Her profound words, followed by the crude demand, have me chuckling and falling further in love. I do as I was told, and soon, I’m rewarded with the fist-tight clench of her around my cock.
“Gods,” I shout, slamming deep and locking an iron arm around her hips, keeping Esme close as I spill inside her. Over and over, filling her with my ecstasy and love.
Later, when we lie, spent and panting, Esme’s fingers twisting my hair around her fingers, she brings up the future.
“Everyone is going to know something is up with you. My devotion to Sulien Blaythorn isn’t a secret. If I suddenly abandon my mission and start making out with you in public—which, let’s be honest, I’m going to do every time the urge takes me—people will ask questions. If you want to remain anonymous, we’re going to have to leave Folk Haven.”
Leave her business? Abandon her friends, this house she bought? Run away, like I did from the colony?
That place was hell and deserved to be abandoned.
Folk Haven is different. A place where we could be safe and happy.
“I won’t hide. Not anymore.” I speak the words against her hair, breathing in the warm floral scent. “I want to stay.”
My parents might come for me, demanding … retribution? Obedience? I’m not sure. But whatever they might want, they won’t be able to lash out for twenty years. Plenty of time for us to prepare. They’re as stuck as they tried to make me. And when I see them again, I won’t be a naive teenager. I’ll be a warrior dragon with allies and a fierce harpy mate at my side.
“Good.” Esme pushes herself up until she sprawls over my chest, our naked bodies pressed together. She brings her mouth to mine for a series of kisses. “Welcome home.”
EPILOGUE
Esme claimsthe research room reminds her of the decades we spent apart, so after only a week of her knowing my identity, she boxes everything up.
“The Shellys might want the dragon books. They’re the witches who used to rent the apartment,” my harpy explains. “Have you been by their library?”
I shake my head as I help her arrange the heavy boxes in her car.
“Then, prepare yourself for a treat.” Esme flits to my side, pressing a hot kiss to my neck while my hands are full.
She enjoys doing that, I think, as a small means of torture. Giving me lusty kisses when my hands are occupied and I can’t grab her.
She’s a sneak, and I fucking love her for it.
She’s also brazen with her affection. The memory of how she laid me out on her bed and kissed every scar on my body makes me half hard. After packing the last box, I rearrange myself and slide into the passenger seat.
Then, I wrap my hand around the back of her neck, drag her in for a scorching kiss, shove my fingers past her waistband untilI find her greedy little clit, and mercilessly stroke her until she’s coming while strapped into the driver’s seat. Luckily, the car is in park.
“You bastard,” she pants. “Now, my underwear is going to be damp for this whole errand.”
I dip my fingers lower, stroking the wetness, then drag my hand free and suck her pleasure off my skin like the sweet treat it is.
She glares, even as her cheeks flush hot and needy. “You’ve turned evil. I’ve mated an evil dragon.”
“Mmm,” I rumble. “Yes.”
As Esme backs out of the driveway, she goes on a rant. “I don’t know what happened to you. You used to be this sweet, preppy boy with styled hair and a closet full of polo shirts. I used to makeyoublush.” Eyes on the road, she reaches over to poke my chest, and I chuckle at the playful assault. “Remember that time you took me on your boat? You thought you were so cool and confident, up until I lost my top in the water. You were the color of a tomato! You could not form a single word.”
“Not true,” I argue, fighting my grin at the memory. “Think I saidone.”
“Oh yeah. How could I forget? When I climbed out, you said, ‘Boobs.’ Like,reallyloud.”
Gods, I was dense. And obsessed with impressing Esme, who made the task impossible, which only made me try harder.
We turn down a road with lush green forest pushing in from all sides. How most of the roads around Lake Galen look.
“And now, you’re this confident, swaggering seduction master. It’s not fair. I’m going to have to up my game,” she declares just as she pulls into the driveway of a Victorian house.
The place looks kind of spooky in the evening light.
