Amaryllis

He gave a soft, husky laugh that dissolved into another aching groan. She heard something tear and realized it was the crotch of her panties.

'Damn,' Lucas muttered. 'I didn't mean to do that.'

'Don't worry about it. There are a lot more where those came from. I buy them by the dozen on sale.' She raised one knee and pressed it urgently against his muscled thigh.

Lucas cupped her gently and buried his face in the curve of her throat. 'Remind me to buy the next dozen for you.'

He lifted himself away from her, just far enough to allow him to unbuckle his belt. He got his trousers unfastened and then he eased himself back down between her legs.

He stroked her, his hand vibrating with his own urgency. Amaryllis trembled. She was intensely aware of her own dampness, and she knew that Lucas was breathing in the scent of her body. She was grateful for the shadows.

She felt him part her with his fingers, and then she felt the broad head of his shaft. There was moisture on it. Uncertainty flared for the first time. She had not expected him to be quite so large.

Lucas started to ease himself into her. He paused.

'You're tight,' he whispered. 'Small and tight.'

'No, I'm not. I'm perfectly normal. The problem is that you're too big.' She smiled and touched the side of his face. 'But don't worry about it. I won't break.'

He made a hoarse sound deep in his throat, and then he surged into her, filling her with a suddenness that sent shock waves through every nerve in her body.

Amaryllis gasped and stiffened. She dug her nails into Lucas's back. She had expected some pain, but not quite this much. She inhaled quickly, trying to breathe her way through the moment.

'Amaryllis.'

She almost laughed in spite of the discomfort she was experiencing. The stunned shock in Lucas's voice was a thousand times greater than her own.

'Don't worry.' She framed his face between her palms and kissed him fiercely. 'I won't--'

'I know, I know, you won't break.' He returned the kiss with great tenderness. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Because it wasn't important.'

'The hell it wasn't.' Lucas started to ease himself back out of her.

'No.' Amaryllis clutched at him. 'Don't stop. Not now. I want this. I want you.'

'Not half as much as I want you. But I never expected that you would be a virgin.'

'I told you, it doesn't make any difference. I'm old enough to make my own choices.'

'Yes, you are, aren't you?' Lucas's eyes glittered in the shadows. 'Link.'

She did not understand at first. 'What?'

'Link with me.'

She obeyed. She was already too disoriented to notice the vulnerable sensation that always preceded the focus link. Her mind looked out on the psychic plane. Instinctively, she created a prism.

'Beautiful.' Lucas thrust deeply into her body at the same instant that he poured sparkling waves of energy through the prism.

He made no effort to focus the raw talent. Instead, he let the waves of light splash and froth in a waterfall that cascaded into a brilliant, swirling pool.

The result was a swirl of sensations and an almost unbearable sense of intimacy.

He was her true mate. The one for whom she had waited.

Talent and prism bound by their own shared power.

Amaryllis wanted to scream as the pleasure stormed through her, but she could hardly catch her breath. She was being tumbled about in a fountain of light, color, and energy. Excitement, euphoria, and laughter exploded within her.

She was dimly aware that the pain was still present, but it had blended with all of the other sensations. She could no longer distinguish it, let alone identify it.

'Unbelievable,' Lucas muttered against her ear. He began to move rhythmically within her. Simultaneously, he reached down to touch the small bundle of nerve endings hidden between her legs.

Amaryllis stopped breathing for an instant. A delicious tension seized her insides.

'Hold me.' Lucas pushed himself deeper into her. 'Don't let go.' He withdrew slowly and then eased forward once more. 'Don't. Let. Go.'

'Never.' She clung to him.

Wild power crashed through the prism.

It was too much. The tightness in her lower body came undone with no warning. Amaryllis fell headfirst into the whirlpool of sensation. The focus link fractured and disintegrated as she lost what was left of her concentration, but it didn't seem to make any difference. The waves of pleasure continued to wash over her.

She was vaguely aware of Lucas thrusting into her one last time. He went rigid. Then he gave a shout of exultant satisfaction and fell heavily on top of her.

'Have you ever done that before?' Amaryllis asked a long time later.

'Never.' He cradled her face between his hands and looked down into her fathomless eyes. 'I knew that I was hurting you. I hoped that if you concentrated on holding a focus, you might be distracted from the pain long enough to let yourself get used to the feeling of having me inside you.'

'That was very clever of you.'

'Thanks. Considering that I was pretty distracted myself at the time, I thought it was fast thinking on my part.'

She did not respond to his small attempt at lightness, but she continued to fix him with a steady, thoughtful expression. 'Lucas, exactly what did you feel when we linked?'

'I felt very, very good,' he said. 'I still do.'

'But something happens between us when we link. Some- thing that isn't normal.'

'It may not be normal, but it feels good, so why worry about it?'

'But, Lucas--'

He put his fingers over her mouth. The last thing he wanted tonight was for her to question the attraction between them. 'We both know that it's uncommon for strong talents and prisms to be attracted to each other, but maybe when it does happen, some of the sexual attraction spills over into the link. Does that sound so strange?'

'Yes.'

'I vote we don't sweat it.'

'There hasn't been much research done on talents and prisms who are physically attracted to each other,' she said.

'Probably because it happens so rarely. Look, I don't know about you, but I'm not volunteering for any lab analysis. If you want to conduct some more private experiments, on the other hand, that's okay by me.' He wrapped his fingers in her hair and pulled her head down a few inches so that he could kiss her.

She came to him willingly, her mouth warm and soft. Lucas could smell the scent of himself on her. Satisfaction flared deep within him.

But when she lifted her head a moment later, her gaze was still troubled.

'What's wrong?' Lucas asked.

'Nothing.'

A chill of fear uncoiled within him. He was the first to acknowledge that he knew very little about the workings of the female mind, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that whenever a woman said that nothing was wrong, there was trouble ahead.

Amaryllis had waited a long time to take a lover. Perhaps she had been disappointed with her first taste of passion. Maybe she was already having regrets.

He couldn't let her go now. Not yet. He had only just found her. He fought back the sense of impending loss and asked the question that was threatening to drive him mad. 'Amaryllis, you waited a lot longer than most people do to take a lover. Why me?'