Page 45 of Red Dragon’s Heart

She lay there panting, his glowing eyes holding her in place while he kicked his pants off and tossed his shirt away, and then he was on top of her—all over her—plundering her body, his mouth hot and hard in all her secret places, like he somehow knew all of them, even the ones she didn’t know herself.

Not letting her catch her breath, his hand found her hot slick core and pressed inside, his thumb sliding over her clit with each stroke, making her moan and move against him.

Every nerve ending was on fire. It was incredible, it was too much, it was almost more than she could stand. And still he didn’t let up, building the sensation higher and higher without letting it tip over.

She could feel the anger still simmering inside him, ready to explode, twinned with a need for her so desperate that he wanted to control her utterly, bring her to a point of helpless ecstasy, pleasure so exquisite it was just short of pain.

She was making small incoherent noises, wanting, needing to feel him inside her, begging for release he still wouldn’t give her.

Finally, finally, he moved between her legs and thrust inside her, the only thing she wanted, the only thing that could ever satisfy her. She moaned with the perfect intensity of it, grabbing him and pulling him into her, harder, deeper.

As he drove into her, growling, his emotion seemed to pour through her, cracking open her heart, filling it, filling her body. All the pent-up feelings that he’d held in for so long—before the monster, even—he poured them into her in every thrust, into her body and mind and soul.

She accepted it, opened herself to it, felt him filling her to overflowing, until they came together in a crashing orgasm, waves and waves of sensation and emotion, and they clung together like refugees from a shipwreck, with nothing but each other for safety.

They lay there, panting and exhausted, but not satiated. They made love again, and again, desperate and wordless, until the covers were half off the bed and, tangled together, they fell into a deep sleep of exhaustion.

When Zakerek woke up a few hours later, he felt amazing—until he realized the bed next to him was empty. Maddie was gone.

Panic surged through him. Was she still here? Or had he scared her with his intensity, his need to make her want him, and she’d abandoned him?

He disentangled himself from the parts of the covers that were still on the bed and got to his feet. He was halfway to the elevator before the sense of her presence stole over him. She hadn’t left. She was in the lab.

The relief was so intense his knees almost buckled. He stopped in the middle of the floor, bent over and panting. What the hell was wrong with him?

But he knew. He wanted her here. Not just to fix him. He wanted her.

He didn’t know what to do with that. Were these his feelings, or the monster’s? Did he want them to be his? Part of him didn’t—part of him reached for the anger that had been the only thing he could count on for so long, and was dismayed to find it wasn’t there.

But part of him wanted to keep the feelings, bask in them like a plant turning toward the sun.

Quietly, he stole to the door of the lab to see what she was doing. She was working, despite the fact that she couldn’t have had more than a couple hours’ sleep—lab coat on, hair in a knot on top of her head with a pencil stuck through it, poring over a bunch of computer printouts spread on the work table.

She was trying to help him get his life back.

For a few minutes he just watched her, wondering what to say. Delirium dream sex was one thing, but last night had definitely been on purpose. And he wanted to do it again.

The problem was, women expected things after sex. Like… being treated nice.

He was pretty sure he didn’t know how to do that.

But… just looking at her made him feel good. The curve of her face, the shape of her hands, the way she was so absorbed in her work, her forehead wrinkled, that amazing brain working so hard he could almost hear the gears turning.

He had no clue what they were to each other now. He didn’t even know if she’d want them to be anything. But whatever it was they were, he suddenly realized that he hoped it didn’t go away after the monster was gone.

Mate, muttered the monster, sending another tiny stab of mingled hope and fear through him.

Shut up, he told it.

To Maddie he said, “Hey there,” which was lame, but at least he stopped himself from adding ‘Human Captive.’ In case she didn’t get he was joking. Kind of.

Still looking at the printout, she said, “Oh, good, you’re awake. I woke up with this idea, and I came in to check it out before I took a blood sample—” Then she looked up and her mouth just stayed open without any more words coming out.

“Oh,” she said finally, her gaze raking up and down his still-naked body. Her eyes dilated. “Wow.”

Suddenly the connection between them was back, red-hot and blazing, like an invisible bridge stretching across the room. For a long moment they stared at each other, and then Maddie dropped her gaze, her face flushing red.

He wished he knew what to say to her.