A Forbidden Alchemy (The Artisan Trilogy)

by Stacey McEwan

Or perhaps I pressed my lips to his first.

Let me make this perfectly clear. If you are of no use to me, then I will make you useless to them.”

What will happen to you, when Tanner learns you’ve been seduced by the man you were sent to bury?”

and he had begun to crave the sound of her voice.

“Then why can’t I come? Are you still afraid I’ll run away?”

“No,”

“And you don’t seem very fast, in any case. ...

“You speak in your sleep, too,”

“I’m starting to think you might never shut up.”

“I’ll stay with you.”

think I’ve fallen in love with you,” he said gruffly. “So you’d better fuckin’ come out, Nina. Promise me. Now.”

“Trust me, darlin’, he’s always lookin’ at you, even when you think he’s not.”

It was a story with a sad ending no matter the outcome. She read from it as though it were imprinted on the walls of her chest, a future she couldn’t avoid. “It ain’t our lot in life to live easy, Nina,” she said. “Men like Patrick die young, and the people who love ’em live on without ’em.”

“Because you’ve been stuck in my head for thirteen long years,” he said. “And now that you’re here, I can’t bring it upon myself to see you leave.”

“I’m in love with you, I’m afraid.”

But I’m warnin’ you. I won’t be an easy man to love.”

churning with rage.

“Look somewhere else, Nina. I’m only so strong.”