Page 29 of Dragon Cursed
Her hand was already lifting.
"Oh."She made the same soft sound.The same almost-greeting."Oh,lookat you."
She stopped within reach of his teeth.
She had to tilt her head all the way back to look at him.She lifted her hand, slowly, the way a person reaches for a wild bird.The dragon lowered its great head another inch to meet her halfway.
Her palm settled against the scales above his jaw.
The whole vast shape of him went still.
Her hand was small against him.His scales were the size of her palm, each one.She moved her hand in a slow stroke, fingers finding the smaller, softer scales at the seam of his jaw.She let out a breath that was almost a laugh.
"You're warm."Her thumb traced the edge of a scale."I don’t know why I thought you'd be cold."
Stop,Alsander tried to say.Tried one last time to do the honorable thing.To make her go.Stop, you do not know what you are doing.
She moved closer.Slid her hand down the long line of his neck.The dragon leaned into her palm.
Be careful!Alsander snarled inside the shared cavern of their skull.His dragon paid him no mind at all.
She moved a little closer and found a place where the scales gave way to softer skin under his jaw and rubbed there.
A deep, slow rumble of contentment rose up out of his chest.
He felt her startle.Then —oh, gods— then she laughed.
"Oh."The delight in her voice was unmistakable."Oh, youlikethat."
The fire built at the back of his throat.
His cock — even in dragon form, even buried in scale and bone —throbbed.The dragon felt her hand on its scales the way the man would have felt her hand on his skin, and the heat of her was singing through every inch of the great black shape of him, and the dragonfire was rising.And it wantedout.
No dragonfire.Do not mark her.Not without her knowing.Not without her choosing.
The dragon snarled in agreement and held the magical fire back.
She was at his shoulder now.She pressed her whole body against the slope of his foreleg and reached up to stroke the wing where it folded against his side.The leather of his wing was sensitive in a way he had forgotten — and her hand moved along the ridge of bone and the rumble in his chest deepened into something that was almost a purr, almost a growl, almost a sound a man would make with a woman's mouth on his cock.
She stopped.
"Am I hurting you?"
If only.
The dragon shook its massive head and huffed.
"Come out."Her cheek pressed to his scales.Her voice muffled against him."Alsander.Come out.I want to see your face."
He came out.
The shift was uglier going the other way — the dragon didn’t want to relinquish control.Alsander fought him back into the cavern of his bones and folded inward in a shift that left him flat on his back on the stone floor of his own lair —
Naked.Gasping.The taste of fire still hot at the back of his throat.
She hadn’t stepped back as he shifted.
Her hand had moved with the change.It had been on his wing.It was on his bare shoulder now.She knelt in front of him in the firelight, her hand on his skin the only warmth he needed in this cold world.
