She turned, her lashes fluttering open, freezing him in place.
Then her fingers brushed his jaw, soft, hesitant, before she rose just enough to press her lips to his.
His control shattered. Centuries of restraint breaking loose in a single breath.
With one hand fisting in her hair, he claimed her mouth, kissing her with a hunger honed by eons of denial.
She stroked her palms over his chest, and he dragged his other hand beneath her tank, heat flooding his veins at the feel of her bare belly. She arched into him, her musky arousal flooding his senses, sinking into his blood.
He groaned, his fingers squeezing her breast, his thumb flicking the stiff peak until her whimper fisted him by the balls. He pressed open-mouthed kisses down along her jaw, her chin, and her throat, his tongue sweeping across and tasting her skin?—
Mark,his dragon growled.Ours.
For hell’s sake, just one damn moment without demands.
Lust roared as heat consumed him. His fangs ached, desperate to pierce, to claim?—
Race froze, horror constricting him. He could kill her if he sank his fangs into her and released his mating venom.
Ash blinked up at him, sweeping her palms over his back, her eyes heavy with desire. “What is it?”
He surged to his feet and paced, every inch of him searing hot, as if a fever had taken hold. Several deep breaths, and nothing worked to calm him.
What the hell should he say to her?
The truth, his dragon rumbled.You are in heat, and you want her.
I’m not in fucking heat. It’s just been too damn long since?—
Have you forgotten who you are?
Race froze, the truth hitting him like an anvil to the head. Dammit! He had to get the fuck away from her. But he just stood there and scrubbed his face.
When he dared to face her again, where she sat on the opposite side of the fire, disappointment had dulled the glow in her eyes.
Fuck! “Ash, look, I like you. But you and me, we can’t?—”
Not that, his dragon growled.
“Stop right there.” Her palms flashed. The brittle smile on her beautiful face hurt more than a blow to the solar plexus. “Honestly, I get it. I wasn’t angling for forever. Just a moment to forget that dragons want me roasted. A good shag seemed the perfect distraction.” She shrugged, half-cheeky, half-dismissive. “So, don’t worry about it, yeah?”
How the hell did she flatten the quake in his chest with one damn quip?
But her casual tone hit harder because she was right. They couldn’t have forever. They couldn’t even have one second.
“As you wish.” He grabbed his clothes from where he’d dropped them on the rock, tore off the conjured cotton pants, and pulled on the rough leather ones, followed by the rest of his clothes and his boots.
Doingsomethingkept his claws sheathed, kept him from reaching for her again. Better to want nothing than to want what could destroy her. The knowledge settled like cold embers inside him.
Ignoring his beast, he gave her a curt nod and strode for the entrance.
The fire popped behind him, as empty as a dying dream.
Disappointment hit Ash hard as she watched Race, fully dressed, stalk from the cave. With a shaky hand, she touched her kiss-swollen lips.
Sure, she’d joked about a tumble. God knew she’d have welcomed it. The man was a walking furnace of temptation.
For the hundredth time, she wondered what it was about him that drew her so deeply. Not even Paul had affected her this way, and she’d loved him—or thought she had. She didn’t want another entanglement after that disaster, and yet here she was, teetering on the edge of one.
