S.A. Price by Entwined By Fate Page A

killing her that she was still so attracted to him. He had sat there last night, all but begging for her forgiveness, telling her that she was still his heart and she couldn’t believe him. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t reacting to his nearness. It didn’t mean that as her rational mind cursed him, her body was jumping for joy at being close to him, feeling his heat and smelling the scent that was pure and unadulterated Merrick. The scent she missed above all else.
    It took everything she had in her to not take him up on his mating offer the night before, took everything to not run into his arms and breathe him in. Mating wasn’t something that was supposed to happen to cement treaties, or to make up for lost time, as she had told him once before. Mating was done because of the love that was shared, and the proof that as a female, you could handle a strong and virile male. There wasn’t anyone stronger then John Merrick and once upon a time, she counted herself lucky to be the captain of his heart. Now, she just felt foolish. Mating to Merrick, if it was ever to happen, and she doubted that highly, was something that had to be epic, and she had half a mind to refuse him and hope he pined for her the rest of his days. Of course the down side to that was she would pine for him the rest of her days, like she had for the past fifteen years. She knew she would never move on, it just wasn’t an option, despite her posing last night. It was either John Merrick’s bed and heart, or none at all. There was the distinct possibility that it would be the latter, given the circumstances. He was going to have to pull off the deal of a lifetime for him to even be back in her good graces, and as much as she wanted him to fail, to feel the pain he’d caused her, she knew that if anyone could pull it off it was Merrick.
    ~39~

    She groaned and finally got out of bed, putting the ring on her bedside table, and padded to the shower for a session of ‘wake me up’ orange peel shower scrub and hopefully less over analyzing.
    She emerged from her shower fifteen minutes later, physically clean but her emotions still in turmoil. Not back in my life twenty-four hours and already you have managed to warp everything I know. Why can’t I just not love you! She thought as she donned a pair of low-rise slacks and a fitted green button down short-sleeved shirt. She knew the answer though, and fate was a cruel mistress when she wanted to be. Haven’t I suffered enough already? Fifteen years alone, thinking he’s dead, mourning his memory and his love to find out he’s been here the whole time and inches from my grasp? Can the cosmic gag reel get any more pathetic? She sighed and pulled her quickly drying blond locks up into a twist and secured it with a large heavy wooden barrette, the only thing that would hold the thick coils of her mane back from her face in an elegant fashion. She looked good, professional, and authoritive, and that would go far with her only option, to bluff. She turned as the door to the bedroom opened, and Myra walked in with a stack of papers. Apparently she had been busy.
    “So what did you find?”
    Myra nodded stifling a yawn with the back of her hand. "A few things caught my eye."
    "Oh please share. Anything right now to get my mind thinking about anything else."
    "Well, look at this." She passed Elise a few sheets of paper. "An auction receipt for a rare Astikian text book, The Astikian's believed that by worshiping snakes, more importantly snake shifters that they themselves could absorb their powers. Sound familiar?" She asked rhetorically before continuing, handing Elise more sheets. "These are for roughly the same gig but from different cultures throughout the world. Asia, India, northern Europe. They were all bought by separate people, but the accounts seem to be the same. I'm having trouble tracking it though."
    "Well if it was a text collector then it wouldn’t be hard to trace, so we can rule that