The electricity between them crackled. The tension tore her self-control to shreds.
Why should this be difficult? Why shouldn’t she reach out and take what she wanted? She’d been isolated and alone and denied touch for so long. And while she knew this wasn’t going to last, why shouldn’t she enjoy everything this arrangement with him could offer?
She couldn’t deny herself. She reached for him, tilting her chin to kiss him. His arms swept back around her, pulling her right off her feet. She clung to him as every ounce of need unravelled—forcing her to ensnare him. To keep him close. She kissed him as if there were no tomorrow. But he tore his mouth free.
‘I need to…uh… I need to sort Jupiter… It’ll just take a moment.’ He shook his head and firmly set her at a distance but she saw the tremble in his hands as he released her.
The strongest sense of liberation swept over her as she faced the thermal springs. She stripped off her tee and her trousers, sliding her underwear off too. She wanted to be free. She carefully stepped into the narrow pool and then sank lower, letting the silken, warm water soothe her oversensitive body.
‘Hester?’
She turned at his choked sound and saw him standing at the edge of the small pond. He was still and intent.
Her awareness heightened and a deeply buried instinct kicked in. She stood, suddenly certain of her own sensuality as she stepped out of the water. She had no designer dress, no make-up. She was just plain, unadorned Hester. Completely bared. But the way he was looking at her? The response that he couldn’t conceal?
He believed she was beautiful. He wanted her. He ached the same way she did.
Pride and power exploded within her.
For the first time in her life she was unafraid to take what she wanted. He could take it—more than that, she knew he willed it for her. For her to find that freedom to explore, to claim, even to conquer. It was almost anger that built within her—a reckless force so fierce and hot she couldn’t contain it. That searing need drove her to take what she wanted. And that was simply to get closer to him. To seek that sensual obliteration and satisfaction from him, with him.
She unbuttoned his shirt with a dexterity she’d never imagined possessing. He said nothing but the rise and fall of his glorious chest quickened and suddenly he moved to kick off his boots. But then he was hers again. She unfastened his trousers, freeing him to her gaze, her touch, her total exploration. And she kissed him everywhere.
She pushed and he tumbled. She rose above him, savouring the sensation of having his strength between her legs. She didn’t just open up and allow him in, but actively claimed what he was offering. She took, her hands sweeping over him, and she drew on the hot, slick power of him. She couldn’t contain her desire any more—it was utterly unleashed and she was hungry. So hungry she was angry with it. With the depth of the need she felt for him. The ache that only he filled yet that grew larger every moment she spent with him. She wanted to end it—this craving. The sheer ferocity of it stole her breath so for a second she stilled.
He reached up and cupped the side of her face. ‘Don’t stop. Do what you want.’
‘I want you.’
‘You already have me. Hester.’
The way he sighed her name was her undoing. She slid on him—taking him right into her soul. She heard his muttered oath, the broken growls of encouragement as he urged her on, fiercer. Faster. His sighs of pleasure scorched her, catapulting her beyond her own limits. Until she shrieked as he exploded her world.
Dazed, she collapsed on him. She’d felt nothing like this kind of physical exhaustion or satisfaction.
‘Hester,’ he whispered. ‘Hester, Hester, Hester.’ He shuddered and his arms tightened again. ‘What you do to me.’
Alek sprawled on the ground, holding her close, shattered by the most elemental experience of his life. He wasn’t sure his heart rate would ever recover. She was a chaotic bundle of limbs in his arms. He didn’t want this fragile connection to be severed—for her to retreat behind her emotional walls again. So he slid his hand beneath her jaw, tilting her face so he could kiss her and keep her soft and pliable and warm. But she shivered. He moved, gathering her properly into his arms and rising to his knees, then feet. He carried her to the pond and carefully stepped in, holding her to him so they were both warmed and soothed by the thermal water. She floated in his arms and he teased with pushing her away only to pull her close and kiss her over and over and over until, impossible as it was, his body hardened with need again and he slid deep into her, locking her close on him, rocking them together until the pleasure poured between them and through them, brilliant and free.
A long while later he lifted her from the water. As he climbed out after her, something dug into his heel. He reached down and picked up the small chunk of obsidian. He weighed it in his palm for a moment. He could give it to her so she could put it in that box of hers and remember this even when she’d walked away from Triscari. When she left him.
He glanced at her—she looked shattered by the passion that had exploded between them. She didn’t speak. Nor did he. For once he had no idea what to say—no smooth little joke or something to lighten the intensity. He’d lost all charm, all calm. It felt as if he were still standing on something sharp and the only way to ease it was by touching her.
So he dressed alongside her in silence, pocketing the
