PROLOGUE It was fingertips folowing the curve of her spine that woke Vashti from slumber. She arched into the familiar touch with a purr of delight, a smile curving her lips as she floated up to total awareness. “Neshama,” her mate murmured. My soul. Just as he was hers. With her eyes stil closed, she rol ed to her back and stretched, pushing her naked breasts up to Charron in deliberate provocation. The velvet lash of his tongue across her nipple startled her, eliciting a gasp that dropped her back onto the mattress. Her eyes opened in time to see his beautiful y etched lips surround the hardened point and his cheeks hol ow on a deep, long suckle. She groaned, her body eagerly responding to the attentions of the man for whom she drew every breath. She moved to clutch his golden head to her breast, but he straightened, making her aware that he stood beside the bed rather than lay upon it. The sight of his ful y dressed body told her why he’d woken her. Towering over her sprawled, bared body, he stared down at her with heated eyes. The fangs peeping through his wicked smile betrayed that he, too, had become aroused by the way he’d woken her. Her heart raced at that smile. Her chest ached