Not tonight. Tonight, I felt very much alone. The bed was comfortable. I drifted, remembering Riggs’s strong arms around me, his legs enfolding me in his warmth…
I stood upon a hill. All around me were grasses, rippling in the night breeze.
Above me were the moons. Like before, three. But only one shone bright. The second was so dim it almost didn’t exist. And the third was covered by clouds.
Movement against the night sky—and I heard the soft whisper of wind against Dragon wing. I tensed—could Victor have invaded my dreams? But then the Dragon dropped low, and I saw the deep-purple hues reflecting off his scales.
Razir. Or Riggs?
He skimmed over the grassland, following the gentle, hilly contours of the land. Growing closer, until he braked, hovering, no more than twenty feet from me. The wind from his beating wings flattened the grasses and blew my hair back from my face.
Then he landed. He crouched there, with his wings half-furled, as though considering leaving again.
I walked toward him. When I reached out a hand, he took a long step back, and then froze.
I stood there, fingers outstretched, then ever so slowly, as if I approached a wild animal, I stepped into him. Until I could touch his jaw.
He flinched, but held his ground. I stroked along the soft scales, and then, I said, “Shift for me.”
A shudder ran through him, and he went to pull away.
“Shift for me, Riggs,” I repeated.
As if the name linked to his very soul, the Dragon fell away, and left the man standing there. It wasn’t a normal shifting, more like the animal vanished, and left the human in its stead.
Riggs, not Razir. Totally naked. Not a scale in sight. Suddenly I had trouble breathing.
One corner of his lips twitched upward, and he reached to cup my face with one big hand.
“Hello, Breana.” That breathy last syllable, rumbling softly in his deep voice, almost took me out at the knees. It promised all kinds of things that I’d always dreamed of, but never had. Loyalty. Safety.
I didn’t dare take those thoughts any further…
Then he bent. And kissed me.
This was not Victor’s possessive mashing of lips. Riggs started slowly, gently, almost as though I were made of glass. Touched his lips to mine, then ran his tongue around the contours, as if seeking permission to enter.
It electrified every nerve ending, and when I opened for him, his tongue entered, tangling with my own. I moaned, and his hand drifted along my throat, the tips not quite touching—but I felt their warmth, and when they dropped to my breast, the heat pulsed through to my core.
Because my breast was exposed. Not covered in fur. At some point, I had become as naked as him.
As my mind stuttered, afraid of what that might mean, Riggs transferred his lips to my throat while his thumb stroked across my erect nipple, and my thoughts dissolved in static.
He may not remember being a warrior, but he moved like one. His strong hands made promises that my heart knew he would keep. They slipped along my midriff, the fingers dancing over my skin as they sought what resided between my legs. His fingers were as big as the rest of him, and rough across the tips—and when they slipped deep, rubbing in circles, I dissolved. My knees shook, threatening to buckle.
When he dropped to his knees before me and lifted my leg high over his shoulder to back up his fingers with his clever tongue, I lost all strength. Only his hand held me upright. I was making noises that I’d never made before, lost in his expert touch.
How did he know just where and how to touch me? But he did, skillfully bringing me so close to the edge that I panted with it.
I pulled my leg off him and rubbed my body down the full length of his, until my heat hovered right above the burgeoning head of him. His breath caught, and the hands now bracing my buttocks tightened.
And then I slid onto him. He was big, so big, and I had to stretch to pull him in.
“Breanaaa…” he breathed my name again, the syllables wrapping around my heart, and I moaned, pushing him the last inch to seat him deep. Then I began to move, up and down and side to side, while he rumbled a continuous groan. His head fell back, his lips peeling from teeth that flashed white in the moonlight.
He hit every delicious button I possessed, and I gasped with the sensations coursing through me. My body tightened, and he swelled within me, until both of our breaths became a series of staccato exhalations.
Then he began to thrust, powerfully, lifting me with every one, and I came apart. Wave after wave, and with a shout, he came too, his body arcing upward.
