Storm Born Page 0,92

than anything we'd felt outside.

Tim was nowhere to be found when we arrived home. Just as well. I turned on the shower, eager to remove the sweat and grime, and Kiyo hopped in with me.

"We're here to get clean," I warned.

"Sure," he said, pushing me up against the wall.

Water poured down on us as we kissed and touched and attempted some semblance of washing ourselves. I don't know how good a job we did. I think some parts got significantly soaped down more than others.

I wouldn't have minded sex in the shower, but we had no condoms in there. Sometimes I thought the double birth control was overkill; in eight years, I'd never had problems with the pill. But we both knew how high the stakes were. A condom was a small thing to ask.

We fell onto my bed, still kind of slick and soapy. He slipped the condom on in like two seconds, and I moved on top of him. Foreplay apparently wasn't going to play a big role in our relationship. His hands grasped my hips, halting me for a moment.

"You took your pill today?"

"Yes, yes," I assured him.

He relaxed and released me, letting me move down and take him into me. A soft sound, half-groan and half-sigh, escaped his lips. He opened his eyes and smiled at me.

"You are...the most right thing in my world."

I smiled back, knowing exactly what he meant. We felt good and right together, like the last month's tension hadn't existed. We were where we should be, picking right up after our first night together.

His hands clenched my sides, his nails touching my back as my body shifted up and down. A tingle of apprehension ran through me whenever those fingers came near my back, but he continued to show restraint. The scratches were finally healing, albeit slowly.

He let me stay on top only about a minute or so before he flipped me onto my stomach and took me from that position, all aggression and furious passion. I slyly tried shifting us once, and he playfully returned me back. Maybe it was the fox thing, or maybe it was just his own human nature, but something in him liked being the dominant one. I decided not to fight it, far too busy swimming in the bliss and fire of him moving inside of me.

When he finished, he rolled off and pulled me to him. Happy, I buried my face against his body, drinking in his scent and feel like an intoxicant. Clinging to each other, we listened to our ragged breathing calm down. For the first time in awhile, I felt safe and at peace. Things were exactly as they were supposed to be.

He stayed with me that night, and our bodies wrapped around each other in the darkness. My body fell into its old bad habits, and I found myself lying awake long after he'd fallen asleep. I twisted and turned, counting stars on my ceiling and attempting to force my mind into calmness.

I tried too hard, apparently, because my mind slipped into trance, one off from wakeful consciousness but not really asleep either. Recognizing this, I started to shift out of it until an image appeared in my mind, a familiar one of a barren area I didn't recognize and a dark, crowned figure standing over me.

The memory I'd half-started in the sauna returned, flooding my mind's eye. I suddenly found myself looking up at Storm King. The fear was there, the fear that I couldn't escape him and that he would take me away.

Then, just as before, I reached for something both within and without. Power surged through me, and the air grew thick. Dark clouds formed out of nothing, covering the sky. Soft thunder echoed around us. I still couldn't see his face in this memory, but I could sense his amusement.

"Are you going to try to fight me, little one?" A different power built up around us as he gathered his own magic. "I like your attitude - though you're fighting a losing battle. For now, at least. Come with me, and I'll show you how to really use your gifts."

He gently nudged his power toward me, attempting to quell mine. I sucked in more of my magic, letting it course through me. It burned, but it was wonderful. Amazing. Like nothing I had ever felt before or could have conceived of. I was more than a human in that moment, more than Eugenie Markham, more than a