Goddess, Inflamed - The Goddess Connection 2

Chapter One

 Spotlighted on the stage, Lily MacInnis moved like a woman possessed by the music. Rather than losing herself in dance as she usually did, she remained keenly self-consciousness, startled by the darkness edging the corners of the club. It seemed to come alive and swirl among the men who crowded around the stage like a pack of wild animals taking refuge in the shadows. The intensity of their stares was palpable. They watched her with the same hunger as a pack of wolves, a fire in their eyes that she felt rather than saw.

All but one. Him, she saw clearly. Standing at the rear of the room, separate from the others. A glow cast across him that caused his features to stand out in relief. Not the pale yellow from the exit’s safety light, but a warm blue surrounded him. Head held high, he gave the appearance of royalty, of power—even over the darkness, which ebbed from him.

Lily sensed his weakness. Like every other male in the club, the same fire burned in his eyes. After each spin, her gaze returned to him. She danced as if for him alone, daring his fire to burn them both, and teased the flame of desire just enough to keep it bright. When she wrapped herself around the pole like it was a lover, she imagined him there. The smolder circulating through the room burst into a four-alarm flame inside her.

Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. When she trailed her fingertips down the pole, it was his back she touched. His ass she cupped as she grazed herself across the metal. His whisper in her ear, urging her in an ancient tongue she didn’t understand but somehow seemed familiar. She danced at his command, and crossed over that thin line that she’d promised herself she never would cross—beyond dancing, to seduction.

To target her desire at only one man was a dangerous game. If any of the others were to reach for her, the bouncers at Polaris would take him down with the precision and speed of a missile.

A twist around the pole, and her gaze went to where he stood, the blue glow reflecting in his eyes like a hot flame. Tension showed in the set of his jaw, the flex of his biceps, all predator ready to pounce.

Another spin, and the spot was empty. With a gasp, she froze, wide eyes scanning the dark forms just beyond the frame of light in which she moved.

The darkness changed again. His disappearance had left a tangible void, like an invisible door had opened. When he left, the light left with him, allowing shadowy figures to slip through. Danger now hung in the air. A silly notion, but one she couldn’t shake.

Tonight was no different than any other night with one exception—today, Lily turned twenty-one. Minutes before she was due on stage, Bryn had carried a chocolate cupcake into the dressing room, and she and Keb had sung their birthday wishes. The single candle had lit Bryn’s face in an eerie way, and Lily glimpsed deep within her friend. The flame illuminated Bryn’s very soul, revealing in turns, her bitter tears, the joy and desperation in her dancing, a driving need to be loved that pushed her to the edge of reason.

What Lily saw in Keb’s smile frightened her a little. He’d never given her a reason to distrust him, but sometimes, desires have a way of making themselves known, and the usual twinkle in his eyes had a sharp spark that revealed the heat running in his blood.

Maybe these things had always been there and she’d just never noticed. Because if anything, the real difference was in herself. A new awareness of the world. Someone was watching her with more than the usual interest. Though she couldn’t see him—he might not even be in the club at that moment—she nonetheless knew because his gaze prickled over her skin and his hushed voice called to her in unintelligible words.

Something else waited for her beyond this place that these ordinary, flimsy walls could do nothing to shield her from, something unnamable for the sheer fact that her vocabulary had no description for it, her mind couldn’t yet comprehend it. And while that frightened her, too, the allure of the unknown was nearly irresistible.