“I need to cool off too.” Sure my face was red, I gave him an uncertain smile. He’d seen, touched, and kissed parts of me before but this was the first time he was seeing me completely naked. When he didn’t speak, I crossed my arms and covered my breasts. “You can’t get undressed in front of me and expect me not to react.”
He chuckled. “You’re crazy.”
“So you think this is, uh, a bad idea?”
He wiped water from his face, blue eyes narrowing. “Drop your hands.”
Swallowing, I lowered my arms. He studied me through lowered eyelids. I always loved that look on him. It was sexy. Tonight, the look made me nervous. I wondered what he was thinking about. Maybe my breasts were too small. My hips too wide. My stomach…
“You take my breath away, Freckles. You are perfection. Every inch of you.”
Whatever insecurities I had disappeared. He turned off the water, swept his wet hair away from his face and turned. I didn’t have time to look at him because he scooped me and anchored me to his chest. His body was so hot the droplets of water on his body didn’t feel cold.
His eyes searched mine. “Are you sure about this?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“There’s no going back afterwards.” He set me on the bathroom counter, grabbed a towel and wiped parts of me he’d made wet. Then he focused on his hair and his chest, his sapphire blue eye locked with mine. Blue flames leaped in the depth of his. I was dying to look down and see all of him, but he had me mesmerized.
“Do you understand?” he asked.
I stared at him like an idiot, not exactly sure what we were discussing. I was busy remembering the first I saw him shirtless. The sheer perfection of his chest and abs.
“We’ll be linked forever,” he said, flinging the towel aside.
Was that what we were discussing? “Deeper than we already are?”
“Much deeper.” He lifted me, walked to the bedroom, and gently lowered me to the bed. When he straightened, I got my fill of him. No, I’d never get my fill of him. All of him. He was magnificent. He stood there without an ounce of shame, his eyes cataloguing every inch of me, too.
“You’re beautiful,” I said.
“Not compared to you,” he whispered in an awed voice. “Not in all my centuries have I ever seen anyone like you.” He bent his head and kissed me softly on the lips, stretching beside me. “I want you so much. Need you. Ache for you.” He punctuated words with kisses down my chest. “You have no idea how long I’ve been fantasizing about this.”
“Me, too.”
“I think I’d like to hear about your fantasies.”
My entire body flushed. “Only if you tell me yours.”
“Oh I plan on living them with you, starting tonight.” He nuzzled my neck. “My hands will, from now on, belong to you.”
I giggled, held on to his head as he moved lower and kissed each nipple. He pulled one into his mouth and sucked hard. My body exploded, cries of pleasure escaping my mouth. I arched into his mouth as he lavished attention to one breast, then the other.
I was still catching my breath when he continued to my stomach. Watching him, knowing where he was headed nearly drove me out of my mind. His hands gently nudged my legs apart, and I stopped breathing. The flicker of his tongue against my most sensitive spot sent explosive sensations through me.
I moaned his name.
His eyes held mine captive, watching my every reaction. His mouth relentless, hands reaching up to cup my breasts. Not sure what to do with mine, I gripped the pillows underneath my head and hung on. My body trembled as he teased and pushed me beyond the point when all that mattered was him. Then he was gone.
“No-oo,” I wailed. “Please.”
“Soon.” His eyes met mine. The look in his eyes said he loved me and he needed me. He ripped a foil and slipped on a condom, his eyes not leaving mine. “Next time, I’ll take you all the way.”
My mind was slow processing things. “Next time?”
He chuckled. “I told you there was no going back once we do this. I’ll be under your skin.” He settled between my legs. “You’ll want me all the time. I’ll have to go into hiding or walk around with an artavus to rune you and knock you out.”
I giggled, punch drunk with love and the rightness of him. Of us. Then I felt him at my entrance. My heart pounded with excitement. This was it. The moment he and I became one. I lifted my hips to meet him, but he withdrew. His eyes grew fierce as though he was in pain.
I reached up and stroked his face. “It’s okay.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered achingly.
“I want this. I want you, Torin. Please,” I begged.
He closed his eyes tight. When he opened them, they had darkened into the stormy blue of the Atlantic. “I love you, Freckles. With every breath I take.” He eased inside, filling and stretching me. Then he paused and swallowed. “I wish I didn’t have to—”
I pushed up against him, showing him I was ready. Sweat coated his skin. His eyes, locked with mine, burned with a light I’d never seen before.
“Okay. I can do this. You’ll be okay. You must.” He thrust his hips and the pain rippled through me, taking my breath away. He kissed me. “I’m so sorry, luv. So sorry.”
“It’s okay.” We were one. Finally. Torin was mine now. Completely mine. I wiggled, trying to adjust to the feel of him, and he groaned.
“Don’t move, please,” he begged and covered my mouth with his, his tongue thrusting into my mouth one second and the next sucking on it hard. “So warm and tight. So perfect.”
Then he slowly withdrew and sunk. Nothing we’d done before had prepared me for the waves of sensations flowing from my core. I moaned, and he froze.
“Did that hurt?” he asked, his voice shaking.
Seriously? If he stopped again, I was going to engage my runes and snap his neck. Too bad, as I’d have to wait for him to recover. I kissed him. “It was incredible. Do it again.” He did. “Again” He moved all the way out and came back in. “Oh, that was even better.”
He chuckled, the sound vibrating me in a totally delicious way. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Now he was being cocky, and he had every right to be. Each movement was amazing, a toe-curling and heart-stopping delight.
“So perfect. You were made for me, Freckles.”
No, he was made for me. I copied his movements, kissing parts of his body I could reach. The faster he moved the stronger the sensations. He engaged his runes.
“Engage your runes,” he ordered. “All of them.”
The sensations grew in intensity when I did. Then he went into hyper-speed and something weird started to happen. His feelings became mine. The sensations flowing through him, the pleasure he felt, I did too. It was beautiful.
His eyes widened. “Hel’s Mist! I can feel you, Freckles. All of you.”
Tears rushed to my eyes as my body started to disintegrate. His movements grew faster and faster. The wave hit both of us at the same time. Then he arched his back and yelled my name just as I called to him. We held on to each other, both of us shaking as our runes glowed and appeared to connect.
Torin was right. There was no going back. I couldn’t wait to do this again.
***
NORNS
The three Norns stood around the bed, their faces older than time, skin of indeterminate color translucent, and eyes so old and wise shimmering with anger. They watched the sleeping lovers.
“Once, I would have severed their bond. But three times?” the tallest one snapped. Then she glared at the shorter one to her right. “You said this wouldn’t happen, that they wouldn’t seek this kind of connection for another five to six months, and that we had time to steer her to our side. This changes everything.”
“It complicates our job, that’s all,” the shorter Norn said. “We can still keep them apart and weaken their bond.”
“How?” the first Norn asked. “Her elemental powers w
ere strong and tonight, it flowed into him. Three times. Four if you count out there near the forest. They’re linked now. She’s beyond us.”
“Not if they don’t remember what happened tonight,” the third Norn, who hadn’t yet spoken, said. “The more they seek this kind of union, the stronger their link becomes. If they don’t remember, they won’t seek it and the link will slowly weaken and die.”
“With their memories gone, we can keep them busy. Too busy to think about this type of bonding again,” the first Norn said. “How brilliant. Thank you, sisters.”
She closed her eyes and entered Raine and Torin’s heads. Methodically, she selected the memories to erase. Then she replaced them new memories. “There. Done. With the Immortals on their way and the witches stirring, they will be too busy to think about ever doing this again.”
The three Norns grinned and melted in thin air.
***
A special message from Ednah:
I hope you enjoyed reading Raine and Torin’s first love scene. Norns are the bane of their existence, but Raine and Torin’s love grows stronger every day. They also have amazing friends who support them, so the Norns will not win this battle. Runes, the first book in the series, is presently free. Witches, the next Runes book will be released end of February 2015. If you want to be notified, join my mailing list.
About the Author
Author Ednah Walters writes about flawed heroes and the women who love them. From her international bestselling Runes series (which focuses on Norse mythology and legends) to her Guardian Legacy series (which focuses on the Nephilim, children of the fallen angels. Whether she’s writing about Valkyries, Norns, and Grimnirs, or Guardians, demons, and Archangels, love, family, and friendship play crucial roles in all her books.
NA Runes spinoff Grimnirs (Grimnirs and Souls) can be read as part of the YA Runes series. There are clean versions for those who are uncomfortable with swear words and sex scenes. When not writing YA and NA books, she writes contemporary romance under the pseudonym E. B. Walters.
You can visit her online on:
Facebook
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Blog
Her websites:
YA And Adult Romance.
If you want to know about her new releases, join her text alert and mailing list.
The Runes Series is read in this order:
Runes (Free)
Immortals
Grimnirs
Seeress
Souls
Witches (Pre-order Now)
Guardian Legacy Series
Awakened (Free)
Betrayed
Hunted
Forgotten (on pre-order)
Contemporary Romance Series
Slow Burn (Free)
Fire Stone
By Misty Provencher
Following Capstone, the final book in The Cornerstone Series
This scene is an epilogue of sorts to the Cornerstone books. Following the dramatic final act in the last book, this scene will give readers even more closure to the series and information of what has become of their favorite characters.
*Note: Readers may also enjoy more cameo appearances of some of their favorite Cornerstone characters in my Sci-Fi/fantasy novel, The Fly House. Happy Reading!
***
This can’t be happening. None of it.
Five minutes ago, we were losing the world. The Fury were overpowering us and all I could think is: we are the Ianua, the good guys. We are never supposed to lose.
Four minutes ago, I was shot, trying to save Grace. Garrett too. All three of us, dead.
Three minutes ago, we were not exactly dead. Alive, but without our bodies, if that makes sense. Souls can’t be killed, I knew that—but it is a whole different thing between knowing it, and then having it happen and then really knowing it. Souls just keep moving on. At least, that’s what we did—Garrett, Grace, and me—standing on nothing but air, about ten feet outside the mouth of the cave, at the peak of the mountain.
Two minutes ago, the Addo told us to make a decision. The dimension in which we’ve been living on Earth had been so compromised by the Fury that the natural order, the balance that keeps the world moving forward, was ruined. We all had to start new, in one of the opened dimensions that Garrett, Grace and I had to choose. It would be a reset for the world and it would rebalance the human race.
The doorways to these other dimensions, our choices, opened up like huge, white canvases in the sky before us. If I had been chewing gum, I would’ve swallowed it.
One minute ago, we chose the door we wanted and the atomic whoosh flooded my ears, like we were being sucked down a high-pressure toilet.
I clung to Garrett and Grace, sure we’d made the wrong decision, since toileting off to the next dimension seemed like a bad start. The rest of the souls were extracted from our current dimension too—those living and those dead. I could see them coming across the sky from all directions, rushing at us, crazy clouds full of sparkling souls. I saw Addo’s body fall to the cave floor like a limp sock, his spirit rising up from the meat pile of flesh and sweatpants and Jesus slippers like a twirling firecracker.
“I see you, Nalena!” Addo hooted to me. “Time to go!”
BANG!—
All the souls, from all the ends of the Earth, crashed into Garrett and Grace and me in one long, glimmering wave. Grace flitted out of our arms and in any other moment I would’ve screamed, but I wasn’t frightened now.
The crazy peace I felt as we tumbled among the million other souls, was overwhelming. Grace, although gone, was still here, with me. With us. I was part of this massive whole and they were part of me and we were mixing up together so intimately, like a heap of crayons melting and sliding together in a dryer drum on a warm, Sunday afternoon.
Even so, I clung to Garrett just as tightly as he held to me. He was a distinct part of what made me what I am, and the one part that I never wanted to lose again.
We melted together, with the souls all around us, right before we streamed toward the door that Garrett and I had chosen. All the spirits combined, we filled the air. We were every color then, our emotions and thoughts running together, aware and understanding swirling into each other. I could feel the fear of an eighty-five year old man and the joy of a three-month-old baby, elation of families, relief of reunited friends, and Garrett’s whole spirit came racing through me like a spritz of citrus.
Don’t let go, I thought, and I wasn’t the only one thinking it. I held on, hoping it was still Garrett I had, and then—
BANG!
We split apart, a million separate beings again. The individual spirits zinged, zanged, and sparked—most zipping through the door, although some whisked off through other doors. I held tight, praying hard. Please, let me stay with Garrett…with our family…and then, everything went black.
Maybe it was hours, or days, or lifetimes before I opened my eyes, I don’t know, but I am definitely here now. Wherever here is.
I lift my face off a cold, dirt floor, but I can’t see a thing.
I breathe in dust and choke it back out. It smells burnt here. Old. It smells like funeral soil in the rain—all opened up with a whole world blindly muddling down below, the smell of here and now mixing with the somber feeling of being utterly lost.
I cough it out, and push myself up onto my butt. I have arms. I have a face, a rear end and a throat that chokes up all over again. I have a body again. After being out of it, being back in one now is as heavy and clunky as being stuffed into a knight’s armor. And just as creaky.
Holy crap. My bones are anchors.
As a naked spirit, I could twirl like a sprite. Now I’m shoving my limbs around like mammoth, metal turkey legs.
I blink. All I see is black. I remember kind of fuzzily how to focus my eyes. Squint. Dang it. I still can’t make my vision work. Or maybe it is working, but there’s nothing to see. Just the darkness. It’s so black, my eyeballs strain to feel the texture of the shadows. I can’
t be blind…I can’t…
“Grared.” I garble through a cough. Mouth isn’t working yet. I try again, concentrating to arrange the sounds correctly. “Garrett…”
“I’m here,” he says. At least his mouth works. And he’s close. I reach out. His hand reaches back, just as clumsy as mine, our fingers jabbing at each other, pawing through the dark. But the minute I feel his skin, I know it is him. We scoot together, huddling in the darkness. He smells of citrus.
“Where are we?”
“I don’t know. In the dark. Wherever we chose to start again, I guess.” His tone is curious, I can almost hear his mind turning over possibilities. Mine leaps around, more scared than I want to admit. At least now I know I’m not blind.
So choosing a new world was real. It seems better fitted as a dream. I shiver and Garrett stretches out an arm, dropping it over my shoulders. I move in closer and—
“Uhm…we’re naked,” I say.
“I noticed.” I hear the smirk in his voice. “We’ve been born again, I guess.”
I reach up, remembering how my hair once felt, a world ago. It feels oddly the same. My chest, my skin—I feel like I did before, the same body I’ve always remembered having. There are no bullet holes.
My hand thunks awkwardly on Garrett’s chest and I use his neck and face like a path, sliding my fingers up into his hair to continue my inspection. Soft twine. The same Garrett my fingertips used to know. I let out a heavy sigh of relief. Running my hand back down his chest, I search for the open skin where I saw the bullets penetrate him, but there is nothing. We’re still us—and whole—as far as I can tell. The way we were, before we were shot.
Something falls, a few feet away, startling us both. Rocks? We both startle, but with the sound comes a thin stream of light. It peeks in, over the top of our heads, illuminating the area around us with a soft, dull glow.
“We’re in a cave,” Garrett says, looking around. “This is a cave.”
He stands, goes toward the light, blotting the saturated beam from my vision. More rocks fall and what I can see of Garrett grows wider, like a camera lens opening up. His broad shoulders, the narrow taper toward his waist, the black lines on the gears of his arm tattoo. The darkness cuts him off beneath the ribs and I don’t try to decipher what lies beneath the shadows.
Losing It: A Collection of VCards Page 19