“David?”
He was aware that she whispered his name, that she suddenly sounded confused and uncertain. And in some dim recess of his mind, he remembered that he had switched the glasses, that they had both drunk from a glass filled with wine intended only for him.
Filled with…
So sweet and potent a vintage that it did not matter. Nothing mattered.
No matter what either of them had actually intended.
“Perhaps the bargain is met,” he told her.
Nay, hold back! some sense within him warned.
But he could not.
The momentum of the sensations sweeping into him was overwhelming. The scent and feel and taste of her filled him.
The world became a blur.
Of hunger.
Of feelings so acute.
Of desire so fierce that it had become like a flame, destroying his ability to think.
A sound, he heard a sound, a whisper on the air behind him and then…
Pain!
Shocking pain, striking him so suddenly. Sharp, horrible, excruciating, at the back of his head. Sensation that had been unbearably sweet was now unbearably vicious. Staggering.
Paralyzing.
He thought he saw her. Her eyes, sky blue above his. Her face. Angelic in its beauty.
Then the bitter realization hit him. The MacGinnises never would have confronted him face-to-face. They knew his temper, his sense of honor—and his strength.
Just as they had known his weakness. Shawna.
Oh god, never again.
No, never, for seduction had not been their true intent, he saw with startling clarity. Their true intent had been murder.
Suddenly he realized that the burning pain in his skull had been caused by something other than the blow to his head.
He was surrounded by heat.
And fire.
Oh god, yes. Fire! Flames, shooting all around him. And he couldn’t move, couldn’t twist or turn, he could only feel the bursting agony within his head. He could see nothing except for the shooting red tongues of flame that rose against the blackness.
No, more.
He could see what a fool he had been. And that he had been betrayed. Oh god, yes, with what must be his dying breath, he could see so clearly what a fool he had been and that she…
Aye, she had damned him. To all the fires of hell.
Horses neighed and shrieked. From somewhere in the darkness of a never-ending pit, he heard her, heard her screams, rising, sweeping, tearing from her throat…