Darius is back. Edinburgh thought it had seen the last of this seductive Dragon King, but that was before Darius found something worthwhile. He just can’t stay away from the impossibly beautiful Dr. Sophie Martin—even though he knows that a passion this strong could prove detrimental…for them both.

Sophie tried to forget her encounter with smoking-hot Darius to no avail. He’s in her dreams, tempting her. But her association with Darius catches the attention of another, putting her in mortal danger. . .and Darius, who has vowed to protect her, is her only hope. But can she trust the notorious dragon shapeshifter? The only thing she knows for sure is that she cannot resist him…

 SMOLDERING HUNGER Excerpt 2“Sophie?”

She blinked and looked down to find Claire watching her with a worried look in her brown eyes. Sophie shot her a smile, but Claire cocked her blonde head to the side and put a hand on her hip, telling Sophie she wasn’t buying the act for a second.

“Just lost in thought,” Sophie said with a shrug.

Claire raised her brows as she regarded Sophie. “By that look, I’d say it was a man.”

A man? Darius was so much more. His presence seemed to make the earth still, waiting for his order. He commanded without a word, dominated with a look from his dark brown gaze.

Man? No man she’d ever met could be so strong and imposing.

And sexy.

Her mouth went dry thinking of the hard line of his jaw and his lips that were soft and insistent. His eyes could cut coldly, but they could also blaze with a fire so hot that it could melt the sun.

She knew what desire looked like reflected in his chocolate-colored depths. His eyes softened, turned downright sensual as he held her gaze, challenging her to try and look away.

All the while his gorgeous body with rippling muscles brought her higher and higher, giving her ecstasy the likes she’d never known.

And never known she could have.

If she hadn’t been sore the next morning when she woke, she might have thought it all a dream.

“I don’t know who he is, but you need to see him again,” Claire said, breaking into Sophie’s thoughts again. Her smile was wide, a knowing look in her eyes.

Sophie swallowed and smoothed a hand over her hair to make sure the thick length was still in place. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh, huh,” Claire said with a wink. “Two weeks ago you walked in here with a flush to your skin and a smile on your lips. You wore the look of a woman who had been rode well. Ever since, you occasionally get that look in your eyes. I’m telling you as your friend, Soph, go see him again. Because if I could find a man who could make me look like that after sex, I’d chain him to my bed.”

This time Sophie’s laugh wasn’t forced. She knew all too well Claire’s issues with men. She was a petite, pretty woman who had a bright smile and infectious laugh, and yet every guy she was interested in preferred someone else. Worse, it was all the wrong sorts of men who were attracted to Claire.

If Sophie thought her years without a date was a long time, Claire wasn’t behind her by far. It was why the two of them had become such good friends.

Sophie leaned down and whispered in Claire’s ear, “The sex was out of this world, but he’s also out of the picture.”

She walked away, leaving Claire with her mouth gaping and questions in her eyes. Sophie inwardly laughed, because it was a rare thing when she got to shock Claire. Normally, it was Claire who astonished her on a daily basis.

Sophie turned the corner and found a man leaning against the wall staring at her. He was drop dead gorgeous in his dark red sweater and jeans.

He wore a small smile about his wide lips as his golden eyes stared at her. His long black hair was pulled back showing off the hard planes of his face.

It unnerved her how he watched her, as if she were something to be studied under a microscope. Sophie pulled her gaze away from him, and stopped dead in her tracks when spotted Darius.

Her heart thumped in her chest and her stomach fell to her feet. She couldn’t decide if she was excited to see him or surprised. Especially after just thinking of him.

The strands of his long, dark blond hair was windblown. Just disheveled enough to make him even sexier. His hair, in addition to the five o’clock shadow of a beard, made her blood race and her hands itch to touch him, to run her hands up his chest and over his thick shoulders once more.

He watched her with his deep brown eyes without a hint of any emotion. While she was reeling from seeing him after so long and her body instantly beginning to throb with need, he felt…nothing.

Sophie knew what kind of disaster lay with Darius. She swore to never go down that path again. As tempting as he was – and good Lord was he tempting – she fortified the walls around her heart.

She walked into her patient’s room without a backward look to Darius. If only it was as easy to erase him from her thoughts as it was to look away.

 

You can find Donna at