Darkness & Lies: A Brotherhood Novel (#1) by Brandi Salazar Page B

projected his thoughts o n to their feeble minds , bending them to his will. In a matter of moments , everybody in the room was sound asleep. Sensing the female ’ s approach, he snapped his fingers and the room emptied. Total silence pervaded.
    Having made that small accomplishment, he headed for the bathroom for a quick shower.
     
    Cheyenne could have sworn that she had heard laughter and people conversing, but as she entered the large banquet hall, there wasn’t a soul in sight. How puzzling.
    Rounding the thick stone columns she made her way over to the make-shift  sign- in counter and rang the li t tle bell for service.
    While she waited, she allowed her sites to roam about , taking in the little details of the old, withered stru c ture. Cracks and small fissures ran nearly every inch of the roughly stuccoed walls. Thick, rough cut beams held the high ceiling in place and hand crafted iron candelabras hung from the ceilings casting an eerie glow about the place.
    A slight chill to the air caused her to shiver, and Cheyenne wrapped her arms around herself. Where was everyone? Ringing the bell again , she waited impatiently for someone to answer.
     
    Erias was just entering the room when the red- faced female burst through the door and stormed over to her bed. She threw back the duvet and climbed in.
    “How’d it go?” h e asked bemusedly.
    Cheyenne was more than peeved at not being able to find anyone to help solve her problem. A man in her room was not how she had planned on spending her vac a tion. Was he even paying for his half? She’d be damned if she were going to foot the bill for a room that had been i n vaded by someone else.
    “I think you already know the answer to that one,” she grumbled. When she heard the slight chuckle, she flipped over , prepared to give him a piece of her mind when all arguments failed to get past her lips.
    With his back facing her, he was the picture of pe r fection. With just a towel wrapped around his waist, there wasn’t much to be left to the imagination. His shoulders were broad and finely muscled. Deep grooves of thick, corded muscle lined his arms, and his skin was a deeply tanned bronze coated in rivulets of moister from his recent showering.
    Oh, what she wouldn’t give to run her tongue across those muscles , catch ing each of those droplets one b y one. And when he turned around to face her, she had to catch her breath and fight the urge to pant at the slick perfection of his bulging biceps, perfectly formed pecks and stone cut abs . Damn, if the man wasn’t a g od.... She had never seen another being made of such perfection.
    And his face…
    Cheyenne wanted to inhale it. To nibble on those delectable lips for hours, wrestle his tongue for world do m ination and tangle her fingers in his deeply black shoulder-length hair that hung enticingly around his face in thick, wet locks.
    “Oh I know. I just wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth,” he smirked, immediately inciting rage and stifling anything she may have been feeling moments ago.
    She opened her mouth to argue when he suddenly dropped his towel , leaving his bare body fully exposed to her virgin eyes.
    Good lord! Cheyenne dropped her gaze to the co v erlet to escape the extreme embarrassment and vivid fant a sies that were flashing through her mind. Even with her downward gaze, she couldn’t escape him. Her peripherals wouldn’t allow it!
    “Don’t worry, lady. We’ll get everything worked out first thing tomorrow morning. Until then, what do you say we get a good night’s sleep?” Erias slipped between the sheets and took one last fle eting look at the woman’s shame filled face before he flipped out his light and settled in.
    Several moments later he eked his eyes open, the faint light from her table lamp piercing his lids. “Hey, you wanna turn that light out? People trying to sleep over here.” She peeked at him wearily to which he lifted an e x pectant brow. With a huff, she