Exotic

Jonas was afraid.

He could feel the warmth of her body, so close was her face to his.

Lavender faintly circled his senses before closing in to drown him. Every nerve screamed to run but every muscle froze. She was tall and slender, her eyes large and wide as the tip of her nose grazed his cheek.

She was beauty and she was danger.

He trembled and looked determinedly away.

Her hand pressed lightly against his chest, a lover's caress in the shadowy light filtering through the skylight.

The pads of her fingertips traced down the slight hollow of his sternum then shifted to lightly circle his left nipple.

If she'd been anything but who and what she was, he might have let himself be attracted.

His body stirred, a sleeper waking gradually and inexorably and one hand came up and caught her around the wrist. The bones under his fingers were slender and fragile - he could have crushed them in an instant. But she was not as she seemed and he knew that as surely as he knew his own name. "No," he asked. Begged.

Wide, full lips grazed his jaw, undaunted by his plea. They closed around his earlobe, and he shut his eyes and bit down on his tongue.

Blood thrummed lightly through his veins as her voice resonated in his ear. "I could show you so much, Jonas Quinn." Amusement tinged her speech, and her breath tickled the shell of his ear with delicate warmth. "You would be first among all my worshippers."

"You're not a god," he told her and his voice didn't tremble.

"I will be your god, Jonas Quinn," she said with soft and deadly certainty. Her lips brushed his cheek with sensual appreciation. "And, in time, you will welcome me with open arms and adore me as befits one of my worshippers." She stepped back, the dark eyes glittering with the assurance of her conquest and addressed the Jaffa waiting either side of the door as their mistress amused herself. "Take him back to his friends and be sure he is secured. Then bring me the woman."

The Jaffa bowed deeply. "Yes, my Lady."

He was manhandled firmly back along the corridor to the line of cells where they'd been imprisoned, his heart still racing, every nerve in overdrive. Nirrti might be a Goa'uld, but her host was a woman of distinctive - if not conventional - beauty.

And yet…Nirrti?

He was terrified. It had been a long time since just the presence of a woman could turn him on. Too long, perhaps.

A part of him wanted her - lying down submissively on the bed of desire while his limbs tangled among sheets of imagination. Another part of him was revolted by her - revolted by the thought that he could want anything which had caused so much pain, destruction and death.

He hoped they'd be out of here soon.

He wasn't sure he could withstand her if she focused her efforts on him.

Jonas was afraid.

*