The moment we crash through the portal, Raph’s lips are on mine again and this time, the first touch is anything but soft and tentative.

I’m aware that my bedroom is dark and of my back hitting the plush rug in front of the fireplace, but not much else as Raph kisses me with a hunger that shakes me to the core. He devours my lips and I meet his hunger with equal intensity.

Distantly, I can sense him setting the fireplace ablaze as he covers my trembling body with his powerful one. He breaks the kiss only long enough to tug off his soaked shirt and my mouth goes dry at the sight of his bare body. Every single part of him is corded with muscle. His chest and abs are ripped like a diamond, so defined, that I can see shadows against his golden skin from where the muscles cut. My gaze lands on the row of suns tattooed on the side of his left rib that I’d seen once before and again, I can’t help but think how freaking sexy those tattoos are.

It’s not like I hadn’t noticed Raph’s physical frame many times before, but the sight of that large body over mine makes me realize just how big and powerful he is and how small my frame is in comparison. The sight thrills me in a way which sends delicious shivers down my spine. I want him, I want him so much, and I let myself feel all of that just then.

He reaches out to touch his fingertips to my cheek in an achingly tender caress, which a few months ago, I could never have believed he’d be capable of. But I’d been wrong about him, wrong about that hate which I knew now was not hate at all. But something far deeper, something far more dangerous.

The tremors racking my body are telling me that I should be terrified, but I know that it’s more than just fear racing through me because I can almost taste the desire in the very air I’m breathing. Mine or his, it’s impossible to tell.

His eyes lock onto mine, dark with hunger and a need that takes my breath away and his words have an equal effect.

“God, Jaz, you’re so goddamn beautiful. I want you so much, I feel like I can’t even breathe when I look at you.”

His words echo my own feelings, his desire mirrors my own and the connection that I feel to the elements seems like nothing compared to the one that I feel when I look at that impossibly perfect face. His beauty is utterly devastating and for a second, I can’t quite make myself believe that he’s real. That this is real.

Raph’s fingers move from my cheek, trailing down the side of my neck, until his hand finally rests on my chest. I know that he can feel my heart beating wildly and when I raise a shaky hand to his smooth chest, I can feel the running stag clamor of his heart, too.

“Your heart is beating so fast right now, Jaz,” he whispers, his voice sounding hoarse.

“So is yours,” I reply softly.

He smiles then, that heartbreakingly intimate smile that I know no one in this entire universe has seen but me.

“I want to touch you so badly, Jaz. Will you let me?” The plea melts away the fear and doubt, because although I know he can sense just how much I want him, he still asks for my permission.

I don’t trust myself to speak, so I plant a kiss on his smooth chest instead, right over where his heart is jackhammering like crazy. I nod up at him and I feel the shudder that races through his powerful body.

I hear the way his breath hitches as he leans down to kiss me again. But this time, the kiss is different. The way his lips touch mine is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. As limited as my kissing experience might be, I had no idea that a person could even be kissed like this—the awe, the tenderness, the reverence, all of it washes over me and I feel the kiss like a punch to my chest. Painful and exquisite, all at once.

I feel myself losing grip on all thought when Raph’s lips begin their descent. He lifts my body enough to remove my soaked t-shirt and he plants a delicate kiss on my shoulder as he gently eases both bra straps down. I feel him reach around me and with expert fingers, he unclasps the back. A moment later, my bra joins my t-shirt on the floor somewhere.

I’m now entirely naked from the waist up and I’ve never felt more vulnerable in my entire life. Raph pulls back and his eyes travel the length of my bare skin, from the peaks of my breasts to the valley of my bare stomach below. I feel the fire in his gaze, the hunger in his eyes, so deep and all-consuming, that it’s almost frightening. But I can feel how he’s holding himself back, controlling that desire. Part of me doesn’t want him to, the foolish part of me that’s as hungry for him as he is for me, wants to unleash all that he is and I want to burn in that fire.

The flames burning in the fireplace encase Raph’s golden body with its glow but I realize that Raph himself is glowing, too. His skin is radiating its own light and the sight is almost too beautiful to watch without coming apart.

“You’re glowing,” I say softly.

Our gazes lock and I meet his eyes unflinchingly, because when I say my next words, I want him to feel it in every fiber of his being.

“Touch me.”

The plea snaps whatever leash that Raph had been holding himself back with and like a beast freed of its tether, his body covers mine again. His mouth captures my breast and I hear myself cry out at the new and unfamiliar sensations raging through me. His hand grips my waist as he rolls his hips into mine, the hard length of him pressing against the softest part of me. Each thrust of his hips elicits a moan from my lips. I can feel the vibration of his responding groan against my breast as he continues to suck and lick at the soft skin.

His free hand comes up to cup my other breast, and the rough pads of his fingers against the softness, is almost too much to bear. I’m gasping out his name and I can feel his smile against my abdomen as he travels lower down my body. He wanted me to say his name again and he sure as hell is making it happen.

He pauses when he reaches the waistband of my jeans. His fingers hover over the button, but he looks back at me and waits. The silent request tugs at my chest and I can only nod in response, not trusting myself to speak.

My jeans are off in less than a second and I’m aware that the only piece of clothing left covering my body is the thin scrap of lace around my waist.

His hands tremble at my waist as he lowers the fabric, and I know he can feel me trembling, too. He catches the lace with his teeth and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so sexy as he works the material down my thighs.

I know that he can sense my apprehension when that last piece of clothing joins the rest on the floor, because he slows down then, trailing soft kisses along the inside of my thigh. His kisses are traveling higher and soon his mouth will touch me where no other person has ever been. The thought terrifies me, but the want overpowers the fear, because I do want him. I want him so much.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the first moment I saw you on that beach,” he says, and when I look down, I know I’m wrong about the sight of his teeth around my panties being the sexiest sight I’d ever seen, because the sight of that beautiful face between my legs, exceeds that by far.

His eyes are fixed onto the center of me, and he lets out a shuddering breath.

“God, Jaz, you’re so damn beautiful, every part of you.”

I don’t get a chance to respond, because a split second later I feel his mouth on me and the world, hell the entire universe disappears, leaving only the feeling of his mouth licking and sucking at the most intimate part of me. His mouth moves with a hunger that brands me, claims me and I let him lay that claim, because I want every inch of me to belong to him and only him.

My back arches clean off the plush rug as his mouth closes on the throbbing bud at the center of me, and I feel like I’m coming out of my own skin. I feel his groan of approval vibrating through me and I can’t think past the feeling of his mouth on me, working me until I’m at a fever pitch, every inch of my skin burning.

When his finger thrusts inside me, I think I forget my own name and when his tongue slips inside me to replace it, I remember only his. I’m breathing it out over and over as the tension inside me mounts, until my body can’t contain it anymore.

I’m still crying out his name when his mouth covers mine, devouring the sound as my body shudders and shakes uncontrollably. He holds me through it, his tongue caressing mine in the same way that it had just been caressing the most intimate part of me, and I can taste myself on his tongue as I kiss him back with utter abandon.

I collapse in his arms and he drops delicate kisses along my jaw, down the side of my neck as I struggle to piece myself back together. But he’s there with me, holding me, and although it feels like I’ve just lost my own sanity, the feel of his warmth, of his solid arms around me, makes me feel safe.

Eventually, he carries me to my bed. The soft covers feel heavenly against my naked skin. But not as good as the feel of his arms around my waist as he pulls me against his side. I glance up at him and his expression looks like he’s just had his mind blown, but that doesn’t make sense because I’m the one who just lost my mind in all of these crazy sensations.

Something occurs to me then, and I suddenly feel awkward as hell. Because this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this, so I have no idea how to reciprocate.

“What about—”

But he doesn’t let me finish, cutting me off with a kiss deep enough to remind me what his mouth, his tongue felt like in other places.

“I wanted to touch you first, Jaz. Tonight is all about you,” he says when he breaks away.

Our gazes lock for a long moment, and I feel like I’m losing my grip on the universe again. Nothing exists outside this world that we’ve created.

I rest my hand on his chest then, my fingers touching the hard smoothness of his skin.

“Is it always like this?” I find myself asking. “I feel like I’m going to burst into flames every time I look at you,” I confess.

He smiles, but his eyes are serious, midnight blue and dark with emotion.

“No, baby. It’s never been like this for me before.”

He pulls me closer to him, his chin resting on top of my hair and I can feel him breathing me in.

“God, Jaz, what are you doing to me?” He lets out a shuddering breath and I want to ask him the same thing, because I feel like I can’t even think straight right now.

We lie like that for what seems like forever, but at the same time not long enough.

Then I feel his mouth curling into a smile against my hair, just as I’m about to drift off to sleep.

“I love it when you say my name, Jaz.”

Embarrassment floods me and I lift my arm to deliver a punch squarely to his rock hard gut. But he catches my fist in his hand and quick as a snake, he thrusts forward and shifts me onto my back again.

His lips crash onto mine and although I’ve only just pieced myself back together, I let him unravel me all over again.