Page 41 of Stars in Halo

Xion flashed a charming smile, his eyes glinting with amusement and calculation. ‘Just sharing a slice of my world with you, Katya. It seems we’ve both led fascinating lives, nada?’

Katya’s mask slipped for a fraction of a second before she regained her composure. ‘That’s one way to put it,’ she hedged, her tone light but with an underlying tension.

The Rider’s mocha-jade gaze locked with hers, a silent challenge as they danced on the edge of deception and revelation. ‘Here’s to more fascination,’ he rasped, eyes locking on her, giving in to the energy and arced attraction that was ratcheting up between them.

He flicked a quick look once more to the swell of her breasts, where he’d tagged it after she had slipped the Iris after her impressive juggling act.

He moved his scorching eyes back up to her face to find she’d noted his eyes resting on her stunning cleavage.

He met her eyes with a slight smirk.

The buzz of whisky hit, and the lock of their glances sent a lightning bolt straight to his cock.

Fokk, she was a trip.

He had to keep his lips pressed tight at the time to stop from leaning in to nip on her nape.

She had a way of tossing her hair back, giving a throaty laugh that exposed the curve of her neck.

Her halo of gems on her temple pulsed with soft light, and he clenched his fists, wanting to run his hand over them and then his mouth.

He imagined her under him, head thrown back in passion.

Her hips working, grinding against him.

With sensual seduction in her eyes

Fokk, he was beginning to feel.

Even though he was well aware of the endgame and that she was not a regular woman, there was something real and raw about her.

Pushed the unbidden emotion rising inside him, Xion continued to play along, weaving through conversations and laughter with Katya.

Her intelligence was spectacular. She was quick-witted, brilliant, and even droll as they discussed topics ranging from geopolitics to the latest in quantum computing.

Xion couldn’t help but be impressed by how she shifted gears, her intellect matching and keeping up with his own.

Yet beneath the surface banter and intellectual sparring, an unspoken tension hung heavy in the air between them.

He relished in it, committing himself to go all the way in the name of justice.

Xion was the consummate date, Katya thought. Hot as hell, with that panther lean, roguish smile and those locks that fell over shoulders that she wanted to stroke.

His mocha eyes were like kahawa, sugar and cream on Saturday morning.

He was giving off a spicy musk, and under his suit jacket, his muscled, freakin’ naked chest gleamed as his meta-tattoos shifted and oscillated on his dermis.

She was burning up under his heated gaze. Damn, this heat wasn’t safe.

She fell into the lie her heart was telling her, her soul hanging onto the mixed messages her body and psyche were sending.

Slipping in the mood, she began to play out scenarios in her mind.

Of Xion and her in a real situationship.

Of him in her bed, driving his hips into her, working those sensual lips over her skin, his hands stroking and heating her.

A flood of wet hit as the line between reality and fantasy blurred for Katya. Xion’s charm and charisma were like a drug, intoxicating her senses and clouding her judgement.

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