“You’ll not be rid of me that easily.”
She grew quiet, dodging my eyes.
“What is it?”
“Did you mean what you said?”
I brushed my fingers along her silken cheek. “If I say it again, will you believe me this time?”
She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “I’m not one to trust in fairy tales. In my world, the dragon prince never falls for the lowly servant.”
“Screw your fairy tales.” I gripped her chin, forcing her to meet my gaze. “We’ll write our own story. I love—”
“I love you too,” she said in a rush.
I grinned. “I was going to say ‘flying beneath the stars’.”
The softness in her expression turned to ice, and her clawed fingers shot toward my cheek. I captured her wrist before she could make contact and drew her against my body.
“Let me go, you—”
Her curse died a quick death against my lips. Our mouths melded, hers soft where mine was hard. She clung to my neck, her grip tight and desperate. Her spicy fragrance filled my senses, taking over my brain until my only thought was one of…Sera.
We drew apart, panting, and I peered into her languid eyes, getting lost in their depths. “I love you, Serafina.” Her gaze flooded with liquid emotions, the weight of them tracking down her cheek.
I cupped her neck, trailed my fingers over her collarbone and set my palm over her heart. “Know that the flame that burns inside of you is a piece of me,” I rasped, voice thick. “The very heart of me. I’m trusting you to keep it safe. Because I cannot survive without my heart.”
Her hand trembled as she pressed her palm over mine. Her other hand rested against my cheek. “And mine burns inside of you,” she whispered. “Where I know it’s protected. Safe within my dragon.”
I tangled my fingers with hers and lifted her knuckles to my lips in a lingering kiss. “I will guard this treasure to the end of my days.”
Her watery smile nearly undid me. “As I will yours.”
Desire licked up my spine, primal and consuming. “I want you to be my mate, Serafina. In every way.”
“I want that too,” she whispered, her lips a breath away from my own.
A sardonic laugh pushed up my throat. “I’d give you my flame, but you already have it. My heart is already yours. Riches?” I brushed curls back from her flushed cheek. “They mean nothing. All I have left to give…is me.”
Her green eyes locked with mine, fierce and unyielding. “And that is all I want.”
The last of my restraint shattered. “Then take me. Body and soul.”
Our mouths came together in a hungry press of heat and savagery. Serafina’s clothing disintegrated beneath my eager fingers. Her bare skin was a hot bath in a bubbling spring in the dead of winter. I groaned as her breasts filled my hands, her curves filling my palms perfectly. No other had ever fit me this way. Smoothed the jagged pieces that have been fractured for so long.
I pressed her down into the grass and wedged my body between her thighs. “I want—” My voice broke into a groan, fire licking my throat.
“Yes?” She writhed beneath me, hair a cascade of flames around her shoulders.
“All of you. All at once.”
Her sultry laugh shivered against my lips. “Now?”
“Now.” I kissed her neck. “Tomorrow.” Across her collarbone. “Every day, for the rest of our lives.” My lips teased the place my flame rested beneath her breast.
“I’m yours,” she said, voice raw and ragged.
My shaft pulsed at her words, demanding more. “Say that again,” I growled, bracing myself on either side of her. My every muscle trembled with restraint.
