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  “I would never have allowed her to be hurt,” Jareth said softly, his voice tingling along her spine with unnerving precision and hitting every hotspot on her body. Her nipples ached, and she squeezed her legs together against the thrum of sensation. It was ridiculous what Jareth did to her so easily. But then, she had been fantasizing about the man since she’d first set eyes on him a month before. Most likely, every woman, and maybe a few men, who met him did the same.

  He offered her his hand. She stared at it, her heart fluttering almost as wildly as it had when she’d faced that jaguar. As silly as it might seem, she felt that touching him might change her in some way. His brow arched in challenge at her hesitation, amusement flickering in the fiery depths of his eyes.

  “You knew they were here,” Mike accused, his sudden appearance at her side offering Amber an escape. She pushed to her feet on her own, silently refusing Jareth’s hand, as Mike’s rant continued. “You knew and you said nothing.”

  A hint of irritation flashed across Jareth’s rugged features before he cut a sharp look at Mike, his voice steady, calm. “I told you what you needed to know. It’s dangerous. Leave before it’s too late. You ignored the warning.”

  Mike was fuming, as if Jareth had put them in danger instead of having saved their backsides. “A vague warning from a stranger isn’t enough. You should have specifically stated there are jaguars here.”

  “Those cats are endangered, which in my book makes them far more valuable than your dust and rocks. They deserve to be left alone.”

  “Yet you live here,” Mike countered.

  “I am one man,” he said. “You are an army of intruders on their home terrain.” His gaze cut to Amber. “Take your people and get out before someone gets hurt.”

  Amber opened her mouth to speak, but Mike was too quick for her. “Is that a threat?” Mike demanded.

  Jareth cut him a look. “What else would you call what just happened?”

  Mike tilted his head, his teeth grinding together. “I’m trying to figure out why they left when you arrived,” he speculated.

  “You got lucky,” Jareth said sharply, the air crackling with instant, undeniable tension. He reached down and snagged the rifle from the ground and tossed it to Mike, forcing him to catch it. “Think about it as you pack up and leave.”

  Jareth turned and started walking away, finality in the action. He was done. With the conversation. With them. He’d made that clear.

  But Amber wasn’t done with him. Instinct sent Amber in pursuit. Jareth was a part of this place in ways no one else here was. If anyone could help her find the answers she sought, he could.

  “Stay here, Amber,” Mike called behind her, but she didn’t stop. Jareth was fast departing, headed toward the steep mountain to their right that led to his cabin. “It’s dangerous! Damn it! Get back here!”

  But it wasn’t dangerous. Not with Jareth nearby. She understood this on a level Mike would never comprehend. Heck, she barely did herself.

  “Jareth!” she yelled as he reached the path leading up the mountain. He stopped, turned; he stared at her as she darted forward, with a head-to-toe inspection that made her thin black tee and cargo pants feel invisible.

  Amber stopped in front of him, a bit breathless, and not from the run. From his nearness. “I’m sorry for Mike,” she said. “I know what you did for us back there.”

  He arched a brow. “What did I do, Amber?” His voice seemed to rasp her nerve endings; his eyes, to brush them with a soothing velvety finish.

  “You tell me,” she urged softly. “How did you make those cats retreat?”

  He tilted his head, studied her with keen eyes, a predatory gleam in their depths. There was something different about him today, something far more animalistic than ever before. Something that made his piercing attention wash over her with the impact of a firestorm. She was hot, melting in place, her heart drumming in her ears.

  Suddenly, she was in his arms, his fingers splayed intimately at her lower back, melding her against that long, hard body. She’d have been ashamed at how instantly wet she was, how downright achy to feel this man inside her, if not for the bulge of his cock pressed into her stomach—proof that Jareth had gone from zero to one hundred, in the same thirty seconds she had.

  Finally, he broke the silence. “You want to know how I tamed the beasts, do you?” he challenged, his voice velvety thick with seduction. And Amber all but moaned as his breath, warm and wicked, caressed her cheek, a moment before he whispered, “Maybe I’m a beast myself.”

  Her breath caught in her lungs with that declaration; it should have scared her but only made her hotter. Her fingers curled around his T-shirt, hands resting on the solid wall of his chest. Her knees were weak, but he held her steady, their legs intimately entwined together.

  “Are you?” she demanded hoarsely, tipping her chin up in what was meant as an act of defiance but instead became a plea for a kiss. A plea he answered without the slightest hesitation.

  His lips closed down on hers, brutally wonderful lips, his tongue pressing past hers, into the wet recesses of her mouth. One long forceful stroke, followed by another. He tasted like cinnamon and spice with a hint of coffee. Felt like sin, and the kind of devilish, demanding satisfaction she wasn’t sure she’d experienced—not in this lifetime—but she wanted to. She melted for this man like the sun did into the moon—like light into darkness. And he was dark, dark in ways she probably did not want to know, but yet, darkly addictive in ways she felt she had to know. There was no chance of resistance, no hope of denying her desire for this man. She’d wanted him since the first moment she’d met him. She was wet and wanting now, welcoming the escape from everything, from the fear of moments before, into a place that was safe and pleasurable. To the desire and the warmth that was Jareth.

  But as certainly as he had claimed her mouth, he released it and her, his heavy-lidded stare meeting hers. “Am I a beast?” he said softly, his voice a rough timbre of a taunt. “I suggest you leave before you find out the answer to that question.” He turned and started walking, the image of pure masculine power striding up that mountainside, fitting in here in a way that no simple writer could have.

  Was he a beast? Jareth had all but dared her to find out. And he was no fool. He knew what he’d done. The question was—why had he ordered the others away and challenged her to stay? Should she be erotically charged or should she be scared? Because, it seemed, she was a lot of both. The two combined had Amber on fire.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  LYRICAL PRESS BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2008 by Lisa Renee Jones

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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  First Electronic Edition: June 2016

  ISBN: 978-1-6018-3890-2