breath and let his eyes close on a wave of pure pleasure.
In the midst of madness, in the turmoil of danger, all he could think about was possessing her. Laying claim to her again and again. He needed to feel the heat of the brand erupting on his skin and watch his mark on her grow. He wanted to be pounding his body into hers, feeling her slick, wet heat accepting him, taking him deep.
Her thumb caressed the very tip of him, sliding the bead of moisture she found there in tight, quick circles. He groaned and knew he was lost. He had to have her. Were the Seekers to come crashing at the door this instant, he would still have to have her.
Torin bent his head and took her left nipple into his mouth. He tasted her scent, that elemental mixture of earth and ocean and pure Shea and the cool heat of her skin. The burn of the brand filled him and increased the need already climbing to staggering heights inside him.
Shea held his head to her breast and stroked her fingertips along his cheeks, encouraging him to taste more deeply, to suckle more fiercely. As he did, she groaned, the soft sigh sliding into his very heart.
He dropped one hand to her center and found her wet and hot for him. Delving deep with two fingers, he heard her groan and pushed his fingers higher, so that he could caress her body from the inside.
She rocked into his touch, riding his hand as if everything in the world depended on the next few minutes. They were as one. Breathing shattered, bodies straining.
His tongue and teeth worked her nipple as his hands worked her core. His thumb caressed that one small nub of sensation until she let her head fall back on her neck and his name sigh from her lips.
It wasn’t enough, he thought wildly. He needed to be a part of her. Now. He tipped her back onto the bed and was only vaguely aware of the screams of the old bedsprings beneath them.
Shea continued to twist and writhe against his hand, her voice encouraging him in a hoarse whisper more compelling than a shout. “I’m so close, Torin, so close.”
“Go over for me, Shea,” he urged, breath hot against her skin as he lifted his gaze to hers.
“No, don’t push me over the edge yet.” She shook her head wildly from side to side, laughing and gasping all at once. “Need you. Need you inside me. We go together.”
“Together,” he repeated, staring into her eyes.
He covered her with his big body and pushed his hard length into her depths with one long thrust. Locked together, bodies taut with the unreleased tension claiming them both, they held perfectly still, simply relishing the soul-deep pleasure of the joining.
Then she lifted her legs to his hips, reached down to curl her fingers into his butt and smiled up at him. “Take me now, Torin. Hard and fast and deep. Don’t hold anything back.”
“Never,” he promised and kept his gaze locked with hers as his hips pumped furiously against her. The rhythm they set was blinding. White-hot cracks of lightning shot back and forth between them as power met, collided and then blended.
Again and again, he pushed himself into the only woman who had ever mattered to him. He felt his unbeating heart jerk in his chest as he watched ecstasy steal across her features.
Torin felt a stinging burn on his chest. He looked down at the tattoo on her breast and watched as the flames darkened, then flared brightly as their mating quickened, encompassing them both with the force of magic.
The incredible slide of his body into hers hastened the need already taking him over. He was relentless, pushing her higher and higher. The friction between their bodies stoked the inner fires until they lived and breathed as much as the flames that made up Torin’s being.
Everything he was, he gave her, everything she was, he took. He bent his head again, tasting her skin, licking her as a cat would a bowl of cream. He couldn’t get enough of her. Over and over, she cried out, matching his body on every thrust, urging him on, shouting his name.
He took her nipple into his mouth again and suckled her long and deep as his body laid siege to hers. And finally, he felt her reach the end of her endurance. She gave herself up to the liquid swells