Her Dangerous Promise - Part 4: (Romantic Suspense Serial) by Ashley Stryker Page B

palms pressed on his unyielding bare pecs. The skin glistened with a golden tan and felt as supple as fine suede.
    His hands slid down Tia’s arms, leaving hot trails in their wake. Simon lowered his hands to his side but didn’t step back. Standing so close to her, the rustle of the storm winds blew his open jacket so it fluttered against her torso. The heat pulsing from his body drove away the chills and pulled her magnetically toward him. He asked, “You’d prefer I allow you to fall?”
    “I guess not,” she mumbled, no longer focused on the minor offense but instead staring with fascination into his eyes. A starburst of white ringed his pupils and flamed into burning yellow only to cool into a red crown circling the edge of his irises. The color seemed to modulate, as if capturing the flicker of a flame in slow motion. “You have fire in your eyes,” she said, only half aware of how stupid the comment sounded.
    “Not just in my eyes,” Simon smiled.
    A gust of dry heat puffed over Tia and she stumbled back a step in surprise. “What was that?” She touched her newly dried hair and smoothed her perfectly pressed clothes. “How did you do that?”
    “That was nothing,” he dismissed it with a wave of his hand.
    “Sure impressed the hell out of me.”
    He cocked his head, sizing her up. A grin quirked up the corners of his perfect lips, which were just full enough to imply a melting tenderness to his kisses. The expression softened the perfect planes of his face. With amused surprise in his voice, he stated, “You’re not afraid, are you?”
    Tia thought about the question. The adrenaline prickling in her blood rushed not to her muscles, as if to prepare to fight or flee but to her skin, heart and lower regions, making her body ache with a longing only physical contact of a romantic nature could soothe. Breathlessly, she asked, “Should I fear you?”
    He considered the question. “Should you? What an interesting dilemma. What should one do in your predicament? What should one feel? I have never pondered that.”
    Tia stepped back out of arms’ reach, not able to reconcile the attraction and mistrust mingling inside her. “My predicament? What predicament am I in?”
    “That I cannot express in words you would understand.” Simon held out his hand, palm up. “I can only show you.”
    She stared at his hand, debating if she should accept the offer she assumed it meant. She hadn’t yet moved, either to accept or retreat when the glowing began.
    In a voice as terrifying as the roar of a landslide and echoing with inhuman power, Simon uttered, “Titch Cha, Aroomba Tha.”
    A golden light emerged from Tia’s heart, glowing with the brilliance of flaming copper. It grew like a supernova until the light no longer came from inside but surrounded her in a glittering cocoon. She struggled to breathe. The energy, so powerful, so vibrant, expanded her sense of self until she felt she existed both inside her body and yet filled the bubble of light with her essence. “What’s happening?”
    As the leading membrane of the energy encased Simon’s outstretched hand, the pressure of the power eased slightly. Tia felt herself drawn to him like a tide to the moon. The energy, not her consciousness, drew her hand into his.
    Simon’s eyebrows twitched up in surprise but grasped her hand anyway. With a gentle tug, he dragged himself through the thick power surrounding her until it completely subsumed him.
    Tia saw him differently now. A blue snap of flame burned without heat over Simon’s flesh as it fed on gold ripples of energy still spilling out of her.
    They came together like two rivers. She flowed outward and he flowed inward, swallowing all she offered. The outflow of energy drained her strength. Her arms circled Simon’s neck, clutching to him as if she would collapse without his support. He embraced her to him, wrapping his arms fiercely about her waist so each of his strained gasps for air flattened her