A vent toward the front let in a stream of sunlight, illuminating the way out.

  She ran across the shed. Ari yanked on the door. It wouldn’t open. Fake windows. What a dumb idea. The chimes outside jangled. Her greatest fear, fully formed, cascaded on her like a ton of bricks. She couldn’t breathe. She yanked and yanked. Wait a minute. Realization drained through her. She pushed instead of yanked. The door burst open and she ran out.

  Water splashed up her legs as mud oozed into her tennis shoes. Hampered by the muck, she fell to her knees and gasped in air. Wet and muddy, she didn’t care. She was free. No. She wasn’t. She’d completely lost her cool over nails and stain. How pathetic was that? Tears threatened. No. She wouldn’t cry.

  “Ari?” Dalir jogged out of the trees. His booted footfalls thudded on the ground. He slowed, approaching her as if she would suddenly bolt. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. No.” She sat back on her heels in the water. Why not sit? She was already a mess. Inside and out.

  Dalir glanced at the shed. The look in his gray gaze confirmed, he’d comprehended what happened. He held out his hand. “I’ll take you back to the house.”

  Where she would be coddled into fessing up.

  Dalir waited patiently. He was dressed in hiking boots, jeans, and a long sleeved pullover; this was the guy she knew. The man she’d confessed her fears to. The one who hadn’t judged her and wouldn’t make her explain what she’d just faced in the shed.

  “I don’t want to go back to the house like this.”

  He frowned. “Where do you want to go then.”

  “With you, but could we not do the phase thing. Can we just walk?”

  “It’s uneven terrain. You don’t have the proper shoes. I will—” He took a deep breath. “May I carry you?”

  She nodded permission. As Dalir lifted her into his arms, she clasped her hands around his neck. His clean, woodsy scent brought comfort and a tug of awareness.

  After adjusting her weight, he hiked upward through the trees.

  She trembled.

  “You’re cold.” He tucked her closer and walked faster.

  “A little.” More like worried and excited. She didn’t even get a chance to think about what she’d say to him. She certainly hadn’t wanted their reunion to include her looking a hot mess. Ari resisted the urge to lay her head on his shoulder. He’d rattled windows, that’s what Lauren said. According to her, it meant something.

  They crested a small hill. Stones formed a path to the back of a modest cottage. A cloth hammock and Adirondack style chairs formed a seating area on the back porch. They reached the closed French doors.

  “It’s unlocked.” Dalir turned to give her better access.

  Ari pushed down on the handle.

  He nudged the door open with his foot and strode in.

  Cool air brought fresh shivers.

  Dalir coaxed her toward a mudroom off to the side.

  She stripped off her tennis shoes.

  He took her hand. “You need to get warm.” He radiated heat.

  Next to him she’d get more than just warm. Awareness disturbed her breathing. “Just point me to where the tea is.” A silver kettle sat on the gas stove in a homey, inviting kitchen. “But if you don’t have tea, I’ll take coffee. I smell coffee right? That’s fine, too.” Stop babbling.

  Dalir cupped her cheek. “Let me look after you, Ari. Please.”

  This side of him, gentle and waiting to please, made her want to melt. Coffee, tea or discover where the desire she saw in his gaze would take them. So many choices. She nodded.

  He guided her through the kitchen and stopped at the entrance to a short hallway. “I’ve been working on a surprise for you. This is as good a time as any. It’s in the bathroom at the end.” Dalir kissed her forehead. “Don’t ask questions, just enjoy it. I’ll find you some clean clothes.” He walked into the nearby bedroom.

  A surprise for her. Ari walked down to the closed door. She opened it and stepped across the threshold into a room the equivalent of a heavenly dream. A dome made of skylights bathed the golden-hued bone and deep tan tiles covering the floor and walls in a soft light. More tiles with a mosaic design covered the two walls framing an open shower that took up a large corner in the bathroom. Flowing vines hung from the ceiling. On the other side of the room sat green broad-leafed plants and pale-blue flowers in fat, terra-cotta pots. A waterfall trickled down the tiled wall into a huge sunken, infinity-style Jacuzzi.

  Ari turned. She flinched. Her reflection stared back at her from a long, oval mirror hanging next to the pedestal sink. Great. The first time she sees Dalir in days, and she was sporting the muddy, drowned rat look. Real attractive.

  She dismissed her reflection.

  Fluffy cream-colored towels folded neatly into squares lay stacked on a gold trellis-styled shelf while another held an array of pots and jars of different sizes, colors and shapes filled with contents. She’d investigate that later, but now she had a decision to make.

  The shower provided a fast and efficient way to get clean. The tub was a tempting invitation to linger and soak in the midst of sumptuous beauty. Not exactly what she expected of Dalir.

  Ari’s imagination took a sharp detour, conjuring up an image of Dalir’s gray gaze holding hers as he rose out of the tub. In her vision, water rained from his dark hair and over his wide shoulders. Droplets merged into a slow stream traveling through every cut of chiseled muscle in his chest and abdomen all the way down to—

  A flush made her clothes the equivalent of a too warm blanket. She stripped them off, left them in a corner near the sink, then snagged a towel. Tiles cooled the soles of her feet. She left her towel on an empty rack and walked into the shower. She turned the dial and water at just the right temperature, sprinkled heavily from an extra wide shower head above. Bliss.

  A square of homemade soap washed away the gritty remains of her mud bath. The clean, subtle scents of citrus and peppermint, reminded her of him. The image from earlier reignited and flamed into more. His lips brushing kisses over her throat. His large hands caressing her belly, her breasts. Rapidly falling drops of water fell on her sensitive nipples. An intense ache grew between her thighs. She squeezed them together. Ari turned off the water.

  Movement drew her out of the fantasy. She peeked around the wall through the steam rising in the room.

  Dalir turned on the jets of the Jacuzzi tub. He’d changed into dark sweatpants. As he leaned over to adjust the water flow, muscles flexed in his back. Fabric pulled over his hard butt.

  Like a moth drawn to flame, she drifted toward him.

  Dalir glanced over his shoulder. He stood. “I thought you might enjoy soaking in the tub.”

  “Alone?” She laid her palms on his chest. The first contact of skin against skin after what seemed like an eternity stole a breath.

  Sexual hunger filled Dalir’s gaze and sharpened his jawline. He kept his hands balled at his side. “I thought you might need a minute.”

  She’d lost too much time already. They’d missed too many occasions for moments like this. Chances gone forever. She kissed the middle of his chest. His heart bumped her lips as she tugged the strings on his sweatpants. “I need you.”

  Eyes on her, Dalir pushed the fabric down and kicked it away. He held out his hand.

  She took it, following him into the warm swirling water. It rippled over her, magnifying the flutters in her stomach.

  Dalir took a bottle from a cutout shelf and poured creamy liquid into his palm. He massaged it over her shoulders, breasts, and belly. Every place he touched, the heat of desire burned.

  His gaze held uncertainty but no regrets. Protectiveness but not fear. He could overwhelm her easily with his strength, but his gentleness made her weak. Unspoken questions also shadowed his eyes, asking her to understand, to accept him. He hadn’t hesitated in revealing his power to protect her from danger, and he wasn’t apologizing for it now.

  He urged her under the falling water. She let it all rinse away. Her fears. Her doubts. In the warehouse, he’d metamorphosed into something she didn’t fully comprehend. Ari drifted out of the waterfall and met his gaze. But, he was still Dalir. Wasn’t he?

  She slipped past him and picked up a bottle. Hands shaking, she poured the liquid into her hand. Ari averted her gaze to his chest, not ready to put her answer to him in words. Unable to deny what she wanted. Just as he’d done for her, she massaged the soap into his skin.

  His arms relaxed at his sides, but a faint glow of silver flashed in his smoldering grey eyes. Ari concentrated on her hands, smoothing them in circles over his chest, awed by muscular perfection, curious about the scars she hadn’t paid attention to before on his torso. He’d carried a sword. Had he fought enemies using it? Her palms grazed over his nipples.

  He sucked in a breath.

  She trailed down his eight pack. Ripples and ridges of tight muscle emerged underneath her fingertips.

  His chest rose and fell. His thick shaft, bumped her belly as his breaths grew more and more unsteady.

  She lapped away the drops of water dotting his nipple and teased with gentle bites. A low groan rumbled in his chest. Fine tremors vibrated underneath her lips as she glided lower and encircled him. The silky lather of the body wash aided in the gentle slide of her palms and fingers over his length. She tightened her hands around him, and he pulsed and expanded, more than enough to fill the tight embrace of her fingers.

  Without warning, Dalir swiftly backed her up under the waterfall.

  Water flowed over her head and into her face for a second, and then it parted like a curtain, held back by a shimmering light. It fell rhythmically near her shoulders.

  Dalir gently manacled her wrists above her head. The feel of cold, hard marble on one side and his steely, hot erection throbbing on the other sent raw lust hurtling through her core.

  “Ari.” Dalir’s hooded eyes glittered with light. “What are you trying to do to me?” As he nuzzled the side of her neck, his wet hair brushed against her throat. His nipping teeth along her sensitive skin awakened every nerve. “I’m trying to give you time to adjust.” He trailed a path of tortuous kisses down her neck to her shoulder. “I’m trying to be gentle with you.” He pressed himself against her belly, and his whole body shuddered with his intake of breath.

  But, she didn’t want him tame. She wanted him real, unbridled, with no restraints holding him back. She wanted to show up just as real for him.

  “No.” She pulled her hands out of his grasp. “No more secrets.” Emotions tightened her throat. Water mingled with her tears. “Show me everything. I want to see who you really are.”

  The angles of his jawline grew more pronounced, as he grabbed her hips. “Hold onto me.”

  Ari braced her hands on his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist. She wanted him so badly, tremors radiated through her from the inside out.

  His corded muscles tensed underneath her palms. His fingers bit into her hips as he raised her higher. His eyes never wavering from hers, Dalir impaled her on his length, inch by wonderful inch.

  The pleasurable stretch of her body taking him all in, it was too much, and yet, it wasn’t nearly enough. She wanted more.

  Dizzy with desire and anticipation, Ari closed her eyes and let her head rest against the tiled wall. He kneaded her breast as he flicked the other nipple with his tongue. When he drew the tender peak past his lips and into his mouth, her inner muscles clenched harder around him. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pressed her heels into the tight muscles of his butt and grasped the back of his head holding him in place until he turned his attention to her other breast. The tender assault continued, her whole body consumed by sensations that left her hanging on by the slimmest possible strand of sanity.

  He lifted his head and she untangled her fingers from his hair.

  “Ari, look at me.”

  Slumberous from pleasure, she gazed into a blaze of silver that almost consumed the grey of his eyes.

  “See me,” he whispered hoarsely. “Know all of me.” Dalir lifted her up and brought her back down. He seated himself so deeply she felt the force of it down to her toes.

  The water formed a cocoon around them. Every move he made into her body seemed to come with an awareness of what would intensify her pleasure, what made her wrap her legs tighter around his waist, what tore out her cries and caused her to dig her nails harder into his back.

  An invisible force moved rapidly through the water and it seeped into her very being. It called for a release to him that went beyond just the physical. Letting go of everything holding her back; the fear, the uncertainty, the misunderstandings, the mystery of what lay ahead. Ari let him into her heart and claimed the orgasm streaming up from her feet, flooding into her limbs, and weaving ribbons of ecstasy through her core.

  With a low near-growl, Dalir wrapped an arm around her waist, held her by the nape, and crushed his lips to hers. Ari’s thighs shook with each demanding thrust. The quivers in her lower belly grew stronger. Her sex clamped and squeezed around his rock-hard, length again and again as her first orgasm slammed into the next. She splintered apart, clutching helplessly at his broad back.

  He lifted his mouth from hers, their heated breaths rushing in and out between them.

  “Ari.”

  She fought to raise her heavy eyelids. His gaze mirrored the need raging inside of him. An expression bordering on agony flitted over his face, and his whole body tensed. As Dalir latched onto her hips, the cords in his neck flexed underneath his skin. His thick shaft grazed repeatedly against her still sensitized flesh. Overtaken by sensation, she climaxed again as he shook with his release.

  As she floated down, his legs trembled as he held her up against the wall. His head fell against her shoulder. “Don’t ever doubt this,” he whispered hoarsely against her throat. His whole body moved with his unsteady breaths. “No matter what happens, don’t ever doubt that what we have is real.”

  Ari tightened her arms around him. Yes. It was real. Too real to deny. Too real for her to leave. Real enough to break her heart.

  Chapter 11

  As Dalir lay in the sleigh bed with Ari, he glided his hand up and down her back. The erotic mix of soap, shampoo, and the musky scent of desire surrounded them. The power he’d released during their intense lovemaking still heightened his senses and his craving for Ari.

  She adjusted her head on his shoulder. “Tell me more about who you are and where you’re from.”

  Dalir kissed the top of her head. He wouldn’t make the same mistake as before. He’d tell her everything this time, no matter how hard or difficult it became to confess. Stroking over her hip through the sheet, he settled on where to start. “Like I said before, my home is another dimension called Alandia. My kind are called ancients. We possess certain gifts like the ability to travel time.”

  “How does it happen? Do you just speed around from place to place?”

  “Not quite.” Based on her experience coming to The Drift, it made sense she’d see it that way. “Time and dimensions aren’t just a straight line of past to present to future. It’s overlapping and infinite.” He opened his hand and willed a small, glowing golden orb to appear in his palm.

  Ari’s eyes widened. “What is that?”

  “A portal into time.”

  She reached for the orb but stopped. “Is it okay to touch it?” She chuckled. “I don’t want to get sucked away to the Stone Age.”

  “Go ahead. It’s perfectly safe.”

  Her fingers skimmed along the surface.

  As an extension of him, the energy inside the of the orb leaped and gravitated toward her touch. He tamped down need.

  “But it’s so small. How do you travel in it?”

  “Not in it. Through it.” With a silent command, he widened the sphere to the size of a basketball and hollowed it into a shimmering tunnel with no end. “I’d have to make it bigger for phasing, but within that space exists time in its smallest factions. I can see every one of them and follow their path to where they lead into the future.”

  “And the past?”

  “No.” He closed the tunnel and reabsorbed the sphere in his palm. “Always forward, never back. I can also extract power from time and use it as a force.”

  “Are you an explorer then? Is that why you came here?” She stroked her hand over his palm.

  He intertwined their fingers. “I’m here because I broke the law.”

  “I’m sure you had a good reason.”

  “How can you be certain?”

  Ari’s gaze didn’t waver. “How you carry yourself. The way you think. You live by a code. You also inspire loyalty. My friend’s fiancés and the rest of the guys aren’t gullible. They wouldn’t follow you unless you were honorable. And I wouldn’t be with you now.”

  His heart swelled as he traced a path down her cheek. He’d willingly fall on his sword than lose the absolute certainty about him he saw in her gaze. He leaned in for a kiss.

  “Uh-uh. I know that look. If we start that, I’ll never get the story. What law did you break to put you here?”

  He kissed the fingers she’d pressed to his mouth. Now for the difficult part. He hadn’t shared everything with Thane or the team. Dalir forced a breath against the tightness in his chest. He dug up the hard, twisted, ugly parts of the past he’d buried. Their images emerged in his mind. “Eighty years ago, it was arranged that I marry. Her name was Taliana. She was an oracle initiate.”

  “An oracle initiate, what’s that?”

  “Oracles have special intuitive gifts, like you. Initiates go through additional training to become guardians and watch over the temple. She gave up her calling and agreed to the marriage. My brother, Kell, became angry over it, along with my appointment as my father’s successor. As I look back now, I should have seen how bitter he’d become. Not overnight but little by little as I excelled and people lauded my accomplishments. He was so obsessed over beating me in what I did well, instead of finding something he was good at or just enjoyed. When the retributionists approached him about staging a coup, I’m sure he saw his chance to get back at all of us.”