Demon's Fire by Emma Holly

Prince Pahndir is a Yamish Royal. Once head of a noble house, he lost it all when his beloved wife, Thallah, committed suicide. Her death devastated Pahndir, and when he continued to mourn her beyond the one year period in which the Yama reserve for mourning, he was declared insane by his family, and his house came under the control of Prince Muto. Pahndir was declared dead by his family, and sold into slavery to a "pillow house", or house of prostitution.

There, he met Buttercup, who was half-human, half-Yamish. Because of his Royal status and his fate as a solitary, or one who has only one genetic mate, the house used him for the consorts to practice their wiles on. Prince Pahndir could be teased, but never come. Until Buttercup accomplished what everyone believed was impossible. But she was purchased by Prince Corum, who soon found that she was his perfect genetic match. He freed and married her, and now she is known as Xishi. Once married to Prince Corum, however, she made sure that Pahndir was freed from the pillow house.

Now master of his own destiny, Pahndir runs a brothel of his own, known as "The Prince's Flame" in Bhamjran. Despite many of his employees fearing him, he is gentle with them and pays well. But despite his freedom, he still longs for Xishi, the only woman who has ever made him come besides his wife, Thallah. But one day in town, he comes to meet two humans, Beth and her long-time friend, Charles.

They are in Bhamjran to work on an archaeological dig run by a fellow Yama, Lord Herrington. Lord Herrington is merely a noble, not a royal, but he has a half-Yamish daughter of his own, Roxanne. She is married to Adrian Phillips, a policeman in Ohram, rather like Victorian England. Beth is one of Adrian's sisters, and Charles was one of the strays that Roxanne took in from a life on the streets. Now they are working together on the dig, Charles as a cook and Beth as Lord Herrington's assistant, cataloging the finds made by the Archaeologists.

Beth is attracted to Charles, but he hungers for pleasures that make him ashamed. When he meets Prince Pahndir, Charles asks to be fed on by the Yamish, who can take in life energy from humans. Prince Pahndir agrees to let two Yamish employees of his do this, but finds himself attracted to Charles. He goes to visit Charles at the dig site, and meets Beth again, who he also finds himself attracted to in a sexual way.

Beth, meanwhile, had been shown Queen Tou's bedchamber by Lord Herrington and when left alone, heard a voice telling her to pull on a piece of ceiling. This opened a heretofore hidden chamber, and when Beth stepped inside, something happened. Something magical. She finds herself suddenly swamped by her desires, wanting Charles with a vigor she has never before experienced. Convincing herself that what happened in Queen Tou's bedchamber was nothing more than a hallucination, she still finds herself needing relief from her suddenly magnified desires, and Charles helps her while she is still asleep.

But when Charles sneaks out to go the Prince's Flame, Beth is concerned enough to follow him, and to climb up the side of the building to Prince Pahndir's office. There, she is caught by Prince Pahndir, and they spy on Charles as he is both fed on and fucked by a pair of Yamish cousins. Afterwards, Beth and Pahndir end up connecting sexually, but not through vaginal sex, and she returns home in Pahndir's car, where she is seen by Lord Herrington. Soon, she and Charles become lovers, and he takes her virginity at her urging, but in the aftermath is ashamed of himself, and tells her it won't happen again. She's angry and leaves.

But her body is changing, becoming larger, more voluptuous, and she soon needs a new wardrobe. When she goes to the city to buy it, she encounters Prince Pahndir, and he helps her with her wardrobe and tells her of his sad background. She offers to be his friend, as Xishi is, and the two of them go back to the home where she is staying with Charles and Lord Herrington and consummate their lust in the bathhouse. Here, Charles finds them and is shocked, but when they offer to let him join them, he wants it, but cannot, and leaves. Pahndir also leaves, but not before telling Beth he will see her again soon.

Soon after, in the city, Pahndir and Charles meet again, after Prince Muto has appeared and threatened Pahndir, who he has been having followed and spied on. Muto wants Pahndir to formally say he cedes control of his house to Muto, but Pahndir doesn't, saying merely that he wishes the inhabitants of his house the joy of being led by Muto. Muto must be content with that, but when Pahndir meets Charles, he ignores him, not wanting Prince Muto's spies to know he esteems and wants Charles. He later pushes Charles into an alley, and they have sex there. They part, but again, Pahndir tells Charles he will meet him later.

Soon after, Pahndir is kidnapped by tribesmen who have been bribed by Prince Muto, and spirited away to the desert. When Charles goes to the Prince's Flame, he is met by a man he doesn't know, who tells him that the Prince is gone for an indefinite period, and he doesn't know when he will be back. The regular manager is also gone, sick. Charles doesn't believe him, but feels compelled to warn Beth about what he's heard and seen.

They try to reason it out, and seek the help of Princess Xishi and her husband Corum, but the help the two Yamish promise can't come soon enough to suit them. With all the changes her body is undergoing, Beth is convinced that she can sniff out Prince Pahndir. But if she can find him, will she be able to rescue him on her own? Charles has his own reasons to go in search of Pahndir, but can he rescue Pahndir *and* keep Beth safe on a dangerous trek into the desert? And what will happen to both of them when Pahndir is dangerously close to going into heat, and their plan to torture him with sex to get close enough to free him?

This book nearly melted my eyebrows off! The descriptions of sex and even masturbation are so potent and hot that it's hard not to get turned on when reading it. The atmosphere of the country in which the book takes place is also partly to blame for the very real heat that pervades both the story and the writing. Bhamjran is like India (for the Saris worn by the women there) or Egypt (for the desert and the archaeological dig. It's both tropical and desert-like, and the heat and skimpy clothing worn by the locals, and later by Beth and Charles, evokes sensual images and memories.

All three characters have their emotional and psychological problems at the beginning of the story. Prince Pahndir fears that he will never again know release, or a heat that doesn't drive him half-mad because he doesn't have a mate. Beth is from a fairly repressed nation, and she's in love with Charles, but she can't seem to articulate her feelings to him without fearing he doesn't feel the same way she does. And Charles fears his own passions and fantasies intensely, since they are so out of the way of what he thinks of as normal. Not only does he fear them, he also fears that no one else could understand what he wants, or love him if they knew the passions that drive him.

Seeing the growth of all three characters was wonderful, but sex drives a lot of the story. Beth is freed from her old inhibitions by what happened to her in the Queen's Bedchamber and hidden room, and through her sexual initiation by both Charles and Pahndir. Pahndir, meanwhile, begins to realize that Beth and Charles together are close enough to become his mate, which gives him hope for the future. Charles has the hardest time accepting that what he wants isn't bad, and that Beth and Pahndir both won't judge him for what he wants or the way he feels.

Mostly, the draw for me in the book was the super-hot sex that goes on in the book, but the situation with the characters never made the sex feel forced or just thrown in for the sake of tittilation. Every time two (or three) of the characters came together, it added to their relationship and brought them closer to a happy ending. And boy howdy, "Hot" doesn't simply do it justice. I recommend this book both for the story, and the erotic writing that is soaked into the very pages. If you don't feel like you're melting by the very end, there is something wrong with you!