He rounded a corner just as images crashed through his mind.
The sculpted torso gleamed wet beneath his hands, the colored crystal light tracing his every tiny, exquisite detail.
Ash lost his balance and bashed into the wall. The link with Tyrez was alive, pulsing with raw, aching need. Tyrez, unaware he’d pulled Ash into its embrace, was concentrating on reducing his frustration in a time honored fashion.
The big hand trailed along the hard muscles, flicking the tiny golden nipple ring. Lightning sensations rippled right through to the base of his spine. The hand moved, across the mountains of the pectorals to the foothills of the defined abs, and followed the vee of muscle to the goal.
Ash felt the smooth skin as though he were the one doing the touching, and yet he was hooked into Tyrez’s sensations of being touched as well. A heady double whammy that had Ash’s breathing hitching as Tyrez’s hand moved lower.
Seeking. The fingers dropped to the water surface, and then below.
Finding. The strong digits wrapped around the burgeoning sword tattoo. Silken skin sheathing hot steel.
Ash slid down the wall, caught up in the imagery. His heart thundered, his entire body ached.
Tyrez began to stroke. Long, firm pulls and grasping pushes that set fire to Ash’s world. The water lapped to an ever increasing rhythm, unleashing the lightning that pulsed through him.
Ash hung on every second of it, his own body throbbing with a need that had him breathless. He gasped, a sound that altered into a groan that echoed down the tunnel.
The connection shattered, leaving him sitting with his back to the wall, body arched forward, desperate to finish what Tyrez had unconsciously started. But when he reached eager fingers to do so, a shadow loomed over him.
Panic surged on a wave of memory, before Tyrez dropped to a crouch before him.
“Shards, I’m so sorry, Ash.” His turquoise eyes were dark with worry. “I’m still a rookie at this telepathy stuff. I didn’t mean to pull you in.”
“S’okay, Tyrez,” Ash whispered. “It’s not your fault I’m so messed up.”
The big shifter sighed. “It isn’t yours, either.” He measured Ash with his steady gaze. “I can help you, if you can find a way to trust me.”
Ash blinked away tears. He wasn’t sure he was strong enough to try. Not even for Tyrez. But the urgent worry in the big shifter’s eyes urged him to make the effort. Unable to speak, he could only nod.
Tyrez held out his hand.
It was all Ash could do, to place his own into it.
For a moment, all the Dragon shifter did was hold it, very lightly, barely folding his strong fingers around it. His hand was so large it engulfed Ash’s, easily reaching the wrist. The thumb began to stroke, ever so lightly, the soft, vulnerable skin on the underside.
Ash’s mouth fell open as a tingling sensation zinged up his arm. The big shifter watched him closely, before he raised Ash’s wrist, rolled it over, and followed the path laid by his thumb with his lips.
Demeti might have ruined Ash, but the Torshin had never touched himthere.
And it was—incredible.
Ash’s eyes drifted half closed and his head rolled back as those soft expert lips, nibbling teeth and hot, wet tongue brought every cell to excruciating, vivid life. The sensation zinged through him, reawakening the driving need in an instant. His body arched, seeking release, and he groaned, a long, ratcheting, wanton sound.
Please, Tyrez,he pleaded.
I can finish this.The teeth nibbled as the mindvoice growled through his mind.Do you want me to?
Yes. Yes!
His tormentor answered it with a low, gutteral, vibrating rumble, right before he bit down.
Pain transitioned to a wild, clawing surge of pleasure, and then, an eruption of raw heat. Ash’s cry echoed through the cave, the crystals ringing with it, as the pulsing waves traveled through, and from, him. Tyrez growled as he claimed Ash as his own, engulfing him in the power of the bond.
As the storm passed through him, Ash accepted the simple, visceral truth—that Tyrez wasright. They belonged together.
The big shifter believed it, and now, Ash did too. The bite injected Tyrez’s virus into Ash’s blood. It raced through his bloodstream and merged with his own, and the energy released fed into the link that existed between them. It moved Tyrez from an occasional visitor, to a living mountain between Ash and his past. The memories faded in an instant, losing their impact.
