Lust Eternal by Sabrina York

have been true
torture.
    “Then how do you know what kind of lover he is?”
    “The measure of a man, of a lover, is not only what happens
in the bedroom, Aimalee. Carter was distant and apathetic about your
relationship in public. How could he be any different in private? And—” Keeshan
bit his tongue. Yes. There was more. But he would not tell her.
    Fortunately, Aimalee didn’t notice his hesitation. She fashioned
the long strands of her hair into a loose braid. “That’s hardly the point.” She
glared at him. “I dislike being your sexual slave.”
    He arched a brow. “You are hardly my slave.”
    “I am if you can make me want you. Against my will.”
    Keeshan’s brows came together. He did not care for that
thought in the least. “It was hardly against your will.”
    “I didn’t want to want you. You made me.”
    A creeping discomfort edged its way into his gut. He knew
the incantation made a woman helpless to resist him. He’d never thought of it
as forcing her to want him. How many times had he done that over the millennia?
Without thought? Without reflection? Heat prickled at the back of his neck.
    “I’m sorry.”
    What else was there to say? He was powerless, unmanned. All
at sea.
    “But it’s not just Carter. I miss my home, my friends and,
oh, I miss my work. I was ‘thisclose’ to presenting my dissertation.” She held
her fingers up a tiny bit apart. “I worked on that paper, on that research for
years. It’s always been my dream to get my doctorate in antiquities and just
when that dream is about to come true, I get snatched away. Do you know how
hard it is to be ripped away from everything that’s familiar? Everything you’ve
worked for? Everything you’ve built?”
    “Yes,” he said. “I do.”
    “Oh.” Her brow wrinkled. She cupped his cheek. It took
everything in him not to melt into her. He needed to be strong. For her. For
him. For his own sanity. “Of course you do. You lost her. I’m so sorry.”
    His heart gave a little hiccup and his strength failed. He
pressed a kiss on her palm then snaked an arm around her waist. She was too
difficult to resist. Impossible to resist. “Not to worry. I am used to it. I
have been here for a very long time. But Aimalee, please know I cannot
release you. I cannot send you home.”
    “You can’t?”
    “No.”
    “Have you ever wanted to release a woman?” She peered up at
him through a curtain of golden hair.
    He laughed. “No.”
    “So you’ve never tried?”
    “Aimalee, the lamp will release you when it is time.”
    She frowned, a pout. “And when will it be time?”
    But he did not answer.
    He could not.
    For he did not know how long he would have her.

Chapter Seven
     
    Aimalee settled back, back into Keeshan’s arms, delighting
in the power of those bands of steel wrapped around her, strong and warm and
gentle all at the same time. She closed her eyes and drew in the perfume of his
garden, listened to the drone of bees as they flitted from flower to flower.
    Yes, there was guilt. First of all for being here, for not
being there to do her job, for letting everyone down at the most important
phase of her career. And probably most significantly, there was her guilt over
enjoying this time with Keeshan. She hadn’t always enjoyed being with Carter.
He made her feel unworthy somehow. Unattractive but functional, like a cog in
his grand machine. Whereas Keeshan made her feel important. At home,
comfortable in her skin. Happy to be who she was.
    And he made her feel other things too.
    Perhaps it was the magic of this realm—wherever it was—or
perhaps it was simply the magic of this man, but when she was with him, Aimalee
felt desired and protected and as though everything was simply right with the
world.
    Besides, according to Keeshan she was here until the
lamp—some inscrutable cosmic decision maker—decided she could go. She might as
well make the best of it.
    She would think of it as a vacation. Yes. A lovely