His claws traced my jaw, mirroring my touch. Gentle. Careful of my fragile human skin.
We weren't fighting anymore.
Then his mouth found mine.
Fierce. Claiming. His lips were softer than I expected, but there was nothing soft about the way he kissed me. He took, demanded, and I opened for him without thought.
My stomach dropped, then swooped upward. Something hot and liquid pooled low in my belly, spreading outward until my thighs trembled with it.
The taste of him flooded my senses. Heat and something sharp, foreign, nothing like kissing a human man. His tongue swept into my mouth, longer than it should be, the texture different, and I moaned against him. The sound came from somewhere deep in my chest, needy and desperate.
My hands fisted in … nothing. He wore no shirt in this place that wasn't quite the temple corridor anymore. Just scales under my palms, smooth and warm and alive with the thrum of his pulse. Heat radiated from him, soaking into my skin, making me burn from the inside out. My core clenched.
I traced the ridges, the patterns, learning the map of him. His chest rumbled under my touch, a sound that vibrated through my bones. It traveled down my arms, settled in my chest, resonated lower. Between my legs, I was getting wet, slick arousal coating my thighs.
His claws, so careful, found the tears in my leathers and made them wider. Fabric parted like paper. Cool air hit my overheated skin for a moment before his hands covered me, palms against my ribs. His touch sent electricity skittering across my nerve endings.
My skin felt too tight, too sensitive. Every point of contact between us blazed.
My legs wrapped around his waist without permission from my brain. My boots scraped against scaled thighs, finding purchase. He pressed closer, and the ridge of him ground against my core through too many layers. The pressure hit exactly where I needed it. I rolled my hips, seeking friction, needing more, my body moving on instinct older than thought.
I gasped into his mouth. My lungs couldn't get enough air. My heart slammed against my ribs, so hard it hurt. The pulse between my legs matched the rhythm, pounding and insistent.
His tail coiled around my ankle, all possessive surety.
Fangs grazed my throat. Not biting. Just the promise of danger, the edge of violence held in check. My head fell back, exposing the vulnerable line of my neck, surrendering to this impossible thing. My pulse jumped under his mouth, frantic and wild. He had to feel it, the proof of what he did to me.
His mouth traveled downward. Collarbone. Sternum. The curve of my breast. That tongue, god, that tongue traced patterns that made me shake.
I found the piercings in his ears, multiple metal rings climbing the ridge of cartilage. I tugged, and he growled. The vibration traveled through me, settling low in my belly, making everything clench with need. My thighs trembled where they gripped his waist.
His claws traced my spine, moving down each vertebra. My ribs. The dip of my waist. So careful with my fragile skin, as if I might shatter if he pressed too hard.
Goosebumps erupted in the wake of his touch. I felt too tight, too sensitive, every nerve ending screaming for more contact. The careful restraint in his touch made me ache worse than roughness would have.
The first touch between my legs knocked the air from my lungs.
The tip of his tail teased my entrance through the barrier of my remaining clothes. Gentle pressure, testing, learning what made me gasp and roll my hips seeking more. The friction against my center sent sparks up my spine. I was so sensitive there, swollen and throbbing, that even the light touch through fabric made my vision blur.
Slick evidence of my arousal soaked through. The proof of how much I wanted this, wanted him, shocked me.
His scent surrounded me. Smoke and stone and Drakarn male. It filled my lungs with each ragged breath, making my head spin. I wanted to drown in it, wanted it on my skin, in my hair, marking me as his.
His wings mantled around us, creating a private world. Everything else disappeared entirely. There was only this: his body and mine, heat and need and the inevitability of what came next.
The final barriers between us vanished.
The first press of him against my entrance left me breathless. He was too big. No way this would work.
My body opened anyway, physics bending to the rules of this place that wasn't quite real.
The stretch burned. My inner walls protested, muscles clenching around the intrusion, trying to accommodate something they weren't built for. The pressure bordered on pain, a fullness that made my lower belly ache. I whimpered, and he froze, giving me time to adjust, to breathe, to accept the invasion. Heat radiated from where we joined, spreading through my pelvis, making everything throb.
His voice rumbled in my ear, words in Drakarn I didn't understand but felt in my marrow. Promises or curses or prayers, I couldn't tell. Didn't matter.
I rolled my hips, taking him deeper, and he groaned.
The rhythm built slowly, then faster. His hips driving forward, mine rising to meet him, desperate and graceless and perfect. Claws dug into stone beside my head, gouging furrows, his control threatening to break with each thrust.
