Page 20 (1/2)

I must have slept, because when I woke I was in bed, e attributes were blazing, ht I didn&039;t know if it was dawn or dusk or cloudy midday, but I arlowed, a beautiful, soft blue touched with gold His aura used to be yellow, I reed after he caain in just the last few days, deepening into a richer hue, like Gulf water on the horizon at sunset, just where it ," he said, his voice that soft scrape of sound that cah me, sleepy and contented I reached up and touched his face, his beard softer than I reht before There was so much I should have said, wanted to say, but what came out of row much anymore, does it?"

His mouth quirked up on one side, but he answered the question as if it were of great import "No Not much" His voice slid into a whisper "Since I was a prisoner on the Trine, since I ate ed It&039;s blue now"

"I&039;ed his shoulder,with the motion "I don&039;t need much sleep Don&039;t need much food" He smiled and said, perhaps only half facetiously, "Even ers followed the length ofthe silence speak

Far off, a rooster crowed Farther, the lynx called, a roaring cry Not a warning, but a lonely sound The war, parter he traced the hatch-ed too," he said "You have old scars that you used to hide You have new ones" The sic"

"Mages don&039;t do ed again, the light returning to his eyes "Whatever You&039;re different now You&039;re not hu his beard softer than down, the bones beneath sharp and distinct "I was never human," I said "You just didn&039;t know it" I was alclock ticked into the stillness "I don&039;t know" He ski, as if he stroked the length of an anis and sweatshirt I had worn to scry for Lolo, the clothes bunched and out of shape, uid beneath the covers "I don&039;t really know"

By incre me time to think about it, to stop him He kissedto my hairline, he breathed in my scent, ers found his reatly ers beneathWhen I didn&039;t pull ahen I just watched him, the expression in his eyes, the ripples in his aura, he deposited fluttery kisses, like butterflies, down my jaw He touched his lips to my neck at my pulse

"Oh," I whispered "Oh" And I felt his ainst the tender skin there His lips trailed slowly, so slowly, the length of my throat toEven slower, he kissed back up to my left earlobe and paused Mouth poised, one hand still on my ribs, he cradledmy windpipe, back up into the sensitive hollohere throat met ear and skull His lips opened He sucked my lobe into his mouth

I arched up His palm slid up my body, under my shirt Covered my bare breast

And I was lost

His mouth followed the shirt as he pulled it over ht point He gripped ings, tugging them from my toes with his own The sheets arainst the ruby silk

As if we had all the time in the world, as if the world itself had never ended, I peeled off his jeans and shirt, tossing and pushing the clothes aside, movements indolent I traced his naked back, skin like heated silk, id

Lucas breathed on my breasts, his breath warue hot and rough on the sensitive points, the chill air hter in his wake He pulled one whole nipple into hisan unbearable pressure on the deeper flesh that tautened low in my belly

I trailedthe indentations of bone and tendon Wrappedthe whi scars beneath his jaw

Shifting his torso between ht Kisses rained acrossa faint scar down my stomach, across my abdomen to the point of the hip on the other side Cooler air followed the war away to reveal ht on his body His lips ue trailing in circles I heard hter, heated and satisfied An alhtly slower, the circles continuing, his tongue pressing, the tissue beneath sensitive My legs opened, and he paused, drawing down the covers so he could see me, all of me I remembered that, that he liked to watch my body when it stole fro, untae-heat, kept close to the surface by the presence of a kylen, blosso in tihthe air with cookies and al his shoulders, I pulled him close, but he held away, his eyes locked on h toand sucked the soft tissue behind it into histhe tendons I reached between us and clutched hiers urging hihter in his tone, which was rough with his own need He turnedto rise, but he heldfrohs, so very slowly I shivered in want He s, and male, familiar and yet all new, different I breathed hi ave up resistance His tongue touched just above the top ofme My muscles were loose as wars I wanted this Oh, fire and feathers, how I had wanted this

He lifted h, the other sliding to the front, teasingwithmy body off the mattress Guttural breaths ca fistfuls of sheets Mage-heat pulsed throughhis body so slowly, too slowly, his rhyth out, his fingers ed and flooded throughand exploding against ht

When I thrashed, he withdrew, fast, leavingback to scratch hiain, all in oneme on the mattress I landed with a small expulsion of breath, one knee on a pillow,intome up I screamed then, throaty and breathless, head back, my mouth open

Lucas rose above me, braced on his hands, elbows locked, eyes on my face His strokes filledthe deepest part of me in internal blows of desire I clawed at his shoulders, wanting hiainstintorhythm I bit his flesh on the pad ofthe anise and nut in his blood He pushed razed along the nipple, pulling, stretching I arched up, following his wrapped around hiin

Passion spiraled up fro whirlpool of sensation His eyes were open and watching, staring intoshot fro e of pleasure My extre, and I screa tore in my throat with a hoarse note of pain and pleasure "Yes," I breathed, the sound harsh "Now"

He thrust intointoand burning, rolling throughwaves of passion gathered and folded over, tightening with surface tension And fell Exploded in an eruption of power fro each pore and out ertips His hoarse cry echoed mine

We lay there afterward, our bodies sweaty, heated, our breathing loud in our tortured lungs Oxygen-starved, I sucked in air, wondering if what I had seen with ht that burst out between us in that finala lavender and purple haze that undulated out fro

When he could ain, Lucas pulled the down coht a little to the side so I could breathe We lay there, head to head in the dark Waric ease

My stohed

He fell to the floor of his cell, tripping on the shackles, overshooting the supple resilience of his wings and rolling into the far wall He crashed into the stone, back-first, as they intended, his severed wing hu with painful thunks Since he had killed three of the to place the his blood in a long tracery

The key to the shackles landed on the stone floor and bounced with a snap and tinkle "Open the cuffs Toss &039;eet too close, Ephrahu?" he taunted, breathless with pain

"Too s a bit of straw froainst the wall outside the cell and relaxed, crossing his are in heat across the hall froain See how you like it two days in a row"