I called to my fire but kept it under a tight leash of control. While we had a fully fireproofed room in our apartment for moments such as this, the cabin was all wood. If I wasn’t very careful, the whole place would ignite.

Rory threw his head back, a gasp of enjoyment escaping his lips. Then he, too, became flame, and the threads of our beings began to dance around each other, gently at first but growing ever more urgent, until there was no him, no me, just one being with two separate souls. But this first joining after a rebirth wasn’t about desire, even if that would always be present. It was a reconnection of both fire and flesh, and it was the flesh we now had to seek.

As we both shifted shape, his hand followed the line of my waist and hip, then gently caught my thigh and tugged it over his.

“May the gods be witness to our joining,” he murmured, and thrust inside me.

“And may fate be kind to us both,” I continued, as ever struggling to ignore the glory of his thrust and the need to move, to take the completion my body was beginning to crave. The ritual had to be completed before enjoyment could be had. “And allow us to continue our journey through the decades together.”

“As one,” he finished, his thrusts increasing in tempo.

“As one,” I echoed, and fell into bliss.

•   •   •

The sound of a door slamming shut had me jerking awake. I twisted around, my heart beating somewhere in the middle of my throat and flames shimmering across my fingertips.

“Sorry,” Jackson said, his wide grin suggesting he wasn’t at all. “I needed pizza, and you need to get your lazy but rather delightful ass up and ready.”

“Ready?” I stretched to ease some of the kinks out of my body. Sleeping on the floor was all well and good for youngsters, but I’d grown used to comfort.

“Soft is what you are,” Rory murmured. “And did someone mention pizza?”

“That would be me,” Jackson said. “Do you want it served, or are you feeling strong enough to join us at the table?”

“I’ll attempt the latter.” He paused and lightly slapped my rump. “If a certain redhead would move her lovely but lazy ass.”

I snorted, rolled to my feet, and walked over to my bag. “I’m going to have a shower. I’ll leave you two to catch up—but leave me some pizza, or there will be hell to pay.”

“Bossy, isn’t she?” Jackson commented.

“If you didn’t realize that by the time you invited her to become a partner in your business, you’ve only yourself to blame,” Rory commented.