Warrior Rising - By Pamela Palmer Page 0,39

stared at the strange and amazing sight - Ilaria, her green eyes glowing, her hair twisting above her head - and felt not revulsion, not fear, but a fierce rush of excitement. His blood fizzed as if the fluttering excitement had taken up physical residence in his veins.

Chills raced over his skin, lifting goose bumps on his arms as he watched her skin take on a luminous glow and her eyes fill with rapture.

He'd thought she was beautiful before. Now she took his breath away. Her scent floated to him on a wave of energy - the scent of gardenias...sweeter, richer, more enticing than ever.

Raw power filled the air between them, swirling around them. He couldn't see it, couldn't smell it, yet he could feel it seeping into his skin, tingling through his blood and sinking deep down into his body. A power he recognized on a molecular level, yet had never before experienced.

He felt drawn, as if consumed by an unnatural craving that at once enthralled and disturbed him, as if the energy itself seduced, filling him with a sense of joy, of a rightness of such magnitude that he knew he was experiencing one of the most profound moments of his life - Ilaria coming into her power, her ascension to queen.

Everything around him fell away and he was lost in the moment, as if enclosed in a bubble.

A fist of recognition carried down that line of connection between them and the power of the moment trebled. Joy and wonder showed in her face. Answering emotion rushed up inside him as if she poured those feelings into him, and him alone. Inside, he felt his chest begin to ache from the force of her velvet assault.

Passion twisted with the other emotions until his hands shook from the need to touch her, to pull her into his arms and kiss her. In those glowing emerald eyes, he saw an answering need, a hunger to rival his own. Desire flared, heating his blood until he was thick and hard and throbbing from the need to be inside her.

Slowly, the force of the power began to ebb. Little by little, the glow in her eyes faded to a natural brilliance, her hair dropping, as if in slow motion, to settle around her shoulders in a living cloak of pale curls.

But the fire in her eyes burned as her gaze remained tangled with his, her breath as broken as his own, mutual desire pulsating between them.

His hands fisted at his sides as he fought the nearly overwhelming compulsion to take her in his arms and fuse his mouth with hers. If they'd been alone, nothing could have kept him away from her in that moment.

Beneath his feet, the world shifted, righting itself as if in some indefinable way, this was the moment he'd waited for all his life.

No, not this moment.

This woman.

Charlie cleared his throat. "Earth to Harrison."

Harrison struggled back from the precipice, his body fighting for the freedom to take what was his. His.

Good God. His? What was he thinking? She was immortal. An Esri princess, soon to be queen. He'd lost his freaking mind.

With a hard, mental yank, he jerked himself free, tilting his face to the sky to stare at the gray clouds overhead as he struggled to regain control.

What in the hell just happened? From the moment he met her, he'd wanted her, yet within the thrall of that power, that need had exploded. All he could think about was touching her, kissing her, making love to her.

But not here. Not in front of his brother and friends.

"Princess?" Kade stepped forward into the circle, a sense of urgency about him that helped Harrison regain control. "We need to do this quickly. Every Esri now knows you're free, and the true queen. Including King Rith."

"What do you mean?" Jack demanded.

"All Esri are connected. We just felt our queen come into her power."

Harrison's gaze shot to Ilaria as she nodded. Her color was high, roses of pure pink brightening her cheeks, making her even more beautiful, if such a thing was possible.

"I felt the emotions of the race," she told them, her head held high. "Some were joyous, others dismayed. Rith is furious."

"Great," Jack muttered. "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"No," Kade replied.

Ilaria shook her head. "No queen has come into her power in seven thousand years. The last was my mother."

Harrison's gut clenched. Seven thousand.

Jack's gaze swung to Kade. "Will King Rith be able to track the