Free Haunted by Your Touch by Jeaniene Frost, Sharie Kohler Page B

outrank Purebloods on a kindness scale, no matter their fearsome reputation.
    As for the ravishment, I took that as sarcasm instead of nefarious intent. Rafael might have blown my mind by revealing that he was a Fallen, but I didn’t believe he was a secret rapist, too. No, he was the type of man who relished sensual surrender instead of brute force, as he’d proved in the carriage. The memory of that, combinedwith how long it had been since I’d had sex, made the prospect of being alone with him more enticing than daunting, Fallen or no.
    Rafael deposited me inside a large, triangular room with crystal walls forming a point at the high, high ceiling. Light glowed from some of those crystals, bathing the room with a soft bluish tinge. A pool of silver water took up one corner, an assortment of thick pillows was piled in another, and a desk that looked formed from the wall took up the final corner. I didn’t wait for Rafael to speak but walked over to the shining pool, kneeling by it with a questioning look.
    “Is this safe for Partials?”
    “Yes, but there’s no barrier in there, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he replied in a silky voice.
    I kicked off my shoes. “I’m thinking that I still smell like a sewer and I’d like to change that. You should be all for this idea. It’ll make your whole ravishment plan a lot more palatable for you.”
    His mouth quirked, confirming my belief that he’d never intended that, before his expression became stern. “Don’t try to joke your way out of this, Mara. I’m still very angry with you.”
    “I don’t blame you.” Spoken as I began to unbutton my shirt. Nothing put a man in a bettermood than watching a woman strip, as Rafael’s fading scowl proved. Jack and Ashton had already taken my vest, gun belt, and weapons, so I had less to take off than what I’d started out with.
    He watched me, his wings shifting and then folding back in a compilation of movements that somehow shrank them until I couldn’t see them anymore. How could he hide them so completely? True, I hadn’t seen Rafael’s bare back before, but he’d never looked like he’d had a large hump under his clothes.
    “Turn around,” I said, wondering if he’d refuse.
    Slowly, he turned, revealing wide, muscled shoulders, a narrow waist, and a set of odd, slight ridges that ran along his spine from its base to his neck. Impossibly, that was all that remained of the wings that had reached from his head down to his feet.
    “How?” I asked, my voice coming out throatier than before.
    “Magic,” he replied, facing me once more.
    I swallowed at the intensity in his eyes, their vibrant blue shade already dusting over with tiny little lights. “I’m serious,” I told him.
    “So am I.” He spread his arms, and those incrediblewings unfurled again, their dark span reaching a foot past his fingertips and their breadth twice as wide as his body. Then he lowered his arms, and just as swiftly, those wings curled up, disappearing from sight.
    “There’s no scientific explanation for these,” he went on, his tone making gooseflesh break out over my skin. “They defy reason and natural order. Fallen were made before those things even existed.”
    I stood there in my bra and black jeans, feeling somewhat awed by the man in front of me, wishing I hadn’t thought that my taking a bath would distract him from being angry. It was too late to change my mind, though.
    I unzipped my jeans and stepped out of them, feeling his gaze move over me despite the fact that I didn’t meet his eyes. Then I quickly lowered myself into the pool without taking off my bra or panties. Good thing it wasn’t cold, because my nipples were already hard from a mixture of excitement and nervousness. It was deep enough that I sank into the water up to my shoulders, noting that the shiny liquid felt different—thicker, like salt water but without the grittiness. Within moments, my skin began to tingle, but not in an