DARK AND DANGEROUS: Six-in-One Hot Paranormal Romance Books Boxed Set – just 99c / 99p – Excerpt from Seduce by Felicity Heaton

DARK AND DANGEROUS: Six-in-One Hot Paranormal Romances Boxed Set featuring six books by six best-selling authors is out now in ebook and for a limited time only, it’s just $0.99 / 99p!

That’s right, you can get these 6 hot paranormal romance books by Felicity Heaton, Jennifer Ashley, Bonnie Vanak, Caris Roane, Laurie London and Erin Kellison for under a dollar right now.

Find out more about DARK AND DANGEROUS at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/darkanddangerous/

Here’s your next excerpt from one of the books in this fantastic boxed set of paranormal romances.

Today, we have an excerpt from me! SEDUCE by Felicity Heaton.

 

DARK AND DANGEROUS is available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
US/International | UK | Canada | Germany | France | Italy | Spain

Other Retailers:
Barnes and Noble Nook | Kobo Books

(Coming soon to Apple iBooks Stores)

 

SEDUCE by Felicity Heaton

Sera blinked slowly, the fire in her green eyes still burning brightly, telling Antoine that she wasn’t going to give up. She was going to get her way whether he liked it or not. He had to admire her spirit. Most women gave up on him quickly, as soon as he spoke and said something that they didn’t like to hear. Sera had taken several verbal blows and was still standing, still holding her ground and refusing to surrender. She was beautiful. Like a goddess of war as she stood there unashamed of her nude state, her golden wavy hair curled around her tipped-back shoulders and her gaze defiant in the way it held his, silently challenging him to try to make her leave. All she needed was a golden chariot and a spear and she would be a vision worthy of a painting. He would definitely hang such a canvas in his office and would likely spend the entire night just staring at it, fascinated and mesmerised by her.

She stalked towards him, so confident now, the glint in her eyes telling him that she had seen his desire, his attraction, in his gaze and that she knew he couldn’t hold out against her. His defences were weak where she was concerned. Her green gaze dropped to his trousers and then she smiled into his eyes, her silent thoughts coming through loud and clear, as though she had projected them into his mind. She had noticed the hard-on that he was sporting and she was willing to make it go away, to satisfy his every whim and need. Devil, he wanted that. He wanted it with a ferocity that startled him.

Antoine backed off.

“I am not interested,” he said but it sounded feeble even to him.

Victory flashed in his goddess’s eyes.

“Is there room in your show for real seduction, Antoine?” she husked and the way she spoke his name rent the barricade that had kept the flames of his passion banked for so many centuries.

Sparks broke through, igniting his blood and threatening to turn his control to ash. She bit the tip of her index finger, revealing the barest hint of fang, and his heart smashed against his chest. Fire consumed him then, the thought of her biting him and of biting her fanning it into an inferno that incinerated everything in its path. Blood. Fangs. Two very bad things. His claws extended and pressed into his palms, spilling the scent of his own blood. He wanted to taste it. His hands shook. He wanted to taste her.

No.

That he couldn’t allow. Never. It was too dangerous.

“Is there room for a woman who could take a man and change his no to a yes?” Sera ran her hand down his chest, her eyes on his. She had to see the danger in them, the red obliterating the blue, the warning to keep away from him or risk the consequences of his terrible hunger. It ran in his blood, tainting it, whispering words of sweet release to him, of feeding until he had quenched his thirst and then continuing.

Not that. Anything but that. He witnessed the perils of such feeding every night when his brother woke screaming and thrashing against his restraints. That same addiction ran in Antoine’s veins, a dark master waiting for the day it would reign over him and do the same terrible things to him as it did to Snow.

He was already past the age at which Snow had exhibited the first signs of bloodlust. If he didn’t keep control, if he didn’t deny his needs, it would be game over for him too. It would only take one little slip.

Who would look after Snow if he lost himself to bloodlust too?

“Antoine?” Sera backed away, a nervous edge to her voice now.

He closed his eyes and lowered his head, turning it away from her. The Devil, he was close to saying yes to her without any need for seduction but he couldn’t.

Antoine rallied, pushing away the chilling thought of succumbing to bloodlust and her seduction, and said, “No.”

He pivoted on his heel and stalked towards the stage door, intent on leaving her and heading for the sanctuary of his office. He would fix himself a glass of blood to quench his hunger and then close his eyes for a while and claw back control.

“Haven’t I already seduced you to a degree?” she called after him and he stopped dead. True. “I got you onto the stage with me… I aroused you until you couldn’t resist participating.”

He couldn’t deny that. His fingers were still moist from touching her and he had been fighting the temptation to lick them clean the whole time he had been talking to her. What was he doing? How had she cracked the armour around his emotions so easily? She didn’t belong with him. He belonged with no one. It was safer that way.

Safer for both of them.

Antoine looked down at his hands. Blood. It covered them, crimson dripping from his fingertips and splattered up the sleeves of his silver-grey shirt. He breathed hard, fighting the panic and the memories. The fear. It swamped him, pushing down and breaking apart his defences, closing his throat and tightening his chest. It prickled over every inch of his skin and blazed in his heart. Antoine shut his eyes and breathed slowly and deeply. In. Out. Inhale. Exhale. Just as he had practiced so many times. Focus on his breathing. Let everything else fade away. No fear. No pain. No death. Just him, living, breathing. Alive not dead.

Not bleeding out.

When he finally opened his eyes again, the blood on his hands was gone and Sera was standing between him and the stage door, looking at him strangely. Concerned? The spark of desire that had enlarged her pupils was gone, erased by her frown and a steady, penetrating look that made him feel as though she was reaching past the barrier right that moment, seeking to seize the truth about his past from his heart.

Antoine closed his eyes, turned away from her, and released one final soothing breath. It would turn out to be yet another mistake, would end with her cleaving open his heart, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He wanted to stay. He needed to stay. For the first time in three centuries, he needed to surrender a fraction of control so he could lose himself in this woman.

He needed to be with someone.

With her.

Everything about her said that she could satisfy his needs, that she would be everything that he wanted her to be—gentle, tender and warm. She could even fix his broken heart if he was brave enough to let her try, foolish enough to believe that the feelings she showed him in her eyes at times were real and not an act.

His heart whispered that he could still get out now before it was too late. He didn’t have to put himself through this Hell again.

Antoine dropped down off the stage and sat in the seat he had occupied during Sera’s show for him.

He couldn’t leave. It was already too late. He had touched her, had fallen under her spell, and now he needed more than just a taste of her.

He needed all of her.

Sera stood there on the stage, looking uncertain now. Had she expected him to make this easy on her?

He couldn’t, not when part of his heart was screaming at him to flee, that he was in danger and needed to escape right now. The desire she stirred in him, the attraction he felt towards her, might have made him stay but he still fought those feelings on instinct and his heart would continue to fight her as she tried to seduce him. The self-preservation instinct ran deep after three centuries, impossible to overcome without a little convincing.

Sera still stood there. Was she waiting for him to say or do something?

She blinked, long dark lashes shuttering her beautiful green irises, and when she was looking at him again, her confidence was back. She had said she could seduce a man, could turn his no into a yes. He wasn’t going to prove an easy challenge. The darker part of him said to take all that he could from her, satisfying his every need without becoming attached, and then make her leave. She was willing. She could host his body and his need for blood, and he could continue for another three centuries without physical or emotional contact with a woman.

That thought turned his stomach.

What sort of man was he becoming? Had everything his family bred into him brought him to this point, a man devoid of emotion, willing to use an innocent woman’s feelings against her and then discard her?

Or had this new dark side of him been birthed in the aftermath of that horrific night?

Antoine closed his eyes against the memory. When he opened them again, Sera stood before him, still gloriously nude. She leaned over so her wavy blonde hair fell forwards to conceal her breasts and settled one hand on the arm of his seat. The other came to rest against his chest. His eyes closed with the first brush of her lips over his cheek and he exhaled slowly, losing himself in the soft caress and the smell of her. Sweet like almonds and honeysuckle. It had been so long since a woman had been this close to him that he couldn’t remember how any of them had smelt, but he was sure that none of them had smelt as exotic and enticing as Sera.

She kissed down to his jaw and then onto his neck, teasing him with brief sweeps of her mouth. Antoine tipped his head back and stifled a groan. Her hand moved over him, feather light as it fluttered across his chest and then up to his throat. She grazed her fingers over it and then buried them into his hair. His groan escaped him this time, the feel of her nails against his scalp too good to contain. She sighed, her breath skimming hotly over his throat, and continued to kiss and suck it, driving him wild with the desire to feel her teeth pressing into his flesh.

Sera kissed under his jaw, his chin, the other side of his throat. Another moan slipped free when she sat sideways on his lap and ran her other hand firmly up his arm, tracing his muscles through his shirt while she continued to work at his throat, maddening him. She sucked and nibbled his right earlobe and he tensed, clawed at the seat arms and wanted to growl at her to make her kiss him. He needed to feel her mouth on his, cursed her for avoiding it as she kissed his cheek, his nose, and his chin. He tried to kiss her but she evaded him and clucked her tongue.

He was playing right into her hands.

A woman had done this to him before.

That instantly dampened his desire but it didn’t kill it. It rose from the ashes like a phoenix, reborn stronger than ever, given life by each brush of her hands over his chest and each sweep of her lips down his neck. She tugged at his black tie, slid the two sides free of each other, and then started on his shirt. Her fingers teased his chest as she popped each button and slowly parted it.

Antoine couldn’t take it.

He tensed right down to his soul, bracing himself as a desire to shove her away clawed at him. It was hard to deny that urge. He didn’t want to be weak again, was afraid that if he gave in to her that he was only going to end up broken all over again. His parents were right. Never involve yourself with those below your class. They had no breeding. They did as they pleased with no regard for others. Like animals. Sera was one of those beasts.

That cooled his desire for a heartbeat of time.

What extinguished it completely were her fingers pausing against his chest and the sense of astonishment that flowed into him through them.

He was old and powerful enough to feel her emotions and he knew what she was looking at.

“My God,” she whispered under her breath and touched one of the ridges of scar tissue that slashed across his chest. “What happened?”

Antoine didn’t want to talk about it, and he didn’t want to look down either. If he did, he wouldn’t see her hand on his body. He would see something horrific. He would see his own flesh cleaved open, bleeding profusely, and his life draining before his eyes. He relived that nightmare often enough during sleep. He didn’t need to see it while he was awake.

He grabbed her hand and shoved it off him, tugging his shirt closed at the same time.

“Nothing happened,” he snarled and tried to push her away but she tensed, going so rigid that it was impossible to get her off his lap without sending her crashing onto the floor and hurting her.

Sera was still a moment, watching him in silence, and then she leaned towards him and did something that tore at the barrier he had carefully constructed around his heart. She gently eased his hand away from his shirt, peeled it open to reveal his chest, and soothed each thick scar with soft warm kisses.

It was too much.

Antoine pushed the hand that grasped her wrist forwards, twisting it to an awkward position in an attempt to get her off him. She fought against him, still worshipping the scars of his past with kisses that eased his pain. It felt too good. Each kiss punched another hole in his defences.

“You don’t want to talk, that’s fine,” she murmured between kisses and he closed his eyes, his grip on her wrist tightening as he battled the temptation to wave a white flag and surrender to her. For the first time, he found words lining up on his tongue, words that would reveal something terrible. Words he had promised he would never speak. Who was this goddess on his lap? What power did she have over him to make him so easily forget his pain and want to confide everything in her?

She licked the end of one ragged scar and leaned her cheek against his chest.

“You don’t have to tell me anything, Antoine… but don’t pretend you don’t want me… or this.” Her hand skated down over his stomach and his desire flared right back up when her soft palm cupped his hard cock through his black trousers. His breathing hitched and his jaw tensed, a hot flood of arousal sweeping through his veins and ratcheting his desire up to a whole new level. “This says you do.”

Those four words were whispered against his chest and he couldn’t deny the truth in them. He did want her. He didn’t want this to end, whatever this was, even though he knew it would, whether he ended it before he got hurt or she ended it and hurt him.

“Let me taste you, Antoine. Stop fighting me.” She pressed more soft kisses to his chest, her fingers toying with his nipples and then raking down his stomach towards his belt.

 

Did you enjoy today’s excerpt?

DARK AND DANGEROUS is available in e-book from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
US/International | UK | Canada | Germany | France | Italy | Spain

Other Retailers:
Barnes and Noble Nook | Kobo Books

(Coming soon to Apple iBooks Stores)

 


About Felicity Heaton

I'm a NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In my books I create detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, Larissa Ione, Kresley Cole, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will love my books too.

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