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How could I respond to that? It wasn’t too different a reason from why I initially hadn’t told him about my own problem and it reminded me of his earlier worries about letting me down by not being able to provide the dragon’s tooth.
I lowered my hand between us, our fingers intertwining. We were a lot more similar than I thought. “Why haven’t you found someone who can love you like you were their universe?” I felt stupid asking because deep inside I wanted to be his goddess, but for so long I’d driven him away, it wasn’t fair to make him wait on the off-chance I escaped my curse.
His fingers clutched mine. “Because I’ve never wanted anyone the way I do you. I don’t get a choice if my heart’s already yours.”
My stomach twirled, and I stiffened, biting down on my lower lip. “I’m sorry.” My throat thickened. “I let you down. Fuck, I’m like a selfish bitch. I keep wanting to tell you to stop wasting your time on me. Find someone who can love you better. But I don’t because I want you.” Guilt iced my gut, and I might as well have been frozen. I yearned to be with Gage as if my life depended on it, but I didn’t deserve him. It felt as if a vise gripped my ice-cold heart because my chest ached like I’d explode.
I drew my hand back and rolled away, hating how my stomach hurt at disappointing Gage when he’d always been there for me.
His arm looped over my waist, and his chest plastered against my back. He held me close, embracing me from behind. “This was why I didn’t tell you. You overthink things, and I don’t give a shit about becoming a true dragon. My asshole of a family abandoned me as a child in the woods, so why the fuck would I want to be like them? And you know why I gave that lion shit? Because when I was young and homeless, a pride of lion shifters found me. Instead of helping me, they tied me up like a dog, threw me food, and called me their bitch. They taunted me, pitted me against their teens in battles while everyone watched and cheered each time I fell. I was a fucking child in human form!” His voice trembled behind me.
“Fuck!” I clasped on to his arms, shocked because he’d never opened up before about his past when I’d pried. “I had no idea. Was it Reed’s pride?” I held my breath, praying it wasn’t the case.
His response came fast. “No. It was another, but seeing all those lions today brought back an anger I’d thought I’d dealt with. But I learned long ago that lions look after their own. Anyone else is disposable. Like tonight, you went for help, we gave them assistance, and they left us hanging dry. Their pride is priority.”
I couldn’t deny what he’d said, but I if I were in Reed’s position, I’d do the same thing. Priority went to the task with the most urgent need.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you. Shit, it’s like we’re both broken somehow, you know.”
“Must be why I was first attracted to you.” He dipped his head down and kissed the back of my hand. “You always looked over your shoulder, clearly scared to trust people, and you resonated with me. I’m not sure I’ll ever stop caring for you.”
I curled into his embrace, adoring his warmth and how he let me see the real him. Not just the brave man who’d tackle the world.
“Thanks for letting me in,” I said. “It means so much.”
His breath skipped across my nape, warm and ticklish. “For your ears only, honey. I may not trust most people, but for you, I’d lay down my life.”
“No!” I pulled his arms around me tighter. “Don’t you ever do that.”
His lips brushed the side of my neck, and a warm spark zipped down my legs. My toes curled as he kissed me in the tender spot beneath my earlobe. “I’ll never make such a promise. I’d leave my job as a guard, sell my home, sleep outdoors if it means saving you. That’s what I live for.”
My mouth opened to protest, but when his tongue found the length of my neck, I moaned. “It’s unfair of you to tease me.”
“I plan to take you right here and show you what you’ve been missing.”
I turned to face him, and his mouth found mine, obliterating every thought. Worries evaporated, and I savored his lips, drowning in my desire to have him move his hands under my shirt and feel me all over. He clenched my hair into his fist and tilted my head back. He licked my chin and down my neck, taking small mock bites of my flesh.
Every inch of me sizzled. His other hand pried open the cords of my vest and the buttons on my shirt.
“Touch me,” I purred as he dragged my top up and over my head. I sat up and lifted my hands as he drew them off me without hesitation. My breasts spilled out into the cool breeze, puckering my nipples.
Night covered everything, but considering how rare it was for anyone to enter the field, I had no worries of someone walking in on us. Though it might have excited Gage further if someone had.
“Sexy as fuck,” he said. “Love your tits.”
I collapsed onto my back in the grass, the blades cushioning against me, and I surrendered myself completely. Gage followed me, his tongue tasting a breast, sucking me, flicking my tight bud. Fire soared south, and I writhed, adoring his attention, his sexiness. I grabbed handfuls of his shirt and drew the fabric over his head, breaking our connection. He never stopped and sailed across to the other breast, tugging on my erect nipple, his teeth gently gnawing on me. My heart skipped, and I moaned in ecstasy as I pictured him pounding into me.
Our breaths raced, and I sensed everything, his quickening pulse, his hungry fingers plucking at my pants, his roaming eyes.
My hips rocked back and forth, grinding against him, drowning in the intensity. Fire enveloped me, and Gage’s hands were an inferno.
He kneeled beside me, wearing a mischievous smirk. I reached out and ran a hand over his strong chest, following the line of thin hair down this stomach and vanishing into his trousers. I kept moving my fingers to his hardness pushing the fabric into a tent-shape.
I shivered in anticipation. “You’re too far away.” In a click, I unbuttoned his pants and pulled the front open. His erection popped out, thick and long, greeting me with his musky scent. I adored the way he smelled, and it drove me insane with lust. I rubbed a thumb over the tip coated in pre-cum, and he rolled his eyes back, moaning that guttural sound that did things to my insides.
He brushed my hand aside. “No, I’m too close.” Instead, he stared at me like a starving dragon, eyes alight and vertical slits for a few moments. His fingers hooked into the top of my pants and underwear. In one fast move, he jerked them down my legs and off me with such speed, it left me gasping and rocking backward from the motion.
“Shit, give a girl warning.”
