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Her sapphire eyes narrowed

He er “How did your hair?” It wasn’t the splotches of bright pink, blue, and olden hair that broke his control It wasn’t even the streaks of green, which inal spell Karla was trying to fix It was the fact that the colored hair had also corkscrewed andsproingedout from her head

Hence Lucivar’s comment about demented sheep

Laughter bubbled up Threatened to spill out

Jaenelle huffed and said soue that was, no doubt,very rude “Go to sleep You’re not going to be good for anything else”

He blinked Blinked again The laughter vanished He looked at the silly little sheep sitting so foolishly close to him and another kind of amusement swelled inside him And swelled a particular part of him

“Was that a challenge?” he purred

Her eyes widened She shifted her hips away from him “No”

He sat up “I think it was I think—”

He pounced Her squeak of surprise as he pinned her to the bed did all kinds of delightful things to the predatory side of his nature Even better was the way her breath caught after he vanished her nightgown and used his teeth and tongue to give her brsts some lavish attention

He closed his teeth over his favorite spot on her neck, followed by soft kisses

“Don’t you know that laughter can be an aphrodisiac?” he whispered in her ear

She shook her head Brightly colored, corkscrew curls bounced against his nose

S he raised his head and looked at her Nerves in those beautiful eyes Nervesand hot desire

Mine

“Then let me expand your education a little,” he purred

She said nothing, so he sheathed himself inside her

He expanded her education a whole lot more than a little, but by the time he was done, they were both too exhausted—and too satisfied—to care

CHAPTER 26

TERREILLE

Gray brushed one fingertip over the globe Tersa had given him

This is where you are, she’d said

Not whole Not fully formed Not who he could have been

The fire dance celebrated the Shalador ed their willingness to accept adult responsibilities as well as adult pleasures Would this dance really make a difference in the way Cassie saw him?

Would it make a difference in the way he saw himself?

When the time comes, accept the fire that lives within you

Brushing a finger over the globe again, he thought,It’s time Win or lose, it’s time

He’d been twenty-then he’dinside hi that he open himself to his ed to endure that grueling test of Self, and instead of elory that could have been his, he’d fled from it—and had ended up with a Purple Dusk Jewel that was a little darker than his Birthright Purple Dusk