Page 68 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
As before when I let my guard down, Dirk’s scent came to me, the smell meant only for me. Flannel in spring air and teakwood in summer breeze, they washed over me and held me close, wrapping me in their comforting embrace.
“It’s not hiding now,” I whispered. It never seemed to be when I was open with him.
Dirk’s eyes brightened, and something in me rose to match it. His growl filled the room, prompting thoughts of him lunging across the table at me, dinner be damned. He could eat me if he wanted to.
Heat crept its way across my cheeks and down to my chest, dragging Dirk’s eyes with it as he followed the growing blush and desire.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, that thumb still stroking the back of my palm.
“I’m thinking I’m not hungry.”
Was I crazy?
My dragon purred, startling me with its presence, approving of my directness. I got the distinct impression of “finally.”
“Is that so?” Dirk rumbled.
The chair squeaked against the floor as he rose, his eyes filling with feral white light.
Thirty-Two
Ella
It played outmuch like my dream.
If you included a nervous run through secret passageways filled with stealing kisses and touches, until we crashed through the door into my quarters, stumbling over my dress and falling to the floor.
Dirk caught me and saved me from the fall, though the puffiness of my dress proved hard to contain, and I rolled to the side, both of us laughing yet still locked on to one another.
“Let me,” he growled, hopping to his feet and lifting me into the air, waiting until my feet were under me to set me down.
“Thank you, Lord Dvorak, Protector of Dignities and—”
His lips covered mine, stealing the moment and my voice. I hissed in delight as he held my face in his, deepening the moment until our tongues leapt and danced against one another.
My dragon was fully awake in my head, urging me on and setting my body on fire.
Dirk’s claws shredded the awful dress, and I stepped free, clad only in black underwear.
The room trembled under the growl that filled it. Dirk stepped forward, his eyes only for me, possessive and bright.
“Perfection,” he rumbled, running a single finger down my neck, across my clavicle and around my breast.
I trembled at his touch, unused to such exotic, loving contact. I had expected him to claim, to take, to be in control.
But instead he moved slowly and deliberately, circling my body with kisses. Never pinning me tightly, never lingering long in one place, he always made sure I could step away if I felt the need to. He kissed my shoulders, my back, my chest and my upper arms, covering me in tiny pecks, all the while circling me like the predator he was.
The yin and yang of the two sides of him, gentle yet dominant, left me breathless and wanting more. Much more. It showed a side of him that I had yet to see. A thoughtful and caring thing. Because it wasn’t done by chance. He knew I was struggling, despite the mate marks, and he was doing his best to show that he would not force himself on me.
When his mouth finally started to kiss down from my breastbone, I could no longer stifle the moan. It slipped out just as he caressed my nipple with one hand, tweaking the hardened nub just right.
It was perfect. Everything about it was perfect. Except for one thing.
“You. Out of that,” I ordered, stopping his mouth a hair short of sucking on my tits for the first time. “I can’t take you as seriously as I want with that getup brushing against me at every move.”
Dirk grinned and ripped the formal clothes from his body until he was in nothing but a black undershirt and boxers that did nothing to hide his hard-on from me.
“Now, where was I?” he growled, advancing on me, one hand snaking behind my back to settle on my rear, the other cupping a breast.
