His gaze settled on me again, silver sparkling on his lashes, and the determination glowing there made me shiver. "There's more, Ice. Please. Just listen. I looked into the mirror that day, to see what was so d.a.m.n important that I'd lost her. Ever since then, I . . . well, it's like I'm split in two. There's this shadow half of me locked away, the part that could love her . . . but it's the part that hated her, too, and it's dark and angry and dangerous and . . . and I can't control it, Ice. I black out and I wake up somewhere else, and I don't know where I've been or what I've done."

His molten gaze shifted, just for an instant, and my throat hurt. That rainbow t.i.tanium bangle, so snug now on his left wrist. I was right. It didn't come off. It swapped, whenever he felt like it. He was two fairies, and at least one of him had known it all along.

Two fairies. Indigo's kindness, flashing in and out like neon. No accident. The way he kissed me, so hot and pa.s.sionate and full of desperate emotion. But whose? How was I supposed to tell? None of it was real.

My throat burned tight. "So everything you've said to me is a lie, is that it?"

"No!" His jaw tightened, pulse shifting. "No, Ice. You make me forget it all. You make me want to be whole again, and I . . . I don't know what to do. I'm crippled. I don't know how to give you what you need. I'm sorry. Just take the mirror and go."

Lightning crackled, deafening. I rubbed my arms, chill aching my bones though the stormy air stuck hot and thick to my skin. "So what, I'm just supposed to let some demon b.i.t.c.h tear you apart?"

He shrugged, casual, though unease leaked dark blue ink into his eyes. "I'll get rid of her somehow."

Anger skewered my nerves. "That is such boy bulls.h.i.t, you know that? She's a f.u.c.king demon. You don't get rid of demons."

He eyed me steadily, calm, ineluctable, unmovable. "Ice, there's no other way."

"There must another way!" Tears slashed at my eyes, and words rushed unstoppable from my tongue. "Don't you see, I can't do this! I can't let you do it. It's not so bad, all right? I'm not so nuts. It's just this . . . this urge to do stupid things and live on the edge and say every idiot thing that slips into my head and when you threw me off that skysc.r.a.per I was scared s.h.i.tless but I've never felt so f.u.c.king good in my entire life and . . . and I want to be brave and crazy and reckless but I don't know if I can do it alone, and you helped me see that for once in my sorry little life I'm not not alone, and if I have to do it without you I think I'll die right now and get it over with because I'm in love with you and if you push me away one more time I'll break into a million screeching bleeding little pieces and make a big mess and Christ I can't believe I said that." alone, and if I have to do it without you I think I'll die right now and get it over with because I'm in love with you and if you push me away one more time I'll break into a million screeching bleeding little pieces and make a big mess and Christ I can't believe I said that."

Hair whipped my cheeks in the rising wind, and I left it there, tears fresh on my face. For once I didn't care if he laughed at me.

He swallowed, dragging hair from his cheeks with unsteady fingers. "Ice-"

The rain pelted harder, drowning out his voice in the battering sound of water on iron roofs and tiles and concrete. Fat raindrops drilled the pavement like bullets, splashing huge on my skin. My hair plastered to my face, warm and glorious, and my wings soaked transparent with sweet-smelling droplets. My watery senses lit like searchlights, and I wanted to dance, splash, lie down with him and roll in the puddles, run and whirl and jump until we were soaked.

Indigo slid his fingers into mine and tugged me around the corner for shelter, an alley under a slim line of eaves. Rain still soaked my clothes, splashed over his silvery wings, slid in shiny rivulets through his hair. Sapphire static crackled over him, arcing in random slices through the sheeting rain. So beautiful. My fingers zapped where he held me, and miniature lightning crackled up my forearm.

Storm water rushed around our ankles, overflowing, the noise swelling ever louder. He pushed me against the wall, curving his wings overhead to form an electrically charged silver coc.o.o.n. Static crawled in my hair, lifting the soaked strands, and magnetism tugged the jewel in my belly taut, teasing me like caressing fingers.

He planted his hands either side of my head, leaning over so I could hear him above the din, and his voice came out low and strained and full of unexpected pain. "I'm so sorry. I can't bear that you're unhappy because of me. Tell me what to do."

He smelled fantastic wet, warm iron mixing with rust. My mouth watered. His dripping hair slicked on my cheek, his breath tickling the point of my ear. My fingers tightened around the mirror, and my voice shook. "Just be honest with me. That's all I want."

He dropped his head, water spilling from his hair, his gaze for once level with mine. His eyes shone blue at me through the rain, copper lashes rimmed with wet diamonds. "You're so precious and wonderful and innocent. You clean me, Ice. You wash my guilt away. I can't . . . I don't know if I want to live with you hating me."

Light welled from some lost cavern deep in my soul and showered me with glittering delight that melted the tension inside me to glowing honey. Laughter bubbled from my mouth, and I let it flow.

He stared at me, wounded, and backed off, his wings folding sheepishly in sheets of water. "What?"

"Nothing." I laughed more, old shackles cracking open at last in my chest. We were drenched. My skin would shrivel up like a rotten orange. He'd probably rust. I didn't care. The cowering specter of my fear rubbed its scrawny arms, shook itself in wonder, and scampered away giggling. I'd been afraid for nothing. He actually cared about me.

He hadn't said as much. I mean, he didn't say, Ice, I love you more than a million diamonds, be with me forever Ice, I love you more than a million diamonds, be with me forever, or anything silly like that. But I meant something to him, even if only for a moment while we stood here yelling at each other to be heard in this glorious rain. He had ice around his heart, this one, his affection frozen deep by a horrible mistake. But warmth still burned in there, and for one diamond-precious moment, he'd let me in. If that's the best he could offer, it was good enough for me.

And if I hadn't lost my mind-if I hadn't been so p.i.s.sed off at his coldness that I went home with Kane and stumbled across this ugly mirror-none of it would have happened.

Maybe some things are just fate, and you shouldn't rage against the chaos or squeeze your eyes shut to pretend they aren't happening. Sometimes you just have to leap off a skysc.r.a.per and trust you'll be caught.

I stepped slowly up to him, my limbs shaking. He just stood there, staring at me, rain-jewels glittering on his lashes and dripping through his hair. I placed my hand on his chest, where he was warm and slick under my palm. His heartbeat quickened, and I struggled to keep my voice calm. "Delilah . . . If you don't take her the mirror, she'll never stop chasing you."

He covered my hand in his. Pressed my palm to his chest. Tucked his copper claws under mine. His irises swirled like molten metal, blue and green darkening to hot maroon. "And if I do, you'll never stop haunting me."

I stared, mesmerized by the rain, transfixed by his eerie beauty. He drifted closer on an electric flicker of wings, clasping my hand close against his chest, and softly his body brushed mine. His long blue fingers wrapped mine completely.

He laid his forehead on mine and closed his eyes. His hair splashed my face, his silver lips sparkling with raindrops. "I need you, Ice. You're all I have that's good. I don't want you to leave me. But . . ."

My heart overflowed, and the fine mesh that remained of my defenses washed away like glitter on a moonlit beach. Shuddering, I fluttered up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips on his.

His shock flickered static between our mouths for one bright second. My teeth tingled, alive. And then he tightened his fingers around mine and kissed me back.

We'd kissed a couple minutes ago, hot and l.u.s.tful and unforgiving. But this was different. Gentle, shy, a single soft kiss, then another, and another, longer but still hesitant, like we feared something would break. His lips melted into mine, so soft and yet steely, so tender and yet full of anguish and pain and desperate loss.

My chest ached. This was insane. It wouldn't solve anything. But warmth spilled into me like hot chocolate, dark and rich and delicious, making me want more of him, more of this glorious sharp-sweet world where he let me love him. His dark metal taste stung my tongue, thrilling me, and the care in our kiss only made me want him harder.

I pressed closer, searching for more. He let me lead him, caress his mouth with mine, part his lips so I could taste him. I tempted his tongue with mine, drawing him out until he hissed deep inside his chest and crushed his arm around my waist, lifting me and pulling me flush with his body as we kissed. The warm smell of metal enveloped me, the steely muscles of his arm, his hard body, the crunch of his bangle into the small of my back. Rainwater spilled in the echo of thunder, and static crackled across my skin like hungry fingers, creeping under my wet clothes, into my hair.

He deepened the kiss, crushing me against him in a velvet metal embrace like he never wanted to let me go. My fingers clenched around the mirror, frustrated. I wanted my hand free to touch him, undress him, feel his skin under my fingerpads. I wanted to throw the d.a.m.n thing to the ground and hear it scream and shatter.

"Here." He slipped the sphere from my hand and fumbled it back into his pocket. Rain ran into our kiss, warm, the dusty taste mingling with the glorious sting of iron. My watery senses overloaded, my whole body thrumming with sensation. I grabbed his sodden hair and held him there, swallowing, his tongue alive and insistent in my mouth. His hair bloodied my knuckles, stinging like paper cuts, but I didn't care. I loved the metal slide of his teeth, the molten slickness of his lips.

Our wet bodies plastered together, and the sleek hardness of those delectable fairy muscles slid slowly against me as he moved, a full-body caress that ignited my nerves like matches. The steely twist of his c.o.c.k pressed into my belly, coated in soaked cloth but scorching me. Mirror or no mirror, I burned for him, this strange metal maniac who'd driven me so efficiently out of my mind.

Urgency chewed like a plague of insects. I wrapped my thigh around him, but he was too tall for what I wanted, and with a slick crunch I popped my hip joint so I could reach, curling my calf around his waist. My muscles protested, but it was worth it just to feel him at last. He slid his dripping hand up my thigh and pulled me onto him, and when I remembered my underwear was already gone and his claws were digging into my bare bottom, my last wispy inhibition evaporated. I wanted him. Here. Now. Before this dissolved in a sweet dream like it always had before.

He slid his kiss to the corner of my mouth, my jawline, nudged my chin up to kiss a trail of hot desire down to my throat, his lips lingering on the vein, tasting the throbbing pulse of my excitement. Cuts still stung there, and he traced them with his tongue, murmuring. Tension stirred, tugged, awakened inside me. My b.r.e.a.s.t.s ached for him. I gripped his hair and pulled him downward.

He nuzzled the wet cloth of my halter, nipping at me with sharp metal teeth. His tongue wrapped over one nipple through the thin cotton. Gentle sensation flared deep, warming my whole body. He sucked me slowly, gently, drawing my pleasure out until I moaned.

My muscles weakened, and my head fell back. My eyes slid closed. Such care. Men have always taken me quickly, carelessly, hot and breathless but empty. I'd never been anywhere like this before.

Gently he tugged at the knot of my halter, and it slipped free.

The old fear whetted my desire sharp, and I slipped my hand up to clutch the cloth in place. "Someone might see."

"I want to see." He kissed my collarbone, biting me softly, his fingers tracing my breast, drawing me on.

The ache between my legs blossomed and grew, and I shivered. "Please. Not here. Can't we go somewhere else?"

He kissed my fingers where I held the cloth, and slipped his arm tighter around my waist. His whisper burned my throat. "Hold on." And with a flit of silvery wings and a shower of raindrops, he leapt into the air.

We darted upward, and I clutched my legs around his hips and pressed my cheek on his chest. His heartbeat echoed in my ear, swift and strong, rain and his coppery sweat tingling sharp and delightful in my nose. His body felt wonderfully warm and safe, his steely embrace unbreakable as with wings and one strong arm he flitted up a drainpipe, copper claws snicking on brick. For an instant he lurched backwards under dripping iron eaves, flaring his wings wide to keep aloft, and then we were on the roof, his feet lighting almost soundlessly on sloping water-rippled iron.

Clouds rumbled, steel and silver, close and warm like I could touch them, and the rain fell unfettered, spilling over my shoulders, into my mouth, running sweet tingles down my back. Lightning cracked, deafening. He flipped me around and crushed my back to his chest. He leant over to lick hot shivers into my ear, and his teeth nipped me, exquisite. "There. Now no one can see us."

A breathless smile parted my lips. G.o.d, I loved the rain. I curled backwards against him, and at the touch of my wings, he murmured and rubbed his cheek against the springy edge. He kissed my neck, my throat, my shoulders, wrapping me in hot ribbons of sensation, and when his fingers crept once again to my halter, I let him peel the wet cloth from my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. My nipples stung hard in the warm trickling rain, and gently he laid me on my back on the smooth iron.

Inch-deep water gushed, spilling down past me toward the gutter. Tingles swept my skin as the water drenched my wings, slid between my toes, around my clutching fingers, into my hair. I blissed out, desire melting deep into my guts. My own water splashed out to be lost in the deluge. I felt the rush in my mouth, my lungs, my blood, a rich drawing-out of current that teased my flesh into hot delight.

He hovered over me, an inch away, his body brushing mine with the lightest of touches, and his mouth sought mine with sweet reverence that sparked my desire hotter. He spread his wings over us in a glittering silver shelter, deflecting the raindrops in electric blue sizzles as he dragged his sharp wet hair over my throat, my chest, my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"No," I murmured into his mouth, sliding his lips on mine, our breath mingling hot and sticky. "Don't. I want to be drenched. Let me-Oh."

He flashed back his wings and wrapped his tongue over my nipple. Tasting me, pleasuring me. Sensation stabbed straight to my s.e.x. I groaned, the contact too much to bear and at the same time not enough. He sucked, and I arched my back, straining toward him. "Please. Touch me. I want to feel you. Please."

A soft dark laugh sizzled my breast, and he shifted to my other nipple, kissing and licking and sucking it with the same slow torture as the first. Still his body barely touched mine. Avoided me as I wriggled to reach him, easily evaded my strength as I locked my hands behind his back and tried to pull him down onto me.

I shivered, afire. I was right. He'd take his time, and it might kill me.

He kissed his way down my body, trailing hot tingling b.u.mps. Metal fangs grazed my hipbone, nibbled at my belly. His breath sizzled my wet skin. Antic.i.p.ation clenched my inner muscles tight. G.o.d, I wanted his tongue inside me again. The flesh between my legs was slick and sore, begging for contact. My c.l.i.t ached. I gave up trying to pull him onto me and just held him there, wrapping his sharp hair around my knuckles and urging him downward.

He lifted my sodden skirt and licked up the inside of my thigh, scenting me as he went. He parted my legs and sniffed me to drink in my flavour, and gave a fiery little groan that inflamed me. "You smell like sunshine. I've dreamed of your smell." And he slid his tongue up my slit in one hot, loving stroke, and fastened his lips on my c.l.i.t.

My knuckles ripped b.l.o.o.d.y in his hair, and I cried out. G.o.d, he felt so good. Last time was instinct, my flesh yearning for release. This was pure pleasure. He teased me with his lips, sucking, coaxing the hard little bit of flesh out of hiding, and when he tongued that sensitive exposed tip, I choked back a scream, the pleasure struck me so deep. I felt it all the way through my body to my fingertips, like that very first wash of o.r.g.a.s.m-only it wouldn't break, wouldn't stop, wouldn't let me go. My nerves thrummed with excruciating delight. My skin crackled with his sparks, and the water gushing over my skin only made it feel better.

I squirmed my head from side to side, hair sticking to my cheeks in the rain. My heart shone, so drugged with pleasure that I glowed, the water around me shining blue. Maybe I was foolish. Maybe I only imagined myself in love with him. But my body responded to him like I'd always imagined it would, every kiss and caress and lick of his tongue inflamed hotter and brighter not only because he treated me with honesty and delicacy and skill, but also because it was him doing it. I'd never felt anything like this. He deserved to know that. I tried to talk, but my words came out in a tortured groan. "Stop it. I want to make love with you. Please."

He just pressed harder, sweeter, slipping his tongue over me in tiny circles and swirls that dragged my pleasure to an even tighter peak. My bones shuddered, and I think I screamed, and then he sucked me deep into his mouth one more time and I was gone, over the edge, crashing like a waterfall to splash into delicious heaven. Hot ripples of pleasure slammed into me like a shock wave again and again, spilling out from his mouth on my s.e.x to my spinal cord to explode on my skin in fevered shivers. He prolonged it with his tongue, exquisite, not letting me go until every last spasm wrung from my muscles and I fell limp.

I gasped for breath, my body shaking. Christ in a cream cheese sauce. That wasn't an o.r.g.a.s.m. That was the apocalypse. The world had ended. I was dead.

But I wasn't. If I were dead, the kisses he was lavishing on my taut wet flesh wouldn't feel so good. He liked doing that, kissing me there like it was my mouth, caressing me with his lips, delving his tongue between my folds. He licked me once again, and my swollen c.l.i.t protested, too sensitive. I jerked, helpless, and with a final reluctant kiss he let me go.

He climbed up my body, sliding at last over me, his weight light and metal-strong. I fumbled to undo his shirt and sc.r.a.ped the sodden black fabric away so I could feel his smooth flesh on mine, and when our bodies touched, skin at last on naked skin, delicious fire scorched my blood. He kissed me, deep and hard, our tongues mixing, the pollen taste of my fluid like roses in his mouth. I didn't usually like that, the taste of my own arousal. On him, it intoxicated me.

I slid my hands over the taut curve of his a.s.s and wrapped my thighs around his hips, popping my joints to pull him closer. My skirt was rumpled and I pressed my bare flesh against him, still so sensitive, it hurt. His c.o.c.k felt smooth and steely, and desperately I wormed my hands between us to search for the b.u.t.tons on his rain-soaked jeans. They popped open one by one, and his c.o.c.k sprang into my hand, hot and hard and slick already from the rain.

My flesh jerked in antic.i.p.ation. Gosh. So taut, so swollen in my palm. So real and heated, that grating metal sound he made in his throat when I stroked him.

I wanted. I needed him now. Trembling, I stretched my thighs higher around him and guided him, slid him over me, panted as I pressed him against my aching c.l.i.t-oh, G.o.d, again, just a little more-and then my swollen wet folds and finally searching deeper, to push him into me where he belonged.

He gasped, and stopped me with his hand on mine. "Ice . . . wait . . . you still don't understand."

s.h.i.t. Now he wants to talk. My body ached with frustration. The tip of his c.o.c.k brushed me lightly, right where it felt so good, and I shuddered. My entrance clenched, searching hungrily for him, wanting to suck that hard twist of flesh deep inside, and it was all I could do not to force myself onto him. The world's first female fairy rapist. Cla.s.sy. My body ached with frustration. The tip of his c.o.c.k brushed me lightly, right where it felt so good, and I shuddered. My entrance clenched, searching hungrily for him, wanting to suck that hard twist of flesh deep inside, and it was all I could do not to force myself onto him. The world's first female fairy rapist. Cla.s.sy.

"What is it?" I buried my face in his metal hair, glorying in the sting, and slid a desperate kiss up to his sleek pointed ear, nibbling on the tip. His c.o.c.k swelled even tighter in my hand, and he groaned, jerking, slipping just that little farther into me. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. "You nervous? Me, too. It's okay." I chewed his earlobe, eliciting a sweet gasp and a shudder. "Or you like boys? I won't tell. If you're gonna come too soon . . ." I swallowed raindrops from his taut blue neck, the rich steely taste of him running down my throat. Tingling swept my tight flesh, wrenching me closer to the edge, hot hungry teeth gnawing deep inside me. I gasped, tortured. My wetness slid so, so easily over him. G.o.d, I wanted him inside me. "Doubt it. I'm sure we can-" "You nervous? Me, too. It's okay." I chewed his earlobe, eliciting a sweet gasp and a shudder. "Or you like boys? I won't tell. If you're gonna come too soon . . ." I swallowed raindrops from his taut blue neck, the rich steely taste of him running down my throat. Tingling swept my tight flesh, wrenching me closer to the edge, hot hungry teeth gnawing deep inside me. I gasped, tortured. My wetness slid so, so easily over him. G.o.d, I wanted him inside me. "Doubt it. I'm sure we can-"

"Sometimes I'm not myself." He clenched his hand tighter on mine, forcing me to wait. "I might hurt you."

Fever just burned brighter in my veins, and the rainwater glowed neon blue. An inch from f.u.c.king me senseless, and he actually cares if he hurts me. How hopelessly romantic is that?

My muscles clenched with longing even as hot tears stung my eyes yet again, washed away by the slashing rain. I'm moved by such pitiful things. But I can't help it. He overflows me. He's too much for me.

I twisted my hand in his grip, fumbling to get him inside me. My breath quickened, harsh, raindrops stinging on my tongue. "Then hurt me. I don't care. I can take it. I just want to be yours."

"No. This is for you." And he swept us a few feet into the air with a silver flash of wings, his arm around my waist gently turning me over and laying me facedown in the sloshing runoff.

Water caressed my face, rich with iron and dust, just like him. He lighted onto my back, his hips pressing into mine, his c.o.c.k slipping hard against my bottom and sliding between my thighs. Antic.i.p.ation shivered my wing bones. I'd had a dream like this, and I'd come in my sleep without a touch. Would he do it like that? G.o.d, I hoped so. I parted my lips to let glorious water run into my mouth. "Kiss me. Please, kiss me."

He laid his palms on the iron either side of my head so he wouldn't squash me, and dipped his hot lips to my shoulder. Warm delight shivered down my back. He licked me, caressing me with molten kisses down my spine, between my trembling wing joints. The taut skin there yearned erect and quivered for his tongue, hard like my nipples. He found my wetness with his c.o.c.k, slid over me, pressed against me right where I wanted him so bad, it hurt. My flesh constricted, tight. I gripped his wrists, one smooth, one metal-clad, and pressed my burning cheek to the iron roof.

He wrapped his tongue around the sensitive place where wing met shoulder. I gasped, shuddering. It felt so good, so gentle, so sweet. My thighs trembled, tingling. And then he sucked the joint right into his mouth and pushed into me.

Hot. Hard. Deep. Perfect. I whimpered at the sensation, his sigh of pleasure burning my shoulder, the warm iron roof pressing into my b.r.e.a.s.t.s, his smooth c.o.c.k sliding into me, pushing my wet walls apart. Deliciously hard. I was so tight and swollen it hurt, glorious, unwilling muscles stretching. He pulled out a little and drove back in, harder, deeper, stifling a groan. Pain stabbed, the constriction in my muscles too much. But delight flamed more intensely than the pain. I bit my lip on a cry, blood stinging my tongue.

He flitted his wings softly, silver shimmering in reflection on the sheeting water. The shape of him filling me, rubbing his c.o.c.k against secret sweet places inside me, spiked shivering delight deep into my bones. He brushed his cheek on my shoulder, his breath tight. "You okay with this?"

"I'm so much better than okay." My voice trembled. My muscles clenched inside, rippling over him. G.o.d, I'm gonna come just lying here. G.o.d, I'm gonna come just lying here.

He rocked against me, moving inside me, and with every movement he caressed me with his lips and tongue, right where it made my skin shiver. My eyes slid closed, and the world dissolved into a shimmering wet haze of delight. A pleasured sigh escaped me, and I let my head stretch back, hair dripping, my face exposed to the rain. He bit me softly, sucking, teasing his sharp teeth over my sensitive flesh until I moaned and wriggled, my pleasure rising too fast. He used the entire length of his c.o.c.k to pleasure me, pushing into my deepest center and then pulling back until he was barely inside me at all. And then he'd enter me all over again, parting me and pushing deep inside. G.o.d, I loved that part, the moment when it goes in. How did he know that?

He groaned against me, slicking his cheek against my sodden wing. He eased into me, luxuriant, deep, and my flesh tingled and tensed. Static rippled across my back, and his wet hair tumbled on my cheek as his teeth grazed my shoulder. He gasped, and his c.o.c.k swelled inside me, our fairy flesh melting together in hot delight.

Pleasure dazzled me breathless. He felt so good, so right. We fit so well. Sensation took root and flowered all over my body, so beautiful, I whimpered, unable to stop what was happening to me. "G.o.d, I love you."

He groaned and thrust deeper, quivering against my back in his pleasure, and as he seated himself fully, his hot iron breath exploded in a rush on my shoulder. "And I love you, beautiful girl."

That was enough. My hardened flesh spasmed, and o.r.g.a.s.m tore me from inside like a blade. Harder, faster than the last, like hot wires sparking with his static deep under my skin, dragging pleasure from my center until I couldn't breathe. He moved with my body, pressed me tight to him, let me come on him, my muscles clamping on the hard twist of his c.o.c.k. My claws dug into his wrists, drawing silvery blood. His arm muscles juddered, and he gasped with the effort of holding himself back.

I pushed my hips back onto him, helpless, my pleasure not done. Already another spasm built inside me. He licked my ear, brushed his lips down my cheekbone, sought my mouth over my shoulder to kiss me. His mouth tasted of iron and rain. His whisper sizzled my cheek, molten, laced with urgent coppery desire. "I can't do this much longer. I want to kiss you. I want to see your face."

Swiftly he slipped himself from me and rolled me over, flicking rusty water from his wings. After his body, the rain-soaked iron chilled my back. I gazed up at him, enraptured. So beautiful, the midnight curves of his slender fae chest, his narrow blue hips, the lovely intricate fae shape of his c.o.c.k, still slick with my juices. Lightning crashed, illuminating his jagged dark hair with a halo of gold.

I swallowed. Even for a few seconds, the loss of him inside me was unbearable. I reached for him and pulled him down to me, and he gripped my thighs in both hands and slid back inside with a deep metal sigh.

I cried out as he took me, my breath forcing out in a rush. G.o.d, he felt so good. As if I'd forgotten already what he felt like, and it was the first time all over again. Sensation spread, delicious, sparkling in my belly like hot diamonds. I groaned, overcome. He worked me again, his c.o.c.k so smooth and hard like steel and fitting me perfectly deep inside, my curves and ripples hugging him. He took me hard, urgent. My nipples rubbed against his chest, friction hardening them to stinging pebbles, and I gasped, moisture splashing from me to soak him all over again. "Yes. Like that."

Metal screeched as he crunched his copper claws into the roof iron either side of my head. His chameleon eyes glinted silver and violet, and he pushed into me harder, deeper. I sighed with each thrust, my breath forced away. Before, he was gentle, sensual, spine-shivering. Now, his delicious silvery sweat stung me, and his hot steel scent dizzied me, and the pleasure of his flesh meeting mine slammed deep inside me like nothing I'd felt before. s.e.x with Blaze was feversweet and giggly. Kane was just plain weird. This . . . this was something more. Raw. Delicious. Nerve-tingling. Frightening. Not just that our bodies liked each other, fit together like magnets. I felt him. My eyes fluttered closed from the breathless delight of us.

He paused, his breath short and tight. "Don't close your eyes. Look at me. Watch me feel you."

My s.e.x protested with a sharp twitch, longing for more, and I could only obey. I opened my eyes.

His gaze stabbed mine, alight with violet desire for me. My throat dried. His eyes were so s.e.xy, so intense and focused, like I was the only thing in the world that mattered. Desire flashed in my belly. He thrust in me again, slamming my pleasure in hot and hard, and every last sizzle of sensation reflected in his flaming eyes. I'd set this icy iron prince on fire at last, and he burned for me.

Tears pressed hard in my throat as my body responded, flexing against him, drawing him on, showing him what I liked. My heart shuddered with emotion I didn't want as he adjusted his position, found my most sensitive spot and tortured it, the head of his c.o.c.k rubbing over me again and again until my muscles wept with pleasure. And still he stared at me, hungry, drinking in my excitement, and somehow I couldn't tear my gaze away.

Tension threatened inside me before I was ready. G.o.d, this was too much. I felt too much. I couldn't pretend this wasn't happening, that it was just some random o.r.g.a.s.m with a guy I'd picked up somewhere and couldn't care less if I saw again. I wanted to come with his taste on my lips. I wanted him to come with my muscles wrapped around his c.o.c.k, come deep inside me so I felt every spasm.

"Show me." His breath burned my lips, so close, I could taste him, but he didn't break our gaze. He knew what I thought, how I felt, what turned me on. He knew everything. My s.e.x tightened, impossibly tight, so tense that he groaned, fluttering to nudge my hips up to force ever deeper, pushing searing delight into my spine. "Let me have it all. I need you, Ice. Show me."

I bit my lip at unbearable pressure, and with a burning splash the wave broke. Slammed me down. Drowned me in delicious metal flesh. Wash slammed outward from where we met, frothing through my guts, my limbs, dragging hot tingles over my skin. My c.l.i.t throbbed. My muscles rippled, squeezing him hard. My head swam, my senses inundated. Even better than the last one. Harder, fuller, deeper. And it wasn't finished yet. My pleasure swirled like a whirlpool, sucking back inside me, and now he shuddered and pressed me into the iron roof and gazed deep into my eyes and showed me his own o.r.g.a.s.m, his hot flood fresh and stinging inside me, his breath ironsweet and fast and his eyes darkening to the clear blue color of his name.

As he came, he mashed his lips onto mine in a searing, possessive kiss that made me come all over again, and finally I closed my eyes and surrendered to him, our bodies pulsing together, our tongues mingling like the fluids that burned and mixed inside me.

We kissed, and kissed, lips swollen and breath tight and muscles aching but not wanting to let go. I never wanted to let go. This feeling, so safe and warm and protected, so connected, with his flesh deep inside mine and his smell all over me and the rain sticking our skin together. He was everything I dreamed. Everything I ever wanted. A man who knew my soul.

Suddenly, I felt him smile, like he knew what I was thinking. And then he wrapped tender hands in my hair and kissed me more, sighing into me like we'd only just begun.

At last our lips parted, reluctant, and he sighed, flitting up a few inches to ease his weight but not relinquishing his penetration of me yet. The rain eased to a trickle, thunder receding. Sodden strands stuck to his face, and he caressed my cheek with his to sc.r.a.pe them off. "Lady Ice, that was . . ." He shook his head, lost. "I dunno what to say."