Bound to Seduction (2 page)

“Eat,” Zoraida said, watching Nasir writhe
on the ground as if it pleased her. “Regain your strength. And when
you are called upon, service your mistress’s wishes in the manner
in which she is accustomed.” She threw a victorious grin over her
shoulder toward Tariq. “Without hesitation.”

Bile
churned in Tariq’s stomach as he looked toward Nasir’s pain, unable
to help or even avenge his brother. And every muscle in his body
screamed
No
! to what
Zoraida was offering. But if this were the only way to ensure his
brothers did not die—for at least one to be free—for them he would
agree. He would once again become the pleasure slave Zoraida had
condemned him to be. And every soul she sent him into the human
realm to corrupt would fuel her immortality that much
longer.

But by all that was holy, he would never
stop looking for a path to his own freedom. He would find it. And
one day soon, he would see her blood stain the ground at his
feet.

“
As you
will it,
sayyeda
,” he
said through clenched teeth.

She stepped to the bars, ran her fingers
down Ashur’s cheek, and harrumphed. To the guard holding him
upright, she said, “See to it he does not die. At least not yet.”
As she moved through the cell door, she added, “You will have your
new assignment tomorrow, Tariq. And this time, use all within your
power to make sure the woman is satisfied. My immortality and your
brothers’ lives depend on it.”

* * *

Mira Dawson drew in a deep breath in the
hopes it would settle the nerves bouncing in her stomach.

It didn’t.

Stop being so nervous. You’re just
shopping
.

Shopping. Yeah, that was it. Just an
ordinary, everyday shopping trip.

The lie
swirled easily in her mind, and though her subconscious
screamed
turn
the hell around
,
something more primal urged her on. Running her sweaty hands down
the front of her T-shirt, she steeled her nerves, then pushed the
shop’s doors open.

The bell above jangled. Vintage clothing
hung on the wall to her left. Racks of capes and corsets and short,
flirty skirts filled the small central space. Hats decorated with
feathery plumes hung on hooks all along the left, rows and rows of
stiletto-style boots lined the floor, and ahead, a glass counter
filled with antique jewelry finished off the cramped room.

She felt as if she’d stepped back in time.
To when women were sex objects dressing to please their masters.
Apprehension slid through her, and she was just about to turn
around and leave when a woman pushed aside the curtained doorway
behind the counter and said, “May I help you?”

Too late to bolt.

Mira forced a smile as her pulse picked up
speed. She stepped toward the counter. “Yes. Um, maybe.” She
glanced around the shop, making sure it was truly empty, then
lowered her voice and added, “I’ve come to inquire about the
Firebrand opal.”

The woman’s eyes hardened behind wire-rimmed
glasses. She looked to be in her mid-forties, round in the face,
plump through the hips, more motherly than madam. But her eyes…her
silver eyes…were assessing. And knowing. And hinted of dark,
seductive secrets.

Mira swallowed the lump in her throat. As
the uncomfortable silence stretched out, she realized hightailing
it out of this place really was the best idea after all. But before
she could move her feet, the woman motioned with her hand and said,
“Come.”

Curiosity got the best of her. It was her
biggest flaw. She always needed to know how and why things worked,
and when she’d heard about the Firebrand opal, she hadn’t been able
to think of anything but the—supposed—magical stone. She knew that
was the reason she was here now.

Part of the reason, at least. Or so she
tried to convince herself.

Mira’s hands shook as she made her way
around the counter and stepped through the curtained doorway. The
back room was nothing special. An old box-style TV sat on a chipped
table. A love seat covered by a blanket was pushed up against the
far wall, and inventory boxes were scattered through the small
space. When the woman pointed to the couch and barked, “Sit!” Mira
did as she was instructed, not sure what to expect.

The woman opened a curio cabinet Mira hadn’t
noticed, extracted a wooden box and brought it to the couch. She
sat next to Mira and studied her with those weird, silver eyes once
more, her hands resting on the top of the aged wood as if
protecting an ancient treasure. “How did you hear of the Firebrand
opal?”

“A…friend told me about
its…unique…properties.”

“And what do you seek from the opal?”

Mira’s pulse beat like wildfire as she
remembered what Claudette, the woman who was most definitely not a
friend but who’d been seated next to her at the salon, had said
about the opal.

Wicked pleasure, mind-numbing fantasies, your heart’s every
secret, sinful desire come true
.

Though Mira wouldn’t mind experiencing a few
X-rated fantasies brought to life, it wasn’t what she wanted most.
“I seek…a man.”

The woman’s brow lifted.

“Not just any man,” Mira corrected, feeling
suddenly foolish as she tucked her hair behind her ear. “A specific
one. Devin Sloan.” Her face heated. “I work with him at my
architecture firm. He’s gorgeous.” Defeat rushed through her. “And
he doesn’t see me as anything but a friend.”

“The opal does not have the power to make
someone fall in love with you.”

Mira knew that. Claudette had said as much.
Though Claudette hadn’t actually used the necklace, she claimed she
knew someone who had. “I don’t want him to fall in love with me. I
mean, I do. Eventually. But I wouldn’t want him to fall in love
with me because of a wish. I want him to fall in love with me
because he wants to.” Her cheeks literally burned. God, she felt
foolish. “All I really want is for him to notice me. I want
to…learn…how to gain his attention. And then how to keep that
attention, once I’ve got it.”

Because that was the real issue here. She
met lots of men, and she dated. She wasn’t locking herself away
somewhere. But she’d yet to find one who was as interested in her
as she was in him. Which was why none of her relationships ever
seemed to get off the ground.

The woman’s eyes narrowed once more. “Are
you a virgin?”

Mira couldn’t help but laugh. But it came
out stilted and awkward, not confident as she’d hoped. “No.
Definitely not.” She was thirty-two years old, for crying out loud.
“I’m just not…” Okay, now she sounded pathetic. She drew a deep
breath. “For whatever reason, I’ve yet to meet a man who is
enraptured by me. And I’m thinking that’s got to be related to the
way I react to them. Dating is one thing. Taking a relationship to
another level and keeping a man’s interest for more than a couple
of dates is something completely different. I guess I just want to
learn to be more desirable.”

She thought of Devin. His sandy blond hair
and devastating smile. He definitely didn’t see her as desirable,
even though she’d had a crush on him forever. He saw her as any
other girl in the office. And that chapped Mira’s ass more than
anything.

The woman smoothed her hands over the box.
Seemed to debate…something. Just when Mira was sure the woman was
going to boot her out of the building, she said, “The opal’s power
is not to be underestimated. It will burn through you, tempt you,
and if you are not careful, it has the power to destroy you.”

Mira didn’t like the way that sounded.
Claudette hadn’t said anything about being destroyed. She’d simply
said the opal had the power to grant wishes.

The woman opened the box and extracted a
silver chain before Mira could ask what she meant. A tear-shaped
fire opal, alive with red and orange hues and edged in silver, hung
from the bottom of the chain. Light from the opal seemed to glow
throughout the room, sending shimmering ribbons of color across the
walls. Mira’s eyes widened. The woman held it out to her, and
before Mira could stop herself, her fingers were brushing the
stone, its warmth searing her skin.

“When you leave here, put this around your
neck,” the woman told her. “Once you make your wish, do not try to
remove it. You will not be able to until your wish is fulfilled.
But heed my warning: Choosing to wear the Firebrand opal opens
yourself to consequences you may not yet foresee. Be sure it is a
risk you are willing to take.”

Mira held the opal in the palm of her hand,
stared down at the red and orange colors dancing like fire as her
entire arm warmed. Though the woman’s warning made her pause, the
longer she stared at the opal, the less worried she grew.

She’d never seen anything so beautiful.
Couldn’t seem to look away from the stone. An uncontrollable urge
to keep it with her…always...consumed her. “Wh-what happens to it
when my wish is fulfilled?”

“The opal will find its way into the hands
of another. That is all you need to know.” The woman rose as if in
a hurry. With the box tucked under one arm, she gestured toward the
curtain. “Now go. And do not put the talisman on until you are far
from my store. I’ll not have its magic unleashed here.”

In a fog, Mira found her feet. She was still
having trouble looking away from the stone. When the woman pushed
her toward the curtain and out into the store, though, Mira finally
snapped out of her trance and tucked the opal into the pocket of
her jacket. “What do I owe you?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? That doesn’t seem right. This
necklace has to be worth something.”

The woman’s silver eyes narrowed once more.
“You will discover its price soon enough.”

Before Mira could ask what that meant, the
woman disappeared through the curtains, and a chilling silence
settled over the shop.

Mira bit her lip as she stared at the opal
laid out on her kitchen table an hour later. It wasn’t glowing
anymore, and looking at it now, she was pretty sure she’d imagined
that to begin with. The thing was nothing but a pretty necklace,
really. A trinket.

And yet,
she couldn’t get the shop owner’s warning out of her head.
Choosing to wear the
Firebrand opens yourself to consequences you may not yet foresee.
Be sure it is a risk you are willing to take
.

She pushed out of her chair, went into the
kitchen, made herself a cup of tea. On the street below, cars
honked in the Pearl District of downtown Portland. She should be at
work, but she’d taken the afternoon off after visiting that shop,
and she knew there was no way she could work from home right now.
Not when the opal was all she could think about.

The microwave beeped. She pulled the
steaming cup out, dropped the tea bag inside. Looked back at the
necklace on the table and tried to think logically.

What consequences? What kind of magic did it
really have…if any? Mira had a degree. For a while in school, she’d
been pre-med. She knew all about the placebo effect. About sugar
pills tricking patients into thinking they were receiving
medications that were helping them. In her head she didn’t doubt
this necklace was the same sort of mirage. If someone who wore it
believed it had power, it gave them a confidence they wouldn’t
otherwise have.

She blew
on her tea. Winced when her subconscious said,
Okay, then why did you go all
the way down to that shop
?
And
why do you now have the gemstone
?

She brought the tea back to the table.
Didn’t sit but stared down at the necklace as she debated her
choices. Just because she was aware of something didn’t mean she
wasn’t open to trying it. After all, she was also “aware” that the
power of persuasion was a big one. And she wanted Devin. Had wanted
him for a while now. She’d finally just reached a point where she
was tired of waiting for him to realize she was his perfect match.
If wearing this silly necklace somehow gave her the confidence to
take things with him beyond friendship, then she was willing to
give it a try—whether it had real power or not.

She set
her tea on the table, lifted the necklace. And told herself to stop
being such a pansy. As she slipped the chain around her throat and
closed the clasp, then brushed her fingers across the opal nestled
just above her cleavage, she reminded herself that she was a smart
woman. A successful architect. She wasn’t desperate. She didn’t
need a man to complete her, but she wanted one. And if this didn’t
work, well, it wasn’t the end of her world. Nothing
bad
was going to happen, as that
shopkeeper had cryptically led her to believe.

“Your wish, my command.”

Mira whipped around at the sound of the deep
voice and stared through the archway at the man standing in the
middle of her living room. Fear raced through her chest. She took
one step back toward the kitchen counter behind her and the knife
block she knew was there. “Wh-who are you, and how did you get into
my apartment?”

A slow, mesmerizing smile slinked across his
deeply tanned face. “My name is Tariq. And you wished for me. That
is how I came to be.”

Mira’s
heart pounded so hard beneath her ribs, she was sure he had to hear
it. She bumped into the counter, inched her hand backward until her
fingers knocked into the knife block. “I—I didn’t call for anyone.
Leave. Now. Or I
will
call the
cops.”

His gaze
dropped from her face to her chest. “Did you not put on the
necklace?” He stepped into the kitchen, and Mira’s eyes widened
when she took a good look at him in the light streaming through her
kitchen window. Shoulder-length dark hair, ebony eyes, a strong,
square jaw covered in a dusting of scruff, and a body sporting
jeans and a light blue T-shirt that didn’t hide the fact it looked
as if it were carved from marble. “
Azizity
, I am from the opal.”