Marked 2: Marked for Desire by Jennifer Leeland Page B

him.”
    The man was a potent mix of danger and sex for her. Damn him. She shut him out. If she had to heal the man on the floor, she was going to have to access the power that ate pieces of her soul. She swallowed.
    “If you don’t want to do it, then don’t,” Leo said softly.
    “I’ll do it.” She squared her shoulders and reached for the power she knew was there, just inside her reach. It swamped her, flooded her, filled her.
    But something was wrong.
    The planet’s power tore through her body; the mate mark hurt like a motherfucker. Her hand clutched her arm, and she screamed. What? Why was she hurting?
    Leo was there. His arms wrapped around her, and he held her close. The power still came, but it lashed her, punished her for the mark on her arm, the possession that robbed the planet of its quarry.
    Her fingertips glowed, electrified by the power inherent in her people. It ripped through the wounded man, and he convulsed, blood spattering the floor and her face.
    The planet wouldn’t back off this time. It was going to suck her dry. Leo whipped her around and glared at her. “No. She’s mine !” His mouth claimed hers, punishing her, sending her spinning. God, the man’s lips were magic, glorious. His tongue danced with hers, twisting and entwining like erotic gymnastics. His hands roamed her body, and she gasped, her pussy throbbing, needy. She was torn in two, shredded by the demand from the planet and the demand of her mate. But she belonged to Leo. Her mate mark burned, and she moaned with the mixed pleasure and pain.
    Fire swept along her skin, the sting bringing tears to her eyes even while it joined with Leo’s dominating touch to flood her with sensations. His fingers dug into the soft flesh at her hips, and the dull ache of desire became sharper, needier, like the edge of a razor.
    When his knee scraped along her clit, she slipped over the edge and shattered, her orgasm taking all the pain from the planet’s possession and turning it into desire.
    Power ebbed, and the planet let her go. It spit and fought to the end, but it could not have her when another possessed her.
    Leo broke the kiss and stared at her, his gaze concerned, almost…loving.
    She stared back, helpless, enthralled, and realized she had fallen in love with the only man who had not only mastered her, but the planet that desired to destroy her as well.

Chapter Eight
     
    Shit . Leo couldn’t believe the power, the sentient consciousness he’d sensed from the planet. It wanted to own her, suck her dry. No wonder she was terrified to be here. And he’d asked her to use the very power that would kill her. All because the bleeding man had touched her, had her sweet mouth around his cock. Leo clenched his fists. She was right. He was a fucking asshole.
    He’d barely brought her back. Her eyes had glowed, her fingertips red and hot. When he’d kissed her, those fingertips had burned his skin, burning through his shirt, scorching his arms. Like the mate mark, they throbbed and hurt now, but they would fade. Unlike the mark he’d forced on her.
    In her gaze, he saw that irresistible submission that fascinated him. The Nyral rage, only subject to the heart, not the body, had swamped him because she’d implied she’d fucked him casually. It hadn’t been like this with Shanie. How the hell was he ever going to survive this? He’d lost his last mate in a horrific bloodbath. Would he condemn his princess to the long years without a mate? Would she miss him as he’d missed Shanie?
    A groan in the dark reminded him that they had a prisoner. He retrieved his discarded knife and stalked the man. An assassin. Like the one who killed Shanie. Amazingly, the fucker sat up on his elbows and stared at the princess. He didn’t like that at all. “Get your eyes off her, killer.” They were all killers.
    The man’s gaze fell.
    Leo placed the knife at the man’s throat. “She wanted to save you. For information. If you don’t give it to