As they entered, Rachida announced, “I have someone to see you, Dusk.”
“If it’s Adrian, tell him to go away,” Layla heard Dusk’s muffled voice come from the bed. “I’m in no shape to fight him today.”
“It’s not Adrian.” Rachida spoke chidingly as she and Layla moved to the bed, which contained a form curled up beneath the fluffy duvet. “And if you’d get your face out of the pillows, you might just be surprised.”
Layla saw movement. And then a face peered out from the covers, before Dusk sat straight up, his sapphire eyes wide. “Layla!”
“Hey.” She stepped forward to the massive bed, big enough to sleep five or six people. “I heard you weren’t feeling well.”
“You’re not supposed to see me like this.” Dusk flopped back to the pillows as if it was too much effort to stay up. But he grinned as Layla sat at his bedside and reached out to take his hand. A golden light tingled through Layla as their hands connected and she saw Dusk shiver, his eyes brightening.
“I’ll take my leave.” With a small smile, Rachida backed out of the apartment, shutting the double-doors. And then it was just Layla and Dusk. His hand was scalding compared to how he usually felt, and Layla clasped his fingers as she listened to the burble of the Anubis waterfall echoing through the space.
“You’ve got a fever.”
“I’m fine.” But even as he said it, Dusk cast the covers off his upper body with a smooth movement, drawing the cool air of his apartment deep into his lungs. Casting the covers down had bared him to the hips, and as the late afternoon sunlight played over the palatial bed, Layla saw his body, chiseled with those perfect lines of iridescent scale. His groin was barely covered and Layla found herself staring, wondering if the ridges went down all the way. She’d been with fit men but Dusk put other men to shame, and she couldn’t help but stare, caught in the play of light on his incredible nakedness. He was like some Adonis carved of marble and decorated with all the best details.
“You’re ogling me, Layla Price.” Dusk chuckled as she stared at his rock-hard body. He patted the bed beside him. “Come here.”
Layla didn’t need to be asked twice. Dusk’s low rumble was pleased as she cuddled in under his arm, moulding close to his side and slinging one leg over his. But being so close, her body pressed to all that sexy heat and her leg up over his naked thigh, suddenly made Layla viciously intrigued. Her Dragon stirred inside her, roiling with the urge to writhe all over that chiseled muscle and feel it hard and silky beneath her. She flushed, a riot of orange-peel and bourbon scent rising up around her and Dusk laughed. Setting his fingers under her chin, he lifted her head so she was no longer staring at his nearly-exposed groin, but at his face.
“Hey, I’m up here.”
“Sorry.” Layla flushed harder.
“I’m not. I like it when you stare at me.”
Dusk lifted her chin further with his fingertips. Their lips connected and Layla melted into him as they kissed slowly in the waning sunshine. His lips were warm and beautifully soft. Even Adrian’s lips couldn’t match the exquisite silken texture of Dusk’s skin, as if a smooth river flowed through the Crystal Dragon’s very nature.
Their kiss was slow and decadent, with an echo of that diamond-gold sensation they’d found the night before. Layla felt herself smiling as Dusk licked his tongue into her mouth; tasting her and exploring. They had time; they had privacy. And kissing him back, she found she was breathless as her Dragon stirred within her – reveling in the exquisite sensations.
Suddenly, Dusk made a rumbling sound that shuddered Layla with delight. In a powerful movement he rolled her, pressing her to the bed with his hard body atop hers. Trapping her with his mouth and hips, he moved against her slowly as he kissed her. Their hips rocked together with a slow-burn passion as they reveled in each other’s bodies, warmed by the play of sunlight on skin. Dusk pressed his hips down and Layla felt him against her clothed thigh, hard and ready. She writhed, enjoying it with a delicious need as they kissed – as he moved her arms up above her head and pressed his hands down on her wrists.
Lifting her legs as they kissed, Layla wound them around Dusk’s hips and he made a dark growl in his throat that thundered all the way through her. Heat built between them, like a rushing river in the last of the light. Layla cried out as Dusk growled into their kiss, pouring his lower-than-sound vibrations deep inside her like the thundering flow of a waterfall. Layla cried out, breaking their kiss as she spasmed with pleasure – driving her hips hard against his.
Bracing his hands upon her wrists, Dusk slid his body up so his hardness was pressed against Layla’s groin. Lowering a hand, he slid down her yoga pants so she could feel all that silken hardness pressed against her skin. She gasped as he thrust, pressing that hard heat just above her groin and making her arch – breaking their kiss with a gasp as passion shuddered through her.
“I want you…” He growled in her ear, thrusting his hips again. Tasting her deep, though in the wrong place.
“Please…” Layla’s Dragon roared with lust as scent pummeled the air; a river of oranges flowing through a cavern of clear water.
“I’m not well, Layla,” Dusk growled into her neck, biting her gently. “I want to do this when I’m better. I want to show you how I can really take you, at my best.”
“What if I can’t wait?” She gasped, her legs locked around his naked hips, her body raising to meet his next powerful thrust. Dusk shuddered as he pressed her again, but his arms were shaking now as he braced himself – and not from passion. His brow was beaded with sweat; his lips were ashen rather than their usual luscious blue-grey. And as he drove into her again, he gasped, trembling as if it was both ecstatic but also painful.
That gasp made Layla alert. Her lust evaporated as she saw Dusk’s pain. With a shock she struggled up, halting their moment. Dusk fell to the bed with both loss and relief on his face as Layla sat up next to him. Reaching out, she cupped his face in her hands, staring into his sapphire eyes, concern flooding her.
“Should I call Rake and Sylvania?”
“No… no.” Dusk fell back to the bed with a tired sigh, then winced as he shifted position, drawing the covers back up as if he was chilly. The last of the day’s light faded, casting the apartment in a sudden gloom. “I’m so sorry, Layla… I want to. You have no idea how much—”
“Shh.” Layla stilled his words with her fingertips. With a smile, she cuddled back down, pulling the coverlet up. They lay as they had begun, him on his back with her under his arm, kissing his chest as the apartment was swallowed in shadows. “I’m sorry I did this.”
“I’m not.” She felt him smile as he nosed his lips into her hair. “Even if my bones do feel like they’ve been through a wood chipper.”
“That bad?” Layla asked.
“On a scale of one to ten? It’s an eleven. Maybe a twenty, actually. Probably because I came so close to my first true shift… if I had let myself.”
