Page 25 of Dragon Kissed

“You’re standing in the rain without a shirt.”

“I do not feel cold as you do.”

“I noticed.” Her eyes dropped to his chest, unhurried, and the fear in her scent weakened, and desire returned — hotter, threading through the salt and rain until it was all he could smell. The dragon lifted its head.She wants us. She is confused. She still wants us.

She wanted him. He knew it with the certainty he knew his own name. Every change in her reached him, every beat of her heart, every desire, the flush blooming across her skin like a tide he could read in the dark. Her scent. He wanted to close the distance and take her mouth until neither of them could remember the questions hanging between them. He could not touch her— not even if she asked. Especially if she asked. “Go inside,” he said. “I will have Caelen answer what he can in the morning.”

“What he can?”

“Yes.”

“Will that include giant red things flying over the Pacific?”

“No.”

She gave a short, disbelieving laugh — and then her gaze dropped to the silver links at his wrist, and the laugh died. “Your bracelet. It’s broken.”

“It was damaged.”

“When?”

“Last night. The night I came to the auction house.”

“Is that why you’re afraid of yourself?”

Demetri held her eyes.Nica’s intelligence is becoming a threat to us both.“Go inside.”

She studied him another long moment, then nodded, and the relief came too quickly. He should have known. She crossed the balcony, passed through the doors, and stopped on the threshold.

“Are you coming?”

“No.”

“You told me I shouldn’t be outside.”

“You should not.”

“But you should?”

“I will be fine.”

She folded her arms, and his shirt — her shirt, the thin wet cotton — did nothing to conceal the shape of her breasts. Demetri fixed his attention on her face and held it there through sheer discipline.

“Come inside,” she said.

The dragon slammed into him.Yes.His fingers curled. “Nica.”

“You said I control who enters my rooms.”

“You do.”

“I am inviting you.”

There were battles he’d entered with less caution. He crossed the balcony, the invisible warmth moving with her, and Nica closed the glass doors and locked them. The mechanism clicked. Demetri stared at the lock. His mate had locked him in with her, sealed the two of them into a warm room with the sea roaring beyond the glass, and the dragon laughed low and delighted.She trusts us. She is reckless. She trusts us.

Nica pulled a folded blanket from the sofa and held it out. Demetri looked at it. “What am I supposed to do with that?”

“Dry off.”