“No!” I cried, grabbing his hand. As soon as our hands touched, the golden coils tightened, taut as violin strings. His eyes locked onto mine. He squeezed my hand and the knot inside me exploded. I came, gasping at the suddenness and force of the orgasm. Liam cried out at the same instant, his face suffused with golden light. The spirals around us unwound and snapped in the air, sputtering and sparking like loose electrical cables. As their energy rippled outward the air buckled and cracked with thunder and lightning.

“You are mine!” he cried.

“But you aren’t really here,” I sobbed, collapsing onto his chest, wanting the contact now as the heat from the coils began to fade.

“Aren’t I?” he murmured into my neck. “Listen. Do you hear that?”

I heard thunder in the distance, the last reverberations of our stormy lovemaking. It was fading just as he was fading; vanishing in my arms just as he had when I’d banished him.

“That’s me,” he whispered, his voice now no more than a faint stir of the honeyed air. “I’m here.”

My eyes flicked open. I was in my bed, alone, naked in a tangle of sundrenched sheets. I lifted my hand in front of my face and saw the golden spirals fading from my skin. My heart was pounding as if I’d just run a race … or made love all night to my incubus lover. It was so loud I thought I could hear it …

I’m here, he had said.

I sat up and listened. The pounding seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. From the air itself. I felt it deep inside, matching the beat of my heart.

I’m here, it said.

Where? I threw the sheets to the floor and stood up. My bare feet felt the pounding in the floorboards. It came from below. From the front door …

I nearly ran out of the room naked, but grabbed my damp and twisted nightgown off the floor and wrestled it over my head as I ran down the stairs.

I’m here! I’m here! The pounding was definitely coming from the front door. I stumbled into the foyer and lifted a trembling hand to the doorknob … and then hesitated.

If it really was Liam, did I want to let him in?

Yes! Every inch of my skin screamed. Yes!

I turned the cold iron knob and flung open the door. Duncan Laird stood in the doorway. When he saw me in my thin nightgown, my hair wild, my skin glowing, his blue eyes widened and he smiled a slow, silky smile.

“It’s you!” I cried.

“Were you expecting someone else?”

“Um … I …”

“Should I come back later?” His eyes were amused at my confusion.

“No! I just didn’t expect you quite so early.”