"A-Adrian?" She shifted restlessly as heat swirled through her. Until her heart was full enough to break.

"Soon," he whispered, coaxing a moan from her as his lips worshipped the pale swell of her breast, eased from beneath her lacy gown.

Gray shuddered as she felt his lips close around the velvet bud of her nipple. Her fingers tensed, buried deep in his dark hair, holding him close while pleasure unfolded inside her, petal by exquisite petal.

On and on the pleasure grew. On and on his mouth coaxed, circled, never giving her time to think, to prepare for the next drugging onslaught of ecstasy. She felt the mist cling to her face, felt the air shimmer, supercharged with the raw fury of their primal need.

Slowly, powerfully, he laid her back against the grass and eased the wisp of lace from her skin.

And then for long moments, Adrian did nothing but look at her. He memorized the pale supple beauty of her body, the dusky seduction of her pebbled nipples and the auburn curls at her thighs.

The wind sighed. The damp ferns whispered.

Then with a harsh groan he found her silken heat and brought their long years of separation to a breathless end.

"A-Adrian-"

"Hush, woman. I"ve years-centuriesto make up for."

"But I-"

Gray gasped as he tongued a path of fire across her belly and teased the auburn triangle just below. "Adrian, I don"t-You can"t-"

And then only raw pleasure, only burning silver joy as he bared her and gave her all the sweetness of his soul. She arched mindlessly, drowning in unimaginable pleasure.

He caught her close, whispering hot love words on her hungry skin. "Open to me, my love.

Open to me while I touch you, taste you. Ah, God, I"ve heat enough to sweep away all the fear, all the darkness."

And then no more words. Only the sweet, sleek parting of skin. Only the restless, velvet probing.

And with each movement, Gray opened farther, fell deeper. Light drifted around them, cast off the gleaming currents, little flashes and pinpoints of energy that danced over their hot, urgent skin.

And always the roses, filling the air with sweetness, with rich, ineffable memories of all the other times they"d strained and yearned and loved this way.

Like a circle never broken. A circle ever widening, forged of joy and tears.

A circle that never died, only grew brighter and expanded.

Gray felt herself bud, felt her heart open in splendor as she reached to catch every perfect, silver ray. "Adrian!"

The night flashed before her, light poured in radiant columns before her eyes. And then she was falling, down through heaven, down through time, down through dark, forgotten centuries until she once again rested on the damp soil, with his hard, beloved body there to protect her.

Fierce and hungry, his eyes searched her face. "God, how I love you, woman. When I think of all those years...all those bloody wasted years-"

Gray pressed upward and cut him off. Her hips shifted, searching for his heat, yearning to feel him drive deep inside her.

An odd glimmer rose from their heated skin and hung like a veil of bright mist across the glade. Fury raged between them, an equal thing now, a wild flow of male might and pliant velvet strength as Gray moved to meet him, sheathe him, welcome him.

With his first hot thrust she gasped, feeling the sheer size and force of him.

Swiftly, he drove home, filling her in one fierce, perfect slide. Then slowly he drew back, prolonging her exquisite pleasure until she cried out in breathless abandon.

Adrian threw back his head, shuddering. His eyes closed as passion swirled between them.

"Dear God,again, Gray. Flower for me once more. Flower around me-give me all your sweetness, for it"s my only home, the only home I"ll ever know!"

Gray"s heart lurched and took flight.

And when it did, she found his waiting.

Dimly, she felt his thighs lock, felt tension grip his powerful, braced forearms.

And realized, even now, he denied himself for fear of hurting her.

She slid her feet over his clenched calves, smiling when she felt him shudder.

"No, by all the saints! I"ll not be gainsaid, woman. Our first time will bemy way-"

But Adrian Draycott, lord of ten thousand men, sovereign power of Draycott Abbey and all its lands, had not counted on the willfulness of a single, stubborn, twentieth-century female.

His eyes blazed as he fought her pull, fought her knowing movements. Velvet muscles rippled and then closed around the part of him buried deep inside her.

He gasped and was lost. "Gray! Sweet God, Gray, don"t! I can"t-"

"Thendon"t. Oh, God, don"t wait!"

At the first savage, unbridled thrust, Gray realized just how much he"d been holding back.

Even then, she welcomed his hot, crushing possession, her thighs locked to his as she rose and caught his shoulder, planting a love-mark of her own against his skin.

With a roar Adrian dragged her close, then twisted them together until she sprawled atop his chest.

His eyes shone black as he caught her straining hips and guided her down to meet each silken thrust. Gray shuddered, feeling his fingers shift, driving her to blindness, to frenzy.

To heaven.

"Again, love." His voice was dark, raw, a seduction in itself."Again."

She shattered against him, blood thundering, breath flown, mind and body aflame in the dark, lush night.

His laughter broke over her in soft waves amid the violence of her release. Amid the breathless churning storm where he carried her.

Just as her tremors reached their peak and began to fade, he raised her high and pulled her down once more, groaning when he felt her clutch his hot, aching flesh anew.

In joyous abandon he filled her, again and again, while her soul leaped free and his own joined hers, two comets flaming through the star-flung sky.

"A-Adrian! Oh, I can"t-it"s too-"

"Here, love. I"m right here. Ah, God, so sweet you are-Take me with you, Gray. Take me now!"

He gripped her tensely, head thrown back as pleasure found its stunning climax, as the softness of moss and ferns cushioned their wild, driving movements.

Together they spun and tumbled through boundless space, watching stars flash past, hearing the darkness sing around them.

Home again at last. Together. Just where they were always meant to be.

And neither time nor fate, Adrian swore, would ever separate them again.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

SOFT AND DARK,HIS LAUGHTERwelcomed her back, cushioned her fall into flesh and weight and earthbound gravity. Gray opened her eyes.

"Adrian, I-"

But before the first doubts could intrude, before the first fears could rear their ugly heads, he pulled her beneath him and loosed the joy anew.

Silver ripples of pleasure lapped and surged and broke over Gray"s exquisitely sensitized body.

"A-again?" She shivered, her eyes smoky, dazed, luminous with love and inquiry. "You-you can"t!"

Smiling darkly, he brushed the crown of one upswept, silken breast, delighting in her instant tremor of response. "Eight hundred years is a long time to wait, sweeting. I"m afraid you"ll have to forgive my intemperance..."

Fire burst from the dusky crest where his clever lips foraged and suckled. "Forgive?" Gray shuddered, arching mindlessly as the wild pleasure grew. "Sweet heaven, forth-this? "

His laughter rumbled over the glade and suddenly it was as if night had fled and light gleamed silver over vine and bough and wave. It was the same world, the same night, Gray thought dimly, and yet both were entirely different now.

Somewhere in the dark woods beyond the glade, distant bells began to peal, low and faint.

Adrian stiffened, flinging back his head, feeling the first raw pangs of despair.

No! Not so soon!

"Not yet," Adrian breathed hoarsely, struggling to hold back the transformation. "Not bloody yet..."

But already he felt it. Even without looking, he knew his body had the faint glow that signaled the coming change.

No, not yet! By heaven and all the saints, it was too soon!

He shuddered, clenching his hands and holding her close, letting the sweet tide of her passion wash over him. He watched her gasp, felt her long legs wrap around him as she rode down into ecstasy.

"Ah, Gray, so good..." He caught a strand of hair and eased it from her cheek, drinking in the beauty of her wild response.

And then Adrian saw his fingers begin to gleam where bone and tendon shifted and strained.

More time. Please-just a little more time.

But words would change nothing. The high clear music was in his ears, resonating through his shifting body.

Calling him home.

No!he screamed in desperate silence.This is home. Where she is will always be my home!

The tones sharpened, vibration turning to a low thunder.

And as Adrian stared down at Gray"s beautiful features, he saw his hand begin to glow, saw right through his skin to the rapidly fading outline of his bone.

Sweat dripped from his brow. He caught her fiercely, drinking in her last, breathless cries, memorizing the rhythm of her wild tremors.

Desperately, he fought the call, strained to hold his slipping atoms tight-packed, dense, earthbound.

But it was impossible. The ringing grew, plunging into his blood, turning liquid into shimmering networks of light.

"Gray-" His voice was raw. "Gray, I-must go."

She only shivered, tightening her grip on his shoulders.

Gritting his teeth, Adrian pulled from her sweet heat, struggling against the transformation that threatened to come any second. "You-you, too, must go, sweeting. There is danger growing, and I want you safe until it"s over."

At that, her eyes finally opened, dark with sated passion.

And then those azure eyes widened. Gray tensed, seeing the light that gleamed over Adrian"s face and chest and shoulders. Wildly, she reached out for him, only to stare disbelievingly as her fingers slid right through the shimmering mass that only seconds before had been his arm and chest.

"N-no!"It was a ragged cry of shock.

Grim-faced, Adrian fell to his knees beside her. By a savage force of will, he drove the blinding radiance back to a dim phosphorescence. "I-love you, Gray Mackenzie. Never- never doubt that. And by all the heavens above, I"ll-come back to you. This...I swear."

Gray stifled a sob, pressing her fingers to her mouth as she watched him sway and waver before her. "You can"t be-dear God, this can"t be real!"

But it was. Even the brightness of his body was fading. She could see a glowing outline at his shoulders and head.

"The...the boat"s moored by the far bank." His voice was barely a whisper now.

"Gideon...waiting..."

"Adrian! No, don"t go!" Gray"s trembling hands locked across her chest as she watched him shimmer, then swirl apart into waves of purest light.

For a moment, his eyes darkened, fixed on her terrified face. "Wait for me," he whispered.

"I"ll-find-you..."