22

Whisked away the moment we exited the portal, I squeezed my eyes shut against the gnawing chill of the tunnel. Nevan's arms bound me to him, cradling me to his body, and I knew without any doubt he would keep his vow and never let me fall.

Light extinguished the darkness as we exited the tunnel, into the Unseen realm. Radiant warmth washed over me.

I cracked my eyes open. We stood inside a windowless room, hewn from solid rock, with smooth walls and an earthen floor. Oil lamps affixed to the walls kindled a golden glow within the space, but shadows lurked beyond the doorway at the far end of the oval-shaped chamber.

Nevan settled me onto a long bed precisely the size of one tall, sexy sylph. My feet hung suspended several inches above the floor. My bottom sank into the bedding, fashioned from something thick and plush, with a fur blanket on top. I combed my fingers through the lush, silky hairs of the blanket, loving the way my skin sensitized at the feel of it. I registered nothing else beyond the bed, thanks to the man poised before me, an arm's length away.

With no conscious intent, I touched my fingertips to my lips. The faint rush of air escaping them tickled my skin. I beheld him with unabashed fascination, taking in the panorama of his stunning, nude body and the luster of water droplets that clung to him. The flames of the oil lamps licked at his skin, exactly the way I wanted to lick him. Everywhere. Over and over. Right now.

His rigid shaft rose up at my eye level. Desire shimmered through me, warm and familiar, electric and silken at the same time. God, I wanted him. And after what he'd done to me — for me — behind the falls, I'd shed any guilt or shame about craving this man. This elemental spirit. My Nevan.

Mine.

The thought fired an erotic missile down my body, from my lips into my nipples, and straight down to my sex. No wonder he relished calling me his, if he experienced anything like this when he spoke, or even thought, the word.

He delved a hand into my hair, stroking my scalp. I leaned into his touch, eyes half closed, but the bliss disintegrated with a single memory that slashed through my mind. Skeiron. A sword. Blood.

"You're thinking again, love." Nevan's voice lured my gaze to his with an inexorable pull. "You're thinking of reasons to stop."

His fingers trailed down my neck, across my shoulder. I longed to tilt my head back and offer my throat up for his ministrations, but he was right. The memory of Skeiron's attack had me doubting everything again.

Nevan dragged the backs of his fingers down my arm. "You're not stopping now."

I wanted tonight to stretch on to eternity, with the two of us holed up in his lair, entangled in every way. But could we afford to ignore the threats looming outside this protected haven?

"Skeiron," I said, battling to ignore the storm of sensations triggered by his fingers as they skated down to wrist. "He's out there, hunting for us."

"Not yet." Nevan lowered onto one knee, his face level with mine. He took my hand and feathered kisses across my knuckles one by one. "The king was grievously injured, at the hand of my courageous love, and he will require a good deal of time to recover."

"Tris told me the fae won't help him, because he murdered their witches."

"It is true." Nevan turned my hand over, flittering his lips over my palm, up to my wrist. His tongue teased my tender skin, and all the while, his gaze held mine. "But I would rather discuss what I want to do to you tonight."

"Oh." I couldn't break eye contact, my body overwhelmed with a riot of sensations set off by every word he spoke and every whisper of his skin on mine. "Tell me."

"Perhaps I should show you." His thumb massaged the inside of my wrist, while his other hand coasted up and down my arm. He pressed a damp kiss to the hollow of my shoulder and I sighed with pleasure, helpless against the onslaught of his touch. His lips curved up in a gentle smile. "You, my little kettle, truly could drive a man mad by looking at him the way you're looking at me."

His hand on my wrist moved up to my inner elbow. His thumb manipulated the flesh there as his lips found my throat, lingering on my skin until I let out a long, breathy moan.

"Forget Skeiron," he breathed onto my throat. "Forget everything for this one night. You hunger for me and I hunger for you — your mind, your voice, your lips, every part of your luscious body."

"Me too," I groaned. "Want yours, I mean."

His chuckle liquefied what little remained of my willpower. He ran his tongue up my throat to the spot just under my ear, then took my lobe between his teeth, flicking his tongue across it. I sagged into him, powerless to move or speak or breathe as he breezed his lips down my jaw to my chin. He pulled in a harsh breath, his voice going rough with barely contained passion. "I need to be inside you."

"Oh… " I arched my back as his lips found the corner of my mouth. "Nevan, yes, now."

"On your back, love." He drew his head back to meet my gaze. "Please."

An odd sensation rippled through me, a cross between static electricity and faint needle pricks. I stiffened. "What was that? Did you feel it?"

"Yes." He nuzzled my cheek, my hair, my neck. "Don't worry. I asked permission, which is a kind of debt — a very small one."

"Permission. You mean saying pl — the P word?"

"Correct."

"Why would you do that?"

I felt him smile against my throat. "You seem to have an obsession with politeness." He swept a hand up my belly, between my breasts, to spread his palm over my my heart. "And I need to make certain you feel no compulsion to give yourself to me."

A tendril of ice coiled around my heart. "Magic?"

"No." His hand stayed on my chest, its heat penetrating my skin, but his lips ghosted over mine in brief, light kisses. "As you may have noticed, I can be rather demanding."

"Right." I dared to rest my hands on his back, sliding them over taut muscles. "You are bossy. But since you asked nicely… "

I stretched out on the bed with my arms above my head, exposed more than I'd ever been before, with anyone. "You're the first man who's seen me naked."

His tongue slicked over his bottom lip, his eyes burned a brilliant shade of brandy. "I want to be your first and your last. Your only lover."

I linked my hands over my head, wondering how I could ever be with another man after him. He did things to me, without removing a stitch of clothing, I couldn't have imagined were possible. Not because he was a sylph. Because he was Nevan.

His weight settled onto the bed, eliciting a soft creak, as he straddled my legs. The entirety of his body towered above me, transformed into a golden statue by the sensual lighting and the tension in his muscles. Soon he would touch me, take me, do everything I'd longed for him to do to me.

My mouth went dry. Sex with a supernatural being. Was I ready for this? Was it safe?

Nevan's gentle smile slanted downward. His brow crinkled. "What is it?"

Hugging myself, I averted my gaze to the wall beside us.

Nevan kissed my forehead, the bridge of my nose, the tip of it, the little dent above my mouth. I couldn't stop my eyes from seeking his, but a pang pinched the back of my throat.

"Tell me," he said, without a trace of demand, only a tenderness infused with an unspoken plea.

Hands joined over my belly, I caught my bottom lip between my teeth. If I wanted him to make love to me, if I wanted some kind of relationship with him, I'd have to learn to express my concerns. Not my strong suit. "Well… I was wondering if it's dangerous for a mortal to have sex with an elemental."

Gold and silver flecks glimmered in his irises as he tugged at my lip with his teeth, encouraging me to free it. When I at last loosened my hold on my lip, he drew it into his mouth, swiping his tongue across it, releasing it little by little — so gradually I felt his smooth flesh sliding over mine. "Ah, you do fret about everything. Don't ye, darlin'?"

"And this is news to you?"

"Hardly." He hooked an arm under me and flipped us over. I yelped, suddenly on top of him. The lightning-fast movement ensured I wound up straddling him with his knees bent behind me for support. His rock-hard arousal was trapped underneath me, between my thighs, the ridge of it pressed into my cleft with the head jutting out over his stomach.

He hit me with that devastatingly wicked grin. "You're in control, to do with me as you wish."

My mouth opened, but my voice had abandoned me.

His big hands came up to curl around my hips. "No harm will come to you. Countless elementals have bedded countless mortals. Even gods may engage in relations with humans."

My hands rested on my thighs, though I yearned to explore his body. "You're at my mercy?"

"I am." He rocked my hips forward, pushing my swollen flesh into his shaft. "Do with me as you will."

"That may be the hottest thing anyone's ever said to me." I gazed down upon the raw maleness laid out beneath me and wrung my brain for some sexy thing to do, but I came up empty. Dammit.

"You look perplexed, love." He frisked his hands down my thighs to where my hands rested, encircling my wrists, lifting my hands, threading his fingers loosely through mine. "Touch me."

I stared at his chest, longing to do as he suggested but uncertain how to do it. I had no experience with seduction.

He let go of my wrists and curled his hands over my hips again. "You've avoided touching me, for the most part. But when you did, you drove me wild." He rotated his hips, grinding his arousal into me. "Give it a go."

Excitement rushed over my skin, raising the fine hairs, as I splayed my hands over his chest, relishing the feel of his smooth, supple skin contrasted with firm sinews. Do with me as you will, he'd said. All right then.

I spread my hands and began painting swirls on his pectoral muscles with my palms and fingertips, exploring the canvas laid out beneath me, a masterpiece of muscle and skin and bone. For the second time tonight, I set my mind loose, shedding all my worry, doubt, and inhibitions. I let my body take over, moving without conscious thought. My hands wandered up his throat to his face, my thumbs glanced over his lips before my fingers covered his mouth, the tips playing with his pliant flesh. His lips were warm and full, sinfully lush. His breaths whispered over my fingers, sneaking out between his slightly parted lips, and when his tongue flicked out to taste my fingertips, I froze for a moment, paralyzed by the sudden rush of liquid fire between my thighs.

He must've felt my wetness on his erection, nestled against my sex, because he groaned softly, his eyes fluttering half closed and his breaths growing heavier.

My body had come alive from head to toe, awakened to every sensation like never before. I plowed my hands into his hair, plying his scalp, delicately at first, but then harder and faster in time with my quickening pulse. I skimmed my fingers down his face and throat, into the uncharted territory of his body. Earlier, I'd fantasized about mapping out his flesh. Now, I charted every inch of his sculpted muscle and soft flesh, kneading and stroking, as stimulated by it was he was — evidenced by his pulsating shaft and shortening breaths. His eyes, though hooded, ignited with fiery shades of scarlet and amber.

I moved to elevate my hips, but his hands bound me to him.

"Not yet," he rasped.

"You're a glutton for punishment?"

He rolled my hips forward, grinding my sex down on his cock, choking back a hoarse groan. "Your naked body on mine is not punishment. It… Ahhh, it is the most exquisite reward."

Another rock of my hips. His fingers sank into my hips, urging me into a rhythm. My slick flesh slid over his shaft, back and forth, inflaming my need and propelling my body toward climax. Panting, gasping, I slapped my hands onto the blanket at either side of his head and dived my head down to his. Our lips collided. We ravished each other's mouths with velvet strokes and desperate moans, starved for the taste of each other, lost to the craving that would not be denied. His hands raked up my back. I crushed my body to his, my taut nipples scraping on his skin as everything inside me clenched, hurtling toward release.

I wrenched my lips from his, breathless, aching and throbbing deep inside for a the release I'd denied us both. "Not like this."

Nevan growled, "Like what?"

I swatted his chest. "Don't get grumpy."

He took a long breath, seeming to collect himself as he exhaled. "What is it?"

"You said — " My panting derailed my words. I took a few precious seconds to catch my breath. "I thought we were going to, you know, have sex."

"That's what we're doing."

"No, I mean… " I leaned back against his raised knees, needing the space between us but hating it at the same time. "I don't want it halfway. All the way or nothing."

"We'll get there." He walked his fingers down my thighs. "We have all night."

"I know you like to play, but I've been waiting a long time for this."

Understanding curved his lips and lit his eyes. "And you want to get right to it. Play later."

"Exactly."

He raised onto his elbows. "I've no objections to taking you right now."

The sheer sensuality of his tone made my sex throb. But I had one more matter to settle first. "I need to ask a very important question."

His groan resonated through his torso, straight into my groin. "If you must."

With a little huff, I shifted my weight to ease the tension building again between my thighs. The movement did not help. "In my world, we have something called safe sex."

"I told ye, my kind and yours enjoy pleasurable relations with no injury — "

"That's not what I meant." I screwed my face up with irritation, which made him grin. "Do elementals have birth control? You know, ways to prevent pregnancy."

"Ah, I see." He boosted his hips up, rubbing his erection into me. "I can't impregnate you without exercising a conscious decision to do so."

"Really?" When he nodded, I couldn't help laughing. "Damn. Wish we had that option over on my side of the falls. For mortals, it's very complicated. I mean, there's pregnancy and then you have STDs — sexually transmitted diseases."

"No wonder your kind are so repressed. It's a wonder you ever loosened up for me."

"Watch it, buddy." I thumped his thigh, but that only made his grin broaden and his eyes twinkle. "So about diseases… "

He pushed up on one arm, half sitting, and captured my wrist with the other hand. Drawing it to his mouth, he tormented the inside of my wrist with his deft tongue. "I'm immortal, love, which means I suffer from no natural diseases or illnesses of any kind."

"Oh. Good." I felt my lips pucker. "But you're not invincible. You could catch a magical disease."

He slapped a palm on his forehead. "Thunder and hail. Do ye ever quit the worrying?"

"Not really."

"Hmm." Both hands on my back, he hauled me down to his chest and murmured seductively in my ear. "In that case, you know what I have to do."

With dizzying swiftness, he flipped us over and took my mouth in a sweet, sensual kiss that went on and on. When he pulled away, he lowered his body over me, bracing himself with both hands at either side of my shoulders, his neck inches from my face. The heat and scent of him radiated across the gap between us and I couldn't breathe, overwhelmed by the knowledge of what was to come. I knew, but lord, I didn't know. How he would take me. How he would stoke me. How his shaft would fill me to bursting. How I would fling my self-control out the window and cling to him with all my strength, riding out the storm.

These were fantasies, nothing more. Any second, I would experience the reality.

When he nuzzled my ear, I sucked in a lungful of blessed oxygen, arching into him as his hair tickled my skin. He moved lower, peppering feathery kisses across vulnerable flesh, eliciting sighs from me that ruffled his hair. He raised his head to gaze at me with a tenderness that floored me. Not just sex. Not for either of us.

He kissed the corner of my mouth. "Everything with you is a revelation. You are a revelation."

"What does that mean?"

"It means shut up, Lindsey." He uttered the decree without a hint of sarcasm or annoyance, but with a gravelly tone that testified to the passion flaming in his eyes, darkening his expression, tensing his body.

I shut up.

He levered himself up on one arm, his erection skimming my belly, and settled a hand on my throat, the fingers loose and relaxed. I must've flinched a bit at the position of his hand, because he murmured wordless encouragements. My muscles slackened of their own volition, my body answering his every call without hesitation. He covered my body with his, easing my thighs apart with his knees. His head was above mine, his cheek against the crown of my head, so that my hair muffled his voice. "Are you ready?"

Helpless to speak, I answered by throwing my arms around him, my hands on his back fisting and loosening, fisting and loosening, my mind senseless from the feel of his muscles undulating beneath my palms. I buried my face in his neck, nibbled his shoulder, crooked my fingers until my nails dug into his skin.

"Take that as a yes," he said, his cracking from the sheer power of his need.

"Nevan." His name tumbled from my lips, chased by breathless little noises. "Yes."

Poised above me, propped on his straight arms, he admired me with rapt wonder, as if my body offered the solution to a great cosmic mystery. I started to ask a question, but he stunned me into silence with a punishing kiss, ravaging my mouth with his tongue and his lips, at once enticing and demanding. Without a word, he pulled away and lifted my hips off the bed. Exhaled a raspy breath. Rolled his hips back. And finally, plunged into me.

He moved inside me, delicate and slow, rocking in and out in with a purpose and strength that stripped away every vestige of my inhibitions. The velvet softness of the bedding electrified my bare skin with each movement. He bent to suckle my earlobe, his breaths soft groans against my flesh. I clenched his hair in my fist, arched my neck to inhale the earthy scent of him. The silky texture of his hair sparked through my nerves, spurring me to unleash a string of mindless noises. He showered kisses down my neck, across my throat, up the opposite side to nip at my jaw, and all the while he thrust in and out, each stroke forceful and controlled.

"Lindsey, my love… "

A strange pain gripped my heart. He was mine and I was his. All the pain of past betrayals fled the instant he'd spoken those two beautiful words. My love. I'd barely noticed the first time he spoke the phrase back in the cave, but in this moment the lilting declaration struck me full force. My hands fell to his shoulders, squeezing and releasing in a fierce rhythm, in time with his thrusts.

"Nevan." His name was a plea and a demand, punctuated by my teeth rasping across his shoulder. "Don't hold back. I let go for you, and oh God, I need you to let go for me."

A guttural, almost feral sound rumbled in his chest. I crushed my open mouth to his throat, to take in the vibrations of his vocal chords, seized by an insatiable need to merge with him in every way imaginable.

Nevan rose into a crouch, pulling out of me, running his hands down the insides of my thighs to my knees. "I cannot deny you anything."

He braced his hands at either side of my shoulders and drove into me, filling me with exquisite pressure, diving deep with one breathtaking thrust. I trussed my legs around him, secured by my locked ankles, and held on for the ride. His length consumed me as he pounded into my flesh again and again, sweat beading on his forehead. I nearly shattered into a million shards, writhing against him like a wild thing, heedless of the senseless pleas bubbling out of me, the speed and desperation of my cries quickening along with his movements until the bed thumped against the floor, counting out the frantic pace of our love-making.

Dropping onto his elbows, his mouth against my ear, he whispered exotic words I couldn't decipher. The beautiful phrases flowed into me like warm liquid, softening my need just enough to keep me teetering on the edge.

My gaze was riveted to him, my mind exclusively focused on the experience of his body — hips pumping, muscles straining, burnished skin glistening — as he tortured me with an ecstasy beyond comprehension. I bucked my hips to force him deeper, lost in the fervor he conjured within me, clawing at his back to pull him closer.

My release racked my entire body. I screamed, heart thrashing in my chest as he shouted with his own climax, plunging into me once, twice, three times before collapsing on top of me, startling a strangled cry from me. He rolled onto his side next to me, balanced near the bed's edge.

Robbed of breath, I struggled to compose myself, to no avail. This man had wrecked me. My self-control, gone. My inhibitions, gone. My fear and shame, gone.

My heart… gone. I'd handed it over to him, without even realizing it, the second I granted him permission to ravish me. And oh boy, had he ravished me thoroughly.

His arm around my waist, Nevan pressed his lips to my forehead. "You are indeed a revelation, my sweet mortal angel."

I felt a smile stretch my lips and dimple my cheeks. "No one's ever called me an angel before. I like it." I roved my hand over his muscular arm. "But I'd really like to know what you mean when you say I'm a revelation."

"You've performed a miracle. You resurrected my heart."

My pulse stuttered. For several seconds, I stared at him. My face probably resembled a cartoon character's version of shock, though his expression revealed no disgust or amusement, only adoration.

He guided my hand to the scar on his chest, my fingers over the mark. "I thought Skeiron destroyed my heart forever. For a century, I felt nothing more than surface emotions. No passion, no fire, only an emptiness that made me ache for what I knew could never be." He brought my hand to his lips, kissing my palm. "You proved me wrong. You awakened my heart and showed me how to care for another above myself. And you introduced me to true passion, like none I've experienced in my entire existence. That is why you are a revelation."

Speechless, I could do no more than gape at him.

"No need to speak." He held my palm to his cheek. "I wanted to tell you, that's all, to help you understand why I'm here with you."

My brain sputtered to life at last, spitting out a jumble of thoughts. "Is this the thing you wouldn't tell me until I was receptive to the answer?"

He shook his head once.

I turned onto my side, facing him, and looped my arm around his back to pull him close. He obliged, molding his body to mine. I snuggled my face into his neck. "Mmm… Tell me the other thing. I'm feeling very receptive at the moment."

"Later. Sleep, love. You're exhausted." He pinched my bottom. "Partly my fault."

"Don't think I can sleep."

"Try."

His hands caressed my back in slow circles, light and calming. I relaxed into him, into the fur beneath us, and — despite myself, despite the horrors laying in wait outside this little sanctuary — I slept.