I quirked my brows.
Her hands slid up my shoulders and smoothed along the corded muscles. Seconds later, she leaned forward and pressed her mouth against the curve where neck met shoulder.
Oh fuck.
I felt the soft heat of her lips first, then the sharp sting of teeth sinking into my flesh.
A low growl tore from my throat. “Tora. . .”
Pain and pleasure fused in an electric burst that went straight to my cock.
The bite wasn’t cruel.
It was claiming.
Lusty possession written in teeth and saltwater.
She didn’t release me right away. Her jaw tightened. Her breath grew hot against my skin, and I felt her tongue flick over the mark before she finally pulled back.
“Mmm.” My pulse roared in my ears. Every nerve in my body fired at once. “We may not go back to the main island at all. We may just stay here forever, taking turns biting each other.”
She smiled. “I wouldn’t mind disappearing here with you.”
I looked down at the bite she’d made. Just above the black ink of my dragon tattoo where the scales curled over my shoulder, her bite decorated my skin. It was a perfect crescent.
Her claim.
I reached up and touched the bite with two fingers. The skin there throbbed—warm, tender, and alive.
No woman had ever dared.
They’d admired the tattoos, traced the dragons, whispered about the myths inked into my flesh. But none of them had ever left something of themselves behind.
They wouldn’t have risked it.
The Dragon wasn’t meant to be marked.
He was the one who branded others—devoured, possessed, never possessed himself.
Until her.
The ocean breeze brushed the wound and it stung, just enough to remind me it was real.
I looked back at her.
The sunlight danced off her wet skin, and she chuckled, unaware of how much that small act had undone me.
I caught her face between my hands, rougher this time. “You have no idea what that did to me.”
“Oh, I think I do.” Her voice was a whisper against my mouth. “I could feel you shivering.”
“The Dragon doesn’t shiver.”
“Bullshit.”
I kissed her again, and I swore the ocean forgot how to move.
Waves lapped around us, shallow and slow, as if even the water didn’t want to disturb what we were becoming.
