Eleanor jumped. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She spun about and found Meagan.

Her best friend closed the door behind her, key in hand, panting for breath. "There's a guard." She sucked in air. "Waiting at the end of the hall."

"What? Why?" Oh, Earth.

"I don't know. I overheard His Majesty's advisor ordering it."

Eleanor slumped onto the seat beside the fire and untied the cord at her chest. She should have felt the guard's mind, but in her distressed state, others' thoughts blurred in her head. "Did the guard see you?"

"Yes. But I said I was just checking up on you."

Eleanor motioned to her friend's scantily clad body. "Like this?"

Meagan shoved her shoulder. "Oh, everyone's dressed like this right now. It doesn't mean anything. Besides, after you nearly froze to death, he probably just thinks I'm making sure you're warm enough."

With a groan, Eleanor slid her costume off. "What are you doing?"

"I can't go," Eleanor exclaimed.

"Yes you can. You just have to get past the guard without being seen. You can do that magic thing."

Eleanor tossed her costume into the closet and snatched a random nightshirt. "I think he'll notice the door opening. That would probably tip him off to check on me and then he'll find that I'm not here."

"Not if you're with me. I'll open the door and he won't have reason to check on you. Besides, he doesn't have a key to your room."

"I don't know, Meagan." The young maid used to always get her in trouble. Would this end any differently? Earth, she didn't want to take off her mask. Meagan would see she'd been crying, then they'd have to talk about it.

"You can't mope around here all night." Meagan scooped up the costume and slid it up Eleanor's arms. "Besides, they'll know it was you if you don't come. You're upset with him-you don't show. I think he'd see the connection."

"You'd be surprised."

"He can't be that dense." Meagan retied the bodice.

If only. Eleanor murmured elven words and waves of light twisted around her, cloaking her. The spell chilled her skin and burned her insides. "I can't keep this up very long."

The young maid waved her hands and slapped Eleanor, as if expecting air. "Hurry up. This hurts." She shoved Meagan's hands away.

Meagan giggled like a mischievous little girl and threw the door open for Eleanor to rush out.

There was a guard. His eyes looked through her to Meagan but fell away as the door closed. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. Why would Phil station a guard here? Did he suspect? What could he hope to accomplish?

Meagan locked Eleanor's bedroom door and the guard at the end of the hall stepped aside for her.

Eleanor darted past. Icy fingers seemed to squeeze her stomach. Although Meagan followed close behind, Eleanor feared the guard only pretended to fall for her trick. Any moment now, she expected he'd grab her arm.

But he didn't. He wasn't like the men her father had hired. The unshielded guard closed the door behind Meagan.

Are there any more guards? Eleanor projected the thought to Meagan.

When Meagan shook her head, Eleanor whispered the spell to turn off the invisibility.

Meagan grabbed her wrist and tugged.

The empty hallway smeared past in a purple haze through Eleanor's lenses. She should feel relieved but pricklies rolled inside her stomach. Something was wrong. "He takes a different woman every night, doesn't he?" He wouldn't really look for her, would he? Erick had the fidelity code of a rooster.

"Yeah but he's been asking about you." Meagan smiled and nudged her. "Whatever you did, he liked."

Maybe she could just grab the first man she saw and hide behind a pillar. It wouldn't really matter who in the dim lighting. It was just to get over Erick and move on. Besides, he'd forget about his Violet Glass. His fleeting interest had never lasted more than a week.

The hum from the throne room grew louder, matching the pitch of frustration and worry in her head. What if he did take another woman tonight?

Her throat caught and her mind seemed to knock loose from her head. She touched her mask to make sure it hid her.

She didn't want him. He was scum.

The door to the throne room opened and heat spilled out. He stood in its wake and his gaze pierced her.

Oh no.

A smile split his perfect mouth as he closed the distance between them. Black silk pants rippled over his muscled legs. Bare chest. Chiseled abs.

Warmth flushed down the front of her scantily clad body. She shouldn't want to strum those ripples.

Faint battle scars on his shoulder and one arm nearly hid in the darkness. She still felt the heat of them on her lips, from when they were fresh and aching. But the same black scarf from last night covered her favorite scar, the one she'd given him.

Meagan slipped past him into the sensual mass of flesh. Eleanor tried to follow but Erick caught her wrist. Without greeting, his mouth crushed hers.

Electricity exploded through every nerve.

His arm wrapped around the small of her back and spun her about. He guided her away from the throne room, to a stairwell.

This didn't feel right. Her stomach tightened. Earth, where was he taking her? Meagan didn't mention him ever doing this.

Eleanor wanted to run but he kissed her neck and fear melted in desire for more. The sparks from his lips. His hot breath on her skin.

He caressed her shoulder. Each stroke dipped closer to her firming breasts with every step up the flight of stairs. Beyond the top, in a small hallway, he opened a door leading to his bed chambers.

She froze. She'd followed him here once. She'd hidden under Erick's bed. Then he'd brought another woman. A pretty woman whose hair he said reminded him of sunshine. Eleanor's chest caved, remembering. She'd sobbed quietly the whole night while he made love to someone else.

Eleanor squeezed her eyes shut and wished she could forget.

"What's wrong?" Erick tried to pull her inside to his bed but she clung to the doorway.

Her lip curled down in terror as if creatures hissed at her from under the bed.

Shit. This room had been his father's. He hadn't thought how a full hybrid would sense horrors of the past. "I'm sorry." He embraced her rigid body. "We can go somewhere else." Though that might put a few kinks in his plans.

"No, I-I should go." She tried to push away but Erick gripped her tighter.

"Please don't, Violet." Such a pretty name. It fit her. A fragrant flower. Earth, her scent drove his heart to a mad rush and numbed his head. "I need you tonight. Please. I'll do anything, everything you want." He kissed her neck in the way that quickened her breath. Just below her pulse, a soft, slow pressure with tender suction.

Her tiny gasp caressed his ear and she relaxed in his arms. Her petite hands eased up his chest. When her thumb traced the scar on his shoulder, he flinched.

He'd forgotten about that.

She jerked back, blurting, "Sorry."

"No, it doesn't hurt." Sweet that she worried. How could Phil think this flower could be his demonic niece?

Violet's lips parted as if to protest but she quickly shut them and backed out the door.

Damn it. He wasn't any good at blocking his thoughts. "I don't," he assured her." Violet wasn't like the demons that reaped destruction. But if she was anything else, she couldn't break past his curse.

She shook her head at him. "You aren't cursed. It's a mark of love. Of protection." She tugged at the scarf on his arm.

With any other woman, he'd have shoved her hands away. But he let Violet unwrap his scarred arm.

He'd hated that mark. Every day it reminded him of his failures. He'd lost three oath-brothers. Failed to protect them. Failed to win against an evil hybrid queen in a battle that destroyed his armies and left his palace in ruins. When he woke from whatever had knocked him unconscious, he found that mark on his arm. A scar in the shape of a tiny hand. He'd only come once with a mortal woman since that cursed scar. Only the magic scent of a hybrid woman could break past its hold.

Violet caressed the raised pink skin as if it were something beautiful. The electric sparks burst stronger, as if her touch somehow passed through him. "It's your elven blood that limits you, not this. Your receptors are more specific than a mortal's. A mortal man can react to nearly every woman's pheromones, elves, only one." She kissed the palm of his scar.

How was that not a curse? Limited to hybrids and elves. She released his arm, gaze dropped from him.

Earth, he'd hurt her feelings. "Not you." He didn't see her that way. "I'm sorry." He said that a lot tonight. Why couldn't he think straight? Her perfume. It saturated the air, stronger tonight. No lemon to cut it.

"Do you want me to remove your scars? I can heal them."

He never wanted to hear spells on her lips. "Do you like them?" Some women enjoyed the rough texture of scars on a man.

"Yes." Her touch returned to his marked arm.

Relief breathed through him. "Then leave them." Erick drew her closer, away from the only exit. Before she could escape from him again, he pushed the heavy door closed.

Now if he could just hide his thoughts. A skill he'd never practiced. Nervousness crept up and bit into his gut. She'd see through him, like Eleanor. He lacked the strength to take on a hybrid. He wasn't a wizard.

Violet strained on her tiptoes to kiss him. "You're the strongest man I've ever met."

Oh, that's what he wanted to hear. Pride swelled his chest. Her words stroked his ego like her mind had last night. Erick scooped her up.

As light as a winged pixie in his arms. Her smooth legs dangled and her wrists curled around his neck. The flickering firelight and pink moonlight cast deep shadows in the valleys of her toned, smooth body. She looked more like a siren's lure than a pixie.

He pressed against her mind but she only let him feel her lust. Earth, the way she saw him. She savored every touch of his skin against hers, as if he was the magical one.

It took everything to stop himself from taking all he wanted. Primal desires jerked every muscle tense inside him but he needed to make her want more. Tonight, she'd give up her husband for him. Gently, Erick laid her down on his bed and pulled the covers over them both as he crawled beside her.

He seized her open mouth, filling it with his tongue. He tasted her and drank up her sparks.

Her body clung to him, thighs parted. Her soft hands drew him closer and she hungrily ground her slick slit against him, wetting him. She didn't want to make love. She wanted to fuck.

Erick jerked his mind away. She'd make him come too early. "Slow down." Earth, he'd have to do this the way mortals did-blindly. But her thoughts seeped so freely.

He struggled to avoid them, to keep his mind completely hidden. He broke away, on his knees to breathe but she followed him, hands tugging.

"Take off your dress," he demanded, to distract her.

She halted with a huff, red lips in the shape of an O. Her chest heaved, petite breasts straining the laces of her bodice. But her grip fell from him to slowly tug the knot from her chest.

She distracted him, causing him to miss the handle of the nightstand drawer several times. By the time he finally pulled open the drawer of his nightstand and snatched a condom, she'd slinked her tiny dress halfway off.

He fiddled with a condom and rolled it on as he watched her strip.

Lace and silk slid down her curves. The shadowy lines of her neck and shoulders deepened with every inch she leaned forward. Down her thighs, breasts swaying just above. Off her slender ankles.

Nude, she knelt before him. "Better?" she asked, breasts firmed and lifted to his gaze.

His mouth salivated. "Yes." He swallowed, all too eager for a taste. Those tight little buds deserved his lips but first his hands. Her hard nipples poked between his fingers as he palmed her swells. Warm and filling.

She slinked closer and slithered her fingers up his chest. Her velvety little tongue flicked at his mouth while her mind probed for entrance.

He groaned and shoved her back on the bed. Oh, if she pushed any further, he'd lose all gentlemanly restraint and fuck her for his own pleasure, hard and fast. He'd sputter hot cream with selfish, pounding thrusts. But that wasn't the only goal tonight.

With his hands and mouth only, he explored the curves of her legs. Behind her knees, he found a sensitive spot that made her gasp with each lick. Her inner thighs drove him wild with sparks against his cheek and mouth. Every electric burst from her flesh threatened to break his restraint. Her perfume, so much stronger here from her bare pussy. Thick honey glistened on her swollen inner lips in full view. Delicate, like dewy petals. Mmm, he'd savor her. But not yet.

On his knees and elbow, he drew her thigh against his chest and her ankle slithered up between his legs to tease his hardened, aching stones. Harsh breath puffed from his mouth on her hip. Her foot rolled about, caressing his sac ever so slightly.

His cock twitched and he moaned. He couldn't stop himself from grabbing and pushing her calf hard against his need. He rubbed up her leg while he licked the sinews of her hip and squeezed the plump cheeks of her ass. Sparks pulsed through his aching cock. Earth, this felt too good. Her hands in his hair only intensified his eager strokes.

It took sheer will to uncurl his clenched fingers from her calf. Body tense, he crawled up hers, lips dragging up her deep waist, up her rips, to the center of her chest.

She wriggled to part her thighs to him but he didn't yield. His knees pressed on the outside of her thighs, holding her prisoner.

Her lithe fingers danced over his shoulders and neck. "Please."

His stomach tightened with a good ache, the kind that made him buck when a woman squeezed his ass. He loved when she said that word. "Again."

She sucked in breath through her pouty lips, frustration tensing her chin.

Erick cupped her breast to push his favorite word from her mouth. He loved the way her swells heaved and weighted against his palms. Her hardened nipples in his mouth. Her arched back and bucking hips. Her whimpers. And the light that blazed from her lens-covered eyes. Oh, he wanted to rip that mask from her face, to see the colored fire he ignited in her. She was his, all of her. Soon, she'd want nothing else.

"Please."

Oh, that's what he craved. Erick licked the rigid line down her center.

Her fists gripped his hair. The frantic tugs should hurt but he couldn't feel anything but her quivering pearl beneath his fingers. She screamed and writhed as ecstasy sparked through both of them. It burned through the nerves of his fingers and spasmed through his body. Her mind struggled to break into his, to seize him with her desire.

He wanted to give in, to feel her completely. His heart pounded and sparks gathered in his taut groin. But he needed to make her want no other. His block must have grown stronger. He tortured her with his distance, though his pained cock begged for her mind's desires and the tight squeezing quivers of ecstasy. Soon, he might be able to break into the hidden parts of her mind, to feel her taboo thoughts stroke him even deeper. That would be worth the throbbing wait.