His eyes ignited with that scarlet ring as he sucked in a shaky breath. “This is—” He laughed once, harsh and gruff. “This is insane.”

I stopped moving toward him and sat on my knees. “It is.”

We stared at each other. The air turned static with stinging tension.

“We should go back,” he said roughly. “We should be smart about this.”

“We should,” I agreed.

“We need to talk about what happened.”

“We do.”

His eyes narrowed. “We shouldn’t do this here. Not for our first time....We should wait.”

“You’re right.”

I couldn’t look away. He couldn’t look away. We sat within reaching distance, staring each other down, daring the other to be wise and stop this.

But neither of us spoke again and that bond pulled achingly tight—buzzing, vibrating, demanding.

Lucien’s gaze dropped to my mouth.

I opened my lips to—

“Ah fuck it.” He pounced.

We fell together to the leaf-littered ground. His mouth bruised mine as he kissed me exquisitely hard. I moaned as the world narrowed to teeth and breath and skin.

We clawed at each other as if we’d combust if we didn’t touch. My filthy white shirt ripped in the night. He tried to yank it down my arms but...in a burst of deliciously hot fire, flames burst from his fingertips and turned the material to ash.

I gasped as his hand landed on the silk camisole I wore underneath.

That too went up in a puff of smoke.

He didn’t stop kissing me, even as he turned his dangerous hands to my skirt and prepared to turn that into cinders.

“Wait!” I pushed his chest. “I’ll need something to wear to walk home in!”

Growling under his breath, he shoved the torn and tattered skirt off my hips, kicking it away the moment it bunched by our feet.

He fell on me again and when his hand landed on my breast with nothing blocking skin to skin, the bond roared with delicious approval.

Whatever this was. Whatever we’d become.

There was no going back.

His tongue plunged into my mouth as I managed to unzip his trousers. His taste hit me like a comet—hot brimstone and scorched honey—a heady mix of smoke and sweetness.

The flames in his blood roared to life, making his shoulders steam as the ice within me replied. It rippled down my fingertips, stamping his skin with instantly melting snowflakes.

And the best thing...no pain.

Just a clashing and melding, joining and fusing as if we’d always meant to find each other. Always needed each other to survive.

He groaned and kissed me ever so deep.

I lost track of him and me. We just were.

A single heart, one soul, bonded and forged, two halves of the same.

I groaned as his hot possession broke through my mind. I heard him inside me. I sensed him as he fondled and laid claim.

Mine.

Yours. I tried to send the thought back as my spine arched, forcing more of my breast into his hand. A tidal wave of winter and a corona of wildfire wove us together, not content that we’d given in but forcing us to break.

He’d come after me.

He’d saved me.

I was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with him.

He kissed me again, shifting out of the cradle of my legs and lying on his side. Grabbing my jaw, he held me tight as he stole every drop of common sense I had left. His kiss was so wickedly carnal, I didn’t just shiver with ice, I detonated with it.

A small blizzard whipped around us.

A tiny snowstorm appeared overhead.

I had questions.

A thousand and one questions about what had happened to me and why I was no longer in agony but...him.

God, him.

I melted into his control as he captured my mouth again, assaulting me and worshipping me, his hand skating down my body to settle over the scrap of lace called underwear. His tongue corrupted mine just as his fingers stroked me over the fabric, making me jerk against his chest.

My fingers clawed at his back, demanding more, immediately.

Obeying me, he continued kissing me all while his fingers slid to my hips, tugging the lace down my thighs. I wriggled in eager help, shoving them off and flicking them away with my foot.

He fell on me again the moment they flew through the air.

He kissed me ever so deeply as his fingers found my centre, stroking my wetness and electrifying me with a single caress.

“Fuck...” He rubbed me slowly, causing coils of pleasure. “You’re cold everywhere but here...you’re burning.”

I whimpered against his criminally erotic mouth as he slid a single finger inside me, slowly, maddeningly, as if he had centuries in which to break me.

My entire body clenched around him, making him hiss and sink deeper, not stopping until he’d claimed all of me.

I lay panting, needing.

The slightest sting tugged deep inside, warning that just because I wanted to lose my virginity by a river with a man who wasn’t entirely human...didn’t mean I wouldn’t pay.

I scowled at the thought.

I didn’t want pain.

I’d had so much pain. Too much pain. I just wanted pleasure. I just wanted to let go and enjoy instead of fearing what should be the best moment of my life.

I tensed as he withdrew, using my wetness to rub that sensitive bundle of nerves that promised I could unravel in a heartbeat.

Almost as if he sensed my building nerves, he eased two fingers inside me, stopping the moment he couldn’t go any further. He didn’t speak...just accepted my body’s obstruction and fell on me with another deliciously deep kiss, scattering my worry and making my hips rise for more.

“I’ll never get used to how you feel,” he murmured against my mouth, sinking a mind-melting finger back inside me. “How silky and surprisingly strong.” He curled his touch against my inner walls, finding that perfect spot.

My thighs locked around his wrist, trembling as he shoved me smugly to the edge.

I cried out as he pressed his thumb on my clit, shoving me over and sending me shattering into a million fractals. His mouth sealed over mine, swallowing my cries as I came.

His finger thrust in time with my release, shoving me deeper into the vortex, wringing every ripple dry. And at the pinnacle—at that very moment where my heart stopped and I would gladly die if I could live in such euphoria—coldness surged.

He grunted as the icy storm blasted into him, drowning his heat and fireworking above us with lightning crackles and snow clouds.

My eyes opened, anxiety filling me—

He kept going.

Kept working his hand between my legs—making me find pleasure within pleasure, drowning me with bliss as he tore his mouth from mine and pressed his forehead against my temple as if my orgasm broke him.

I shuddered as I slowly came down from heaven.

The swirling snowflakes quickly melted with the thermals wisping off him.

His breath was tattered and hot in my ear, his hips pressed along my thigh, grinding his hardness against me as if he burned alive with agonising need.

The intimacy of the way he held me.

The sheer surrender in how he silently begged me.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t let him be in pain.

Shifting a little, I caught his stare as I pressed my hand inside his open trousers and found him. No underwear. No obstruction. Neither of us was expecting the sizzle and stinging electricity of finally touching him.

His eyes snapped closed as his head fell back, exposing the powerful sweep of his throat. My fingers wrapped tight—just like they had that day in his bedroom when he’d used me to find his release.

He shuddered as I ran my thumb along the damp tip.

He growled as I stroked him.

He was impossibly soft yet ridiculously hard and the longer I pleasured him, the hotter he became. Every muscle in his chest roped with tension. His belly flexed as he panted. His jaw clenched as he choked on curses.