“Get dressed,” Carmine snapped. He opened a small portal, then yanked out a dress and tossed it into my arms. Crimson. Not sylk. The crimson leotard was visible under a sheer crimson skirt that trailed to the floor.
Dammit,I should have changed into a dress at the last portal stop.
He strode to the armchair in the corner, but didn’t sit. Fury still coiled his muscles, and it likely took everything Carmine had not to pace or annihilate his fortress.
I undressed, then turned to unbind my boobs.
“Are you embarrassed about your breasts because they’re bigger?” Carmine asked when I was nearly done unraveling the long strip of fabric. He was feigning calm, but the monster simmered under the surface.
“No.”
“Why do you hide them?”
“Because I don’t wish for you to see.”Obviously.
“I’m looking at your ass. You don’t wish for me to see a certain part of you.”
“One you professed to liking very much in the past,” I retorted, then inexplicably thought about the way his cock used to slide between them. I tossed my hair in agitation at the surge of lust, then stretched my fingertips to the zipper at the back.
Which wasn’t a zipper.
I clenched my teeth. I’d need his help.
“Is something the matter?” he asked. There was a clear edge to his voice that informed me that despite his forced calm, he wouldn’t forget my defiance any time soon.
“Button up the dress or don’t, Carmine. I couldn’t care less.”
He brushed my lower back with his fingertips, and I sucked in a breath and held still. I didn’t hear him move.
He murmured, “Blood rushes to your skin wherever I touch.”
“Like a wound,” I replied.
Carmine chuckled. “Such denial, sweet Syera. But I am gratified to see you back to normal.”
Did he mean after I dry humped him and wanted to kick the shit out of myself? A trip to the dungeons where he’d locked my sister for five years had cured me ofthat.
He fastened the buttons one by one, taking as much contact with my skin and scales as possible. “Release your smoke, Syera.”
“I believe I told you to mind your own smoke.”
“I believe you ended up releasing smoke anyway.”
The buttons were fastened, and Carmine gripped my waist after. Too tightly. “I will not have you denying this release as well as ours.”
I spun in his grip, and he allowed it. I looked up at his face. He was still furious, but hiding it better by the second. “You know that holding my smoke makes me stronger.”
“You need every bit of your strength in Tiers. Do you think that the next rounds will be easy?”
No, everyone would still combine to take me out, and now they knew my best trick. They wouldn’t fall for that again. “No one understands my power better than me. I know you have some mating possessiveness going on, but you should listen when I say that you will never know what’s best for my power. What I choose to do with my smoke isn’t on a whim of the moment or the day.”
Carmine searched my face, and his expression smoothed. “Very well.”
His mood changes were next level.
I blinked, then stared. “What do you want?”
“You, Syera. Always you.”
