strength inside her. She needed him to fill her as she needed her next breath.
He was on her in an instant.
Body to body, flesh to flesh. She inhaled sharply at the slide of his wet skin against hers. His hands moved over her, exploring, delving, finding every curve, every crevice. As if it was essential to him that he touch all of her.
And she wanted that. Everywhere his hands went, flames followed. The magic fire that lived inside him pulsed out and into her, filling her with a swamping heat that sent her blood boiling and her mind dissolving.
He kissed her, his mouth forcing hers open, his tongue sliding inside, tangling with hers until breathing became an issue. Then that moment passed and Shea didn’t care if she never drew another full breath. As long as he kept touching her.
He reached down and lifted one of her legs, hooking it across his hip. She swayed into him. Her body was taut with expectation, with need. She held her breath and waited, knowing that his first intimate touch would send her over the edge. His hand cupped her core, his fingers dipped into her heat and stroked her body.
“Torin!” She rocked unsteadily on one foot, locking her other leg around him to keep her balance in a world gone suddenly crazed.
“Come for me now,” he murmured, while he stroked, caressed, teased. His fingers dove higher inside her, demanding she give him just what he needed. “Come for me now, Shea. And again and again.”
Her entire body was one raw nerve. She moaned his name, heard the desperation in her tone, but she didn’t care. She trembled from head to foot. And through it all, the hot water continued to pulse, slapping at his back, pounding against hers. Steam filled her lungs and he filled everything else.
His thumb caressed the sensitive spot at the apex of her thighs until she splintered, shuddering in his arms, riding the cresting wave of a sensation like she’d never known before. Her body pulsed in time with the water jets and Torin held her steadily, safely as she went limp in his grasp.
When she could hear again, he set her on her feet and held on to her waist, his big hands nearly encircling her completely. She looked up at him through dazzled eyes and knew that when he was inside her, his body locked with hers, the orgasm would be even more earthshaking than the one she’d just experienced. She didn’t know if she’d survive.
“And now the mating begins.”
Shea laughed a little and rested her forehead against his chest. “You mean that wasn’t the beginning?”
“No,” he said softly, running his hands up and down her spine, cupping her behind, squeezing. “That was merely to ease your first need. The rest is so much more.”
Her heartbeat was crashing in her chest and she quieted to listen to his, to see if their hearts were beating in tandem. But she heard . . . nothing.
Startled, she lifted her head to stare into his beautiful gray eyes. “You don’t have—”
“A heartbeat? No.”
“What? How?”
He turned her in his arms until she was pressed against him, her back to his front. She felt the thick length of him and she wiggled her hips to feel more even as she listened to what he was saying.
“I am an Eternal. Immortal. But I am not human.”
That should stagger her, Shea thought, yet at the moment it didn’t matter. All that mattered were his arms around her, his hands at her breasts, his fingers at her hard, sensitive nipples.
“Fire is my element. Eternals were created by the sun god, Belen. He tore the fire from the sun and molded it into our souls. Brought us to life from the eternal flames. It is what makes me,” he was saying, dipping his head to lick at the side of her neck.
She shivered.
“The sun god? You’re saying actual gods exist?”
“Belen is not the God, but he is one of many in the pantheon.”
Her whole body trembled as he blew gently on her damp skin.
“Through the mating, you will become immortal and I will receive a heartbeat. We will be one, Shea.” His fingers tugged and tweaked at her nipples until she felt the drawing sensation in the pit of her stomach. “As we were meant from the beginning. Two halves. One whole.”
“I’ll be immortal?” Her voice was breathless and who could blame her for it? The things he was telling her—and doing to her—were incredible.