Just released from Ellora’s Cave…

She was the daughter of one of the most famous men in existence. Pampered, protected…and stifled. Holly would give up anything just for a chance at freedom.

Rhys knew he should keep his hands off his pupil-he’d agreed to teach Holly how to use her magick, not see what kind of magick they could make together. But she had the saddest eyes, the sweetest smile and a body that made him burn.

Holly’s loneliness and his need lead to an explosive night. But when an unknown threat appears on the horizon, Rhys is sent to deal with it, leaving Holly behind. A broken promise pushes her over the limit and desperate to escape her stifling life, she flees.

But that unknown threat has been watching…has been waiting. And if Rhys doesn’t find her soon, her need for freedom is going to end up killing her.

Excerpt

A cool wind whistled through the air, whipping his hair back from his face and washing away the stink of civilization. Lifting his face to it, he breathed it in, closed his eyes. Reached out-searching, hoping.

But there was nothing.

Slowly, he turned back and studied the lavish hotel room. He’d been at the Peabody for two days and it had been a waste of those two days. Two miserable days. The mortal holiday of Valentine’s Day was just a few days away and the hotel was damn near packed with couples sneaking in a romantic little getaway.

Rhys wasn’t the kind of man to shy away from romance. He loved wining and dining a woman, coaxing her into bed and spending hours wrapped in soft, strong arms. Mortal or elf, he’d never cared because the woman wouldn’t matter to him once he left her. Romancing a woman made her softer, made her so much more receptive and eager.

But now all those romantic gestures that he’d once used so casually dug at him. He saw men giving flowers and gifts and he realized that Holly hadn’t ever had that. Women got that soft, misty look in their eyes and pressed up against their lovers, with kisses and promises of more to come. He hadn’t given Holly a damn bit of romance.

What had come so easily to him had escaped him with Holly, with the one woman who really mattered to him beyond the bedding.

“That will change,” he promised himself quietly, crossing the room to drop down on the bed. When he found Holly, he’d show her all the romance she deserved, shower her with the kind of gifts a man gave his lover and he’d use soft touches and kisses instead of harsh, demanding greed.

His mouth twisted in a grimace and he knew that he might well be fooling himself. He still hadn’t decided what he was going to do, whether he’d return her to the Reach or shelter her from whatever her father planned to do.

None of it would happen here, though. It was time to leave.

Come morning, he would let his magick carry him somewhere else and perhaps, with a hope and a prayer, he would find her.

But deep inside, Rhys was losing hope. He wouldn’t acknowledge it yet but when it was dark and still and quiet and the loneliness and worry wrapped him in their grip, he couldn’t completely hide from it.

As he lay down on the bed, dread filled him.

He needed sleep. Needed to rest his body and his senses so he’d be better able to face another day of searching. But he dreaded closing his eyes, because that was when the fear, the worry and the need was the strongest.

Shi

http://shilohwalker.com