“Dexter, I swear to the Gods, if you don’t tell me what’s wrong—”
“H-he’s awake,” I muttered in awe, more to myself than to answer Sage’s worried plea. “My omega. My dragon.” I blinked back tears of joy and relief, feeling them spill over my heated cheeks despite my efforts to restrain them. “He’s back.”
Chapter Six
“What do you mean ‘he’s back’?” I was confused by Dexter’s words, and by his uncharacteristic vulnerability. The wonder on his face was one thing, but the tears…well, they worried me, even though he was smiling widely. “Dex, I don’t understand.”
Around us, the air seemed to grow thick and heavy with the arousal of at least fifty shifters thrumming wildly. It was dark, but my eyesight was sharp, and even with the bass and drum beat from Nine Inch Nails’sCloserpounding away, I could hear the hitch in Dexter’s breathing.
“He…he’s been gone since…since we argued.” His handsome face screwed up and he sighed. “Not argued. That trivializes it. Since…since I rejected you.”
There was genuine shame and remorse in his voice and new tear tracks trailing down over the ridge of his cheekbones. I was surprised by the emotion and also frustrated thatthiswas the moment he finally chose to address the elephant in the room.
But also…
“What do you mean he’s been gone?”
Broader shoulders than mine rose and fell. “He went into hibernation or something. I haven’t connected with him in over a century. He…” I watched Dex swallow roughly. “I haven’t shifted since then.” Long, elegant fingers rubbed at his chest, just beneath his ribs. “But he’s back. He’s awake.”
I felt sick. The thought of being without my dragon for…hell, for any amount of time was not a pleasant one. And he had been without his for a hundred years?
“Oh my God, Dex…”
He shook his head, holding up a hand to stop me as I stepped into his personal bubble with the intention of comforting him. “I deserved it. I ignored him, and I hurt you, and—”
“That’s like losing a limb. A part of your soul.Somethingdevastating,” I argued back, still horrified. “I mean, if you couldn’t connect with him, that means you haven’t been able to shift or fly or—”
“It doesn't matter,” he was grinning widely, still rubbing his chest. “He’s back, Sage!”
“What changed?” I demanded, my mind still reeling at his admission. Why hadn’t he said anything before? “What…what were you thinking or feeling or…Gods, I don’t know. Just…what woke him up?”
Dexter shrugged, then collapsed back against the railing overlooking the impromptu dancefloor-slash-orgy space beneath us. His entire posture was the most relaxed I had ever seen it. “I don’t know,” he answered, “but” —he fanned at his face, then lifted the collar of his t-shirt and shook it a bit, seemingly distracted— “I won’t make the mistake of ignoring him again.”
I frowned. “About what?”
“Anything. Whatever he wants, he gets.” With his hand still moving his collar for airflow, his eyes focused back on me. Suddenly, my snarky, pain-in-the-ass best friend was wearing another uncharacteristically serious expression. “And he wants you, Sage. If I’m putting all my cards on the table,Iwant you, too. I was…I was a fool to turn you down when you told me how you felt. I was scared, and I loathed that I could never give you the children I knew you desired, and—”
“Whoa.Now?We’re doing thisnow?” I waved a hand at our surroundings, bewildered for an entirely different reason. “You’ve picked a ridiculous time and place for this, Dex.”
Instead of looking at all apologetic or sheepish, he just smirked and reached for me, tugging at my shirt and pulling me into his space until we were pressed together. I braced my hands on the balustrade on either side of his hips, afraid that we might topple over and into the crowd downstairs if he got me any more off balance.
“Now seems like the perfect time,” he practically purred.
Up close, his pupils were dilated, his eyes dark with lust. The heat of his body against mine was almost searing, even through the fabric of our shirts and pants.
Speaking of his pants, with my thigh slotted between his legs, I could feel how hard he was and…oh my God.
“Dex,” I swallowed roughly, realizing that he was grinding into my thigh, making my own cock surge to life behind the confines of my cargo shorts, “you need to stop.”
“Why?” he pouted —actually pouted, and why the hell was that expression so damn cute on him anyway? — and pressed even harder against me. “Everyone else here is having fun.”
“Having fun,” I repeated, my lips twitching despite my determination to be rational. “Having sex, you mean.”
“To-may-to, po-tah-to, or whatever they say.” His fingers released my shirt, only to grip firmly at my ass. I watched his pretty eyes flutter shut, and the sweet little whimper which escaped him as he found the friction he was looking for was almost my undoing.
“Dexter,” I tried to hold strong.
“Fuck, Sage. I’m so slick for you…”
