“Do you love me?”
These lies became deeper and murkier. Leo loathed this, but he was committed to keeping Gwenyth safe. His dragon wanted her—had claimed her in truth. She intrigued Leo, and he found her attractive—easy to topple into love with her, despite their short acquaintance.
“I didn’t want you to face this pressure while your memories remain absent. This emotional stress won’t help. I’m sorry, my lodestone. My parents are ambitious, and they expect me to follow their orders. This time I refuse to obey them. You’re in my life, and no other woman can or will take your place. We’ll spend one night before returning here. You need clothes anyway. I’m serious about marriage. What do you say?”
“You’re not telling me the truth.”
“Do you refuse to marry me?” he asked, maintaining her gaze, his heart aching. He was fighting for something—someone—he and his dragon wanted. Unfortunately, their lack of history made this situation tricky. “If you don’t wish to go through with the ceremony, I’ll find somewhere else for you to stay. Perhaps on one of the other Dragon Isles. I must visit my friends to consult on a security matter, anyway.”
“You’d palm me off on someone else?” Her voice was sharp, the flash in her eyes echoing her pain.
“Not willingly. Let me be clear. My dragon and I want you. Your spirit calls us, and we think of you even if we’re apart. We wish to marry and strengthen the bonds between us.”
“But you’re not telling me everything,” she said, this time with a trace of frustration.
“You’ve lost your memory,” he countered.Please let her surrender.Every instinct told him the moment they joined their bodies, the mate bonds would snap into place.
She was theirs.
They belonged to her too.
Gwenyth held his gaze, and sensual heat exploded in his chest. It started from a spark near his big dragon heart and grew until he ached to hold her.
“Gwenyth?” he whispered.
Her gaze pierced him, searching, but reading her mind was impossible.
After a soul-destroying pause that had fear and panic roaring to life in him, she spoke. “You truly want to marry me?”
His breath stuttered before he formed words.
“Tell her yes. Yes. Yes. Yes!”
“Quit the racket! I can’t think.”Leo took Gwenyth’s hands in his.
“This is important. Don’t mess up,”his dragon ordered.
“Marriage to you will make me happy. My dragon happy and fulfilled. I’d intended to ask you, had hinted at it, but I wanted to craft a ring worthy of you, my lodestone.”
The hint part was an embellishment since they’d met the day before, but from the moment he’d lifted her from the tin box, he’d wanted her. That was the truth. Another truth—marriage would protect them both, and he could claim her body with a clear conscience.
A mostly clear conscience.
“Do you love me?”
“My dragon and I believe you are our true mate. We both believe the mating bonds will snap into place between us.”
“Numbskull,”his dragon spat.“Won’t she ask if we’ve mated before?”
“How long have we known each other?” she asked.
“I told you so,”his dragon said, his brawny tattooed arms rising up Leo’s chest in a display of disgust.
By Lodar! His dragon was right. He’d stuck his foot-claws in his mouth this time. Leo frantically sought to escape this mire.
“Truth,”his dragon stated.“Give her truth and pray she forgives us.”
Leo tightened his grip. “We’ve known each other for two days. I rescued you from the sea and brought you here.”
