Chapter 1
Lilin opened and closed her wings, studying tonight’s prey. Archer Dane.
As a Succubus, Lilin usually had her choice of any man. They were easy creatures. A naked woman and immediately a man hardened in greeting.
She would ride him, take his seed…and his soul.
But this male affected her in some strange way. After centuries of taking men to replenish herself she felt less and less pleasure. Most men proved to be little sport. She needed something more.
Unseelie Queen Rusalka insisted Lilin bring her Archer’s soul. Odd. Normally, Lilin kept the male’s soul to nourish her until she claimed her next prey.
For days she’d observed Archer. A powerful man with a muscular, hard body. Strong jaw, blue eyes, black hair, and a rare smile that gave her tingles all over.
Lilin licked her lower lip. She gripped the corner bedpost as her wings created a draft, teasing his hair as he slept. In all her centuries of existence, no man had thrilled her so.
Stop thinking of Archer as if he’s more than an assignment. I’ll give his soul to Queen Rusalka and move to my next prey.
After making her wings disappear, and with unusual excitement in her belly, she stepped toward him.
#
Archer was being watched. He kept his breathing slow but slitted his eyes enough to see.
He almost opened his eyes as surprise arrowed through him.
A beautiful, petite naked woman.
With wings. She fucking had wings.
A breeze brushed his face every time she opened and closed those wings. The woman licked her bottom lip and looked at him like he was a treat. Her wings drew back and vanished.
What the—
Archer squeezed his eyes shut.
Dream. No other explanation.
He fully opened his eyes.
Nope. Still there.
The dream woman stopped. Blinked. Then smiled. “Hello, Archer.”
He frowned as he pushed himself up, swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood. He towered over the small woman.
Her gaze widened. “Why did you get up?”
Too real. Everything about this felt real.
“Who are you?” He slept in the nude, and he and his damned erection faced her.
“I’m Lilin.” She tried to touch him, but he caught her wrist.
She moved close enough that her body heat burned into him, her bare breasts brushing his chest. The lower half of him was saying, “What are you waiting for?” But at the same time he was grinding his teeth.
This Lilin was gorgeous—long silvery-blonde hair and silver eyes glittering in the moonlight. Her scent was like a rain-washed spring night.
He hardened his grip.
“I don’t know what you want, lady,” he growled, “but you’d better get your little ass out.”
She gave a seductive smile. “I want you.”
Even though his body was shouting otherwise, Archer said, “I don’t do strange women. And I sure don’t know you.”
Lilin’s lips curved into a wicked smile. “You will, Archer Dane.”
She vanished.
He let his now empty hands drop away.
#
Lilin frowned as she sat on the bank of the River of Life in the moonlight. She wrapped her arms around her knees and held them close.
The human had rejected her. Rejected her!
She had wanted a challenge and apparently Archer was it. She would make good on her promise and the male would come to know her. Then she would bed him and drain him of his soul.
No one refused her.
Lilin rose, spread her wings, and flew. She enjoyed the sense of freedom that accompanied flight. As an air Succubus, she drank in the growing wind like an elixir.
Soon it would be daylight in Archer’s world.
Soon she would begin her seduction.
Chapter 2
Archer Dane gripped a set of architectural plans as he strode into Dane Construction’s headquarters and headed toward his office. When he reached his office door, Archer paused to speak to his assistant.
He almost dropped the plans he was carrying and he was certain his jaw fell to the floor.
The woman from last night’s dream sat in Cammie’s seat. The nameplate now read Lilin Night.
Lilin. From last night.
She looked up and smiled. “Good morning, Archer.”
He growled. “What are you—”
“Your reports are on your desk, as well as the construction loan papers.” She looked at the telephone and grabbed a stack of white notes. “Here are your messages.”
Automatically, he took the notes but gave her a fierce glare. “Where’s Cammie?”
Lilin looked at him with wide, innocent silvery eyes. “On vacation in the Florida Keys. You must have forgotten.”
No. He remembered everything. Especially last night. He hadn’t been able to go back to sleep, his hallucination playing over and over in his mind.
But here sat his hallucination. At Cammie’s desk.
He glanced to see if any employees noticed him and Lilin. Thank God everyone looked busy.
“In my office. Now,” he said to Lilin in a low voice.
“Yes, Mr. Dane.” She picked up the compact laptop Cammie always used.
“Leave it,” Archer said.
Lilin set it on the desk. “Yes, Mr. Dane.” The way she said Mr. Dane in a slightly unusual accent was like a caress that made him so hard he had to grit his teeth..
Shit. He had to get into his office before any employees noticed how much Lilin affected him. He opened the door for Lilin, then closed and locked it. Talking to this woman was not something he needed anyone to walk in on.
Archer turned from locking the door and froze. The architectural plans fell from one hand. His messages slipped from the other and scattered across the floor.
He was face-to-face with a very naked woman.
Before he had a chance to react Lilin had her arms around his neck and her body pressed to his. Her diamond-hard nipples rubbed him through his shirt and his erection pressed against her belly. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.
Ah, God. He almost dropped to his knees—they actually went weak. Lilin’s kiss was like nothing he’d ever experienced. He couldn’t begin to resist. His mind spun and all he could think about was laying her flat on his desk, jerking down his zipper, getting in between her thighs, and driving deep inside her. His brain turned to mush and his body into one horny sex machine.
Damn, Lilin knew how to kiss. She tasted of woman and almonds, and her scent drove him crazy—the smell of rain after a thunderstorm .
She thrust her tongue into his mouth and made soft purring sounds. She nibbled his lower lip then teased his tongue with hers. As they kissed, she drew him with her so that they were moving backward until she hit something hard. His desk. File folders crashed to the floor as she scooted her ass onto the surface.
Lilin wrapped her arms around his neck again and brought him down with her as she continued the magic of her kiss. She pulled him closer until he stood between her thighs, his hardness pressed against her heat.
Archer placed one of his hands on her soft breast and pinched her nipple, causing her to purr louder. He moved the fingers of his other hand between their bodies and slipped them inside her core. She made small sounds of pleasure against his mouth as he rubbed her with his thumb.
He had to take her. And now. He braced one hand on the desk and reached to unfasten his jeans with his other.
Something knocked at the back of his mind as he continued kissing Lilin, the heat and fervor between them growing and growing.
He couldn’t think clearly. The haze of lust was so strong.
The knocking in his head wouldn’t stop.
Wait. It wasn’t in his head.
Someone was at his door.
The realization was enough to scatter the haze and bring him back to reality. He pushed away from the desk, away from Lilin, and shook his head to clear his mind.
The knocking grew louder.
“Mr. Dane,” came a muffled voice from the other side of the door. “Mr. Garfield’s here for his ten o’clock appointment. Is everything all right?” It was Molly’s voice and she sounded both concerned and curious. She’d probably seen him walk in with Lilin.
Archer stepped back and nearly stumbled into one of the padded chairs in front of his desk. Lilin’s beautiful breasts were pink from his caresses, her lips swollen from his kisses, her thighs wide and exposing her soft pink flesh. A wicked smile tilted the corners of her lips.
Another knock. Archer raised his voice. “I’ve been on an important call, Molly. Be right there.”
“Get your clothes on,” he ordered Lilin in low growl. “However you were hired, you’re now fired. Don’t come back here.”
She pouted. “Don’t you want to take me?”
“Yes—no! Get your clothes on.” He glanced around for her skirt and blouse. The only things on the floor were the scattered messages and architectural plans that he had to pick up in a hurry before Garfield came into the room. Archer turned back to his desk.
Lilin was gone.
Archer couldn’t move. This woman—or whatever was happening to him—was driving him mad.
He hurried around his desk and checked under it. Nothing. There was no other place possible for her to hide in his office that contained only his desk, chairs, and a round conference table. She definitely wasn’t under the table.
What was going on?
This took hallucinating to a whole new level.
He raised his fingers to his nose—the fingers that had just been inside her—and smelled Lilin’s musk. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
Now his hallucinations included her smell?
#
Lilin grumbled as she walked in The Hall of the Lost. Her hair caressed her naked buttocks, the air felt cool against her breasts, and the marble floor smooth beneath her bare feet. She’d been summoned to Queen Rusalka of the Unseelie Court. No doubt because of her failure.
She’d almost had Archer. Almost had him.
There would be no resisting her tonight.
Her shoulders tensed and her skin tingled as the Unseelie Fae guards drew open the massive gold-leafed doors of Rusalka’s receiving room. The guards were dark-green skinned with pointed ears and fierce expressions. They carried even fiercer weapons.
Lilin walked along the intricately carved footpath that led through the chamber to the Queen’s throne. Walking into the chamber was like walking into the forest, complete with trees, fresh earth, and wildflower blooms.
Queen Rusalka was like all Fae, her features were ageless but she was centuries, if not millennia, old. She bore the darkness of the Unseelie.
A crown of white-gold thorns was perched upon her long ringlets and she wore a black gown as usual. Each gown was different and beautiful, but always black. Black gemstones sparkled on the bodice of her gown today, and a diaphanous skirt sheltered her small, always bare, feet.
Lilin knelt before the Queen and lowered her head.
“You have been unsuccessful.” Queen Rusalka’s sharp tone echoed through the trees in the chamber. “Twice. I commanded you to retrieve this mortal’s soul and bring it to me. But you failed.”
“Yes, my Queen.” Lilin wanted to rush to explain what had happened this second time—the interruption that broke her hold on Archer—but she bit her tongue knowing that would gain her a worse punishment.
A dangerous growl rose within Rusalka’s throat. “Fail again and I shall see you suffer a mortal’s life.”
Before Lilin could stop herself, her head shot up. “Mortal? As in human?”
Queen Rusalka narrowed her black eyes. “You dare to question me, Succubus?”
Lilin lowered her gaze. “Of course not, my Queen. I shall take Archer Dane’s soul. Tonight.”
