Hot Blooded

her hands on his
chest to hold him down before he could explode to his feet. "You had that
coming, and you know it."
    Arthur's furious eyes met his wife's for a long, tense beat. Until they
slowly, reluctantly, softened. "I suppose I did." With a sigh, he rose in a
lithe, powerful movement and turned to help her up. "Over the years, needling
him got to be a habit," he told Grace, as if by way of apology.
    "Break it," Grace said crisply.
    The former High King looked up at her in surprise. Then he laughed, a great
boom of sound, and Grace realized suddenly how he'd won Lance's loyalty all
those centuries ago. "You know, I think I like you, child. You'll do."
    "I always said she would," Morgana said smugly. She lifted a black brow.
"Now, isn't it time we started discussing the wedding?"
    Lance relaxed subtly. Grace felt his relief as they realized the Majae
weren't going to fight them over the Truebond. "Didn't you say you had other
plans for Grace than marrying the likes of me?"
    "Did I?" Morgana's cat smile widened.
    He exchanged an exasperated look with Grace. "I think I've been played."
    "Get used to it," Arthur said, smiling down at his wife with dry affection.
    "So if you always intended we marry," Grace demanded, shooting her
grandmother a hard look, "why did you try to seduce Lance?"
    The Maja shrugged gracefully. "If I was to give my granddaughter to the
Seducer of Avalon, the least I could do is make sure he wouldn't take up old
habits after you're wed."
    "Believe me," Lance said, moving to take Grace in his arms. "Old habits no
longer hold any appeal."
    As they sank into a long, fiery kiss, Grace heard Morgana say smugly, "You
see, Gwen? This has all worked out exactly as I said it would."
    Grace slid one arm out from around her love and flipped her grandmother off.

----
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    RAFAEL De La Cruz parked the truck on the cliff overlooking a valley. Behind
him the mountains rose steeply, covered thickly in pine and fir. The woman
nestled beside him touched him with a scarlet-tipped fingernail very reminiscent
of a bloody talon. He stared at it a moment then leaned over her abruptly and
dispassionately pushed her hair away from the pulse beating strongly in her
neck. He tried to recall what her name was—someone who was thought important in
the small world he inhabited at the moment, but no one to stir his interest. All
that mattered to him was the steady sound of her heartbeat calling to him.
    She was prey like all the rest of them. Healthy. Strong. A woman wanting to
sleep with someone rich and powerful. There were so many of them, women who were
drawn to the De La Cruz brothers like moths to flames. She tilted her head at
him and he immediately captured her expectant gaze with his predatory one.
Hypnotic. Mesmerizing. It was almost more trouble than it was worth.
    Rafael sank his fangs deep into her neck and he fed. He drank his fill, all
the while fighting down the beast threatening to rise, demanding the kill,
whispering of ultimate power, whispering of emotion, of
feeling
. Just
to feel once, for one microsecond, it would be worth it. The woman was nothing,
useless to him other than as prey. Easy to control, easy to kill. She slumped
against him and the movement snapped him out of the enthrallment of the beast.
He closed the tiny pinpricks, healing the wound with a sweep of his tongue. He
stared at her for a time, then contemptuously pushed her away from him so that
she slumped across the seat. She was like all the rest. Willing to sell
themselves to the highest bidder. To sleep with a virtual stranger because of
his wealth and power. Dressed in low-cut, revealing apparel to lure men to them.
So many of them. Cattle. Sheep. She was nothing to him. She had lured a
predator, thinking herself the temptress, thinking she was luring him into her
sexual web. He slid out of the cab into the night air. Rafael paced across the
top of the cliff, his sensual features stamped with a hard, ruthless, merciless
confidence. He was used to instant obedience, used to manipulating the mind of
his human prey.
    Rafael and Nicolas wanted to go home. South America. Brazil. The Amazon rain
forest. Back to their world, back to their ranch where they ruled and their word
was law without effort on their part. Back to the neighboring