There was no question of stopping. Ronan ground his mouth against hers with equal savagery, and in moments they were wrestling out of their shipsuits in the pod’s cramped quarters, flailing arms and legs and frantic caresses.
Cynara sat astride him, thighs pressed to his hips. She plunged down, swallowed him up, and began to ride him without mercy. But he did not allow her to finish. With that remarkable strength that could still surprise her, he braced his feet on the deck and stood, carrying her with him. He held her impaled and neatly laid her back on the adjoining seat, fully reclining it without interrupting the flow of his motion.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and let him set the new rhythm. When he slowed to kiss her, she drew him back. They had to stay together, be together every moment, in every way.
“Cynara,” he whispered, half groan. She locked her hands behind his neck and pulled his head into the crook of her shoulder. His breath scalded her neck. He pierced her through, all the way to her soul.
Their minds touched, but nothing so crude as thoughts passed between them. It was all emotion.
Love.
Love swept every lesser passion before it, burned the simpleminded schemes of mere humans to cosmic ash. The yacht’s frame dissolved around them. Two beings freed of mortal constraint spread wings and soared on the tides of space, gathering warmth and nourishment from a thousand suns.
They danced, as ancient legend said angels did in heaven. They passed through the artificial constructs humans and shaauri called borders and scorned the petty conflicts far below. Ronan flung himself into a star and emerged again whole, every scar erased from his body, glowing like some glorious creature constructed of light and dreams. Then, laughing, he plunged through Cynara’s incorporeal body and wrapped her in the vastness of his embrace.
No one, nothing stood in their way. They were gods, complete in understanding, invulnerable to the fetters that bound ordinary creatures. They were one.
The universe exploded, casting forth its countless multitudes of stars. Cynara returned to her own body, shivering with astonishment. The transcendent emotions she had grasped so briefly had faded. She knew mortal intelligence was not meant to live that way, that the human mind could not compass such perfection and survive.
But she felt no regret, no fear. Her body was sated, and her mind was at rest. A part of her had remained separate, inviolate even during the height of passion, and that part smoothly assumed control once more. She looked on the universe with calm, dispassionate reason.
Love. Was that truly what she’d felt in Ronan, or had it been an illusion? Could she trust emotions dredged up in the midst of sublime physical union? She’d admitted her feelings, but Ronan couldn’t freely return them while he harbored such conflicting loyalties.
Whatever they’d shared during their lovemaking, she was quite sure that Ronan hadn’t glimpsed her immediate plans. And when he discovered them, he wouldn’t be able to prevent them.
The proximity alarm sounded with sharp finality. Ronan stirred but didn’t open his eyes.
Cynara rose to dress, carefully guarding her thoughts. She touched the panel on her wristcom to silence the alarm.
“You’d better dress and web in,” she said.
He groaned softly but obeyed, and she stepped outside the pod to set the yacht’s autopilot. When she returned to the pod, Ronan stood beside his seat, bent under the low overhead, and gazed at her solemnly as if he expected a wrenching farewell.
Don’t slip now, she told herself. “Sit. We still have a little time left.”
With a slight frown Ronan perched on the edge of his seat. Cynara lay back in the second seat as if to make herself comfortable and tapped her wristcom.
The hatch sealed with a click, and then the pod shuddered and broke free of its clamps.
Ronan half rose. “What have you done?”
“I instructed the yacht to eject the lifepod on my command. Too late to stop it now.” The pod’s engine came to life, and she pulled the webbing over her hips and chest. “One minute until we enter the wormhole. I suggest you web in.”