“We’re going to open the tomb tomorrow. The scroll is translated. You won’t need my help after that.”
“You must be relieved.” He frowned.
“Not as I should be.” She dropped her gaze to the space between their feet. “You said that if I wanted another taste, with your permission…”
Colin froze. Had he misheard her? If the severe blush staining her cheeks was any clue, he hadn’t. But this was dangerous. His dragon wanted her as his mate. He’d better know exactly what his boundaries were, or this would end badly for them both.
“A taste. What does it mean to you? Tell me exactly. I can’t color within the lines if I don’t know where the lines are.”
She released a held breath. “You’re going to make me say it? I thought men took what they wanted until a woman said no.”
“Not this man. Not this dragon.”
Her throat bobbed. “I want one night,” she whispered, her gaze flicking up to meet his. “Just between us. No one can ever know. Just one night to…” She gestured in front of her chest, as if there was something physically there. Something large and unwieldy. “…appease this hunger.”
“Hunger?” He knew exactly what she meant, but he wanted to hear her say it.
“I ache for you,” she said, her violet eyes misting as if she might cry. She tugged at her dark copper braid, and her voice cracked as she continued. “My every fiber yearns for more of what we did before. It burns inside me. I can’t sleep or eat. It is a beast that must be fed or I might die.”
At once, Colin’s mouth went dry as a bone. He was far more experienced with the opposite sex than she was. What she was describing was lust, plain and simple. He could help her with that, but it would mean more to him. He had far more than physical pleasure at stake.
Although, his intentions weren’t completely charitable. He refused to tell her that feeding that beast might make it hungrier in the long run. He was too much of a bastard to give her any excuse to back out now.
“One night.” Colin hooked his knuckle under her chin and lifted it until she looked him in the eye. “Kissing, touching, or… everything?”
That pink tongue emerged again, and he could see her pulse fluttering. “Everything,” she said breathlessly. “I want to touch you. I want to…”
He narrowed his eyes. “What does everything mean to you?”
Her eyes drifted, and that blush was back. Goddess, he loved that blush.
“I’m not sure.”
“Then I’ll teach you.”
His dragon coiled inside him, his skin heating with urgency to take her. But he only had one chance at this. All he had to give her was his body. Himself. As he saw it, he had to make tonight so good, such a mind-blowing experience for her, that she’d leave the temple for him. That was the only way he’d have what he wanted. The only way he’d haveher.
He walked around her, noticing her slight shiver under his gaze. She was nervous. He’d try his best to alleviate that. He took her braid between his fingers and untied the leather cord binding it. “A dragon has a highly developed sense of smell.” He unbraided the plait, running his fingers through the dark copper strands. “Do you know what you smell like to me, Leena?”
She shook her head.
“Blackcurrants and wild primrose. Dark floral ambrosia.” His touch reached the back of her skull, and he scraped his nails along the skin there before dragging his fingers through her hair. He buried his nose in it and inhaled. “I wonder what you’ll taste like.”
She released a shaky breath and tried to turn toward him.
“Stay where you are.” He traced his fingers behind her ear, pleased when she did as he commanded. She tipped her head to expose her neck to him—the long, graceful neck of a dancer with pale skin as perfect and smooth as spun vilt. He brought his lips to where he’d just touched and brushed them featherlight across her skin.
At the collar of her robes, he traced along her neckline, tugged the fabric down between her breasts. The inside of the arm he had wrapped around her brushed over her nipple, and he found the tip hard. Good. He’d explore her breasts soon.
He stroked over her abdomen and dug his fingers into her belt. “I’m topless. Only fair that you join me,” he whispered in her ear.
Her throat twitched with her swallow. He pressed a kiss to her pulse as he untied the knot at her waist. The folds of her robe fell open, and he stepped back to pull it off her shoulders.
Her back was lithe, lean perfection. He tossed the garment on the chair, using the excuse to walk around her once more. Naked before him, her form held a willowy grace, from the tips of her pointed ears to the stretch of her waist to her elegant limbs, proportionally longer than a dragon’s. In the moonlight, her skin shone like carved marble, perfectly smooth and white.
Behind her again, he wrapped her hair around one hand, tugging until she gasped softly, then placed a kiss on her top vertebrae, just under her hairline. She released a deep, shaky breath, and he stemmed a self-satisfied grin. If she’d liked what he’d done to her in the tent, she’d love what he had in mind for her now. He cascaded kisses like a waterfall along her spine, releasing her hair and dropping to his knees to reach her tailbone, palms cupping the twin mounds of her ass.
“Now you can turn.”
