Smoldering Hunger
(Dark Kings Series, #8)
by Donna Grant
Blurb:
His kisses were soul stirring, leaving her gasping and hungry for more. They pulled her from the wasteland of her life viciously and ruthlessly. With just one kiss she was clinging to him, silently begging him to show her all that one brush of his lips had promised.
TEMPTING FATE
Darius is back. Edinburgh thought it had seen the last of this seductive Dragon King, but that was before Darius found something worthwhile. He just can’t stay away from the impossibly beautiful Dr. Sophie Martin—even though he knows that a passion this strong could prove detrimental…for them both.
CRAVING DESIRE
Sophie tried to forget her encounter with smoking-hot Darius to no avail. He’s in her dreams, tempting her. But her association with Darius catches the attention of another, putting her in mortal danger. . .and Darius, who has vowed to protect her, is her only hope. But can she trust the notorious dragon shapeshifter? The only thing she knows for sure is that she cannot resist him…
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Excerpts
Alone. It was such an
insignificant word. Or it had been for centuries. He’d sought out the solitude,
had slept away centuries in his cave without hesitation.
And now? Now he hated the
quiet.
He detested being alone.
It wasn’t that he missed the
other Dragon Kings. He could communicate with them via their mental link at any
time. It was something much deeper, much stronger that twisted his gut.
He’d told the other Kings he
wanted to end the war with the Dark Fae so he could return to his mountain and
the dragon sleep. It had been the truth. For a bit. Now, he found himself
searching for something he didn’t understand or know.
No matter how many times he
walked the streets of the city, no matter how many times he killed the evil
Dark Fae who sought to slaughter the innocent humans, Darius was never
satisfied.
It was as if he were missing
something. That only made him hunt longer and harder. He’d tracked the last
remaining Dark Fae who hadn’t been smart enough to leave the city, running the
bastards to ground.
Since the Dark fed off the
souls of the humans, Darius took great pleasure in killing them. But not even
that helped to ease the tension within him.
But it did help him remember
that he was a lethal warrior. He did what he did not just for himself, but for
his brethren at Dreagan who hid amongst the humans distilling world-famous
whisky. And he did it for the humans.
The realm might’ve been the
dragons first and foremost, but the humans were part of that world as well. The
Dragon Kings fought for themselves and the mortals who once tried to kill them.
Darius removed his shirt and
folded it before neatly stacking it on the table on the other side of the
warehouse. After removing his boots and setting them tidily together, he
unfastened his jeans and stepped out of them. Folding them, he set the jeans
beside his shirt and turned to face the dead Fae.
With just a thought, he
shifted, his body transforming from that of a human into a dragon. He shook his
great head and blinked his eyes as he fastened them onto the Dark.
The greed and extravagance
of the Dark Fae had caused the city to erupt in chaos. Edinburgh hadn’t been
the only place bombarded with the Dark, however. Every major city in Scotland
and England had been attacked.
It caused the Dragon Kings
to take drastic action against the Fae. In doing so, the Kings played right
into the Dark’s hands’.
The Dark Fae filmed the
Kings on Dreagan flying, fighting, and shifting. That video had been released
onto the Internet, and a fury storm of questions fell upon Dreagan.
Their leader, Constantine,
King of Kings, ordered that no Dragon King could shift out of human form.
Darius was doing what his brethren hadn’t been able to do in weeks.
He wasted no time in
breathing fire upon the Dark. There was nothing on any realm as hot as dragon
fire, and it scorched the bodies into ash almost instantly.
Darius immediately returned
to human form and dressed. He wouldn’t stay in his true appearance when the
others couldn’t. It wasn’t fair. And it only made him hate the Dark Fae even
more.
Once, long ago, there was a
war on Earth between the Fae and the Kings. The Fae Wars had lasted for decades
with hundreds dying.
The Kings eventually won. It
was supposed to have been a war that would never be repeated. It would’ve
remained that way if the Kings hadn’t had to hide their true selves. There was
only one race to blame for that: the humans.
Darius dressed and left the
warehouse. It was just after five in the morning. There was still time to do some
hunting. Perhaps he’d get lucky and see who was killing the Dark.
He hadn’t gone more than
five blocks when he found himself turning to the left. Darius walked another
two before he realized he was on his way to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
His feet halted instantly.
Every time Sophie entered
his thoughts, he hastily squished it. She was a distraction he didn’t need -
and couldn’t afford. Yet, when he walked the streets, every time he saw a flash
of red hair, he hoped it was her.
There was only one time in
the two weeks since he’d made love to her on the street, shrouded by shadows
with a hunger for her riding him hard, had he allowed himself to see her.
A day after their encounter
he’d remained hidden atop a roof watching as she left the hospital. She hadn’t
even looked in the direction where they’d had sex against the building.
Did she remember how her
nails bit into his flesh? Did she recall how her body shuddered with the force
of her climax? Did she forget how he had to swallow her screams of pleasure
with a kiss?
He had no trouble
recollecting all of that and more. So much more. For days after he had the
taste of her on his tongue. Even now he recalled the feel of her soft, warm
skin beneath his hands. He knew the weight of her breasts and how sensitive her
nipples were.
If he allowed himself, he
could get drunk off her kisses alone.
It was that reason alone
that he hadn’t returned to the hospital or anywhere near Sophie’s home. She was
much too alluring and entirely too much of a temptation to put himself in close
proximity to her.
So why was he now heading
toward the very place he shied away from? His thoughts had been on the Dark and
eradicating them forever from this realm. He hadn’t even been thinking of
Sophie.
Darius turned
on his heel and retraced his steps. He had to get far from Sophie. Nothing good
could come of him seeing her again.
“Sophie?”
She blinked and looked down
to find Claire watching her with a worried look in her brown eyes. Sophie shot
her a smile, but Claire cocked her blonde head to the side and put a hand on
her hip, telling Sophie she wasn’t buying the act for a second.
“Just lost in thought,”
Sophie said with a shrug.
Claire raised her brows as
she regarded Sophie. “By that look, I’d say it was a man.”
A man? Darius was so much
more. His presence seemed to make the earth still, waiting for his order. He
commanded without a word, dominated with a look from his dark brown gaze.
Man? No man she’d ever met
could be so strong and imposing.
And sexy.
Her mouth went dry thinking
of the hard line of his jaw and his lips that were soft and insistent. His eyes
could cut coldly, but they could also blaze with a fire so hot that it could
melt the sun.
She knew what desire looked
like reflected in his chocolate-colored depths. His eyes softened, turned
downright sensual as he held her gaze, challenging her to try and look away.
All the while his gorgeous
body with rippling muscles brought her higher and higher, giving her ecstasy
the likes she’d never known.
And never known she could
have.
If she hadn’t been sore the
next morning when she woke, she might have thought it all a dream.
“I don’t know who he is, but
you need to see him again,” Claire said, breaking into Sophie’s thoughts again.
Her smile was wide, a knowing look in her eyes.
Sophie swallowed and
smoothed a hand over her hair to make sure the thick length was still in place.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh, huh,” Claire said with
a wink. “Two weeks ago you walked in here with a flush to your skin and a smile
on your lips. You wore the look of a woman who had been rode well. Ever since,
you occasionally get that look in your eyes. I’m telling you as your friend,
Soph, go see him again. Because if I could find a man who could make me look
like that after sex, I’d chain him to my bed.”
This time Sophie’s laugh
wasn’t forced. She knew all too well Claire’s issues with men. She was a
petite, pretty woman who had a bright smile and infectious laugh, and yet every
guy she was interested in preferred someone else. Worse, it was all the wrong
sorts of men who were attracted to Claire.
If Sophie thought her years
without a date was a long time, Claire wasn’t behind her by far. It was why the
two of them had become such good friends.
Sophie leaned down and
whispered in Claire’s ear, “The sex was out of this world, but he’s also out of
the picture.”
She walked away, leaving
Claire with her mouth gaping and questions in her eyes. Sophie inwardly
laughed, because it was a rare thing when she got to shock Claire. Normally, it
was Claire who astonished her on a daily basis.
Sophie turned the corner and
found a man leaning against the wall staring at her. He was drop dead gorgeous
in his dark red sweater and jeans.
He wore a small smile about
his wide lips as his golden eyes stared at her. His long black hair was pulled
back showing off the hard planes of his face.
It unnerved her how he
watched her, as if she were something to be studied under a microscope. Sophie
pulled her gaze away from him, and stopped dead in her tracks when spotted
Darius.
Her heart thumped in her
chest and her stomach fell to her feet. She couldn’t decide if she was excited
to see him or surprised. Especially after just thinking of him.
The strands of his long,
dark blond hair was windblown. Just disheveled enough to make him even sexier.
His hair, in addition to the five o’clock shadow of a beard, made her blood
race and her hands itch to touch him, to run her hands up his chest and over
his thick shoulders once more.
He watched her with his deep
brown eyes without a hint of any emotion. While she was reeling from seeing him
after so long and her body instantly beginning to throb with need, he
felt...nothing.
Sophie knew what kind of
disaster lay with Darius. She swore to never go down that path again. As
tempting as he was – and good Lord was he tempting
– she fortified the walls around her heart.
She walked into her
patient’s room without a backward look to Darius. If only it was as easy to
erase him from her thoughts as it was to look away.
The Dark Kings Series
About the Author
She was born and raised in Texas but loves to travel. Her adventures have taken her throughout the United States as well as to Jamaica, Mexico, and Scotland. Growing up on the Texas/Louisiana border, Donna’s Cajun side of the family taught her the “spicy” side of life while her Texas roots gave her two-steppin’ and bareback riding.
Despite deadlines and voracious reading, Donna still manages to keep up with her two children, four cats, and one long haired Chihuahua.
You can find Donna at
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