Guild Hunter 02 - Angels' Flight

my demanding Lady Jessamy.” By bonds nothing would ever break. “Now you use manacles on me?” It was a tease, because he’d discovered he enjoyed teasing his historian.
     
    “Hush.” She petted the metal. “There’s amber in the amulet.”
     
    Wrenching her down below him, he covered her body with his own. “Are you claiming me, then?” Amber was for the entangled, a warning to others to keep their hands off.
     
    Huge brown eyes met his. “Yes.”
     
    He’d never been more delighted in his life. “Does the amulet have any other meaning?”
     
    She blushed. “It’s silly… a mortal thing. A wish to keep you safe.”
     
    Stroking her hair off her face, he nuzzled at her, and knew he’d never again wander forsaken, looking for a home. “Will you wear my amber, Jess?”
     
    A smile that told him he was loved, was hers. “Always.”
     

Turn the page for a special preview of
Nalini Singh’s next book in the
Psy-Changeling series
    Tangle of Need
     
    Coming June 2012 from Berkley Sensation!
     

R iaz caught a flash of midnight hair and a long-legged stride and called out, “Indigo!” However, he realized his mistake the instant he turned the corner. “Adria.”
    Eyes of deepest blue met his, the frost in them threatening to give him hypothermia. “Indigo’s in her office.” The words were helpful, but the tone might as well have been a serrated blade.
     
    That did it. “Did I kill your dog?”
     
    Frown lines marred her smooth forehead. “Excuse me?”
     
    God, that
tone
. “It’s the only reason,” he said, holding on to his temper by a very thin thread, “I can think of to explain why you’re so damn pissy with me.” Adria had been pulled into den territory during the hostilities with Councilor Henry Scott and his Pure Psy army a month ago, had remained behind to take up a permanent position as a senior soldier. She had fought with focused determination by Riaz’s side, followed his orders on the field without hesitation.
     
    However, off the field?
     
    Ice.
     
    Absolute.
     
    Unrelenting.
     
    Frigid.
     
    Folding his arms when she didn’t reply, he stepped into her personal space, caught the subtle scent of crushed berries and frost. A strangely delicate scent for this hard-ass of a woman, he thought, before his wolf’s anger overrode all else. “You haven’t answered my question.” It came out a growl.
     
    Eyes narrowed, she stepped closer with a slow deliberation that was pure, calculated provocation. She was a tall woman, buthe was taller. That didn’t seem to stop her from looking down her nose at him. “I didn’t realize,” she said in a voice so polite it drew blood, “that fawning over you was part of the job requirement.”
     
    “Now I know where Indigo learned her mean face from.” But where his fellow lieutenant’s heart beat warm and generous beneath that tough exterior, he wasn’t sure Adria had any emotions that registered above zero on the thermometer.
     
    Adria’s response was scalpel sharp. “I don’t know what she ever saw in you, but I suppose every woman has mistakes in her past.” The slightest change in her expression, the tiniest fracture, before it was sealed up again, her face an impenetrable rock face.
     
    Scowling, Riaz was about to tell her exactly what he thought of her and her judgmental gaze when his cell phone rang. He answered without moving an inch away from the woman who was sandpaper across his temper, rubbing him raw with her mere presence. “Yeah?”
     
    “My office,” Hawke said. “Need you to take care of something.”
     
    “Be there in two.” Snapping the phone shut, he closed the remaining distance between them, forcing Adria to tip back her head. “We will,” he said, realizing those striking blue eyes with an edge of purple had streaks of gold running through them, beautiful and exotic, “continue this later.”
     
    That was when Adria’s cell phone rang. “Yes?” she answered without breaking eye contact with the big, muscled wolf who thought he could intimidate her.
     
    “In my office,” Hawke ordered.
     
    “On my way.” Hanging up, she raised an eyebrow at Riaz in a consciously insolent action. “My alpha has requested my presence, so get out of my fucking way,” she said with utmost sweetness.
     
    Eyes a brilliant dark gold that were more wolf than human narrowed again. “Guess we’ll be walking together.”
     
    Not giving an inch until he stepped back and turned to head to