ELRETH

She hurried across the cave to the front door and heaved the bar up and into the clawed guards that held it in place and were strong enough to keep out even her father. Her breath was fast and shallow, and not because of the weight of the bar. The moment he'd touched her it was as if her entire skin lit up, sparkling and tingling with anticipation.

She shivered, yet she felt over-warm.

There were so many things she should be doing, so many places she should have her attention. But the flames in her belly drove her back to Aaryn. Reminding herself this could only be a short break before she returned to responsibilities, she turned planning to rejoin him on the couch. But instead, she found him, shirt already unbuttoned and open, fluttering to frame his carved abdomen as he stalked across the living room towards her like a wolf on the hunt. His eyes alight and flashing at her between the tines of his hair because he kept his chin down, like the predator he was.

Her eyes widened and she smiled, backing away as he flowed into her, one hand sliding around her waist, the other to her hair. His lips were on hers, open and demanding before she could think. She thudded against the wall pulling him with her, embarrassing herself by how quickly her breathing became panting.

Her skin lit up in the conflicting sensations of his steel warmth in front of her, and the cold rock of the cave behind. As he delved her mouth with his velvety tongue and she pulled him down and against her, she was already making excuses for why they should go ahead and mate. Why they didn't need to wait. What they could do to—

"Fuck, El," he groaned against her mouth, then rolled the flat of his tongue against hers. "It's like you're a drug."

Elreth dropped her head back against the rock of the cave as he kissed his way along her jaw. "I don't know how I didn't see it before," she gasped.

"What?"

"How incredibly hot you are, Aaryn." Pushing aside his shirt, she slid her palms, flat against his abdomen, up his sides, her fingers following the ripples of his muscles like water over rocks. "How did I miss this? How?"

A wave of desire started low in her belly and shuddered through her as she heard his breathing rachet up, and their skins touched. She writhed, arching off the wall to press her hips into him, purring when his kiss deepened and his breath thundered across her cheek.

*****

AARYN

The mood had shifted so quickly he was still slightly stunned. But when she arched into him and purred in her throat, he almost took her on the spot.

For minutes the kiss became hotter, more demanding, their hands exploring, buttons opened, shirts pulled off by clawed hands, until they were both only in their leathers and she had a knee hooked over his hip.

He rolled against her and she broke the kiss to suck in an open mouthed breath. "Creator's Light!" she gasped. "I don't want to wait, Aaryn."

He growled in agreement, but he knew it was so important that they do. They couldn't toss the bomb of their entwined scents among the people when they didn't even have the elders on board yet.

There would be no mating today—but that didn't mean they couldn't enjoy themselves.

As Elreth started on the buttons at his waist, he caught her hand and she growled. But he pulled back only far enough away to meet her eyes—and wondered if his own were as fiercely alight as hers.

Chest heaving, her breasts pressing harder against his chest every time she breathed in, he palmed one, flicking the nipple with his thumb until she made that groaning huff he loved.

He fisted her hair and gently tugged her head back until her throat was exposed. And when she didn't fight him, but gave her throat willingly, he silently thanked the Creator again for her trust.

When he laid his mouth at the hollow of her throat, her entire right side washed in goosebumps and her nipples went so hard he felt the points against his chest and moaned her name.

"Have you… bathed today?" she asked breathlessly.

"No." He laid the flat of his tongue against the cord of her neck and sucked and she writhed again, panting.

"Then, I mean, it's only responsible that we… get clean… don't you think?" she gasped.

He pulled his head back and looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "Oh really?"

She smiled wickedly, but dropped her leg from around him so she took her own weight. "I think it's an important leadership quality… cleanliness…" she said, then bit her lip again.

He almost took her mouth against to tease that plump pillow out from under her teeth, but she walked him back a few steps, kissing him, a puttering growl in her throat, then she broke the kiss with a sigh and turned to walk deeper into the cave, taking his hand and pulling him to follow her. "Definitely, very important," she said.

She'd told him her horror story when she was fifteen, the night she couldn't sleep and so decided to bathe late in the night—and instead interrupted her parents making use of the bathing pools for… reasons that had nothing to do with getting clean.

She'd been embarrassed and horrified, and so squeamish she'd only used the cold waterfall to bathe for a week.

But now she cast him a look over her shoulder as she stopped at the cupboard next to the kitchen, just before the door to the bathing pools, and pulled out two towels. She tossed them at him and he caught them at his chest, then darted after her when she grinned and pushed through the door and into the cavern beyond.

He'd always loved this spot, but been in here so rarely since it was such a private space.

The high, domed ceiling of the cavern rose nearly one hundred feet and was lit only by a single hole at the center that offered a small view of grass and distant trees on the mountainside beyond. The dark, blue-black walls of the cave would have made the room dark and ominous, but two lanterns burned on the walls, sending a warm yellow light to glitter on the hard rock, and glint off the water below it.

An almost perfect figure eight, the bigger, deeper pool closest to the door was cold and black, a natural lagoon, fed by the waterfall that tumbled from the hole in the ceiling and splashed to the floor, sliding along the rock-bed that feel off into the lagoon on one side, then contained the murkier, natural spring of the mineral pool—hot and steaming—next to it.

As Aaryn followed Elreth into the space he swallowed hard.

This would be their playground for the rest of their lives. Thrill made his heart beat at his chest, but he staggered to a halt, struck dumb by the sheer beauty of the sight of his mate, shimmying off her leathers at the side of the pool and tossing them against the wall alongside the path where he stood.

She covered herself with her hands, and her cheeks were pink, but she smiled brightly. "Are you coming in?"

Aaryn groaned and began yanking at his own buttons when she dived into the cold water and came up gasping.

He was going to make sure she made that sound a lot.