You’re so beautiful.
Up close, able to touch him in this way, I was awestruck.
His shirt fell away, and I smiled up at him. It dimmed when I saw the hesitation in his eyes—there was reluctance there, and I didn’t know why. I never knew why.
Please?
My fingers pressed into the skin on his stomach, and the muscles jumped beneath my touch as he inhaled sharply. He wanted me. Wasn’t that enough?
He closed his eyes for a moment, shutting me out. When he reopened them, I could see that he’d come to a conclusion. The pupils grew wider; his eyes became hooded and dark.
Without warning, he picked me up. Afraid to fall, I wrapped my arms around his neck. He moved me to his bedroom, not taking his eyes off me. He shut the door and locked it. He laid me gently down on the bed and knelt on all fours over me.
His hair brushed against my face. I tugged at it gently, pulling his lips down toward mine again. The kiss was hot, needy. It became more and more urgent with every passing second, and my head started to spin in the most amazing way.
This time he broke the kiss, and we both came away breathless and panting. He ran his hand from my hip up to the side of my waist. He looked at me with a questioning expression—was I sure? Was I ready?
I nodded, but he knew already. Gently, with agonizingly slow movements, he removed my pants and shirt, leaving me in my underwear. I felt exposed and too vulnerable, but as his gaze heated, tracing the curves of my body, it no longer seemed to matter.
He bared me completely, tenderly brushing my skin with his fingers. Then he moved off the bed, standing up and removing his clothes, tossing them carelessly on the floor. I couldn’t help but gape.
He climbed back on top of me, holding the back of my neck in one hand and pulling my lips toward him. He kissed my lips, softly, chastely, and then marked me with butterfly kisses from the corner of my mouth, down the nape of my neck. My skin felt like it was on fire.
I could feel the tautness of every muscle in his body, and the tension between his legs. My body started to hum with anticipation—intense, flickering heat that flowered up within me. He smiled up at me from where his kisses had finished, and then re-covered my body with his own.
His tongue explored my mouth, and I felt like I was rolling into oblivion, a heady, shaking kind of heaven. As our bodies molded together as one, I felt a bittersweet pain, and then nothing but wave upon wave of ecstasy. A warm glow spread around our bodies, and I didn’t know if it was my imagination or not, but I felt like the golden rope of our mind-melds had reappeared, linking us inextricably together—heart, mind and soul.
Tejus took a shuddering breath, and explored deeper. I clasped him tightly to me. I would never let go. My mind felt as if it was floating off somewhere above me, and the only thing keeping me in this land was being tethered to Tejus—unable to look away from his glittering dark eyes.
You’re mine, I thought, hoping that he could hear me. Always.
Rose
We were back in The Shade; Corrine and Mona were off gathering a team of witches who were going to help us in our search for a portal. Caleb and I were studying maps, looking for the likeliest co-ordinates from which to begin our search.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Caleb murmured. He traced his fingers over the length of the British Isles, all the way down to the rest of Northern Europe.
“It’s a lot of area to cover,” I agreed. I was starting to worry—how long was it going to take for us to explore the miles of sea?
“I think our best bet will be to split into two teams,” Caleb said, “one heading to the North Atlantic, and the other sticking to the North Sea. We can’t ignore that area, it’s just as viable a location for the portal if we’re talking about aviation travel.”
Ashley and Landis had reported the same as we had—a few locals noticing weird bird migration patterns in Guernsey, and one old man mentioning seeing extremely large birds in the sky at night that he had sworn were vultures.
“Corrine back yet?” Claudia asked, walking into the room with a box of headsets that we were going to use to communicate while at sea.
“Not yet,” I muttered distractedly, studying the maps.
“Well, we need to get a move on.” Claudia had become increasingly agitated since returning from Portugal. She and Yuri had come up empty on every lead that they followed, and I could share her frustration—but I didn’t want to rush headlong into this. If we picked the wrong ocean spots, then we would seriously delay our investigation.
“I know,” Corrine replied tersely, suddenly appearing behind Claudia at the door. “We’re moving as fast as we can, but believe me, this isn’t going to be easy—and you can’t expect instant results, even if the theory is correct.”