She straddled his stomach, reaching under the sheets behind her to grip his c.o.c.k in her delicate hand. He knew she intended to shove him inside herself, but it wasn't time for that. "Not yet. Soon."

A feral snarl shaped her mouth, making her look like a woman who wasn't going to take no for an answer. Her white teeth glowed bright, her lips were swollen and red from his kisses, and right now, Madoc couldn't think of a single thing beyond getting her mouth around his c.o.c.k.

He knew that wasn't what he was supposed to be thinking about, but he couldn't seem to help it.

"Is that what you want?" she asked, staring down at him.

h.e.l.l, yes. There was no way he was keeping his rampant thoughts to himself. He didn't even try. He let her see what he wanted. He let her see her white hair spilling over his thighs as she sucked him into her sweet mouth. He let her see her thighs spread wide as he returned the favor, licking and sucking her until she came against his mouth.

Her body vibrated with fine tremors as she inched her way toward his groin. The sheets covered his erection, but didn't hide it. She pulled the fabric down, sliding it over his c.o.c.k in a sensual caress.

Madoc shuddered, clenching his fists to keep from shoving her down where he wanted her. He needed to be gentle. Careful. He couldn't hurt her again like he did last time.

In fact, he shouldn't even be doing this at all.

"You're not going to hurt my mouth," she told him. Before he could answer her, she flowed down between his thighs with a natural grace that made it look like she'd been doing this for years.

Wet heat closed around his c.o.c.k as she slid her lips over him. Her tongue swirled over the head, licking away the drops he couldn't keep from spilling in his excitement. With voracious enthusiasm, she sucked and licked, learned what he liked, dragging a string of searing curses from his lips. He felt her in his head, sliding through his thoughts, and the intimacy served only to make him hotter.

He wasn't going to last much longer at this rate. All her innocence and excitement were going to kill him, and he'd be d.a.m.ned if he got off again without making her come first. It was a point of pride. His woman would never again go without the screaming kind of pleasure she deserved. And then some.

Before he forgot his good intentions, he pulled her sweet mouth away and pushed her back until her head was hanging off the end of the bed. He lifted her feet, hooked them over his shoulders, and moved up until her thighs were draped over his arms.

Like this, the contrast between his strength and her fragility was startling. His arms were as thick as her legs, reminding him of just how fragile she was.

"I can take whatever you have to give," she a.s.sured him. "You won't break me."

Her trust in him was humbling. It tore down walls he didn't even know he'd built, baring him in ways he'd never been with any other woman.

As big and tough as he was, she could still make him tremble.

Madoc turned his head and kissed the inside of her thigh, right above her knee. His tongue flicked over her skin, leaving a hot, wet trail of feather-soft touches. As he moved up her body, her legs spread wider.

"I'm going to kiss you," he told her. "Make you wet enough to take all of me."

She shivered and Madoc felt a spike of l.u.s.t spear through their link into him. Her l.u.s.t.

A smile of victory stretched his mouth as he bent to kiss and lick and feast on her.

Nika was dying. She had to be. Nothing but death could feel this intense.

She knew what was happening to her. She'd been inside the minds of other women when they climaxed, but it was nothing like this. She wasn't sure if it was the mental connection or the physical distance that had muted those feelings, or if she somehow felt things differently from other women, and right now, she couldn't concentrate enough to figure it out.

Madoc's mouth and fingers were driving her higher, forcing her toward something blinding and beautiful. She gripped his hair, not sure whether she wanted to push him away or pull him closer. These feelings were almost too bright to bear. Only the knowledge that he wouldn't hurt her drove her worry away.

She felt the connection between them flare; then his hulking presence was inside her mind, fitting there as if he'd been a part of her all her life. He was warm, strong, demanding. He found her l.u.s.t and magnified it with his own, letting her see just how much he wanted her.

Images of them together tangled in sensual poses fluttered through her as he showed her all the things he intended to do to her.

Nika's nerve endings were already on fire as pleasure streaked through her. Those images and the feel of Madoc seated deep in her mind sent her flying, disintegrated her as her body began to spasm. The intensity of it was shocking, almost painful. Only the victorious surge of satisfaction she felt coming from Madoc told her that it was safe to let go.

She flung herself into the pleasure and trusted Madoc to keep her safe as the next wave hit her.

Slowly, her body relaxed as a vibrating kind of warmth settled over her.

Her body shifted on the bed as Madoc moved her. Until then, she hadn't realized she'd nearly fallen off.

He hovered over her, giving her the s.e.xiest smile she'd ever seen. "I feel so much better now," he told her.

"You feel better?"

"Much. I love watching you come."

He was still in need. She could feel that easily enough, in both his mind and his body, and yet he wasn't rushing her as he had before. She wanted to ease that need and give him the kind of pleasure he'd just given her.

Nika felt slow and languid, but she had a seemingly endless source of power at her command, so she pulled some into herself and used a burst of magically enhanced strength to push Madoc to the bed.

"My turn," she said, straddling him as she'd wanted to do earlier.

His mouth was drawn tight with l.u.s.t, so she bent forward to kiss it. He gave her what she wanted, meeting each thrust of her tongue with one of his own. The slippery motion caused heat to pool in her belly. The hunger inside her that he'd so recently quenched began to grow again.

Nika needed to be filled with him. She needed to feel him inside her, stroking deep. It was the only thing that could sate her need.

She was a bit clumsy as she maneuvered them together, but Madoc was patient, letting her take her time. He was big, and even though she was slick, she still felt the wicked stretch as her body made room for him. Zingers of sensation raked along her spine, making her shake. She wanted to just slam down and take all of him, but his hands on her hips held her up, rocking her, making her go slowly.

"You're killing me," she told him.

"I refuse to hurt you again."

"Then let me move."

"Soon." Sweat beaded up along his hairline, and the tendons in his neck stood out, telling her she wasn't the only one suffering.

Rather than argue with him any further, she simply focused on the link between them and let everything she was feeling flood into him.

Madoc sucked in a breath. His fingers clenched on her hips and he pulled her down, seating her all the way.

Nika had never felt so full. She struggled to breathe, feeling her muscles clenching around him. It was an odd kind of completion, having him in her body and in her mind at the same time. She could feel everything he did, from the throbbing pressure in his erection to the faint shifting of his hair from the ceiling fan overhead.

He needed her to move. She could feel that now. So Nika moved.

The groan of pleasure Madoc let out was the sweetest thing she'd ever heard. He pulled her down against his chest, rolled her beneath him, and began a slow slide and retreat.

The first time had been nothing like this. There was no pain, no tension, only the slick glide of skin on skin and his hungry mouth on hers.

The pressure inside her built. She could feel it growing in both of them, too sharp and demanding to resist. His thoughts whispered inside hers, knitting them together in a way she hadn't known existed.

His powerful body surged as their need increased. She felt that pleasure building inside him as he opened himself up to her. The connection between them swelled and pulsed with power.

Madoc lifted her hips with one hand, grinding her against him in a way that brought tears to her eyes and stole the air from her lungs. And then everything came crashing down. Madoc's body tensed as he drove deep. He swelled inside her and the first hot jet of his release pulsed in her core, setting off her climax.

She cried out, holding him tight as his release filled her. The waves crashing over her throbbed in time with his, melding the sensations together into one continuous blur of perfect sensation. It seemed to go on forever, but once it was over, it was gone too soon.

They were both still breathing hard when Madoc flipped them and draped her over his chest. He was still hard inside her, still throbbing in time with their rapid heartbeats. Sweat cooled across her back, but her front was blissfully warm.

Madoc hadn't shoved her away this time. He was still inside her mind as deeply as he was inside her body.

Which was why she could hear his thoughts. Not only had he been planning to give her away to another man; he was also still planning to keep her here when everyone else went to rescue Tori.

"I don't care how good in bed you are," she said, pushing herself up on his chest to look down at him. "There's no way you're convincing me to stay behind."

He opened his mouth and said something, but Nika couldn't understand a single word. All she heard was the sound of her name in a scream of pain that echoed inside her skull.

Tori. Tori was trying to reach her.

Nika opened herself up and pulled some of Madoc's power into her so she could find where that contact had come from. As soon as she did, a wrenching pain shot through her body, making her jerk against Madoc. She'd never felt anything like it before. It cut off her breath and shrank her world down to a pinpoint of light. Everything else went gray.

She heard herself scream, felt Madoc's hands on her body and his thoughts in her mind.

"Tori!"

I'm sorry, she heard her sister sob. I'm so sorry.

Chapter 21.

Gilda had lifted her hand to knock when her daughter's door opened. Sibyl looked up at her, her eyes the same pale blue as her father's.

Angus. Gilda already missed him.

Sibyl's blond ringlets were tangled, her dress wrinkled, which was not at all like her. Dark crescents hung below her eyes, dulling their normal sheen.

"I guess it's that time," said Sibyl.

Gilda was shocked at being spoken to after suffering her daughter's silence for so long. "What time?"

"For you to die."

"You've seen that?" Gilda hated it that her daughter was plagued by visions of the future, but she'd never considered she'd have to endure seeing her own mother's death.

"I've seen many things. Too many." Sibyl stepped back, allowing Gilda to step inside her suite. The frilly furnishings seemed wilted today, their normally bright pink dull and dingy.

Gilda settled on the dainty couch. "I won't stay long. I know things are strained between us, but I felt compelled to see you again."

"Nothing between us has changed," said Sibyl. "I can't suddenly forgive you because you've decided to kill yourself, can I?"

"I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I was just hoping that you'd . . . let me hold you one more time."

"I'm not a child. You've trapped me inside this child's body, but I'm not a child."

"You'll always be my child. Just as Maura is."

"Maura won't talk to me about you. She refuses."

"You speak to Maura?"

"Sometimes. When she's afraid."

Gilda hated the idea of her little girl being afraid, but Maura had made her own decisions. She had to live with the consequences, just as Gilda did.

"Will you tell her I still love her?" asked Gilda.

"She won't believe me. She doesn't believe you can love someone who has no soul."

"Of course she has a soul."

"Maura doesn't believe that. She says you ripped it from her when you tore us in half while still in your womb."

"What I did to you was foolish. We needed more women to fill our ranks. I thought having twin girls would help us win the war."

"Maura and I weren't meant to be twins. You took the defenseless child growing inside your body and cut it in half. How could you have done something like that? How could you have ripped a tiny soul in two when you were the one charged with keeping it safe?"

"I didn't mean for it to be like that. Twins are born all the time. I didn't realize I was doing anything unnatural."

"You didn't realize. Just like you didn't realize what you were doing the night Isaac died?"

Gilda shook her head. Grief for her son stormed inside her still, even after all these years. "It was another mistake. One of many. I'm so sorry that you and Maura were left to suffer because of my choices. I only meant to protect you."

"You make it sound so reasonable, as though any mother would have done the same thing."

"I didn't know what would happen to you. I swear it."

"How could you not have known? You came to us that night, woke us from a dead sleep for that sole purpose."

"No. It wasn't like that. I needed to hold youa"to grasp onto my two living children and rea.s.sure myself you were okay."

"That's not the way I remember it. I remember you lurching into our room. I remember you were crying. The front of your dress was wet with tears. Maura and I were scared. We didn't know what had happened and you were crying too hard to tell us. We hugged you, trying in our childish way to comfort you. We would have done anything to make you feel better, and you used that to wring from us a promise we didn't understand."

"I didn't know what it would do."

"How could you not have known? You looked us each in the eye and said, *Promise Mommy you'll never grow up.' You knew the power that promise would hold over us."

"They were just words. I didn't want you to grow up and join the fight. I didn't want you to die like your brother had earlier that night."