“You’ll go between us,” he repeated, his blue eyes suddenly serious. “If those cliffs shift, you’ll be crushed. I’m not losing my woman before I’ve even properly claimed you.”
Heat flooded my face. And just as before, more heat rushed to places I didn’t want to think about. Embarrassment followed, and I squared my shoulders. “I’m not your?—”
“Between us, Princess.” He gestured to the gap. “Or we don’t go at all.”
“That’s not your decision to make.”
“It is until you’re capable of stopping me.”
Anger flared hot under my skin. “You’re a?—”
“Swine,” he said. “Aye, I ken.” He patted my ass. “Get in the gap, Princess.”
I swung for his face. He caught my wrist before my fist connected. My angry cry echoed off the stone as he jerked me against him.
His chest was a wall of muscle. Heat radiated from him, seeping through my jacket and corset. It sank straight through my chemise and kissed my skin, tightening my nipples and scalding my bones. It slid south, streaking to my pussy, which clenched so hard that I bit my cheek to hold in a moan. Every cell in my body screamed at me to stop fighting and sink into him.
To let him hold me. Claim me. Keep me.
No.
I tried to pull away, but his grip was iron. And worse, I wasn’t sure I wanted to escape. Part of me wanted to press closer, to feel more of his heat, to?—
“Easy, lass,” he rumbled. A soft, knowing look gleamed in his blue eyes. He could scent my arousal. He knew exactly what his touch did to me.
He brought his free hand up and stroked his thumb over my jawline. “I’ve waited a thousand years for you,” he said, his brogue thicker. “I’d wait ten thousand more, through fire and madness and the death of our kind. I’d wait until the stars fall from the sky and the seas run dry.” His eyes held mine, flames dancing in their depths. “You’re worth waiting for, Princess, even if you’re not ready to accept it yet.”
I forgot how to breathe. I could only stare, mesmerized by the ancient, powerful beast staring out from his eyes. My mind flashed to the words every dragon knew by heart.
But should a female wander into a dragon pair’s sight, she is theirs to claim…and the lairds of the sky do not relinquish what is theirs.
Tavish released my wrist and stepped back. “Now get in the gap.”
I went, my throat dry and my insides shaking from the searing look he’d given me.
Albie led us, his wide shoulders dislodging pebbles that sifted to our feet. The cliffs pressed close on either side, forcing me to turn sideways. My chest scraped one wall, my back the other. I shuffled forward, the stone cold even through my layers of clothing.
Behind me, Tavish cursed. “Albie, I swear?—”
“Keep moving,” Albie called back in a cheerful tone. “You’re doing fine.”
Tavish’s snarl ruffled the hair on my nape.
The gap seemed to stretch forever. My breathing echoed off the stone. Above, the sky was a thin ribbon of blue. If the cliffs crumbled, the three of us could just shift to smoke and escape.
Right?
I clung to that thought even as panic beat a wild rhythm in my chest. But I couldn’t even turn my head. I could hardly breathe, my corset stays and the cliff walls squeezing me like a tube of toothpaste. My knuckles scraped stone. Damp seeped through my clothes, and pebbles caught in my hair. Just when a scream formed in my throat, the walls seemed to ease backward.
The path widened. And the light…dimmed?
I looked up as the cliffs closed over our heads, forming a roof. Change swirled in a blur, and we were suddenly in a cave. Dark walls rose around us. Somewhere, water dripped. But we hadspace, the three of us shoulder to shoulder in the gloom.
“Fuck,” Tavish muttered, his voice echoing.
“Almost there,” Albie said, taking my hand and tugging me forward. Tavish grabbed my other, his fingers tight around mine. Our footsteps bounced off the walls. The wind was gone, I realized, and the cave continued to grow.
The passage ahead of us twisted, a square of light forming in the distance. Albie walked faster, and the light grew. Golden and warm, it expanded until it filled the air.
