Thomas East was meant to be the youngest Arch-Mage in history, a magical genius and a solver of problems. But he hadn’t expected quite so many problems -- not to mention the endless meetings, bureaucracy, and political negotiations. So he’s currently hiding in a sleepy California seaside town, working in an ice cream parlor and avoiding everyone he’s let down ... until a firebird in need of rescue crashes into his shop.<br><br>Nicholas Incandesco has far too many problems. He’s a firebird, a shapeshifter, and a power source, and a lot of magicians could use someone with his gifts. He’s also technically a murder suspect with two magical bounty hunters on his trail. He just wants someplace safe to land, and the attractive witch behind the ice cream counter might offer a sweet refuge.<br><br>This encounter might be exactly what both Nicholas and Tom need to find themselves ... and rescue each other.

The Arch-Mage's Firebird

Tom barely got a hand around himself, managed one or two clumsy tugs, panting, kneeling between those spread legs—and the peak hit like a thunderstorm in spring, heartpounding, all-encompassing, flooding his body with liquid light, alive. His release splashed across the bare skin below him, joining more spills of white; Nicholas murmured his name and shivered, eyes unfocused and blissful.


Tom kissed him again, tender and swift and impulsively deep. Nicholas opened up into the kiss, willingly languid, being claimed. Stickiness lingered, tugging them together; Nicholas wrapped arms around Tom’s back and pulled him down, holding him close, breathing into his shoulder and neck.


Nicholas’s hair, when it got into Tom’s mouth, tasted like cinnamon and smoke. In a good way, though. Like fire and heat and complicated swirls of layered dessert.


Companionable sunbeams, plump and indolent, traveled across the end of the bed. Met sheet-hills of white froth and plopped down, content.


Chapter 10