“Torin,” she whispered, “you make me feel so much.”
His hands moved over her skin, tracing every line, every curve and he felt his heart swell in his chest. She was everything and more to him. She had no idea what he would do for her. What he would sacrifice for her.
To save this witch, he would surrender the world if he had to. Because without her, he was nothing. Without her, there was only the loneliness of centuries past. The misery of knowing what he had found only to lose it.
Her hands slid up and down his back, then his chest, stroking the branding tattoo until the lines of each flame burned with a fiery red light and he felt the heat of every one of those flames licking at him.
She stroked him, reaching down between their bodies to wrap her fingers around his hard thickness. Sliding her hand gently up and down, stroking the tip of him until he was forced to hiss in breath after breath in a gritty determination to hold on. To not claim the release she was bent on giving him.
At last, though, he couldn’t take her touch without the risk of exploding, so he pulled her hand free of him and smiled down into her emerald green eyes. “Not yet, Shea. There is much I wish to do to you. For you.”
“You give to me all the time, Torin,” she said, arching off the bed toward him, needing the feel of his skin on hers as badly as he did.
“And it will continue,” he vowed. “I will always put you first above all others. Your happiness means more to me than anything.”
She stilled and looked deeply into his eyes. “You do make me happy, Torin. Happier than I ever thought I would be. After Aunt Mairi died, I was so alone and so scared. I never imagined I could feel like this. That I would find purpose again. That I would find you.”
He kissed her then, long and deep and hard. Dragging that moment on for a small eternity because the taste of her was staggering to him. But there was more he wanted, needed, to taste.
Sliding along her body, he caressed her skin, kissed every inch of her as he worked his way down, past her breasts, her abdomen, to the very heart of her. He parted her thighs with the touch of his hand. She opened for him eagerly, willingly. He dipped first one finger, then two, into her hot depths and watched her face as she lifted her hips into his hand. The mating tattoo burned a dark, bright red around her breast and an answering fire sizzled on his own skin.
He felt the mark chasing down along his spine and knew that Shea was experiencing the same. The brand was nearing completion and now it would burn fiercely whenever they came together. A reminder, he thought, of what they had earned. What they had become.
Moving now, Torin knelt between her thighs and watched her smile as she lifted her hips to welcome his body. But he wanted something more from her first. Wanted to take and give and feel her shatter.
Scooping his hands under her behind, he lifted her off the bed and held her, suspended. “Drape your legs over my shoulders, Shea.”
“Torin…” She bit her lip and did as he asked.
He kept his gaze locked with hers as he lowered his head to taste her most intimate flesh. At the first swipe of his tongue, Shea groaned aloud and took a sharp, quick breath. That soft sigh of sound fed the desire pumping through him.
Torin licked and tasted and nibbled at her core until she was breathing in ragged gasps and twisting in his hold. She rocked her hips wildly, desperate for the release he kept pushing her toward. She fisted her fingers in his hair and held his mouth to her when the first ripples of sensation coursed through her and Torin felt every jolting surge of pleasure as it shook her to the bone.
Only when the last one had dissolved, leaving her body trembling with release, did he ease her back onto the mattress. He buried his body within hers in a long, hard stroke, laying claim to all she was. She urged him on with tiny, barely heard cries of ecstasy.
He felt lightning-like whips of energy snapping between the two of them. They moved together in a tender symphony of rhythm. Her body tightened around his, liquid heat, clenching down, pulling him deeper, deeper, until Torin was sure he would never completely be apart from her again. The fires between them burned and flared. He reached for her hand and twined their fingers together.
The mating fire erupted, burning brightly over their joined hands as their bodies shattered together, each of them jolting into a climax that was all the stronger for the sharing.
In the darkness, two decks above, the tip of a cigarette glowed in the darkness like the eye of a demon.
The watcher smiled.
Chapter 42
“It’s time.” Kellyn spoke into her phone and idly plucked a stray thread from her plum-colored silk shirt. “According to my contact, Shea and Torin are very close now. They should be right where I expect them sometime in the next twenty-four hours. I’ll need to have everything in place well before so we’re ready to go at a moment’s notice. I’ll handle all of the arrangements.”
“Kellyn,” the voice on the phone said patiently, “we’ve discussed this before. You’ve given me the coordinates for this confrontation and I’ve already made the arrangements. When we hang up, I’ll notify them to set up immediately.”
Rage swarmed like dragonflies in the pit of her belly, but Kellyn bit back her frustration and kept her voice cool and disaffected. She’d come too far to lose her temper now. She still needed this connection. So she took a breath and said, “I’m sure you remember how badly the Seeker operation ended.”
“Yes, but my instructions weren’t followed,” the caller insisted. “And those who made the mistakes have been dealt with. This time it will be different. My own people are taking care of things rather than subcontracting it out. There won’t be any blunders this time-I won’t stand for it.”
Neither would Kellyn. Which was why she wanted to be in charge. However, there were still reasons for maintaining this relationship, so she would give it another try.
“Now, if the coordinates you gave me haven’t changed…” the voice continued.
“They haven’t.” Kellyn knew exactly where the witch and her Eternal were headed. It might take Shea a bit longer to recall everything, but Kellyn’s memories had returned some time ago. The past was wide-open to her and the future, if maneuvered correctly, shone with promise.
“All right, then,” the voice said with confidence. “I’ll make the call. Everything will be set up and waiting within the hour.”
“Fine.” Kellyn forced a smile and looked down on the street traffic in front of her hotel. Yes, the view had changed, but any view that could be seen from the very best suite in a luxury hotel was a good one. She laughed to think of Shea and her Eternal, darting across the countryside, staying in tacky motels and abandoned homes. All to avoid detection, she thought-for all the good it had done them.
Between the trackers implanted in Shea’s body and the scrying Kellyn had been doing, the witch and the Eternal had been chased from one edge of the country to the next. She had enjoyed her magical meetings with Shea and was looking forward to the next time they met. Kellyn would talk Shea into turning her back on the coven and joining forces with her. Then the two of them would hunt down the other Awakened witches, each in turn. And in the end, the Artifact and the power would be theirs.
Smiling, she realized she was in a much better mood as she told her partner, “I’ll go directly to the coordinates and make sure your people are set up correctly.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll contact them, let them know you’re coming and that they should do as you order.”
“Excellent.” Nothing she liked better than men snapping to attention.
“Fine then,” the caller said easily. “And Kellyn, see that nothing goes wrong this time. I don’t want the witch dead. She’s no good to either of us unless she’s alive.”
“I know that even better than you.” Kellyn hung up and tossed the phone onto a nearby chair.
She didn’t need to be reminded about anything. Especially not by one who had only recently joined in the hunt.
Kellyn had been waiting for this for centuries.
