are, I highly doubt it,” he jests. He sets the second knife next to the first one and flashes me a grin. “You seem increasingly friendly.”
“You’re incredibly attractive.”
He smiles at me and picks up his wand. “Lie back,” he gently prompts.
I comply, and he softly murmurs a spell. Thin, dark lines flow from his wand and encircle my body, brushing lightly over me in a caressing net, sending out delicious sparks, some muted by the clothing, some startlingly pleasurable where they touch down on bare skin.
My breathing deepens, the sparks radiating a delicious vibration down through the core of me, and a moan escapes my lips. “Oh, that’s nice, Lukas.”
His eyes take on a carnal light. “It’s a lot more fun with your clothes off.”
I stare at him for a long tension-fraught moment as the lines dissolve then disappear, my words soft and sly when they come. “Then take them off.”
For an instant all is still. The fire crackles in the fireplace. Neither of us moves.
Lukas is next to me in one streamlined movement, the bed dipping from his weight. He focuses on me with searing intensity, his hand sliding up the center of my camisole as if he’s determining where to start first.
The camisole is off in three gentle decided tugs. The rest of my clothes in a single smooth motion. He has the ardent intensity of an artist. No hesitation. No awkwardness.
He leans down and his mouth claims mine as he lowers himself onto me, his long, muscular body pressed decadently against mine, excitingly hard and warm to the touch. Our affinity fires race toward each other, earthlines rapidly interweaving, and I can sense Lukas’s affinity flames straining against his careful control.
He seems to get hold of himself and pulls back the way he did when we played music together. His touch is lighter now, his firelines more contained. He waits for me, letting the intensity build as he kisses me ardently and his fire strokes down my lines, the heat surging forward, then pulling back again—a dance. Rise and fall. Teasing me by withdrawing. Then giving me a heated glimpse of his full power.
Slowly, I catch on, and we begin to find each other’s rhythm, faltering less and less, exploring each other’s bodies and magic. I revel in the hard muscle of his thigh beneath my palm. The jut of his hip bone under his pants. The caress of my power on him here, his hands firm on me where my magic sparks with a burgeoning longing for him.
And surprising things that cut clear through the fiery haze of our power.
His fingernails, lightly grazing my outstretched palms, sending tingling waves of heat through my body. His mouth, shockingly on my nipple, his tongue spiraling in ever-tighter circles. The delicious warmth of him. The decadent glimpses of his half-naked body moving against mine.
His weight shifts on the bed and he sits up, his eyes hot on me. His wand is now lightly in his palm. “Lie on your back,” he hoarsely invites.
Ensnared by him, I eagerly comply. Lukas murmurs a spell, his voice throaty with desire, and sends the sparking lines out over me again.
“Mmm.” I’m like a cat in sunlight, languidly stretching into the pleasure he’s flowing through my lines. He’s all tight focus as he slowly moves the wand down my body, sending the sizzling magic ever lower as a delicious tension builds.
The lines coalesce in one spot between my legs, and I’m overcome by a sudden explosion of shuddering ecstasy, my neck arching as I cry out, and a throbbing heat envelops me. Wave after wave of it. Taking its time receding. I close my eyes, crane my neck, and let out a long, shuddering breath.
Only then does he come to me.
His half-clothed body slides over mine, his own hard desire pressing where pleasure still echoes, my eyes still dreamily closed. I bask in the incredible sensation he created, pivoting my hips to hold on to the edges of it. Pressing against him as I do.
He rolls half off of me, and I hear a small click and feel him unfastening his belt.
I open my eyes then turn quickly away, the room unsteady, my heart thudding in my chest, his fire racing through my lines. I bite gently at my lower lip, the taste of cherries and oak still lingering there. Then I swallow and venture a glance at his body. Heat burns along my neck and I look away again as a raw trepidation