Deeper than the Night - By Amanda Ashley Page 0,13

have to read your mind to know your thoughts because your thoughts have been mine. My nights, too, are long and lonely. Your image haunts my days. The memory of your smile lingers in my dreams. I want . . ."

"What?" she asked, her voice hoarse. Never had any man said such romantic things to her, or made her feel so desirable. "What do you want?"

"This," he said, and kneeling before her, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

She had been kissed before, and often, but never like this. His touch went through her like satin fire, hot and seductive. His fingers slid to her shoulders, holding her fast, and she felt the latent strength of his hands, sensed the power that radiated from him like heat from the sun.

Kara heard a low groan. Had it come from her, or him? His tongue slid over her lower lip, dipping inside to caress the soft inner flesh. And she felt herself melting, melting from the heat of his touch, the gentle pressure of his fingers kneading her shoulders, gliding down her arms. His hands were cool against her bare skin.

"Kara." His voice was uneven as he drew back.

Drowning in sensation, she looked at him through heavy-lidded eyes. He caressed her cheek, and she turned her face against his palm, wanting more.

He should not have come here. He started to rise, to tell her it had been a mistake, but she grabbed his hand and held it tightly.

"Don't go."

"Kara, listen to me . . ."

"No. I don't think I want to hear what you have to say."

"It's for your own good."

"Now I know I don't want to hear it."

Like a wolf on the scent, Alex turned toward the house. Lena Corley was stirring.

"I've got to go," he said.

"Not until you promise me you'll come back tomorrow."

He could hear Lena Corley calling for Kara. He didn't want the woman to find him here, didn't want to try to explain something that was, at the moment, unexplainable.

"Alexander?"

"Very well. Tomorrow night."

"What time?"

"Is ten too late?"

"No."

"Here, then, at ten." He took a step forward, raised her hand to his lips, and kissed it. "Until tomorrow," he whispered, and stepping into the darkness, he disappeared into the shadows.

"Until tomorrow," Kara repeated, and wondered how she'd ever survive the hours until she saw him again.

He sat in front of the computer, his gaze fixed on the screen, taking up where he had left off.

The nightmares came back that night, more real, more frightening than before. With AnnaMara gone, there was nothing to hold me to my old life, my old home. I bade my parents farewell and left the village without looking back. I was running. Running away from the memory of my wife and child. Running away from the images that again haunted my dreams. How foolish I was, to think I could outrun my destiny. I was in France, trying to drown my grief in a tankard of ale, the night she found me.

I don't know how long she stood beside me before she touched me. I only remember looking up into a pair of the most exquisite amber-colored eyes I had ever seen. I knew, at that moment, that I was lost, hopelessly and forever lost, that I would dowhatever she asked.

She spoke my name, and I did not question how she knew it.

She took my hand, and I followed her out of the tavern, down a dark street, into a dark house.

I was her prisoner from that night. She did not imprison me with chains, nor did she keep me locked in a dungeon. It was the power of her eyes, the strength of her will, that enslaved me.

I slept by day, and came awake at night. She told me her name was Lilith, and she had been waiting for me since the day of my birth. I thought that an odd statement, as she was a young woman. A beautiful woman, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her hair, as black as the night, fell past her hips like a river of darkness. Her skin was like porcelain, her lips the palest pink imaginable.

She was a wealthy woman. Her house was huge and well-appointed, filled with paintings and tapestries and exotic pottery and figurines. She took me to the opera and the theater, dressed me in fine clothes, taught me to read and to write.

I never saw her during the day. I never saw her eat. When I