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My hands fell to his lower back, the muscles taut beneath my fingertips. All that bottled up longing, and finally I was touching him again like he was mine. My fingernails dug in.

He backed us up until my shoulders banged into the door. With his free hand he reached up and braced himself against it, his other hand still buried in my hair.

He broke away long enough to whisper, “Lana, I—”

I leaned forward and silenced him with my mouth, dragging him back under.

And then he was fumbling for the door, dragging us both inside. Absently he kicked the door shut behind him, the glass panes rattling as it slammed shut.

This man was a force of nature, a human who bent the world to his will, and I was bending with it. His hands moved through my hair, down my back, pulling me closer, closer.

Not close enough.

My breaths were coming quicker as we gasped into each other’s mouths. All this talk of death, all the awful memories we carried with us, this was the kind of magic that banished them.

We might not survive tomorrow. Not when my comrades had broken our most sacred law and amassed so much power.

Not unless...

There might be one way. A possibility I hadn’t considered until now.

The bond between mates was sacred. If the Infernari didn’t outright kill us both, then they had to respect the bond. They wouldn’t kill Asher so long as he was bound to me. Not if they wanted me alive. And they would want me alive; I was their last healer, aside from the primus, but he hadn’t used his affinity in a long time.

The Infernari would take me and Asher back to Abyssos, back to the primus, and once there, he and I would talk. I would make him understand.

All I needed to do was convince the Infernari that waited for us at the portal to let us live. That, and complete the bond.

Already I felt Asher’s thumbs rubbing the skin of my belly, causing it to tighten.

I reached for the edge of his shirt, my hands suddenly fumbling. I couldn’t catch my breath as a new type of excitement and nervousness rushed through me.

Completing the bond. My throat was suddenly dry.

Asher helped me out with his shirt, barely breaking away from me to toss it to the side of the room before his lips and arms returned to mine.

This no longer felt like a sweet, slow burning kiss. This was world-devouring, like fire burning through a field.

And now my hands smoothed over his torso, over the ridges of his abdominal muscles, then his pectorals.

I was beginning to shake, and my hair was flaring all sorts of colors.

Almost shyly, I reached between us, undoing the top button of his shorts.

Asher froze beneath my hands, breaking off the kiss. The only sound between us was our heavy breathing.

He caught my hands and leaned his forehead against mine. “Lana...” he breathed. Wrapped up into a single word was desire and uncertainty. “You’ve never...”

My hand slipped out from beneath his and I began to kiss him again. And this time I was the force of nature, sweeping him along. His mouth moved reluctantly beneath mine. Slowly, he caved into it, and the burn ratcheted back up. I sensed more than saw him step out of his shorts.

He palmed my breast, and I hissed against his mouth as he began to massage it. He pushed the edge of my top aside, pulling it down until my breast was exposed between us. His head dipped, his breath fanning against my skin, and then I knew what it was like when Asher kissed other parts of me.

Like life itself.

I arched into him, my body feeling foreign, every fiber snapping with awareness. My knees went weak, and if one of his hands hadn’t cradled the small of my back, I would’ve fallen.

Fire spread low in my belly, and he kindled it with every movement of his mouth. His teeth grazed my nipple, his tongue skimming over it.

Too much sensation. I almost doubled over with it, settling instead on gripping his hair tightly.