Her lips parted, her breath hitching in her throat. “I think about you also.”
He reached for her again. Her eyes sparkled mischievously as she offered up her mouth to him. This time the kiss moved deeper. He slid her onto his lap, burying his hands in the dark silk at the back of her head.
“What’s that?” She drew back.
He heard it now too, and his cheeks heated with awareness at the deep rumble in his chest. “My mating trill. It seems my inner dragon finds you irresistible.”
“I like it, although it’s hard to believe that the massive beast I saw outside the gate is somehow inside you.” She rested her ear against his chest, her hot breath warming his nipple through his tunic. Even if he’d wanted to hide his true feelings for her, he couldn’t have suppressed the resulting purr. His body’s response to her was like the wagging tail of a dog. Instinctual. Immediate. She sent fire through his veins.
He gathered her hair in his hands and brushed his lips against her ear. “I am the dragon. In some ways, my beast is more me than this form. That part of me though tends to think in more simple terms. When my inner dragon is hungry, he eats, when thirsty, he drinks, and when he wants a woman, wants her to behis, forever….”
“Forever?”
“My feelings for you run deep. Maybe deeper than you are ready to hear.”
Her cheeks pinked. Twisting in his lap, she locked her eyes on his, bottomless pits of blue under heavy lids. “I think I feel what your dragon wants.”
How could she not? He was as hard as iron under her. His hand drifted along her back and around her bottom. Encouraged by her soft sound of contentment, he rubbed languid circles there, grazing the tips of his fingers along the space between her thighs.
“Have you cast a spell on me, Medea? I find myself enthralled by you. More deeply so than ever in my years.”
Her lips caressed his, and he felt her smile against his teeth. “You’ve caught me. I’ve used all my witchy wiles to ensnare you, and now you are mine.”
Mine.His dragon coiled and stretched inside his skin at the word. But Tavyss’s logical mind snagged on a different one.Witchy. Did Medea know what she was? Did she realize she was a witch?
He opened his mouth to ask her about it but was cut off by the deep sound of a man’s voice calling her name. She scrambled off him. “I must go.”
“Why? Who is that?”
“My father,” she said. “It’s late. I haven’t done my chores.” She started toward the sound, but he grabbed her wrist.
“Tomorrow? Here again?”
She raised her eyebrows. “I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get away.”
“Then I will watch for you all day,” he whispered sincerely.
“Tomorrow.” She nodded. Her fingers slipped from his and she was gone.
* * *
Tavyss returned to his cottage,plucked the peacock feather from its vase, and waited as it glowed to life between his fingers. The sooner he told Hera he’d done as she asked, the sooner she would leave him alone to his own pursuits. Bright light blinded him, and then she was there, as strange and irritating as ever.
“Hera.” He returned the feather to the vase, then bowed to the goddess.
“Why do you call me here, dragon?”
“Only to tell you that I did as you commanded. My sister Eleanor has agreed to task the Obsidian Guard with finding your book. If the golden grimoire is anywhere in the five kingdoms, she will locate it.”
“You please me, dragon.” She swaggered closer, her gaze drifting toward his mouth. “Come closer. Allow me to reward you for your efforts.”
She leaned in as if to kiss him, but he pulled away. It wasn’t a conscious decision. If he’d been thinking at all, he would have held extremely still, as a mouse caught in the predatory gaze of a cat, and hoped she lost interest. As it was, his retreat only incited her and she glared at him, the muscles around her mouth tightening.
“Why do you recoil from me?”
Desperate to concoct a story she’d believe, he stared into the fire. “I am worthy of no reward, goddess. My only desire is to serve you.”
“Oh, but I have many desires, and there are many ways you can serve me.” Her fingers traced a line from his ear to the tip of his chin.
