Page 7 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)

Cassy dropped behind the wheel, started the car up and popped it into reverse before she poked Rori in the shoulder. “ I keep telling you he’s a good one. You should’ve gone for him before dipshit Rich. Maybe you should go for him now.”

“Cassandra Andalain,” Rori sighed.

Her friend waved her aside, popped her car into Drive, and sped ahead. “Just saying. Let’s get outta here. I’m fucking starved!”

Rori followed Cassy down the fifth-floor corridor of Steve’s luxurious, ocean-facing condo complex while she prattled on about what they could possibly be eating at nearly midnight.

A light breeze filtered through the corridor, bringing the briny scent and soothing music of the ocean to greet them as they approached the door.

The crescent moon gleamed in the black sky, casting a dappling silver sheen over otherwise calm waters.

Even if Steve wasn’t Rori’s boyfriend, visiting him with her friend was a guilty pleasure she thoroughly enjoyed.

The views from his place were peaceful. His complex was newer, barely filled other than a few of the lower-level units, and had no neighboring buildings…

yet. The closest building on either side was half a mile away.

The serenity that surrounded his place was unmatched, with the swaying dune grass, rustling palms, and lush mangroves.

Cassy was damn lucky.

“Last week was French cuisine, but I’m hoping for more of that Irish fare he’s so good at,” Cassy said, bringing Rori away from her daydreaming thoughts. She shrugged a shoulder, holding up the six-pack of Guinness she carried.

“I suspect you’re hoping to manifest Irish grub with beer instead of wine?”

Cassy flashed a smile over her shoulder and nodded once. “Yep. If not, we’ll have it for next time.” Her face shadowed as her smile turned devious. “And maybe we can convince Brandon to tag along. It’s been almost a month since we all hung out.”

“Nursing school isn’t easy. Especially this semester.”

“You make it look like cake, smarty pants.”

Rori rolled her eyes and laughed quietly. “And I’m dying on the inside.”

As they came up to Steve’s door, a sharp thud followed by the sound of something shattering brought them both up short.

Cassy cast Rori a worried glance. Rori bit her bottom lip and tilted her head closer to the door, trying to make out what was going on inside Steve’s condo.

A scuffle, some low growly words, a sharp whoosh.

Things she shouldn’t be able to hear but could.

Something warm coasted over her arms, bringing the hairs upright.

Dread pooled in her gut as she stepped back and met Cassy’s gaze.

“He didn’t say anything about expecting company, did he?

” she whispered. A few cusses, or what sounded like cusses, reached them through the door.

Fighting, verbal back and forth that could only be speculated because the walls muffled the clarity of the words.

She hadn’t realized how tightly she gripped the pack of beer until her fingers burned where the cardboard handle bit into her skin.

Cassy shook her head, her gaze lowering to the doorknob. Rori followed, noting no signs of forced entry. Not a single scratch or dent. Her attention shifted to her friend when she saw Cassy pull out a mean-looking spike attached to her keychain from her purse and positioned it between two fingers.

Rori’s eyes widened. “Cas, what the hell is that?”

“Gotta carry protection these days.” The worry dissipated into determination and a curl of anger. Rori stopped her when she reached for the doorknob. “He doesn’t lock the door. ”

“Why don’t we call him first? In case he’s in the middle of some”—she threw the door a cautious glance, her brows furrowing—“feud?”

“Feud? He’s got no family around, and his circle of friends is us. Whoever’s in there doesn’t belong, and who am I to spoil a grand surprise entrance?”

“There’s no surprise. Steve knows we’re coming.”

Cassy hissed. “But his guest doesn’t.”

Rori pulled her hand away when Cassy twisted the doorknob and threw the door wide, the panel bouncing off the rubber stopper as she stormed into the condo.

Rori’s jaw slackened, a body-shattering wave of weakness slamming into her with the force of a storm.

Did her heart seize? Was she about to faint?

Why was the entire sight before her throbbing like a pulsating light? Fading and refocusing?

Who on earth was that…that…

God.

Because his unnatural beauty stole her breath and left her hot and cold, weak and numb, all at once.

Her gaze lowered to the glinting silver blade the stranger held at Steve’s throat, the tip breaking enough skin to draw blood.

Further down the forbidden man’s form to the impossible blue smoke curling around his flexed fingers, creeping over his forearm.

She snapped her gaze back to the man’s face. An impeccable face with flawless features carved from pale stone. All sharp angles and accentuated slopes. Perfect.

Until his startling blue eyes met hers. Eyes so cold they injected ice into her soul. Eyes set in that perfectly stoic face, devoid of emotions.

The eyes of a murderer.

Fear. Cold, raw fear.

Runrunrun!

Somewhere through her dulled senses, Cassy’s scream shook Rori free of her shock. She leaped for her friend, who fearlessly sprang toward the stranger.

“Cassy, no!”

The beers fell from Rori’s hand, crashing to the tiled floor in a pool of fizzy dark liquid and broken glass.

Her flip-flops slipped before she could maneuver around the mess, and she took a hard fall, banging her elbow and hip.

The jolt wracked her ribs and she barked out in pain, but pulled her knees under her and scrambled to her feet.

No amount of fear or adrenaline could get her to move faster as pain shot through her body with each heartbeat.

The stranger threw up his hand. That unnatural entwining smoke flashed out, throwing Cassy backward. Rori shrieked as her friend slammed into the wall and slid down to the floor, eyes fluttering before falling closed.

“Stop!” Steve roared.

Rori shuffled back as more of that unreal smoky stuff poured out of Steve’s hands and cast out to the stranger, who blindly blocked the attack and counterattacked with his own effortless magic—because she had no other word for it—flipping Steve over the sofa.

The entire time, his frigid gaze held hers, piercing her straight through her mind.

Leaving her body a jumble of sensation, from allure to fear to desire to hatred.

The air around him shimmered a dull gold, and it was in that split moment when she could break their gaze that she noticed his ears tapered to points alongside his head. Points. Like an elf.

“Oh. My. God.”

Rori spun and bolted for the door.

The door slammed shut in front of her. The doorknob melted away in a white flash of magic.

Magic that snapped around her from shoulders to hips like burning hot ropes .

She opened her mouth to scream.

Her body jerked backward, her feet lifting from the floor. She slammed into an unyielding wall with a grunt and a gasp?—

“Thaddeus, enough!”

“I warned you about frolicking with mortals.”

Rori stiffened as the murderous stranger groused those words in a husky, chilling voice beside her ear, his warm breath unleashing goosebumps over her arms. That voice rolled along her muscles, resonated in her bones, and created the sweetest hum in her soul. A hum she dreaded more than Rich.

This thing behind her, holding her in magical straps and a steel arm that threatened to fracture her healing ribs all over again, set a new precedent of fear.

Steve came around them…

What was left of her sane world tilted on its axis.

“W-what happened to you?” Rori breathed.

Steve, or the man who should be Steve, didn’t look a speck like the spiky brown-haired, brown-eyed hottie Cassy adored and who Rori had watched fly over the sofa moments ago.

No. The man before her had an uncanny resemblance to the monster at her back, with a sharp-cut face, hair woven with dozens of different hues of gold and stunning silver eyes.

And if her eyes didn’t deceive her—she was really beginning to question that —he appeared a few inches taller, broader, and fairer in skin color.

To top the cake, this version of Steve had pointy ears, too.

Rori whimpered, sagging in the unyielding grip of her captor. Her gaze fell to Cassy, who remained unconscious on the floor, blissfully oblivious to the circus Rori was trying to process in a mind whirling with too many emotions to try and filter. If only she had been the one rendered unconscious …

Steve’s brows rose, his gaze lifting to the beast behind her before his nostrils flared and a taunting smile crested his mouth.

“Well, if this isn’t ironic. Let her go, Thad.

You’re hurting her.” He twisted enough to find Cassy and, with another swirl and some fancy finger movements, used his magic to lift her friend from the ground and gently place her on the sofa.

His smile turned into a sneer as he cast the stranger a threatening look.

“This was unnecessary.” He nodded sharply at Rori. “I said, let her go .”

The beast’s grip on her tightened, drawing a whimper on another flare of pain from her chest. As cold as she recalled the man’s eyes and face being, heat like the summer sun poured off him and soaked deep into her skin.

“Fine,” Steve snapped.

A flash of bright light. The stranger’s grip fell away.

She stumbled forward into Steve, who caught her by the shoulders and eased her onto the edge of the sofa next to Cassy.

Warmth flooded her, a different sensation that soothed her aches and pains until they nearly vanished.

She narrowed her eyes on Steve, her mouth dry.

She tried to take a deep breath, but her heart beat so fast she could barely suck in enough air to keep her conscious.