This week I've chosen a scene from RAPTURE by Jacqueline Frank. Daenaira has grown up being treated like a slave and betrayed time and again by her family. She's chosen as the new Handmaiden for the head priest of Sanctuary.
During her first meeting with Magnus, he informs her of her new role and the responsibilities that come with being his new handmaiden. She thinks it's just another form of slavery, the rules set just another way of controlling her. They argue...
"We haven't settled this!" she hissed at him. "Don't you dare walk away in the middle of an argument."
"What are you going to do if I do?" he snapped irritably. "I'm done. We'll talk when you are rational and clothed."
"Oh! Fuck you!"
That mouth. Quite the weapon, just as he had suspected. And just distracting enough for her to throw all her kinetic force into a huge shove that sent him staggering back off balance.
Magnus hit the bath with the most satisfying splash Daenaira had ever heard. Uniform, weapons; the whole kit and caboodle. She probably shouldn't have jumped and cheered. She should have been running really fast. Instead she waited for him to surface, hands on her hips and a smug smile on her lips.
"That will teach you to brush me off, you big jerk. And for making me swear at a priest!"
She held her chin up and marched back to her room. She found her blouse on the floor and tugged it on quickly. This time, there was no way he could be silent as he approached her. For one, he was streaming water. For another, he was rip-roaring mad, and there was no mistaking it in his step. Just as he reached for her, she figured they were going to kill each other. They were both so dominant they would end up tearing each other apart to make a point.
The Shadowdwellers live in a realm of darkness and sensuality, where order is prized and sin must be punished. Yet for Magnus, the head priest of Sanctuary, salvation rests with the one woman who will entice him into breaking his every rule…
She was his ultimate temptation...
Magnus is a man of contradictions—a spiritual leader in a deadly warrior’s body. Rules and order are for enforcing and visions must be followed—even if that means freeing a beautiful slave and making her his reluctant handmaiden. But she isn’t the only unenthusiastic partner. Betrayed once before, Magnus can barely bring himself to trust another woman.
Yet everything about Daenaira’s fiery innocence compels him time and again to cross every line he’s ever drawn for himself.
Daenaira grew up hearing tales of the fearsome priest named Magnus. But no one can convince her that men of honor truly exist. She soon learns that Magnus is very real—every inch of him—and so is the treachery that surrounds them. Beneath Sanctuary’s calm surface, an enemy is scheming to unleash havoc on the Shadowdwellers, unless Magnus trusts in a union ordained by fate, and sealed by unending bliss…
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