It was dark inside the barn, so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

Luke gently lowered me to the ground. "Give me a minute." He muttered a few words, and the barn became dimly illuminated. A bluish light glowed at his fingertips.

"Handy trick, becoming a human flashlight—" My words ended in a long, harsh cough.

Luke moved around the barn. At the far corner, he came across boxes piled against the wall. He rummaged through them and held up an old lantern. "This will work."

He lifted off the glass covering and placed a fingertip inside. When he touched the wick, it burst into blue flame.

The lantern and its unnatural glow lit the entire room. "I don't have a match," Luke explained. "This won't last long." He walked toward me.

I finally saw his face and gasped. There were bruises on his cheeks, blood oozed from a gash on his chin, and a deep burn mark was seared across the right shoulder of his shirt.

Before I could ask any questions, he gestured upward. "There."

There was a loft maybe ten feet above us. I could see stacked bales of hay.

Luke walked to a wooden ladder. "I'll be right back." He quickly made his way up and out of sight.

I sat on the floor, shaking, and shivering with cold. I heard movement overhead—the sound of grunting and things being shoved around. I closed my eyes, hugged my knees, and tried to think about anything other than the terrible cold piercing through me. I imagined sitting in front of a roaring fire.

Luke was beside me again and he gave me a reassuring smile. "Do you think you can make it? I'll be right behind you."

I gave him a nod and took his hand, and he pulled me up. I moved on unsteady feet toward the ladder, grasped the wood railings, and started up, one foothold at a time. It was slow going. My body didn't want to move, and I had to force myself forward. Luke climbed the ladder behind me.

The shaking grew uncontrollable, but I kept going, climbing until I reached the top. I let go of the ladder and stumbled to the floor of the loft.

He motioned to a pile of hay spread out on the floor. "I know you're freezing. I think we should lie on the hay and huddle together for warmth. My magic can make light, but I can't make a true flame, so I can't start a fire. I'm soaked through from the rain, and you're drenched. We need to get out of these clothes."

I started to take off my sweater. My hands fumbled—my fingers were frozen and not working properly.

"Here, let me help." Luke pulled off my top and helped me wiggle out of my skirt and leggings. I stood in my bra and underwear.

Luke started to undress. He pulled off his shirt and jeans and stood in front of me in a pair of gray boxer briefs.

I lowered myself onto the hay, and he laid down next to me. "I have to get you warm." He opened his arms, and I rolled into them.

I rested against him, my head just below his chin as his hands rubbed up and down my arms and my thighs. "Better?" he whispered in my ear, his breath tickling my neck.

"Yes," I answered enjoying the feel of his hands sliding across my skin.

He pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me and ever so slowly that terrible chill that consumed my limbs and mind finally began to fade away as his body warmed mine. I nestled against his body and a sigh of contentment escaped my lips. It felt so good to be in his arms, to be close to him. With that thought a desire to be even closer filled me. I found myself turning over until our faces were just inches apart.

Those dark eyes were watching me, so full of concern.

"I'm okay," I said. My fingers reached up and gently touched his bruised cheek. "I thought I'd never see you again."

His fingertips slid across my lips. "Colina," he whispered my name. There was such longing in the way he said my name.

I felt it too, this undeniable longing to be next to him. A wanting, a need to feel his lips pressed against mine again, to feel those hands slide across my skin. I have never felt such a longing, such desire to be with someone like this before.

We had almost lost each other tonight. He could have been killed in the battle and I could have been drowned by that monster in the well. We had been lucky once again to find ourselves alive and back in each other's arms. But when would this luck of ours run out?

We were here now together. Safe for the moment with no idea what tomorrow would bring. All I could think of was that I wanted to be with him.

I pressed my lips gently against his. We kissed and kissed again, each kiss became deeper and more demanding. Another kiss and then another still, and his lips began to slide down my shoulder.

"Colina," he whispered my name again. "I want to bring you pleasure," he said as his hands moved across my flesh.

"Yes," I cried out.

Those strong fingers slid along my arm and across the curve of my breast. Those delicious lips of his peppered kisses on the swell of my breast just above my bra as his fingertips glided, teased across the wet fabric, sliding back and forth, the friction from his fingers making my nipple go rock hard and my body arch with bliss.

This storm of emotion was carrying me away. Each breath now raced with his very touch. My body arched as though it suddenly had a will of its own. My heart began to pound wildly in my chest and my legs began to tremble.

His right hand moved roughly down the length of me. Those clever fingers began to slide down my inner thigh and then moved upwards in slow torturous circles eventually finding the soft, sensitive skin at the edge of my panties.

His face was inches from mine. "Tell me again what you want."

"I want you," I answered.

The breath caught in my throat as he suddenly pushed my panties aside and a finger slid inside me. I gasped, he pushed in farther, deeper. His mouth closed on mine. I gasped again but it was lost within our kiss. The kiss between us so hard and savage this time I tasted blood when he pulled away.

He watched me, his eyes never leaving my face as his movements were slow at first, then harder. Slow again and then harder he plunged into me. Those lips crashed down on mine. A finger slid into the deeper heat within me. Fingers searched, explored, until they hit upon a spot that made me gasp out loud.

It was too much. My breath was now quick and shallow. The movement of his fingers thrusting into me, forced my body into a frenzy. I was tortured over and over until finally I found release in a sudden violent shudder.

My body rocked and I cried out his name. Strong arms pulled me back into an embrace. I felt the warmth of his body as he pulled me close.

There was an emotional void inside me since my family's death, a loneliness that had permeated every moment of my life since they were taken from me. But now I realized this man whose arms I was lying in had somehow filled that vast emptiness inside my shattered heart.

***