Avalore glanced around the empty clearing.However, she knew that just because she couldn’t see the entities or their beasts didn’t mean the shifters weren’t around.“Is it unsafe?”
“Have no fear.”He cupped her face and guided her gaze to his.“It’s safe, but when I have you, I’d prefer it to be in my space...unless you—”
“Your place.Your place is fine.”Not that her body cared where Liekki took her, now that she’d set herself to the realization it would happen.This shifter’s scent and touch made her body yearn for him, as her walls clenched around the emptiness inside of her and drenched her folds.A response not foreign to her since she’d spent many nights in his bed dreaming of him taking her.
With that decided, he gave a firm nod before taking her hand in his and walking out of the stoned area of the meeting ground.
Her heartbeat raced as she moved her feet to keep up with his long steps.However, she expected him to lead her back to the path in the forest they had taken.She frowned when he stopped in the clearing away from the stone structure.
“Why are we stopping?We need to get back.”
Liekki chuckled as he let go of her hand.“No worries, lovely.I’m as ready as you smell to lay my body against your lush curves.”
Avalore’s face went flaming hot.She parted her lips to deny her urgency to have sex with him but shut it.It would be a lie.She set her hands on her hips.“I referred to your delay.We are just standing here.Do we need to perform some ritual or something?”
“No ritual.But I don’t have the patience to wait to have you for us to walk the forest,” he growled.
Her brow furrowed deeper.“I could run, but I don’t think I could make it non-stop, especially not to keep up with your long strides.”
“No.We’ll fly.My dragon will carry you.”He took another step back from her.
She was pretty sure he was creating distance so that he could shift to his great beast.
“Wait.”She shuffled forward, closing the gap again.“I don’t know if I’m ready to meet him.What if he eats me or burns me to a crisp?”
“My dragon would gnaw off his own limb before he singed a single hair off your beautiful head.”
“Okay.”She licked her lips, her stomach was trembling.She wanted to believe his words.“How can you be sure?Kai told me it took a long time before Aodh was convinced his dragon accepted her, a human mate.That the Mckenna didn’t want to risk her life.”
“The difference, little lure, is that my beast declared you as mate from the first moment.”Liekki buried his hands in her hair and drew her against him.“The wily fucker has already even begun your claiming.”
“What?”The feel of Liekki’s strong fingers in her hair, stroking along her scalp, caused a frisson of heat to slide down her spine and into her core.It took all her strength to remember his words.“How?”
“The dragon kiss.”His grip tightened, and she was against him, close.
The heat of his breath whispered over her lips, a sizzling heat that pulsed down through her thighs.“I think I’d remember kissing a dragon, Liekki.”
He growled, and the air around her rumbled, causing that pulsing in her thighs to zip upward and zone in on one area, the needy nub, the commander of her sex.
Her clit throbbed.
Liekki’s lips curved in a wicked smile, and he inhaled deeply as if he knew what he was doing to her.
“Do you need a reminder?Should I back you up to one of the stone tables and kiss you again, let you have another taste of my fire, little lure?”
The table.The kiss.She recalled the hot, honeyed sweetness of his kiss, so deliciously intoxicating she’d felt as if she drank in fire that inebriated her.Had that been his dragon in that kiss?
Even as her mind played back the image in the Great Hall, Liekki persisted.He tipped his head to the side, his lips brushing her as he spoke, “I promise if I kiss you, I won’t stop there, and I’ll have you here until the sun rises again.”
Her breath stuttered in her chest.She ached from the top of her head where he still gripped her to the pads of her feet.She wanted to scream for him to take her, for him to spread her out across the stones and bury himself so deep they’d be merged for hours and days.
But sense won out.She was sure that lying on hard stone all night would become more than uncomfortable at some point.“No.Not here.”
After a few beats, Liekki released her and stepped back.“Then I need to shift so my dragon can carry you.”
When he continued to back up, she knew she only had seconds before Liekki felt he had enough distance to shift so that his dragon wouldn’t be on top of her when it appeared.She called out, “Wait.”
She didn’t move closer this time as she halted his shifting.
