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 skittered 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
