“When I got back, I worked very hard to convince myself that it wasn’t about me,” she told him slowly. “That what I felt was just an echo of her life, her emotions. That it was her life I remembered, not my own.”
“And did ye succeed in that?” He was tensed like a panther ready to pounce. Balanced on a limb, waiting and watchful.
She looked into his dark eyes and saw the power of that timeless love there and felt it in herself. This wasn’t Hero’s, it was hers. And it was no use trying to deny it any longer. “No.”
Fire flamed in his eyes as he strode back to her. His fingers dove into her hair and he forced her head back until he was towering over her. “What we carry inside of us isn’t theirs or ours. It’s always been in our souls and it always will be, do ye ken, my love?”
She nodded.
“Will ye ever try to deny it again?”
“No. Never.”
His lips took hers ardently, as if he meant to devour her. His hands fisted in her hair, pulling her head back farther until she was bent back, clinging to him for support, but she didn’t care. Already that familiar passion was racing through her veins and she was melting against him. But there was a new edge to it. Frantic. Desperate. She opened her mouth to him, inviting him deeper with a moan of delight, and felt a growl of satisfaction rumble through his chest.
Strong arms drifted down her back until they tightened around her, lifting off her feet as he moved. The island counter pressed at her back, then he lifted her to the edge. Head spinning deliciously, she wrapped her legs around his waist. She ran her hands over his chest and upward, pushing his jacket off his shoulders until he shrugged it away. His hands returned, running over her hips and down her thighs before they slid upward once more, raising her hem up along the way. The feel of those hands, his hands, against her bare flesh drew a low, keening moan from deep within her.
He was so real. So very alive. So verypresent.
Her head fell back in surrender, and Jace seized the invitation, dragging his lips down her neck, sucking, nipping, licking. Mikah ran her hands down his muscular chest once more, learning the sharper planes before embracing him, urging him closer until he pressed his hips between her thighs. They moaned in unison at the contact.
Dizzily, she clung to him once more, lost to desire. “Yes,” she whispered throatily. Her fingers fisted in his hair as he nudged her dress from her shoulder, his lips trailing downward even as his hands crept up. One caught her behind the knee, lifting her against him. The other tugged down her dress until her breast was bared. He curved his palm under it and lifted to his lips.
Mikah gasped as his lips closed over her nipple, suckling gently. “Oh God,” she moaned. “Please, please.”
“Aye, my love,” he murmured against her breast. Wrapping his arms around her once more, he lifted her.
“Your leg!”
“It would not dare to give out on me now.” He carried her through the nearest door and was rewarded with the site of a bed. He lowered them down while Mikah worked the buttons of his shirt, spreading her palms across his bare chest with a hum of appreciation.
Jace shuddered at the contact, and she knew his need matched hers. He wanted more. Wanted her naked and writhing beneath him as badly as she wanted him over her. Rising, he shed his shirt and began to undo his trousers while she pushed her dress down and squirmed out of it. His eyes were black with desire, burning into hers as he stripped. Finally, he was as naked as she. Her eyes devoured him, taking in the bulging muscles of his arms and shoulders. Skimming across his chest and down to his rippling abdomen. She held her arms open to him.
Slowly, he climbed over her and lowered himself on top of her. Heart pounding furiously, she closed her eyes, savoring the moment when flesh met flesh. With each touch of her soft curves meeting his hard planes, her passion rose, and she knew he matched that passion when his arms began to shake. Still he brushed his taut body against hers, resisting when she urged him soundlessly to bury himself within her welcoming depths. Their lips met and Mikah lifted her body, wrapping her limbs around him, pulling him down. Her nails scored lightly down his back and over his buttocks, but still Jace would not give in.
He bent his head, taking her swollen nipple between his lips once again and suckling until she cried out. “Please,” she whispered as her calf crept up to the small of his back. “I want you.”
Lifting his head, Jace looked down at her. Her bonny face was taut with desire as Jace lowered himself down onto one elbow, sweeping his free hand down her body from shoulder to breast to belly and to hip. Down her thigh and back up between them, until he reached her core. She was so ready for him, desperate for him. Her hips lifted, begging him to continue, begging him for more. “Now. Don’t wait.”
“Ye’re forever impatient.”
“And you’re forever tormenting.”
With a chuckle, he shifted and her legs lifted higher. Unable to deny her any longer—deny himself— he drove into her. His guttural groan of satisfaction was drowned out by her cry of delight. Fireworks burst before their eyes, exploding around them, and they froze as light, red and blue, spilled across them. Their heads turned toward the big windows as more fireworks exploded in the sky. “Happy New Year,” she whispered, reaching up to caress his cheek.
“Happy New Year, my love.” He grinned as the fiery bursts continued. Retreating from her body, he plunged again, driving even deeper. Fervently, he drove into her again and again, using the movement of his entire body against hers to push her higher, take her to the edge of paradise.
Mikah cried out, her body pulsating around him, and her release gripped her as lights flashed and rockets burst. She exploded as if they were all inside of her. Jace drove into her one last time, holding her tightly against him as he joined her ecstasy with a long moan. “Yes!” she cried out in rapture as his hips thrust. “Yes, Ian, yes!”
