolutely necessary. Even if the sky was clear, the thick forest canopy made a search from above virtually impossible, plus he wouldn’t be able to follow her scent from that high up.
When he came to a crossroads, he paused, sniffing the air. Damp pollen mingled with rich soil and the pre-rain musk of the nearing storm. For a moment, he worried he’d lost her trail completely, but then…
Ah! There it was, a faint remnant of her scent leading him to the right. He plowed through a gauntlet of heavy limbs, sap and pollen staining his uniform.Going to tan her hide.
At the thought, a flurry of anticipation ran through him and a string of lurid images invaded his mind so thoroughly, he nearly tripped over a raised root.
It had been difficult not to think of her lush body over the last several days. Nay, impossible! Not when she kept assaulting him with that sexpot voice of hers each day.
He'd done his best to be irritated with her, especially when he’d momentarily halted his investigation in order to have her patched through to his communicator. Yet whenever he was told Jessie insisted on speaking with him, he found himself unable to resist. He enjoyed speaking with her more than he should. His behavior had undoubtedly sparked rumors among his men, not that he cared. No female had ever distracted him so. And when her seductive voice purred through the speaker, he wished they were face-to-face so he could drag her to him for another searing kiss that would certainly scramble his brains as thoroughly as the first.
She was an unexpected temptation. A distraction he couldn’t afford right now. He sensed danger closing in on his kingdom, his family. Traitors had plotted against the king under his watch. More could be out there, regrouping. He couldn’t continue to give half his focus to some ludicrously attractive female with hauntingly iridescent eyes and a wicked voice that could bring a man to completion with a whisper.
He shook his head, needing to clear it. Halting in a small meadow, he was assaulted by her luscious scent, stronger here. Had she spent more time in this little field, taking in the scenery like she had in the secluded garden? Touching the flowers and enchanting the wildlife?
He froze as another cloying fragrance sent chills down his spine.
Magic!
14
Jessie may have just run headlong into one of the men she’d spied upon. His aura was similar, but she felt no threat from him now, even though the scar on his left cheek certainly made him appear threatening.
He had extremely light-colored hair that looked almost white in the sun, cut in messy layers that ended at his shoulders. He eyed her up and down with a piercingly intelligent gaze, surveying her as well. When his eyes slightly narrowed, she did feel a twinge of unease.
