Page 46 of Dragon’s Ending

About to inform him he could molest me any time now, and preferably soon, the words came out in a strangled gurgle that I would deny to my dying day. Because Ben had drawn one of my balls into his mouth, hot and wet, sucking gently.

And when he wrapped his hand around my cock, it took embarrassingly little time for me to lose it.

I pulled blindly at him and he came up the bed to me, and we kissed, deep and messy, and I never wanted it to end.

But of course it did, eventually. And I saw the moment where Ben’s brain turned on again, the way his gaze flicked away from mine, around the room, noting where his clothes were, before he rolled away from me. As if he were about to get out of bed. Leaving me.

“Stay,” I said, before I knew I was going to.

Fuck. I’d said that out loud. Broken every fucking rule I’d ever had.

He paused for an instant, and I couldn’t breathe.

Then he moved back against me, relaxing with a little sigh that sounded suspiciously happy. I tightened my arms around him.

Once I was sure he was there to stay, I let go just long enough to reach down and pull the covers up over us. Now we were no longer having enthusiastic sex, it was clear just how cold this damn house got.

He settled back into my hold, easy and confident as if he knew he belonged there. I had to stop myself taking deep, whuffling breaths against his neck, letting my dragon scent him, letting him know of this new addition to our treasure. We’d have time enough for that later.

“You okay?” he asked. “You sounded like you’ve been smoking thirty a day for the last twenty years.”

I laughed against his neck—I seemed to have buried my face there despite my best efforts—and he shivered. In a good way.

“I’m fine,” I told him, and pulled him even closer to me, just to let him know I meant it.

Yeah, my throat was always sore afterwards. No one had ever noticed before. Sure as hell no one had ever asked about it. I kept my face close against the warmth of his neck so that I didn’t do anything embarrassing like blurt out what that had meant to me. Someone asking if I was okay.

I’d known him one bloody week. I’d told myself not to do this, not to risk what had bizarrely become the best part of my day, sitting in a room surrounded by dusty papers written in three different languages. But the way he’d looked at me… I’d known that if I hadn’t kissed him, I’d have regretted it forever.

So I’d done it, and the entire bloody world had changed.

I snuffled against his hair, sealing his scent deep inside me, my dragon crooning softly. Mine. I wanted him to stay forever.

Chapter Nineteen

BEN

Rain pattered softly against the windows. Dominic’s arm was heavy across my body, holding me to him. I could still feel the imprint of him everywhere, on my mouth, my throat, my hips. Beneath my skin, somehow.

My hands were unclenched now, gentle on his arm and entirely different from when I’d wrapped them so tightly in his hair. And the sounds I’d made…

I’d had relationships before, good ones. Sex that was fun, affectionate, and hot. I’d been deepthroated before, for God’s sake. But none of it had ever done that to me. I didn’t understand how he’d done it. An orgasm was an orgasm, surely. Except apparently not.

I hadn’t been Ben anymore. Or maybe I had, and it was just a Ben I hadn’t yet met. A Ben I hadn’t let myself be. Hadn’t known I could be.

And through it all, I’d never once felt unsafe. He had me.

Here I was, naked in his bed and feeling more relaxed than I had with people I’d dated for years. The thought should have felt alarming. Instead I found myself loving every moment of this closeness. Dominic’s scent surrounded me, his breaths slow and sure against my hair. With the rain on the windows, this felt like something out of time. An escape capsule, just for us.

I’d been so sure he’d expect me to leave afterwards. I should have paid attention to his body, not to my brain panicking. I shouldn’t have made him say it. Stay.

I was drifting, lulled by his warmth, safe in his hold, when my eyes finally focused on what was standing on the windowsill.

I blinked at it for a second. Then I twisted in Dominic’s arms to look at him. “Is that a pine cone?”

“Maybe,” he said, drowsiness vanishing from his eyes, replaced by a gleam of lazy amusement.

“So were you Pine Cone Collector Zero, or is Teddy disposing of his collection?”