“You are beautiful, Ash. So beautiful that I stop breathing when I look at you. Don’t ever let anyone tell you anything different.”
Tyrez pushed emotion along their link—it verified the big Dragon’s honesty, his admiration, and something much more powerful.
It cascaded into Ash and filled his soul to overflowing. Emboldened, he reached trembling fingers out to Tyrez’s face, drifting them along his wide jaw, and then the double curve of his lips.
Tyrez wound his big hand into Ash’s golden hair, cradled the back of his head, and bent. He touched his lips to Ash’s, lightly at first and then deeper, as though tasting him.
Ash’s heart leaped as he leaned into it. But when Tyrez’s fingers traced his shoulders, he couldn’t help the way his body stiffened.
Tyrez inhaled sharply and pulled away to gaze deep into Ash’s eyes. “This is no dream, Ash,” he said. “And we have all the time in the world.”
Ash couldn’t speak, he could only nod as Tyrez’s fingers moved over his throat and then down his chest. Kissing was so very different from touching. Demeti hadn’t kissed him, ever. But he’d touched him, lots. Ash’s entire body shook as though he were freezing as unbidden images crashed through his brain—Demeti, and what the Torshin had done to him.
Tyrez’s gaze bored into him.I will never. Never. Hurt you like that. You must believe me.
Ash gritted his teeth.I believe it. But I can’t stop the memories.His body continued to tremble like a leaf, and no matter how hard he tried to push the past aside, it ran too deep. Every touch by Tyrez only evoked more. From the blackness within, panic surged through Ash. He’d been overpowered before... Forced.Hurt.
Tyrez took a deep breath, then moved his hands away and stepped back. Ash leaned forward to grab the other shifter’s wrists.
“I want this,” he insisted.
Tyrez rotated his hands to rest Ash’s within them, and then gently disengaged. “You aren’t ready.” His voice was a low rumble. “You need time.”
Ash met the turquoise gaze. “We might not have it. You know that.”
“We don’t need to push this to prove what we have.”
“What do we have?” Ash asked.
For a moment, Tyrez just looked at him, then he fully opened his heart. Lust and want and need, so powerful they were hard to breathe through. A tsunami of desire, and a drive to consummate the bond that nearly eclipsed all else.
But beneath it all, a deep and profound emotion moved Ash to tears. The big Dragon shifter believed they belonged together. It was that simple.
Ash drew in a shaky breath. “Wow.”
One corner of Tyrez’s sexy lips quirked upward. “Too much?”
“Pretty much describes you, actually.” Ash swallowed.
Tyrez studied him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
But Ash had seen the timelines—there were no guarantees. His heart threatened to tear asunder at what the future might hold. Yet when he raised his hand to touch Tyrez’s face, he couldn’t push past his lifetime of abuse.
Not even for the man he loved. Not yet, anyway.
Tyrez sighed, but sketched Ash a smile. “It’s okay, Ash.”
Tears clogged Ash’s throat, he could barely speak. “Can you find your own way back?”
The big Dragon shifter nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
Ash spun, and pushed through the water. Grew his scales as he climbed, so that by the time he was free from the warm liquid, he was once again clothed.
Tears flowed down his cheeks as he walked away. Would he ever be able to embrace what Tyrez offered him? Or had Demeti ruined him forever?
Emotions still surged through the link from the shifter he’d left behind. Raw. Primal. Much as Tyrez had handled him with patience and understanding, the big shifter’s body hammered at him to consummate their bond.
Guilt tore at Ash. Tyrez deserved so much more.
