“I’m surprised to find you as human, Shalin.”
She gave a little shrug. “It’s easier to tend Nightmare.”
Glancing at him, she saw that his wound had healed but it had left a nasty scar behind. Would take a decade or two for that one to fade.
“Are you all right out here? Need anything?”
Shalin couldn’t help but smile. “Hardly. I’ve had quite the influx of your kin stopping by with gifts.”
“Good. Madenn sent up some food for you as well. It’s cooked, though.”
“That’s fine,” she said casually, although she’d already scented the food and her mouth had begun to water. Nothing like fresh meat she’d torn open herself, but she’d learned to enjoy the herbs and seasonings the humans used to enhance their cooked meats and fish. She’d definitely begun to miss it.
Not that she’d ever admit that out loud.
“Thank you for bringing my puppy and Nightmare.”
“I had to.” He chuckled. “Big bastard wouldn’t eat and nearly stomped one of the stableboys when he tried to groom him. And the puppy whined incessantly when he couldn’t find you at evening meal.”
As if sensing they spoke of him, the puppy yipped and charged forward, but Ailean easily caught him before he slid right out of the cave. “You ever going to name this little one?” he asked as he placed him back on the floor and patted him back inside.
“Name him?”
“You have to name him, Shalin. We can’t keep calling him ‘puppy.’ Especially once he gets to be about two or three hundred pounds.”
Ailean slid his hand under hers, big fingers intertwining with her smaller ones.
“I’ve missed you, Shalin. I’ve missed you so very much.”
She closed her eyes, trying to block out the sound of his voice and the words. But she didn’t have the heart to shake his hand off. She liked how it felt against hers.
Ailean leaned in close and nuzzled her neck. “Let me stay the night, Shalin.”
“I—”
“I promise I won’t Claim you until you want me to.”
She snorted. “So sure I’ll want you to?”
“Not sure. Hopeful.”
He kissed a trail down her neck to her shoulder, tugging the dress down a bit so he could toy with the flesh beneath.
“If I let you stay,” she whispered, already losing the battle, “you know it won’t mean anything.”
Ailean reached around, sliding his hand into her hair and gripping the back of her head. He forced her to look at him. “We both know that’s a lie. But if it makes you feel better this night, I won’t argue.” His gaze traveled to her mouth. “Gods,” he moaned, “I’ve missed you, Shalin.”
Shalin opened her mouth to speak, to tell him to go before she lost any more of her heart to him, but before she could get the words out, he kissed her. And, as always, her human body nearly burst into flames from the passion of it.
She couldn’t fight him. Not when she’d missed him so much. So she released herself into that kiss. At least for the moment, she let go the anger and stubbornness and simply unleashed the desire she’d been bottling up for days.
Gods, he truly had missed her. Just the feel of her mouth on his or the way she pressed her body into his. Whether human or dragon, she always fit him perfectly. For days he’d been longing for her, following his kin’s dictate that the time wasn’t right. His aunts were insistent. “When a dragon pushes a dragoness, he ends up very lonely…and very bloody.”
Without prompting, Shalin straddled his waist, her knees on either side of him. She dug her hands into his hair and kissed him with as much need as his own.
Desperate and unable to wait, Ailean pulled the skirt of her simple peasant dress out of his way and entered her in one powerful thrust. He found her wet and hot, more than ready for him.
Shalin wrapped her arms around his shoulders, buried her nose in his neck, and it all felt so perfect. Ailean didn’t move. They simply held still like that.
When Shalin began to shyly kiss his neck and jaw, Ailean pulled back a bit to look at her. “Tell me what I did wrong.” When she only stared at him, he said again, “Tell me what I did wrong and I’ll do whatever necessary to make it right.”
Her gaze lowered until she seemed firmly focused on his neck and she admitted, “You didn’t listen to me. I’m ignored by everyone. I never thought I’d be ignored by you as well.”
“I didn’t ignore you.”
She gave an adorable little snort and looked away from him completely.
“I didn’t ignore you,” he said again. “But I was fighting for my life. For our future. I knew if I’d let you go, you wouldn’t come back.”
Those bright golden eyes suddenly locked on him and he could see the bitter anger in them. “Isn’t that my right? To choose my own lovers, my own mate? Or do you wish to control that, as Adienna does?”
“Don’t throw her at me, Shalin. That’s not fair and you know it. Don’t you see or are you so blind? I would have broken any law, destroyed any army, done anything to keep you as my own.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you so determined to ‘keep me’? Is it because I’m sweet and innocent like the puppy? Or solid and reliable like Dragon’s Gold? A good work horse to breed you sons?”
And it was at that very moment, before he could stop himself, that he laughed at her.
Snarling in outrage, Shalin tried to scramble out of his arms, but he grabbed her around the waist and kept her right on his lap and his cock.
“Oh, no, you don’t. You’ll not run away from me again until we’re done here. Until you hear everything I have to say.”
“Then say it and let me go.”
“Fine, then. You’re not sweet, Shalin. Oh, I know you fool everyone else into thinking you are, but I know better. And
