It was true. Tattooed people look better naked.
Cai stood over her on his knees, grinning as he looked at her.
She spread her hands over his shoulders, feeling his smooth skin and sliding her palms over his round, hard muscles. Wow, flying did amazing things to musculature.
“This is beautiful,” he said, rubbing her lace bra strap between his fingers and taking her boob in his mouth again. “It looks so good on you, so sweet against your skin.”
She’d necked with guys who had gotten handsy, but those adolescent investigations hadn’t felt like this, not like his suction that drew tremors through her flesh and the sting of his teeth that coiled her so tightly inside that she cried out.
Cai whispered against her skin, “If you like that, you’re going to love this.”
Yes, finding a hot guy who knew what he was doing had been absolutely the right decision. That untutored fumbling by guys she’d been dating had been nothing compared to Cai Wyvern. If she hadn’t purposely separated love and sex in her head so that she could finally lose it, she might have thought she was in love with Cai Wyvern.
Or at least with his tongue.
His tongue wrapped around her nipples, curling and curving, stroking and pulling on them. When she slitted her eyes open and peeked just a little when he was moving from one to the other, his tongue seemed a little longer, a little pointier than the usual male tongue.
Maybe a little more—
—reptilian.
When he saw her peeking and his eyes met hers, his black pupils had become taller, more elongated, in his glorious, magical, fiery green eyes, almost pointed at the top and bottom like a cat, but she couldn’t see any more because he closed his eyes and dived to take her other breast into his mouth and suck on it until she was writhing under him.
Her hands curved without her meaning them to, and her fingers clutched his shoulders.
Cai bit the side of her neck a little harder, a spike of pain that made her roll toward him and wrap one of her legs around his while his heavy body pressed hers into the sheet, but he backed off and licked the side of her neck. The pain from the bite receded, even though she’d liked it a lot. He whispered, “Oops, we didn’t talk about that yet, so I can’t do that. I just nipped you a bit much, but it’s all healed up now. No venom. Not until we’ve talked about it.” He bit her again, a frisson of pain that would probably leave a mark but not as much as the last one. “But we will talk about it. I can hardly wait to watch you lose your mind when I do that.”
Her body longed for his. Her mind was reeling from his heady scent of smoke and spice and maleness that was making the deeply feminine part of her body crazy for him. When she opened her lips on the side of his neck, the rich taste of him filled her mouth—like the smoky sizzle of steak, the decadent richness of chocolate, and faint bits of salt—and she wound her body around his.
“Not quite yet, my sexy little witch. This first,” he whispered.
Ember really wanted to know what was first. “Please.”
“I like it when you say that,” he whispered as he slithered down her body, his hands on her thighs, and then her bare knees.
Maybe Ember should have worn pantyhose to her job interview, but she hadn’t. She was really glad she’d shaved her legs instead of wearing pants, though.
Cai’s hands brushed up her legs, sliding her skirt up her thighs. She twisted, trying to help where it was under her legs, and her skirt bunched around her hips.
Through the darkness of her closed eyelids, Ember heard Cai groan.
She peeked again.
He was examining her panties and running his finger over the silky edge and her thigh. He said, “White lace. I love white lace. I can’t tell you how much I love sweet, innocent, white lace.”
She stifled a worried eyebrow twitch. Did he know?
He looked up at her, his mouth still grinning but his green eyes sparkling and laser-sharp. “I cannot believe you were wearing these when you climbed over me. I wish I’d known, but I might have done something terribly naughty.”
“Like what?” she asked, her voice trembly.
“Touched you,” he said, his voice a throaty whisper. “Slipped my fingers under your skirt and inside these innocent little panties and stroked you.”
Ember was terrified and wished that he’d done it. That was why she’d climbed all over him, to try to get him interested in her. “Right there, in the ballroom?”
“Absolutely. I’ll do that anywhere, any time that I want to, or anything else that I want to do to you. I have certain rules when I’m with a woman. I think you’ll like them.”
Cai settled his hand on her knee. The weight of his hand pressed her leg to the side.
She almost didn’t move, but she slowly let her thighs part.
This was all uncharted territory.
He tilted his head, looking at her face. Afternoon sunlight played over his strong cheekbones. “Do you want to—resist?”
“No,” she said, though she kind of wondered what he meant. “I’m okay with this. I’m good.”
“Well, some other time. But our first time, I want to hear you say yes.” He lifted her heels, slipping her favorite black witch boots off her feet and tossing them over the side of the bed. “I want to hear you cry out my name.” He slid her panties down her legs, the white lace dragging over her skin, and watched the scrap of lace journey all the way to her toes before he tossed them aside. “I want to hear you scream, but the good way, this first time.”
He bent and kissed her stomach above her bunched-up skirt, then crawled backward.
Okay, that seemed a little freaky, but he was talking about later.
And yet, she reconsidered a few things.
Maybe this encounter should be more than just one time, if he was up for it. Maybe she should spend a week or two with a man who knew what he was doing, not just one time.
Maybe she needed more than an initiation.
Maybe she needed an introduction into everything she’d been missing.
As she was monologuing all that in her head, Cai ducked, and his tongue swiped a long, slow, wet stroke over her bare folds.
Oh, wow.
His hands pressed her knees apart.
His tongue slipped deeper, opening her and exploring the sensitive, inner parts of her.
Nerves that she hadn’t known existed sang through her body. A deep thing right above her opening bloomed, and at the very top when he licked her there, slowly curling his tongue in sinuous spirals, that was new.
Ember arched her back and let Cai do anything he wanted because he obviously had skills that she hadn’t known were real. She threaded her fingers through the spider-silk strands of his hair while the pure pleasure shivered through her.
His tongue feathered over her, and she had the distinct image of a snake flicking its tongue before every thought in her head evaporated.
His huge hands held her hips as he kissed and sucked on her. Ember grabbed his shoulders, arching and stretching her neck as he took her with his mouth. He locked his lips over her and drove his tongue inside her and swirled it through her folds, sucking and mouthing her, until her body clamped down from the inside and then blasted apart, her mind careening on the blast front as wave after wave racked her body. He kept licking, holding her down and sucking on her, until he had rung every last bit of response from her.
Ember stared at her face in the mirror overhead, still stunned. Her mascara was running, and her eyes were bloodshot like she’d nearly had a stroke. Her body heaved as she gasped for air, and her hands flapped uselessly near his bare shoulders. “Cai.”
“Oh, I like it when you say my name like that.” He crawled up her body, trailing kisses up her belly and chest where her shirt was parted. “It sounds like you’re begging. I want to make you do that some more.”
“I can’t think.” She pressed her fist to her temple, and the crazy, exhausted lady in the mirror did the same thing. “I don’t know if I’
ll ever be able to think again.”
Cai grabbed her and tumbled to the side, ending up on his back with her straddling him. “Sounds like I did my job right. If I keep doing it right, you might not be able to think for a few days.”
Yes, Ember was definitely staying with Cai for a proper introduction to this next phase of her life. This was going to be awesome. “I can hardly wait.”
“We should discuss birth control, but I am a dragon shifter.”
“Obviously.”
“Right, turning into a dragon was probably a dead giveaway, there. The important part is that dragon shifters are immune to most natural diseases, including all the venereal ones. We run too hot.”
“Yeah, I’d say you’re hot.” Ember would say that Cai Wyvern was damn scorching. She wanted to lick every square inch of his skin.
“And I can’t get you pregnant. We can only have a dragonling with a bound mate.”
“So, you have to tie somebody up?”
“No, I mean, if you wanted to. I’m certainly up for that. But as far as pregnancy goes, dragon shifters can only make baby dragons with a dragonmate, a person with whom they’ve mated and formed a mating bond. The out-of-wedlock pregnancy rate in the New Wales Dragon Den is exactly zero.”
Ember said, “I do not know what all this means, and I don’t know why you’re talking so much.”
“My point is that there are condoms in the drawer. I can’t get you pregnant, and I can’t give you anything that itches. Do you want me to use a condom or not?”
“Oh! I get it.” She nodded her head, her hair ruffling around her eyes as if she were totally an experienced woman who had the condom conversation all the time. “I’m on the Pill anyway, so no, you don’t need to use one.”
“Excellent.” He slid his hands up her arms, his sparkling green eyes practically glowing more brightly than the sun. “We should order lunch, but I can’t wait. Are you okay for another hour, say?”
“Yes. Let’s wait on lunch.” Her voice was breathy and stupid and she didn’t care. Her skin tingled where his hands were sliding on her upper arms and down her sides to her hips.
“I was hoping you’d—” Cai glanced above them at the mirror on the canopy of the bed, and his body stilled.
“Cai?” she asked.
His eyes widened, and the dragonish, glittering green fire of his irises flowed faster.
Ember touched his shoulder. “You okay?”
His lips parted, and he whispered, “No.”
He looked at her, staring with his eyes wide, as if he was seeing her for the first time.
She hadn’t worn a glamor. Had he been bespelled? Had she essentially raped a guy because he had thought she was someone else, or he had been muddled somehow? “Cai, are you all right?”
He opened his hands, releasing her arms, and pulled away.
She scrambled backward. “Did something happen? Is something different?”
He rolled off the bed and stumbled a few steps away, not looking back at her.
She grabbed the sheets and pulled them up to her chest where her blouse was gaping open. “What’s going on?”
Cai swiped his shirts off the floor and tried to jam his feet into his shoes but missed as he tried to run. “Ember, you stay as long as you please. Order some lunch from the room service menu if you want. I have an appointment I forgot about. It’s an important appointment. Really important. Horrendously important. So sorry, but I’ve got to jet.”
Ember clutched the sheets to her chest. “Did I do something wrong?”
He glanced back at her, looking her right in her eyes. “No, no. It’s not you at all. You’re the most beautiful, incredible, sexy, intelligent, gorgeous—” He stopped talking, and Ember could have sworn that his hands were shaking. “—You’re amazing. It’s me. It’s totally me. And it’s my appointment, the one I have to go to.” He grabbed his shoes off the floor and spun, but his eyes caught hers again. “Ember—”
“Yes?” She knew her eyes were too big. She knew that she looked like a cartoon lamb sitting there, but she might cry. “Yes, Cai?”
He stumbled and almost dropped the white shirt he held in his clenched fist. “You’re amazing, but I’m not. I’ll call you, but I’m going to be busy for a while. But—I’ll call you. Don’t call me.”
He staggered out of the bedroom and fled.
Jeez, Ember hadn’t caused a guy to flee before. The door hadn’t even closed right. He’d jerked it, and it had bounced off the frame.
Ember dragged the sheets off the bed with her and went over to close the door.
This was ridiculous.
She dropped the sheets, yanked her skirt down over her legs, and grabbed her panties off the floor.
So this was the walk of shame. That was an important part of being an adult, although they hadn’t actually done the deed. So, maybe this wasn’t the shame walk at all.
Once again, she was too inexperienced to know.
Ember grabbed her huge purse off the couch and stalked outside, buttoning her blouse as she walked. Like heck, she was going to sit around the penthouse and pine. She was going to march straight down to HR, finish that paperwork, and get paid for taking care of some hungry sea serpents for a month.
When she walked into the vestibule, still struggling with her purse and containing her boobs in her blouse, Cai was standing there, holding his shirt clutched to his bare chest and staring at the elevator doors, his fist resting on the doors like he had punched the elevator.
He glanced up and their eyes met. “Something’s wrong with it. I swear, something’s wrong with it.”
Then he ran for the stairwell.
That door clanged shut behind him.
Ember stepped back into the living room of the penthouse and let him get a good, long head start. She didn’t particularly want to see Cai again, either. The nerve of that guy, running away from her like that rather than talk to her. She might not be very sexually experienced, but even she knew that was rude.
Well, he’d said to order what she wanted from room service.
Suddenly, she was hungry.
Really damn hungry.
She picked up the phone.
When room service answered, Ember said, “I’d like three lobsters, the same of those twice-baked potatoes, a bucket of that salad with the shaved truffles on it, an entire chocolate cake, and a bottle of your most expensive champagne.”
Ember stopped and considered what she was doing.
And then she said, “Wait, I want to order a case of your most expensive champagne, and make it all to go.”
Burn for You
CAI buttoned his shirt as he thundered down the stairs. His shoes clomped on each cement step, and his footfalls reverberated in the steel and concrete stairwell.
He wasn’t going into mating fever.
He wasn’t.
He stopped at a landing and pried his phone from his pocket to take a selfie so he could examine his eyes.
Even before the camera clicked, even without the zoom that he had thought he would need to examine his eyes, just as the rear-facing camera picked his face out of the white-painted walls, his eyes glowed with green fire and rushed with vibrant sparks.
No.
Even as Cai bargained with the Dragon Gods—he would never see Ember Niamh again, he would never drink alcohol again, he would never touch any woman again as long as he lived—he knew it was hopeless.
He leaned against the cold wall in the stairwell and ran one hand through his hair, holding onto his scalp as if his brain was exploding inside his skull.
The mating fever was upon him.
And it wasn’t the early stages of mating fever—a spark here, a little hunger, there—no, this was a full-blown case of stage-four mating fever.
Soon, it would turn to mating frenzy.
That was going to hurt.
And then he would fall into senescence.
And then, like Cai’s father after his mother had left him, Cai would d
ie, too, and it would be lonely, lingering, aching death.
He slid down the wall, his shirt catching on the rough plaster, and ended up with his elbows resting on his thighs and his head, hanging over his knees.
Cai should have locked himself up in a damned monastery. He should have taken Holy Orders and joined some cloistered monastery high in the Andes mountains where he would have never met Ember Niamh or any woman, his whole life. He’d known he was playing with dragonfire. He’d thought that if he felt a tingle, he could run and short-circuit the conversion to mating fever.
He should have known better.
Dragon Lords, he had literally fallen to his knees when he’d met her.
He had already been lost.
Crouched in the stairwell, Cai stared at his phone, trying to decide who, if anyone, he could call.
There was no use in calling his friends yet and worrying them. The mating frenzy shouldn’t set in for at least a week or two. Dragging out his good-byes to his friends would torture everyone. Nope, it would be better to do it all at once, right at the end.
As his therapist had told him after his dad had died and he’d become the Duke Wyvern at far too young an age for that kind of responsibility, he was having trouble processing his new status.
In this case, his new status of soon-to-be-dead.
Cai unbuttoned his collar another button and pulled the fabric away from his skin. His skin was steaming from the dragonfire building up inside him. Hunger gnawed his stomach.
Okay, and what did Cai Wyvern do when he was bereft and reeling and in pain?
Yep, time to work. This damn casino was going to have its gala opening on time. If Cai was going to slide into a mating frenzy and then senescence, he had a hell of a lot of work to do first. The acts for the first few months after the casino’s gala opening needed to be lined up, the contracts signed, and the arrangements made. Contractors had to be notified, negotiated, and signed on. He couldn’t shirk his responsibilities just because things were looking grim for him.
When his father had been descending into senescence, before he had removed himself to a cave in the mountains for his last few weeks, he had worked through the pain and made legal and practical arrangements for the dukedom to pass to Cai without a guardian installed, even though Cai had been barely twenty at the time. Dragons mature and age slowly, compared to humans. Cai had appeared to be about fifteen in human years at the time and had been about the same maturity level, but he’d promised his father that he would hold the dukedom and care for it.
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