Fallen Hero (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 3)

Before any of the men from the Star Elite could catch up, Elspeth boldly stepped into Rollo Voss’s house.

Silence greeted her. She stood for a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the absolute darkness within the property. Thankfully, Voss hadn’t seen fit to close the shutters. There was enough moonlight flooding the room to cast everything in shadow, which was enough for her to traverse the room without falling flat on her face.

“Stay close,” Aaron breathed into her ear.

Elspeth jerked, and threw him a dirty look over his shoulder. She looked behind him only to gasp in dismay to find the door closed, and no sign of his friends.

“Where are they?” she breathed into his ear.

Aaron almost groaned. He had never felt anything so seductive in his entire life as the hot brush of her breath against his cool flesh. All sorts of scandalous images flickered through his mind, to the point that he had to clench his fists to stop himself from touching her. He couldn’t however, do anything when she clutched at his head and slammed a kiss onto his lips that startled him.

This time, he was the one who gasped, at the shock of her bold move, and the ferocity of the desire that slammed into him and tormented him with a white-hot surge of raw need. Aaron immediately clamped an arm around her and hauled her against him. Their kiss was brief, hard, and full of the emotions neither of them dare mention. Their bodies touched, collided, and melted together as each sought to answer the call of its mate.

Elspeth was his as far as Aaron was concerned, she just didn’t know it yet.

Elspeth stepped closer. For the life of her she couldn’t have drawn away. Being this close to him, in a stranger’s home, in the middle of the night, was the most daring thing she had ever done in her life. It was addictive – or maybe that was him. Whatever it was that compelled her to seek out this precious moment, it was theirs to share. She couldn’t – wouldn’t break it.

Eventually, though, when the kisses became inadequate to quench the raging thirst she had for more – more of him – she reluctantly released him. Stepping back, she threw him a defiant look that contrasted with the heat in her cheeks and turned to look for a door that would take them deeper into the house. Elspeth knew that turning her attention to finding Voss was enough to prevent her from giving in to temptation, turning back around, and kissing Aaron again. If she did that she knew they would spend the next hour or so indulging in several more sensual kisses that would steal her senses again, and she would be useless then to get the information she wanted out of Voss if they did find him.

“Let’s go,” she whispered to Aaron.

Aaron lifted his brows and opened his mouth to ask her where she thought she was going only to find her already at the door. When she disappeared into the hallway beyond, he practically flew across the room and raced after her.

“Wait. You can’t just go sauntering casually around here,” Aaron growled.

“I know where he is,” she replied with a smirk.

Aaron squinted meanly at her. “I beg your pardon?”

He stopped her when she would have started to climb the stairs.

“I came in here once when his housekeeper was here. She showed me around the house because Voss was in London. He didn’t know I had a tour of his home that day. I think I can remember where the master bed chamber is,” Elspeth explained.

Aaron groaned when he saw the flash of her white teeth in the darkness and knew then that she was enjoying driving him to distraction.

Still, it will help that she knows her way around here, he mused wryly as he followed her up the stairs.

On a purely masculine level, he eyed the back of her cloak and wished she would take the damned thing off. As it was, he could only imagine the gentle curve of her backside sashaying up the long, winding staircase.

“Damn,” he whispered when he silently opened the door to the bed chamber seconds later.

Elspeth stepped back only to gasp when she slammed into Aaron’s solid chest. She clutched at his hand as the shadows at the end of the corridor shifted. Together she and Aaron watched Oliver step out of the darkness. When she looked at Aaron, it was to find him grinning at her, clearly quite pleased at the obvious fright she had just had.

“Child,” she bit out.

Aaron continued to smirk and opened the bed chamber door. He made no attempt to keep quiet. When Elspeth would have stepped before him, he held her back only to purposefully step in front of her.

“Now where in the Hell has he gone?” Aaron asked in consternation when he saw the bed chamber was empty.

“Maybe to search my house,” Elspeth retorted. Strangely, she didn’t think she was all that wrong.

Aaron lifted his brows at her but didn’t argue.

“We may as well search while we are here,” he suggested to Oliver.

“Where is the candle?” Elspeth asked as she squinted into the darkness.

“Don’t light one. We don’t want to alert anybody that we are here. That way, we can get back out without anybody knowing we have been,” Oliver warned.