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  And she wanted that. Everywhere his hands went, flames followed. The magic fire that lived inside him pulsed out and into her, filling her with a swamping heat that sent her blood boiling and her mind dissolving.

  He kissed her, his mouth forcing hers open, his tongue sliding inside, tangling with hers until breathing became an issue. Then that moment passed and Shea didn’t care if she never drew another full breath. As long as he kept touching her.

  He reached down and lifted one of her legs, hooking it across his hip. She swayed into him. Her body was taut with expectation, with need. She held her breath and waited, knowing that his first intimate touch would send her over the edge. His hand cupped her core, his fingers dipped into her heat and stroked her body.

  “Torin!” She rocked unsteadily on one foot, locking her other leg around him to keep her balance in a world gone suddenly crazed.

  “Come for me now,” he murmured, while he stroked, caressed, teased. His fingers dove higher inside her, demanding she give him just what he needed. “Come for me now, Shea. And again and again.”

  Her entire body was one raw nerve. She moaned his name, heard the desperation in her tone, but she didn’t care. She trembled from head to foot. And through it all, the hot water continued to pulse, slapping at his back, pounding against hers. Steam filled her lungs and he filled everything else.

  His thumb caressed the sensitive spot at the apex of her thighs until she splintered, shuddering in his arms, riding the cresting wave of a sensation like she’d never known before. Her body pulsed in time with the water jets and Torin held her steadily, safely as she went limp in his grasp.

  When she could hear again, he set her on her feet and held on to her waist, his big hands nearly encircling her completely. She looked up at him through dazzled eyes and knew that when he was inside her, his body locked with hers, the orgasm would be even more earthshaking than the one she’d just experienced. She didn’t know if she’d survive.

  “And now the mating begins.”

  Shea laughed a little and rested her forehead against his chest. “You mean that wasn’t the beginning?”

  “No,” he said softly, running his hands up and down her spine, cupping her behind, squeezing. “That was merely to ease your first need. The rest is so much more.”

  Her heartbeat was crashing in her chest and she quieted to listen to his, to see if their hearts were beating in tandem. But she heard . . . nothing.

  Startled, she lifted her head to stare into his beautiful gray eyes. “You don’t have—”

  “A heartbeat? No.”

  “What? How?”

  He turned her in his arms until she was pressed against him, her back to his front. She felt the thick length of him and she wiggled her hips to feel more even as she listened to what he was saying.

  “I am an Eternal. Immortal. But I am not human.”

  That should stagger her, Shea thought, yet at the moment it didn’t matter. All that mattered were his arms around her, his hands at her breasts, his fingers at her hard, sensitive nipples.

  “Fire is my element. Eternals were created by the sun god, Belen. He tore the fire from the sun and molded it into our souls. Brought us to life from the eternal flames. It is what makes me,” he was saying, dipping his head to lick at the side of her neck.

  She shivered.

  “The sun god? You’re saying actual gods exist?”

  “Belen is not the God, but he is one of many in the pantheon.”

  Her whole body trembled as he blew gently on her damp skin.

  “Through the mating, you will become immortal and I will receive a heartbeat. We will be one, Shea.” His fingers tugged and tweaked at her nipples until she felt the drawing sensation in the pit of her stomach. “As we were meant from the beginning. Two halves. One whole.”

  “I’ll be immortal?” Her voice was breathless and who could blame her for it? The things he was telling her—and doing to her—were incredible. She widened her stance, allowing his thickness to slide between her legs, rubbing against already sensitized flesh until she had to fight to remain on her feet.

  He chuckled, a soft, dark sound that was nearly lost in the rush of the water surrounding them. “Eventually. Immortality isn’t a gift—it is something to be earned.”

  “As you’ll earn a heartbeat.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why haven’t we done this before?”

  He reached down, grabbed her thighs and lifted her off her feet as easily as if she weighed nothing at all.

  “Torin!” She snaked her arms backward, linking them around his neck to hold on even as her back arched.

  “You resisted,” he told her, turning her so that the closest water jet was aimed directly at her. “You didn’t want the mating, only the sex.”

  “Sex is pretty good,” she admitted and steeled herself for what was to come. She knew what he was going to do and wanted it as much as he did.

  “The mating is better,” he whispered and held her so that the water pumped and pounded directly on her exposed center.

  Shea shrieked as the first of the jets hit her clitoris. An incredible, overpowering sensation roared through her like a runaway train. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. She was held in place by his strong arms so that she couldn’t even twist in his grasp. She was helpless to do anything but leave herself open to the pulsing, pounding, hot water jets. It took only seconds to have her body exploding once again, hips rocking helplessly as she rode one wave after another of a pleasure so deep, so shattering, she thought she just might not make it through.

  And when, finally, he released her, allowed her body to slide away from the incessant pulses of water, she knew her legs were too weak to hold her.

  He set her down onto the bench seat and through the steamy air she struggled for breath. Then she looked into his eyes and whispered, “You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

  A slow smile curved his mouth and something inside Shea shifted, becoming more than a deep-seated yearning, more personal. More intimate than sex or desire.

  Memories stirred at the back of her brain and though she knew she had to remember all she could, at the moment she didn’t want the distraction. Right now, all she wanted was him. Her gaze briefly dropped to his erection and before she could think twice about it, she reached out and wrapped her fingers around him.

  He hissed in a breath, pushed himself into her hand, and Shea felt a surge of power that had nothing to do with magic course through her.

  “Tell me about the mating,” she whispered.

  He took her hand from him and threaded his fingers through hers. Voice tight, eyes churning with shadows and light, he said, “The mating connects us. Our souls. Our hearts. Our bodies. We become stronger together than we are apart. We unite to do what must be done. Every time we come together, the bonds between us will strengthen. At the end of thirty days—should we complete our task—the mating will be complete.”

  “If we don’t complete it?”

  “The mating will end and our souls will die.”

  Shea frowned, but told herself there was no choice here. She needed Torin. So they had to succeed. “I don’t remember what I have to do. What we have to do.”

  “You are remembering,” he told her firmly. “And with the mating, your mind will open as well as your body. The knowledge will come. But you must accept it. And me.”

  She stood up, and glanced at their joined hands before lifting her gaze to his again. “Tell me what to do.”

  He waved one hand and the water shut off. The resulting silence was as thunderous as a roar. Shea would have sworn she heard her own heartbeat pounding as loud as a drum. Her throat tightened and her stomach rolled with a thick mix of nerves and anticipation.

  “Come,” he said, drawing her from the shower, walking with her back to the bedroom.

  She followed willingly, anxiously. Her gaze dropped, taking in his muscular back and sculpted behind. Her senses skittere
d wildly as she hurried her steps to keep up with his much longer legs. In the bedroom, he stopped and turned to face her.

  There was a fireplace here, too, she thought absently, with a blaze already burning in the hearth. Shadows jumped and danced across the walls and in his eyes. Shea felt the enormity of what they were about to do settle on her shoulders.

  This wasn’t about sex.

  Or at least, not solely about sex.

  This was about taking a step toward what she was meant to be. To do. This was about undoing what she had done so long ago.

  And instantly, her mind dredged up the image of the vision she’d had hours ago. Of standing beneath bolts of lightning with her sisters, calling to the darkness. A chill rushed across her skin, pebbling her flesh with goose bumps. She remembered the taste of the fear she’d felt that long-ago night. Remembered the instant of shame, of regret that had pressed down on her. She remembered what Torin had said about atonement and how long they had all waited for this time to come. And she remembered, at last, that this man, this Eternal, was her only shot at long-sought redemption.

  She took a breath and looked into his eyes. There was so much there, she thought. So much more than she’d seen in the first terrifying moments when he’d appeared out of nowhere to whisk her away from a dangerous mob. His hand on hers tightened, pressing their palms flat together.

  “For a true mating to begin,” he said, “you must accept both me and your destiny. In the past, you held yourself apart from me. Though we shared sex, you refused the mating.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged, though she suspected his feelings went deeper than he allowed himself to show. “At first, you wouldn’t risk sharing power. You and your sister witches clung to each other and shut out those who would have been the other halves of your souls. Then, later, it wasn’t time. The Awakening had to arrive before the mating was possible again.”

  “And now?”

  “It’s time. At last. Do you accept me?” he asked quietly, every word a benediction, a hope.

  It cost this strong, brave man to ask her to accept him and she knew it. Sensed it. But she also knew that this was the tradition he’d waited lifetimes for. Was she ready? Did she have a choice?

  If she refused him now, she risked returning to the dark place that still lived inside her. The vision she’d had earlier was still vivid in her mind. With danger. Fear. And terror. She couldn’t face this alone—and her Eternal was waiting for her. As he had been for so long.

  “Yes,” she whispered, her tone as reverent as his. “I accept you.”

  “And our past?”

  “Yes.”

  “And our future?”

  “Yes,” she said and his fingers locked more desperately with hers.

  “Do you take me as your mate? To stand beside you? To fight with you and to make right what once went so wrong?”

  She swallowed hard and felt the hugeness of the moment crashing down on her. Each of her answers to his questions had spurred heat to quicken inside her. Now those flames flashed and burned so brightly it was a wonder she wasn’t glowing. This last question, she knew, was the key to it all. To taking him as her mate. To vowing to stand and fight beside him. To trust him.

  And even as she opened her mouth to give him her answer, a part of her held back from that blind trust she knew would be so necessary. How could she completely trust him when she didn’t entirely trust herself?

  “Shea.” His voice was a demand. An insistence that they had come this far and she couldn’t back away now.

  She lifted her chin, looked him in the eye and whispered, “Yes, Torin. I accept you. I accept the responsibility. I accept the danger.”

  Flames erupted over their joined hands.

  Bright orange and yellow light danced and jumped across their skin, searing the two of them together. There was no heat. No burning, no charring of flesh. But the flames churned and flashed brighter, hotter, until at last they winked out just as Shea felt a jolt of that heat shoot through her palm. It snaked along her arm and settled in her chest in a tight knot of heat that flared with every beat of her heart.

  She sucked in a gulp of air and looked at him, startled. “What?”

  “We begin,” he said and dipped his head to claim her mouth with his.

  Hands still joined, their bodies came together and Shea arched into him. In the hearth, flames snapped and hissed as they consumed the wood stacked there. The only other sound was the wind, rattling the glass panes as if it were an entity demanding entrance.

  But for her, there was only her Eternal.

  Torin tipped her back onto the bed and she sprawled beneath him, hungry now, ravenous to have him in her, on her, under her. She wanted to feel every inch of his hard body. She scraped her hands up and down his back, along his butt, dragging her short nails across his skin. He buried his face in the curve of her neck, nibbling, kissing, tasting.

  She arched again, parting her thighs, demanding that he take notice, that he give her what she craved.

  He did. He shifted one hand to her center and thumbed her core until she was writhing and twisting beneath him. Tension radiated from her into him. She felt his sex pressing against her hip and she wanted it inside her. Wanted him locked deeply within her.

  When he raised his head, she looked into his eyes and in those pale gray depths, she read more hunger than she’d ever seen before. She thought she might burn up from the heat of his gaze and knew she wouldn’t care. As long as she could feel him sliding deep within her, she wouldn’t care about anything else.

  It was a fever now, a soul-deep ache that demanded to be fed.

  “Now, Torin,” she ordered, turning into him, trying to straddle him so that she could feel his hard thickness inside. “Take me now, damn it.”

  “Now,” he agreed and shifted, rolling her onto her back again, moving to kneel between her parted thighs. Then he paused and looked his fill of her. His hands touched her, parted her tender flesh and stroked her until she grabbed fistsful of the quilt beneath her and hung on for dear life.

  “Is torture a part of mating, you bastard?” she demanded, lifting her hips into his touch, nearly whimpering for what he was denying her.

  “It’s the hunger,” he told her in a voice choked out of his throat. “The craving claws at you. At me. Once begun, the mating will only become more powerful. More all-consuming. We will need. Always.”

  “Then take me,” she told him, rearing up off the mattress to link her arms around his neck and pull his mouth to hers for a brief, hard kiss. “Take me now and then again. But be inside me, Torin.”

  “Always,” he promised and keeping his gaze locked with hers, entered her body in one long, swift stroke.

  She screamed his name as his body claimed hers. She clung to his shoulders, his back, as he pulled her up to sit on his lap. She twisted, grinding her hips against him, taking him deeper, higher. She rubbed her breasts against his chest and felt flames quicken there as well.

  That knot of heat inside her chest flared brightly for an instant and burned behind her left breast as she rode him. She didn’t care about the brief jolt of pain. It was gone in an instant and all there was, was him.

  Their gazes locked, Shea moved on him. His hands at her waist set the rhythm for her to follow. It was fast, it was hard and it was everything.

  The first stirrings of her climax tingled into life and were enveloped in a firestorm of sensation. She let her head fall back on her neck as she held on to him and continued to move, rocking, writhing, twisting, taking him as high and as deep as possible. His thickness filled her, and still it wasn’t enough. She would never have enough of him. Heart. Soul. Mind. She felt the connection between them flash into life and she knew that nothing she ever did would be as important as this moment.

  “Shatter for me,” he commanded.

  She did, instantly. Her body rocked and she called his name as wave after wave carried her over and above anything she had ever known before.
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  And almost before the last ripple sighed through her system, Torin moved her, shifting her in his arms, setting her on the bed. Facedown, she braced her hands on the mattress, and knowing what he wanted, went up on her knees, lifting her hips to him.

  His big hands held her in place as he stroked his thick body back and forth across her so-sensitive entrance. Shea couldn’t believe it herself, but she needed him again. Now. The climax she’d experienced was barely complete and a fresh hunger was erupting within her.

  She moved, pushing at him, twisting her hips despite his firm grasp on her body and when she looked back over her shoulder at him, her heart nearly stopped. In the dancing firelight, he was every inch an ancient warrior. His body was golden and hard and looked as though it had been sculpted by a generous god.

  And he was hers.

  He met her gaze and pushed himself into her heat. Shea gasped and moved against him, taking him even deeper and higher than she had before. He rocked against her and she felt every stroking glide of his body light up her insides like fireworks in a black sky.

  Again and again, he claimed her, his body entering and retreating in a fast and furious rhythm that stole her breath and shut down her mind. Another orgasm shot through her and she cried out with the force of it. Then there was still more and he touched her center, rubbing his thumb across that one sensitive spot until she cried his name again and again, body shaking, trembling with the force of the climax claiming her.

  Over the roar of her own heartbeat, she heard his hoarse shout as he finally allowed himself to follow her into oblivion.

  Chapter 27

  Hours later, when hunger for actual food forced them out of bed, Shea staggered to the bathroom on wobbly legs. She had never been so completely worn out in her life. And she’d certainly never felt so damn good about it.

  Every muscle ached, every square inch of her body had been licked and kissed and touched and explored. Her mind was awash with fresh memories of what she and Torin had done to each other over the last few hours and just remembering had her wanting to do it all over again.