So Tempting by Jean Brashear

demeanor, Gabriel was a bulldog with his teeth into a bone he wouldn't let go. If she were to escape more questioning, she had to sidetrack him somehow. She seized upon her brother. "I—I just thought I saw Jimmy there last night."
    "And?"
    "I'm worried about him."
    "You can't change people, Jace. He'll do what he'll do."
    She didn't like his dismissive tone. "So, what, I just forget I saw him? He might be in trouble."
    "He's a big boy. He makes his own choices."
    "He's not hopeless."
    "Don't you think you've given him enough? You have to let him go or he'll drag you down with him."
    "I just..." He was too pragmatic, too strong and self-assured. He couldn't begin to understand someone like her brother. "Forget it."
    His eyes narrowed for a moment as if he wanted to challenge her, but finally he backed off. "You didn't talk to him?"
    "I lost him in the crowd."
    "Don't tell me you're planning to go back."
    "I have to see what the captain says." But she'd have to go for Jimmy's sake, even if not for the job.
    And despite every ounce of logic telling her to stay away, a small ripple of anticipation shot through the adventurer inside her.
    "Jace?"
    She blinked to attention. She had to get a grip on this somehow. "Yeah?"
    "Come here." Gabriel's hands closed around her waist, and he drew her closer.
    Pinpricks of discomfort danced on her skin. She pulled back. "Earl's waiting for me. I'd better go."
    He exhaled. "Then I'll see you tonight."
    Her stomach clenching, she shook her head, unable to meet his gaze. "I—I've got reports to write. And I promised Myra—" She opened the door. "I'll call you, okay?"
    "Sure, Jace. You do that." He walked past her without another word.
    * * *
    "Explain to me how this happened."
    The young man stood before the Priestess, head high in defiance of her disapproval. "She received only the Elixir, Priestess." With a little addition, but the girl shouldn't have died. The dosage was supposed to be right this time.
    "The reports say the girl was raped."
    "You know that's not true. She was honored to be chosen."
    "You're very certain of yourself."
    His gaze ranged over her lush body, wondering what she thought behind the ever-present black feathered mask. An elect few were sometimes chosen for private rituals with her. He had never been selected as one of them. It was said that the Priestess knew extraordinary sexual techniques learned from the Magos , but that was not his interest.
    He would rule in her stead one day. All would admire him. So much power at his fingertips, once they understood.
    "Lower your eyes." Her voice lashed like a whip.
    "Yes, Priestess." Beneath his own mask, he burned.
    It was not his time yet.
    But that day would come.
    Meanwhile, he would be more careful. The girl's death was...regrettable. The new compound was not yet perfected. The base potion was unstable. He'd been promised that the mixture wouldn't be fatal the next time.
    But he got hard remembering the girl's face glowing with ecstasy, her body writhing with an animal hunger so powerful even seven of them could not satisfy her. He'd wanted to transfuse that unleashed power straight into his own body, to suck her dry of every ounce and feed on it himself. It had been like an electric shock to be inside her.
    He could barely keep from touching himself now to gain release, so powerful was the memory, so instantly arousing.
    "Come here," the Priestess ordered, something new in her tone.
    He looked up but could tell nothing behind her mask. He crossed the ten feet between them. Now he could see her pupils dark and huge as she looked first at his face, then down to his groin. She licked her scarlet lips, leaving them slightly parted. "On your knees, Keeper." Scarlet nails opened a slit in the gathers of her robe. The scent of her arousal curled into his nostrils.
    This, her carnal appetite, would be her undoing. Smiling to himself, he sank to the floor.

GREECE
    Nineteen years ago

    Dante roared down the long driveway, the