Free Immortal Heat by Lanette Curington Page A

dark eyes on her, and the thought made the smoldering embers of her passion burn hotter. When she had rinsed her hair completely, her hands slowly trailed downward. She cupped her breasts briefly, her fingers splayed across her nipples. She ran her hands over her ribs and across her belly.
     
     Suddenly, Hephaestus was under the falling water behind her. He kissed the side of her throat and the nape of her neck. His large hands slid over her slick body, his arousal probing the backs of her thighs. All visions of making love in his bed fled her mind. She placed her injured foot, still clad in the greave, on the rim of the basin.
     
     One of his arms braced against the wall, and she clung to it for support. She leaned back and tilted her hips as he slipped into her. His other arm surrounded her and his fingers pressed into her curls, massaging the center of her pleasure.
     
     Their bodies rocked together, building an inferno within. The last few strokes lifted her off her feet, and the blaze burst, rushing throughout her body, to the tips of her fingers and toes. Hephaestus ground his hips into her backside, stiffened against her, groaning his release.
     
     Limbs weakened, Aglaia didn't argue when he wrapped her in a fresh sheet of linen and carried her to the bedchamber. She sighed contentedly when he set her on the edge of the bed and knelt before her.
     
     She looked into his dark eyes and saw no sign of the haunted, brooding man who had first walked into this chamber. She touched his cheek and smiled at him.
     
     "It was wonderful. I've never felt quite this..." Her voice trailed off. She couldn't think of the words to describe how she did feel. Wanted, needed, well loved...none of them was adequate.
     
     He laughed. "The same for me. Never quite this way."
     
     She raked her hands into his hair and kissed him. When his mouth slipped from hers, his tongue left a hot trail along her cheek and neck as he pushed the linen out of the way. His hands seared her breasts and ribs and waist, his tongue following behind, tasting, teasing, arousing. He pushed the linen down farther until it pooled at her hips and dragged the back of his hand in the crease just below her belly. Aglaia gasped.
     
     "Are you tired? Do you need to rest?" he asked.
     
     "No! Don't stop, unless you need to rest," she said.
     
     "I don't need a rest. I want to make love to you all night long."
     
     "Then I think neither of us will be disappointed because I want the same thing."
     
     Slowly, Hephaestus drew up the sheet of linen to her knees and unfastened the greave. He removed it and the sandal from her other foot and set them aside. Laying his hands on her thighs, he parted her knees and moved in between them.
     
     Aglaia reached for him and pulled loose the corner of the sheet of linen he had wrapped around himself. She tossed it over his shoulder and ran her fingers through the thick mat of curls on his chest, following the dark line of hair between his ribs that disappeared into the linen gathered at his waist. She tugged another corner free, and the linen fell away. When Hephaestus stood, all he wore was the greave.
     
     Hephaestus bent to pick her up, placing one arm behind her shoulders and sliding the other beneath her, between her and the linen sheet. The flimsy material drifted away as he lifted her and put her in the center of the bed. He climbed in beside her and cradled her in his arms, his hard body deliciously warm against hers.
     
     Stroking his bearded cheek, Aglaia kissed him. "Aren't you going to remove your greave?"
     
     She felt him tense, but she looked into his eyes and refused to retreat. Ignoring his disability would not make it go away. She didn't care that he wasn't physically perfect. He was troubled by it and that was what concerned her.
     
     "No," he finally said and she felt him withdraw from her a little.
     
     "We're going to spend quite a while in this bed, and I want you to be