His grip on my jaw loosened enough for his thumb to rise up and brush along my lower lip. My lips parted instantly as my core tightened, desire flooding my system. “Now I want you to tell me if, despite knowing that, you want to give into this, knowing the possible outcomes? I can’t get a taste of you and let you go if it isn’t you. I’m too fucking infatuated with you, wench.”
My breath hitched with the admission as his thumb dipped into my mouth. “The amount of times I’ve pictured these sinful lips wrapped around my cock.” I closed my mouth, running my tongue along the pad of his thumb and he groaned, flexing his hips down in the process. “The way you haunt my every waking and sleeping moment.”
I released his thumb and he dragged it out, running the palm of his hand down my cheek as his fingers sank into the hair onthe side of my head. Our foreheads touched as he lowered his face toward mine. My heart was beating so wildly, there was no way he couldn’t feel my reaction to his words. To the heat of his body. To his admission, equally as damning as my own truth.
“Then why have you denied me at every turn?” I asked, hating the vulnerability in my soft tone. I swallowed, trying to vanquish the unwanted emotion, before continuing, “You’ve made these past few weeks seem so easy, with the distance we’ve built between us.”
A rumble flowed from his chest into mine, making my nipples pebble through the thin brassiere. “Easy? That is the last word I would use to describe shoving down my desire for you. It was easy to focus on training and hoping that you and Kaida progressed enough to ensure I didn’t lose either of you when we leave this mountain. It was easy to incite your anger, in a desperate attempt to remind myself that you didn’t want me, when I was so close to giving in. It was easier to think of you not wanting me anymore than to think of expressing my fucking need for you and you rejecting me.”
My mouth suddenly went dry as he pulled his head back and brushed his thumb along my temple.
“Because that’s what I deserve, Siyana. I deserve for you to reject me after what I’ve put you through. You deserve someone better than me, but I’m coming to realize I’m not as self-righteous as I thought.” His already deep voice dropped to an almost growl as he bit out, “I don’t care if there’s a better match for you out there. I’ll freeze them within a block of ice and drop them into the ocean without a second thought if it means you remain mine.”
This was what I’d been wanting, but was it too late? Could I trust his words, or would he take them back tomorrow?
As our eyes locked, I couldn't help but notice the raw, unbridled yearning in his gaze. It was as if all of his desires werelaid bare before me, and I could feel every emotion coursing through him. The intensity of our eye contact was palpable, drawing us closer together with an irresistible pull. In that moment, it was as if nothing else existed except for the fire burning between us as our lips brushed against each other for the first time.
Could I give into my needs while still protecting my heart?
“Fuck it,” I breathed out.
Chapter Twenty-Four
THEO
It waslike a glimpse into the afterlife of Elysium as she surged up to meld our lips together. Never before had I felt like I was floating in the clouds while in my human form, until now. It was like being home, tasting her on my lips.
Her intoxicating scent enveloped me, igniting every nerve in my body as her teeth sank into my bottom lip, pulling it into her mouth with a fierce hunger. I surrendered completely to the raw passion of the moment, my hand abandoning her dark tresses and instead gripping tightly onto her neck, driven by an animalistic desire that rode me mercilessly.
My fingers closed around her throat as I pulled back and asked, voice slick with desire, “Who do you belong to?”
I’d never been as infatuated and aware of the way she had me eating from the palm of her hand, ready for any crumbs she offered me.
In no surprise at all, her eyes narrowed, challenging me before that pretty little mouth even opened. “I belong to myself, dragon boy.”
The dragon within me roared, slamming against the constraints wrapped around him, and I was only barely keeping him at bay. He urged me to show her just how much of a liar shewas—that she’d belonged to us the second our eyes clashed as she walked into her father’s council room.
We’d tried to fight it, yet we had still ended up here. It was time to accept that I couldn’t rid myself of the haunting way she occupied my thoughts. Every iota of my restraint and will-power I possessed had gone into the last few weeks, and it seemed that well had finally dried up. I was left now with a hunger only she could satisfy.
It was time to right my wrongs. If she wanted me, who was I to deny her any longer? I’d show her exactly how dragons treat their mates, if that’s what she wanted.
Our ragged breaths mingled and I released her wrists, crushing our lips together. My tongue plunged into her mouth, twisting and dancing with hers as my hands roamed down her trembling body. Fingers traced along her smooth shoulders before seizing the weight of her breasts, kneading them roughly as she arched into my touch and let out a throaty moan. This was only the beginning of my plans for her, as I savored every sound she made and learned exactly how to make her mine.
I rolled her nipples between my fingers and pulled my lips from hers, trailing kisses down to her jaw until I settled at the soft flesh of her neck. She turned, giving me further access and my beast reveled at the submission, whether she realized what she was doing in the moment or not. A rumble grew from deep within me as I sucked on the tender flesh she offered up.
“Theo, I need more,” she panted before her lips closed around the bottom of my ear, nipping at me. “Unless you think you can’t handle it.”
She was playing with fire, insinuating such a thing.
A squeal sounded from her as I moved my hands to her waist and lifted her legs to wrap around my hips as I stood, quickly. I backed her against the cave wall, and just as I was leaning into taste her again, a loud, disruptive snore echoed, making me falter.
Kaida. I’d forgotten he had collapsed into a slumber not far from us.
It sounded like he was choking on his own breath. Truly, I’d never heard such a thing.
We stared at each other for a few moments, panting with need before she cracked a smile. “Kids, am I right? Always killing the mood.”
Frustration and longing pulsed through my veins as I bit down on my lip, nearly drawing blood. "Don't you dare mention kids unless you want me to make them with you right here and now."
