Walking away wasn’t a good plan. She’d known that when she’d set out, but she needed to put some distance between her and Vadir. Two days of being confined to the ship hadn’t helped with her mood, either. She needed to breathe fresh air and feel the sun on her face. Or rain. At this point, she’d go for a walk in a thunderstorm and risk being struck by lightning rather than stay put a second longer.

Outside, the weather was idyllic. Only a few puffy white clouds were scattered across the wide expanse of blue sky, and a warm summer breeze waltzed through the tall grass, making the golden heads dance and bob. The ship had crashed near the centre of the meadow, leaving deep furrows in the ground where it had first hit before sliding to a stop some fifty metres later. She’d been able to see the ship at first, but once she walked a few feet away, whatever shielding technology Cas was using kicked in. The next time she’d looked back, the entire vessel had vanished.

Neat trick, and it certainly explained why no one had noticed them.

She had barely started thinking things through when Vadir’s shout shattered the peace, and now she was face to face with him again, still hurting and raw from what he’d said to her. She didn’t want to talk to him, but it was evident from the speed he’d come after her that he wasn’t giving her a choice.

Once he was seated, she did the same, stretching out her bare legs in front of her. “if you really wanted to convince me you weren’t trying to control my every move, you might have considered waiting ten minutes before charging after me, bellowing my name.”

“Cas told me you left the ship and appeared to be heading towards the base of the mountain. I took off after you after I was informed there were large carnivores in the area. What were you going to do if you came across one, throw my socks at them and make a run for it barefoot?”

“I wasn’t going to try and hike out of here on foot. I’m not that crazy. I needed to get outside and think in peace. Not that you let that happen.”

“And the carnivores don’t concern you?”

“Bears and cougars are not likely to attack me in the middle of a meadow. I know better than to get between a bear and her cubs, or their kill. If Cas detected that much wildlife in the area, we must have travelled further than I thought.

“According to Cas, we’re on somewhere on the eastern slope of one of the mountains in the Garibaldi Range. We won’t know our exact coordinates until a few more repairs are completed, but it won’t be long, now.” He sat back and looked around them. “You’re certain we’re safe out here?”

“I’m sure. You don’t spend much time outdoors, do you?”

A shadow darkened his eyes. “I used to. When I was a youngling, we spent a lot of time outside. Hiking. Swimming. Exploring the woodland outside the city where we lived.”

“What happened?” She wasn’t even sure why she asked the question. They had other things to talk about, but something told her this was important.

“My mother died. She drowned while swimming in the lake she’d been visiting every year since before I was born. A storm blew in, and she was too far away from shore to make it back. My dad took a boat out and tried to reach her, but he didn’t make it in time.”

“I’m sorry, Vee. I know what it’s like to lose a parent.”

“That’s the part I need to explain to you, tani. I didn’t lose one parent. I lost them both.” He broke off a long stem of grass and began stripping away the leaves as he spoke. “Among my people, the bond between mates doesn’t end with death. The survivor suffers what we call the Fade. It’s the desire to escape this life and join their beloved in the next world. Just as the bond between mates varies from couple to couple, so does the strength of the Fade. For some, it’s little more than a whisper. For others, it’s a pull too powerful to resist.”

Lisa’s heart twisted in her chest. “Your father? He Faded?”

Vadir lifted his head, and she could see the answer to her question in his eyes. They were haunted and full of grief. “He died less than a year after her death. I never understood how he could do that to me. Not until you came along.”

“Don’t tell me you’d die for me, Vadir. You don’t know me well enough to even think along those lines. We’re almost strangers. A few days of mind melting sex doesn’t mean we’re in love with each other.”

He shook his head and tossed the mangled grass aside. “We’re so much more than that. You’re my mate, Lisa. My true match. The only woman in the world I will ever desire. The Scorching is more than a mating fever. It’s the moment when two souls are forged together. It’s been two days, and you can already read my thoughts. Imagine what this will be like in a month, or a year. If something happens to you, I’ll make the same choice my father did.”

“You don’t get to put that on me, Vadir. We’re all responsible for our own actions. You came here. You contacted me. You caused all of this. Now you have to own it.”

He started to argue, but then the fire went out of his eyes, and he dropped his hands to his sides. “I don’t know how to do this.”

It was probably the only thing he could have said that wouldn’t push her further away. “You don’t know how to do what?”

“Trust other people. I stopped doing that a long time ago.”

She remembered how that felt. She learned from her mother that it was best not to trust anyone else, and easier to rely on only what she could do for herself. That way, no one could disappoint or betray you. Gwen was the first person, beside her mom, that Lisa learned she could rely on. Later, Maggie had proven herself, too. Without them, Lisa knew her life would be very different, and a lot lonelier.

“If we have any chance of making this work, you’re going to have to trust me. You can’t control my life or my choices.”

“But I need—“

She cut him off. “You need. You want. Your life. Do you see the pattern here? This isn’t a negotiation at all. You’re dictating the terms of my prison sentence, and expecting me to agree.” She glared at him and huffed in frustration. “And now you have me talking like this was a business deal and not a relationship.”

“Deals are simple. You negotiate for what you want, sign a contract, and live up to your promises. You, are not simple, Lisa Woods. You’re complicated and messy.”

She laughed. “You forgot sexy and wildly unpredictable. And I’d like to point out that for the last two days you’ve been just as hedonistic and crazy as I have. Not to mention the fact you literally set our bed on fire.”

He broke off another piece of grass and stared at it until it smoked, then burst into flame. He let it burn almost to his fingers before banishing the flame with a wave of his hand. “That was the Scorching. Normally I have more control than that.”

“Control is your problem, Vee. Sometimes, you have to let go. Honestly, I think you’ve got more fire in you than you want to admit. You’ve held yourself in check for so long, you’ve forgotten who you were.”

A crazy, terrifyingly bad idea struck her. “I want to know what it feels like when you burn. I want to know who you are behind the walls and rules and buttoned up suits.” She drew up her legs so that she was sitting cross-legged, then beckoned him over. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Puzzled, he rose to his feet and came to where she sat, taking her hand before sitting down so that he was facing her. “What do you want to show me, tani?”

“The truth. Mine and yours. I’m not sure how to do this, but I’m going to try and drop the walls and let you into my head. The Gods put us together and gave us this ability, right? So, we should probably use it.”

He crooked a dark brow. “And if we don’t like what we find?”

“Then the Gods suck at matchmaking, and we’ll know to stop trying to make this work.” She tried to sound glib, but the words fell flat. This was a huge risk, and she had no idea if it would work. Hell, there were parts of her own psyche she didn’t want to examine too closely. Now she was about to expose herself to Vadir. Scars, regrets, and all.

Vadir had come to Earth prepared to offer his match anything she wanted. Money, jewels, and gifts from across the galaxy. The one thing he hadn’t planned on giving her was any part of himself. He gripped her hand and wondered if the Gods were laughing at him right now.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yes.”

There was silence for a long moment as the two of them stared at each other. Birds sang and twittered to each other, the breeze swirled around them, thick with the scent of wild flowers and green, growing things. His attention was caught by a small insect with large, multi-coloured wings that fluttered overhead. That was when it happened. His eyes still saw one view, but inside his head, he saw the same creature from another angle.

“Lisa?”

Warmth and a trace of amusement coloured her reply. “Yes.”

He closed his eyes and cautiously followed her thoughts back to their source. At the same time, he felt her presence in his mind, a gentle flutter that reminded him of the winged insect he’d been watching.

“Butterfly.” She gave him the creature’s name.

Thoughts and feelings flowed over him like water from a stream. There were undercurrents of mood, and quicksilver glimpses of memory, but all of it was her. Her strength and empathy, her fire and ferocity. He bore witness to her darkest memories and was amazed by the depth of her bonds to her two dearest friends.

There had been wild choices and a reckless need to push her limits and face her fears. Where he had channelled his anger and pain into forging a future for himself and controlling the world around him, she had gone a different way. She’d leapt off a bridge with nothing but a cord around her ankles and dived naked into fast-flowing rivers. There was a tattoo of a flower hidden in the hair above her left ear. It was a legacy of a youthful bet she carried as a reminder that some choices cannot be undone.

There was a scar on his arm that served the same purpose. He started to understand. They weren’t that different. Two lives, lived differently but fuelled by the same fire.

“Now do you see?” Her voice was a gentle whisper in his mind.

“Yes. Do you?” He’d been so entranced by his experience, he’d forgotten that she was learning about him, too. Had she found the answers she sought?

Laughter sounded, soft and sweet. “Yes. We’re more alike than I imagined. Maybe the Gods knew what they were doing, after all.”

“After this, I have no doubts. I was wrong to think I could lock you away and keep you safe that way.”

She laughed aloud. “Damn right you were.”

He opened his eyes to find her looking at him with affection. “The Gods didn’t send me here to retrieve a gentle female to raise my children. They brought me to Earth to present me with my perfect partner.”

He tugged at her hand, and she came willingly into his arms. “Come home with me, tani.”

She twined her arms around his neck and leaned in close enough her breath was a silken caress across his lips. “I want to visit the worlds I saw in your memories.”

“Wherever you want to go, I’ll take you. “

“No gilded cage?” she whispered.

“No cage at all. And maybe, when we’re ready, you and I can find a place that both of us can call home.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

He dropped his head to slant a kiss across her smiling lips. “Finally.”

She didn’t answer him in words. Instead, she sent him a vivid image of the two of them making love in the grass; clothes scattered, her hair blowing in the breeze as she knelt over him, his hands on her breasts.

He speared one hand into her hair and wrapped his other one around her waist before letting himself fall backwards, taking her with him.

“Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? We’re still dressed.”

“Not for long.” He tossed his communicator out of range, then conjured a flame with a snap of his fingers. He let it grow into a blazing sphere with the two of them at its center. Their clothes burned away in a flash, and he dispelled the effect with a thought.

She blinked down at him, her dazzling eyes wide with shock. “Are you insane? You could have set the whole forest burning!”

“My control is better than that, now. I wouldn’t risk you or Cas that way. As my mate, you’re immune to my fires, but if it spread…I don’t know how far that immunity goes, and I don’t ever intend to find out.”

“I still think you’re a lunatic. It’s a good thing I like you this way.”

“I’m only a lunatic where you’re concerned.”

She wriggled her hips, grinding herself lightly across his fast hardening cock. “That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Lisa leaned down and brushed her mouth over Vadir’s. The Scorching might be over, but her need for him hadn’t lessened at all. She left her mind open, letting him read her thoughts as she slid down his body, leaving a trail of kisses down his chest and stomach as she worked her way south.

She teased him with feather-soft caresses and touches, nibbling and kissing his golden skin. The anticipation built with every second that passed. Desire swirled between them, and when she finally grazed her lips across the broad head of his cock, Vadir groaned with eagerness and thrust his hips upwards.

“Suck me.”

“Patience,” she sent the thought to him before settling herself between his muscular thighs and bowing her head to take him deep into her mouth.

“I prefer immediate gratification.”

She laughed without removing her mouth from his shaft, letting the vibration roll through him as she wrapped one hand around his thick base and slipped the other between his legs to cup his sac. Vadir’s arousal flowed through their link to intertwine with hers, amplifying the experience until she was drunk with pleasure.

He dug his fingers into the grass beneath them, his breath coming in ragged gasps. “Flames, that feels good. But you know that, don’t you? You can feel what I’m feeling.”

She uttered a low hum of agreement and swiped her tongue across the slit of his cock while stroking her fingertips over his balls. They tightened, and his cock twitched and swelled in her mouth. He was close. She could sense the slow corkscrewing tangle of desires as his orgasm loomed. She used their connection to push him higher, every bob of her head and stroke of her tongue timed to take him to the brink without going over.

She kept him there until he his every muscle was taut as a bowstring and his thrusts had become broken and uneven. That was the moment she released him and rocked back on her heels, her arms outstretched in open invitation. “I want to know what it feels like when you’re inside me. Do you think we can do that? Stay linked?”

He lifted his head and gave her a wicked smile. “Only one way to find out. Come here.”

He sat up, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his cock rising from between his thighs to rest against his stomach. He crooked a finger at her, then patted his thighs.

Lisa rose to her feet and stretched luxuriously, deliberately making Vadir wait.

His gaze never wavered, and the hungry expression on his face was enough to make her heart race. No man had ever looked at her the way he did as if she were everything he craved, and all he needed.

She stepped over his torso and then lowered herself onto his lap, letting him guide her down. She straddled him, crouching, his cock pressed along the seam of her pussy as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Every move they made resulted in a delicious friction that sent her libido rocketing into overdrive within seconds.

“I need you,” he whispered the words into her mouth, one arm curving around her waist to steady her as he reached between them to stroke a finger across her aching clit.

“I’m all yours,” she whispered back, and there was no ignoring the note of truth behind the words. She’d made her choice, and she had no regrets.

“From now until we return to the Flame that birthed us,” he murmured, then kissed her hard as he guided his cock to her entrance. His arm tightened around her waist, bringing them together with deliberate slowness.

She didn’t want slow. She wanted it hard, and fast, with no rules and no barriers between them. Rocking backward, she leaned against his hold and took him deep, shifting her weight off her legs so that she could wrap them around his hips.

He growled and leaned back, opening the angle between them. His fingers toyed with her clit, rubbing the little nub in tiny circles as he started a bouncing, thrusting motion that drove their bodies together.

His pleasure overlapped her own, the sensations swirling together until she couldn’t tell which belonged to whom. Not that she cared. She was lost in a firestorm of desires that consumed everything in its path.

Her position shifted as he drew up his knees and placed his feet on the ground, cradling her body in his as he leaned back and braced himself on one arm. She released her arms from around his neck and leaned back against his thighs, then cried out as the new angle sent his cock plunging over her g-spot. Her inner walls clenched hard, and both of them gasped at the surge of raw sensation that erupted.

The intensity was more than she could take, and she gave in to the inevitable with a shuddering cry. Vadir’s control broke seconds later, and they rode out their mutual climaxes with both mind and body intertwined in perfect bliss.