The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,56

you, so you’re catching my force on its back or on your wrist. Like so.” He gently glided their hands together toward her chest.

“Oh.” After a few tries, Rhianne’s movements became more fluid, she relaxing under his force, but aware of it. Whenever his hand reached her chest, she turned and flowed the energy back to him. “I’ve done training sort of like this when I was much younger. All Tuil Erdannan receive combat instruction, women and men alike. It wasn’t quite the same, but I remember how we learned to take our enemy’s strength and use it against them.”

“Exactly. This is slow understanding, as you feel my every move, using what I do to your advantage.”

They continued the back-and-forth exchange, Ben connecting to her and she to him. Ben felt the earth through her, the ley line reaching to the magic in her before feeding itself to Ben like an electric current through a wire.

Ben sucked in a breath. The magic in Rhianne was like molten lava, slow but searing.

Her energy didn’t simply come from the fact that she was Tuil Erdannan. Ben had felt Lady Aisling’s power, and it wasn’t the same. Lady Aisling was a bright light in a windowless room. Rhianne’s magic was more subtle, a tide of strength so quietly immense the world would never withstand it. Rhianne believed she didn’t have much magic, yet he felt it in her, potential untapped.

Rhianne began to smile, her focus fixed on their hands. Once she’d mastered the first move, Ben showed her more complex ones, and soon they were using both hands together.

His connection with her sang through him. What they did was like a dance, but even more intimate. An awareness crackled from her fingers to his and enveloped his body. Her smile widened as the rhythm grew smoother, each push and turn revealing more and more of her skill.

A defiant sparkle leapt into Rhianne’s eyes, and she suddenly pushed Ben in an entirely different pattern. Ben should have moved with it, continuing the dance, but he stumbled, clamping down on her and pulling her into him. She landed against his chest.

“Little shit,” he said.

“Seeing if you were paying attention.”

Ben hadn’t been, not to the training. He’d been distracted by her beauty, her relaxed strength, her smile. As soon as she’d made an unpredictable move, his expertise had evaporated.

He gazed into her black-flecked brown eyes, understanding now that they were the eyes of an eagle, proud, fierce, deadly.

Her breath on his lips made Ben forget all about the exercise, the training, the reason he’d brought her out here in the first place. He became aware that they were both nearly naked, nothing between them but a few wisps of fabric.

Rhianne’s face was misted with perspiration, her lips parted. Ben pushed back her heavy braid, traced her cheekbone with his fingertip.

Rhianne leaned forward and kissed him fully on the mouth.

A raw sound escaped Ben’s throat. His arms went around her as he parted her lips, not holding himself back from tasting her deeply. It had been only a few hours since she’d lain in his arms, and he hadn’t taken satisfaction for himself, leaving the bed hard and aching.

Rhianne skimmed her hands across Ben’s hips. Fingers moved under his waistband to touch the bare skin of his backside.

“Damn,” Ben murmured. “I’ve never done tai chi like this.”

“I don’t think it’s one of the moves.”

Rhianne’s whisper brushed his face before she kissed him again, Ben accepting that energy and answering it with his own. Her fingers played on his buttocks, and his already hard cock gave a throb.

“What am I going to do with you?” he asked. “That is, I know what I want to do.”

Rhianne licked his ear. “Why not? We’re not inexperienced and untouched.”

“Nope. Not spring chickens. Not us.”

Rhianne blinked at him. “Spring …?”

“Never mind. I mean you’re right. We’re not two innocent kids with no understanding of what we’re getting into.”

Her smile made him hot all over. “I believe I understand quite well.”

Ben gently removed her hands from his backside, though it nearly killed him to do it.

“I’m a goblin. A strange being from the deep past. You’re Tuil Erdannan, who can crush goblins like they were burned paper.”

Rhianne shook her head. “We’re Rhianne and Ben. Exiles together.”

“But what happens when you aren’t exiled anymore?” Ben brushed his thumb across her lower lip. “I always will be.”

Her eyes held need mixed with anguish. “Does it matter?”

“It might. When you meet another Tuil Erdannan and know