He didn’t waste a moment, sliding two thick fingers into me and hissing appreciatively when I immediately clenched around him. His thumb took the place of his fingers, sliding over my slick and sensitive bud while he pumped in and out of me. My hands curled into claws on his shoulders, and I was writhing, moaning with an abandon that was entirely new to me. This wasallnew, the potency of each sensation and especially the effect on my magic. During sex, my Flame was normally curled up in my chest, perhaps glowing a little at most, not racing along my skin, igniting me right down to the ends of my hair; not making a fucking pyre of my body. It was almost alarming, and even as the blinding pleasure ratcheted up and up, even as I urged him on with his name on my lips, I was terrified of what might happen when I reached the edge I was blazing towards.
Caelan was still watching me so closely, lips parted around his ragged breath, but something must have shown on my face because a frown creased his brow before he leaned in. He took my lip between his own, then dragged it through his teeth.
“Tell me,” he gritted out; demanded, before he released my lip.
“Worried,” I gasped.
“About?”
“Magic’s acting up. Might set you on fire?”
He just laughed, and his pace shifted, fingers moving faster inside me, the wet noise of him entering my body again and again as obscene as it was utterly devastating. My moans bordered on sobs, overlapping the low words he spoke in my ear.
“Then I’ll burn, Rosie, and I’ll love every fucking minute of it.”
That fear was apparently the last tether holding me back, and at his gruff reassurance and the relentless pace of his hand between my legs, I shattered so suddenly I couldn’t stop the scream that rose with the final exultant burst of my Flame.
I came and came, freefalling within myself to meet the rising height of my magic. And when Caelan finally gave in and kissed me, I clung to him, moaning into his mouth with each shudder that ran through me, each stroke of his tongue keeping pace with the slowing thrust of his fingers inside me.
When my body eventually calmed and his hand withdrew, he kissed me still, slow and sweet, lulling my Flame from its elated roar down to a soft, contented purr in my chest. He pulled back, and gathered me to him, lifting me from the shelves just to slowly drop to his knees and settle us both on the floor, his back to the shelves and me in his lap. He curved his arms around my back as if I might leap up, but I had no strength in my trembling legs and no desire to move – so we sat there, staring breathlessly at each other. He hadn’t caught fire, but little paths of flame had erupted down the lengths of my arms and lit his beautiful face where they rested against his broad chest, throwing a shine to the satisfied glint in his eye.
“I’ve wanted this from the very first scowl you sent my way,” he said. “D’you know that?”
I hadn’t. Or maybe some part of me had, all along, the part most closely acquainted with my stubborn, covetous Flame. Theconflicted thoughts must have passed over my face, because he laughed softly, then kissed me again, just a soft brush of his lips over mine before he went on, speaking gently against my mouth and kissing me intermittently.
“All I saw was your golden hair, the way you held that star in your arms like a divine weapon; like you’d raze whole armies to the ground with a single stare. You looked like a vengeful sun goddess, and I wanted to burn in your orbit so fucking badly I could barely think about anything else.”
His kisses were drugging, but his words spoke to my Flame, and it roused with drowsy interest.
“Did you know?”
He stopped kissing me, and didn’t answer for a long moment. But his green eyes were thoughtful as he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, then played with the lengths of it, winding it around his finger.
“I knew there was something about you. I knew there was a light to you, some warmth I didn’t completely understand. Probably what drew me in to begin with.” He grinned then, teeth glinting like fangs in my firelight. “Cold blooded and all that.”
“Makes sense,” I mumbled dryly, just to hear him laugh again. I dropped my head to his chest and let the sound of it rumble through me. In afterthought, I mused aloud; “I wonder why my magic is so drawn to you.”
Caelan tensed, and so did I. What had I saidthatfor? Too vulnerable, too fast, with none of the wry, teasing humour of his own admission. Dagda save me, all he’d had to do was feel me up a bit and let me drift in his lap, and I was docile as a kitten.
“It likes me, then?”
I could hear his smirk, but to raise my head would be to let him see the blush burning in my cheeks. Gods forbid he get the wrong idea. Whatever that was.
“It has a mind of its own,” I said, a little pointedly even with the yawn that caught the edge of my words.
“Does it now?” He laughed. “Well, it so happens that I like your magic too.”
He smoothed a hand down my back, soothing and perhaps a little placating. My eyes were growing heavy, the rhythm of his broad hand stroking down my back slowly lulling my mind to the same dark depths as my drowsy Flame. When I finally curled tighter against his chest and succumbed to the temptation of that sated exhaustion, he kissed my crown, then rested his head on mine.
His gentle whisper was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.
“Would it mind, though, if I said I like you best?”
???
I woke with the Captain’s warm arms wrapped around my back, but it was not his voice that roused me from the peace of my dreamless sleep.
“Roz?”
