Archangel's Shadows - 2 Deleted Scenes Read online

  Exclusive Extra: Deleted scenes from ARCHANGEL'S SHADOWS

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  Deleted Scene #1

  (This short scene was deleted from an early draft of the book)

  “As you wish,” Janvier said, quoting an old and beloved movie he and Ashwini had watched together in a tiny theatre in London. She’d just finished a hunt, he’d completed a task for Dmitri—and somehow, though they’d been in a metropolis of millions, they’d found one another.

  It wasn’t the first time.

  Something tight and lonely in him had smiled the instant he’d seen her striding across the street in his direction. She’d smiled, too, startled and happy before she remembered to scowl at him because he’d incited a hunt five months earlier simply to spend time with her.

  It had been much like the scowl currently on her face. “Do I look like a Buttercup?”

  He’d much rather have her annoyed with him than fractured and hurt. “You look like you eat Buttercups for breakfast.”

  “Remember that, sugar.”

  “I will, honey.” He was the one who scowled this time. “Do you know I still cannot stand the taste of honey? You have ruined me.”

  She managed to fight her laugh, but her face lit up from within.

  So intriguing a mystery, his Ashblade, one he intended to spend an immortal lifetime exploring.

  Deleted Scene #2

  (This was originally part of the scene where Ash and Janvier go for a long motorcycle ride out of the city. However, the emotional tone of that scene changed until this part no longer fit. However, I love the way the two interact here and I hope you enjoy it!)

  As the scene begins, Ashwini and Janvier are standing beside the bike outside a diner.

  #

  Lips parting on a sucked in breath, Ashwini gripped his jaw and hauling him down, bit him hard on his lower lip. His cock jerked, but she’d already turned and walked away.

  Lifting his fingers to his mouth, he touched the throbbing spot where she’d bitten him…then used those fingers to wolf-whistle. “You have a gorgeous derrière, cher!”

  A dangerous look over her shoulder. “You should see me when I’m naked.”

  He groaned and jogged to catch up with her as she entered the diner, having every intention of torturing himself further by crowding her in the booth and inhaling the luscious scent of her. His fangs ached, mouth watering.

  Waiting for her to slide into a booth, he slid in beside her rather than across the table.

  The seat wasn’t built for two and their bodies touched shoulder to hip, thigh to ankle. Her scent was in his every breath, the elegant curve of her neck so close that his fangs pressed down, sensitized and ready. Placing his arm along the back of the seat, he leaned toward the beckoning tempo of her pulse and inhaled slow and deep. “You’re better than apple pie.”

  The steady beat sped up to a pounding race.

  Her visceral response made his entire body tense with a primal need to take…and to cherish. He wanted to dance with danger with his lethal, beautiful Ashblade, and he wanted to hold her close, tease her to laughter, touch her with merciless tenderness and sweet, hot need.

  “Other side of the table,” she ordered in a hoarse voice, flipping a silver throwing star around and through her fingers.

  He’d touched one of those stars once, been cut by the razor sharp edge. “If I move now, I’ll shock that nice older couple over there.”

  Her eyes dipped—to his pained groan. “Do you want me dead?” he asked.

  She smiled…and rose in a fluid move to slide over the table to the other side. “I hope it doesn’t hurt,” she said, taking her phone out of her pocket to place it on the table.

  The waitress arrived before he could respond to her oh-so-sincere volley. When she ordered a chicken salad sandwich, he added fries. “I have a weakness for them,” he said with a shrug. “As I do for apple pie.”

  Instead of shooting back a reply, she stared at the old-fashioned gingham tablecloth before looking up and saying, “Thanks.”

  “For ordering dessert?”

  “For the ride.”

  “I told you, no thanks between us.” They were far beyond that. “Though if you want to shower me with sexual favors, I’ll grit my teeth and think of England.” He sighed. “It is a heavy burden this poor Cajun must bear, but for you, I will find the strength from somewhere.”

  Her lips twitched, her eyes grew bright, and then she lost the battle. Throwing back her head, his Ashblade laughed as the snow fell outside…and the sound was a chain that would’ve wrapped around his heart if she hadn’t already owned it. Owned him.

  © Copyright 2014 by Nalini Singh

 

 

  Nalini Singh, Archangel's Shadows - 2 Deleted Scenes

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