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  He raked his hands down her rib cage, her waist, her hips, scoring lines of pleasure-pain over her skin until he reached her ass. Cupping each cheek, he yanked her to him, his tongue plundering her mouth with greater force as his thick, rigid shaft ground against her mons.

  She shifted her weight, titling her hips until the thick, distended head of his cock nudged her pussy lips. Her heart hammered a rapid tattoo of wild pleasure. She moaned into his mouth, wanting him to hear and feel her desire. He may be a concoction of her own hunger for love, but she didn’t want him to go away. Not now, not when her body felt so wonderful. So wickedly sensual. She’d never felt like this before, not with any of her previous lovers.

  But you do with one who isn’t real? her conscience tested.

  Yes, she did. And she didn’t want it to end.

  Tugging on his hair, she stared into his unusual green eyes. “Fuck me,” she whispered, stroking his cock with her swollen folds.

  A slow smile curled the corners of his mouth. “Gladly.”

  He curled his fingers into her hips and in one swift, powerful stroke, sank his cock into her sex.

  “Oh fuck! Yes!”

  Jordynn’s cry of rapture tore from her throat, shattering the stillness of dawn. She thrust into his penetrations, hooking her left leg around his hip to yank him closer, deeper. His cock punched into her, owning her utterly.

  She fisted her hands more tightly in his hair, holding his head still so she could stare into his eyes as he pumped into her over and over again. With each stroke, she quivered with pleasure. Her lover’s shaft slammed harder and harder, his balls smacking against her ass. The sound, a soft, wet beat, filled Jordynn’s head as surely as his cock filled her body. “Who are you?” she panted. “Why you? Why?”

  Her lover raked his hands up her body, one hand closing over one breast and squeezing it as the other hand buried into her hair at her nape. “You know who I am.” He punctuated each word with a deliciously brutal thrust of his cock.

  Jordynn arched into him, taking him deeper. Her whole body seemed to vibrate with power, with pleasure. “A dream.”

  A shadow crossed her lover’s face. Confusion? Uncertainty? He shook his head slightly, increasing his caressing hold on her breast as though worried she would leave. “Gods, let it not be so.” He pulled her head to his, his kiss forceful. Undeniable. “This is not the heat of dreams.” His lips trailed along her jaw. “It can’t be.” He traced the inner shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue. “This is more. This is connection.”

  That word again. Jordynn shivered against him. Her sex constricted around his cock, gripping it. She bucked, grinding her clit on the thick, rigid base of his shaft. His soft pubic hair tickled her, his pumping cock possessed her. Squirming tension threaded through her body and she tightened her fists in his hair, holding him the way a drowning woman clings to driftwood. She was drowning. Here, high in the Hawaiian hills, miles away from deep water, she was drowning. In pleasure, in desire.

  In happiness.

  Drowning in the arms of her Hawaiian warrior.

  “Jesus, yes!” she called out. She’d lost her mind, but who cared?

  Yanking on the silky strands tangled in her fists, she forced him to look at her. Passion clouded his green eyes. Passion unlike any she’d ever seen. She smiled, her heart hammering, her orgasm building. “If you are a dream,” she whispered on a shallow breath, “I never want to wake up.”

  He didn’t say a word. Just stared at her through heavy-lidded eyes for a still moment before, with a fluid speed only possible in dreams, he rolled onto his back, pulling her with him. She straddled him, gazing down at him from her new position, his shaft buried deeper in her folds.

  He cupped her breasts, pinching each nipple between the knuckles of his fingers and Jordynn bucked. God, she was going to come. She was going to fucking erupt. Right there in the middle of nowhere, riding her lover’s glorious, masterful, massive cock as the August sun broke the horizon. Oh sweet Jesus, she was going to—

  She rolled her hips, letting her head fall backward, sucking in breath after deep breath as her orgasm built higher and stronger. Christ, what a birthday present! “Who are you?” she gasped, staring at the sweeping pink-tinged sky above her, her pussy throbbing, her pulse pounding.

  He sat up, pressing his chest to hers, heart to hammering heart. His mouth claimed her throat, biting and sucking and nibbling from one ear to the other. “Yours forever,” he whispered, raking his hands down her back to squeeze her ass. He drew her earlobe into his mouth and nibbled on the fleshy pad. “Release the stone and I am yours forever.”

  I am yours…

  Her pussy constricted. Exquisite tension gripped her body.

  Forever.

  Teeth sank into her neck. Fingers dug into her butt. She felt him buck, felt his cock swell, his balls grow rock hard. He thrust into her, again, again, again and then he was crying out, pumping into her with wild power, filling her pussy with thick spurts of hot cum as surely as he filled her being with bliss.

  Release the stone…

  A small pinpoint of heat suddenly ignited in the center of Jordynn’s right palm.

  Blistering heat.

  Palm stinging, she stared up into her lover’s face. Into eyes the color of peridot. “Kale,” she whispered—the second her body erupted in pleasure.

  Wall after exquisite wall of constricting, consuming pleasure crashed over her. “Fuck me, Kale!” she screamed, thrashing in his hold. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck—”

  Jordynn’s eyes snapped open, the sound of her satellite phone jolting her from her sleep. She stared at the ceiling, the walls of the cabin. Where…?

  Realization flooded through her and, body still trembling with the force of her orgasm, her skin flushed and slicked with sweat, she closed her eyes, squeezing back bitter tears.

  Christ. Another dream. Just another goddamn dream.

  She lay motionless on the cot, struggling to regain control of her body. Her sex throbbed with the false memory of penetration, her hand ached from—

  Jordynn froze. Her hand ached?

  Breath trapped in her tight throat, she slowly turned her head to look at her aching right hand. At the hot, red bruise in the middle of her palm.

  A bruise the size of the peridot.

  A chill rippled up her spine. Giddy, her blood roaring in her ears, she rolled onto her side, looking at the floor beside the cot. Searching for… Her stomach twisted and her mouth went dry.

  There. Lying on the dusty floor, directly in line with her hip. The peridot she’d found on Mauna Kea’s rim, glinting a soft light the exact color of her dream lover’s eyes.

  * * * * *

  Substantial. A word, a state of being he hadn’t considered for centuries. Warmth, sounds, a sense of existence.

  Because…?

  A shadow flickered through his non-existence, through his imprisonment. A shadow whose soul called his through the nothingness.

  A shadow of a woman…

  jordynnharrison…

  Chapter Three

  The Belief

  “Do you know any myths about peridot?”

  Tom’s loud snort of humor made Jordynn pull the phone away from her ear a little. “Jordynn, you probably know more about rock mythology than I do.”

  Stomach still unsettled, Jordynn fidgeted on her stool. “C’mon, Tom, tell me something, anything. Ancient Hawaiian beliefs or rituals involving peridot?”

  “Ancient Hawaiian?” Surprise filled Tom’s voice. “Jordynn, you do know you’re in the twenty-first century, don’t you?”

  Jordynn rolled her eyes. “Ha ha, boss. You’re a riot. Humor me, okay?” She shot a glance at the small, gleaming peridot on the desk beside her hand. “What can you tell me?”

  “Well, peridot’s a member of the quartz family, as you know. It’s been found in Egyptian tombs dated fifteen hundred B.C. and originates from volcanoes.”

  “I know all that, Tom.” Impatience gnawed a
t Jordynn. “Give me—”

  “The Hawaiian goddess, Pele, is said to have shed tears of peridot.”

  Jordynn sucked in a quick breath. “Pele?”

  “The goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes and violence. Bit volatile and capricious, apparently.” There was a pause. “Sounds like my third wife.”

  Jordynn dragged one hand through her hair. Hawaiian goddess. Hawaiian warrior. What the hell? She’d spent her entire life in New York, born on the Upper West Side, educated in the state’s most exclusive all-girls boarding school, employed by the Museum of Natural History. Until this expedition, she’d never been to Hawaii, despite a deep longing to visit. The closest she’d come to experiencing its lush, isolated beauty were re-runs of Magnum P.I. Why on earth would she be dreaming about a Hawaiian warrior?

  “Oh, you’ll like this.” Tom’s voice tickled her ear through the phone. “Some believe peridot has the power to heal damaged souls and is the symbol of rebirth and renewal. Not bad for a chunk of mineral.” He paused for a moment and Jordynn heard him scratching his cheek—Professor Willis in thinking mode. “‘Bout the only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is the ancient Aztecs believed peridot could turn dreams into realities.”

  Jordynn’s already dry mouth grew drier. “Dreams into…”

  “Realities,” Tom finished. “Having some good dreams are we, hon?”

  Jordynn stared long and hard at the small green stone sitting innocently on the desk. Her fingers itched to stroke its surface, to feel its surreal heat. She gnawed on her bottom lip, Tom’s words floating through her head. Dreams into realities. “I’m going to stay up here a few more days, boss,” she stated into the phone, unable to take her eyes from the peridot. “There’s something I need to find out.”

  “‘Find out’? What do you mean, ‘find—’”

  She cut the connection mid-question. Her body tingled. Breath catching in her throat, she picked up the peridot. “Dreams to realities,” she murmured, rising to her feet.

  The stone warmed her hand, sending threads of heat up her arm, through her chest and down to her core. She pulled in a deep breath and walked to the cot, removing her clothes piece by piece as she went. It wasn’t nighttime, but it was time to go to sleep. “Perchance to dream,” she murmured.

  In her hand, the peridot seemed to thrum with awakening power. Her body responded, blood quickening, heart racing.

  Completely naked, she stretched out on the cot, her sex already growing wet. A sense of excitement and anticipation stole through her. A sense of hope. He’d come to her in her dreams and made her feel whole. He’d pleasured her body and made her heart beat with bliss. In her dreams.

  It was time to see how powerful peridot was. Time to see if the ancient Aztecs were right about the mysterious green gem.

  She pressed the now-searing gemstone to her heart as she closed her eyes. Languid calm washed over her immediately and, heavy with sleep, she smiled. “Release the stone.”

  Chapter Four

  The Awakening

  The cool air kissed his flesh. A simple caress yet more evocative than any he’d experienced in a lifetime. Fine grit pressed into the soles of his feet, like a thousand needles piercing his skin. It felt wonderful.

  He took a step, muscles coiling, flexing, stretching. Blood surged through his veins. Gods, he was alive!

  His hip brushed the small cabin’s wooden table. No, not brushed. Slid through. His hip—flesh and bone and sinew—passed through the solid wood like smoke and Kale released a sigh. Not alive. Not yet. But close.

  He looked at the woman lying with her eyes closed on the long, thin bed.

  More than one person had held the stone since Pele contained him within and he’d felt nothing. Why did this woman stir him? A woman from a world where small objects held in the hand emitted voices from unseen people and winged, metal creatures flew in the sky?

  She opened her eyes and looked at him.

  “You know who I am.”

  She nodded her head once. “Kale.”

  His name from her lips played over his soul. “Yes. And you are Jordynnharrison.”

  Her lips parted with a small smile. “Two words. Jordynn. Harrison.”

  Kale felt his own lips stretch. “Jordynn.” He took a step toward her, letting his gaze roam over her perfect naked form. “Harrison.”

  Jordynn’s eyebrows dipped into a frown. “Is this a dream? Am I dreaming now?”

  He shook his head. “I do not know. Perhaps.”

  She closed her eyes and pressed her right hand, clenched in a tight fist, to her chest, just above the swell of her breast. For a still moment she didn’t move. He watched her, longing to touch her, to feel her heat. Finally, she opened her eyes again, studying him with an intensity he felt in his soul. “How?”

  “How?”

  “The stone…the peridot…you…here…”

  “Many centuries ago I was imprisoned within the heart of a stone.”

  “I kind of figured that bit out.” Her smile softened the statement. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the narrow bed, placing her bare feet on the floor. “But how? Why? By whom?”

  Kale’s chest tightened, the physical reaction bitter and wonderful at the same time. “Pele.”

  “The volcano goddess?”

  Kale nodded. “Nothing is beyond her. Except compassion.”

  Jordynn’s eyes narrowed. “And she what? Stuck your soul in a stone?”

  “My wailua. My spirit.”

  “What did you do to piss her off?”

  Kale titled his head, a slight frown of confusion pulling at his dark eyebrows. “‘Piss her off’?”

  “Annoy her.”

  “I rejected her.”

  “Why?”

  Anger rushed into Kale’s being. “She extinguished the life of my wife—and the life of my baby daughter before she could draw her first breath.”

  Jordynn’s blue eyes shimmered with horror. She stared at him, wrapping her arms around her torso to hug herself tightly.

  “I was the chief of my people. A husband. A father. Pele stole that from me. She took my world, my reason for breath. She imprisoned me, she tried to destroy me.” He took another step forward, closing the distance between them. “She almost succeeded. Until you found me.”

  “Me?”

  Kale let his lips curl into a small smile. “The moment you picked up the stone your soul spoke to mine. Your soul touched mine. A creature whose heart is as broken as my own.” He stopped directly before her and lifted his hand. He wanted to touch her, to feel his flesh on hers, but hesitated, remembering the way he’d passed through the table. “A woman of ethereal beauty with the strength of a warrior princess. A soul looking for life, for love, in the dreams of her beating heart.”

  Jordynn stared up at him, her eyebrows dipping into a frown once more. “But you are just that. A dream.”

  Kale studied her, his chest tight, his body burning. He reached out, aching to feel her warm flesh on his palm. His fingertips brushed her jaw. A moment of connection, flesh to flesh, and then…mist. He gave her a small smile. “Yes, I am, Jordynn Harrison. Until you release the stone.”

  “How do I do that?”

  His chest grew tighter, his nostrils flaring at the faint tickle of what might be true breath. “I do not know. How does a mortal reverse the actions of a god?”

  Jordynn’s eyes narrowed again and she tilted her head. “The actions of a god. The volcano goddess. The goddess of fire…”

  She closed her eyes, her throat working as she swallowed, before opening them again and looking at him with such intensity his heartbeat tripled. “I thought this would be easier. I thought I could just accept you in my dreams and you’d be free.”

  “Pele is a brazen goddess. She would never allow her punishment to end so.”

  A dry smile pulled at Jordynn’s lips. “Well, she shouldn’t have been so foolish as to leave you lying around where a geologist would find you
.” Eyes twinkling, she stood, lifting her clenched right fist level with her heart. “And find you, I did,” she said, extending her fist and uncurling her fingers.

  A surge of raw energy tore through Kale and he sucked in a sharp breath. The small stone seemed to glow on her palm, pulsing with a rhythmic green light that mirrored the driving thump of his heart. He stared at it. Pele’s punishment for his rejection. His intended eternity. His prison.

  “Like a diamond,” Jordynn began, “peridot is created by intense pressure and heat.” She picked up the stone with her left hand, holding it between thumb and forefinger to study its throbbing glow. “Unlike a diamond, it can be destroyed quite easily. With the right touch.” Her gaze moved to Kale’s. “And the right heat.”

  He looked at Jordynn. At the stone. At Jordynn again.

  The desire to reach out and take the peridot from her fingers roared through him. To take it and crush it.

  Jordynn took a step toward him, her gaze locked on his eyes. “You make me burn, Kale.” She took another step, and nothing existed between them now but the stone in her fingers. It pulsed brighter, a green heartbeat he felt in his chest. “You make me burn hotter than any flame. Hotter than all the rivers of molten lava Pele could create.” She slowly curled her fingers around the stone again, bringing her fist closer to her heart.

  The right touch.

  The right heat.

  Her words echoed through Kale’s head—and he saw the knuckles of Jordynn’s fist whiten.

  An invisible force pressed down on him, warm and absolute. As if the existence he so tenuously inhabited seemed intent on crushing him. His chest grew tight, his heartbeat quickened. He stared at Jordynn, incapable of movement, incapable of speech.

  The right touch…

  Jordynn’s knuckles grew whiter, iridescent slivers of green light slicing through the minute seams between her squeezing fingers. Beads of perspiration popped out on her smooth forehead, trickled down her temples. Her eyes grew wide, her breath ragged. The muscles in her arm quivered, the veins just below the surface of her flesh surging with hot blood.