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She shifts her hips and drags her pussy over me. Her heat burns straight through my boxers. I buck to chase it.

“Goddamn, Aya,” I groan.

She grinds down on my dick until I’m damp with her. “I could smell you all night last night.” She smirks. “Your dragon wanted me.”

“We need to—” I have to stop and start over. “We need to talk.”

Talking is not happening. I shove my boxers down and kick them off. I take myself in hand and drag my tip up through her slit nice and slow. She gasps and arches over me, already soaked.

“Charity. Later. Why you ran. Also later.” I push into her. She opens for me until I bottom out. She moans long and low while her walls grip and flutter around me. I hold still. If I move now, I’m done before she starts. She rides me easy at first.

I cup her breasts and circle my thumbs over her nipples until they draw up tight. She whimpers and rolls her hips harder. I suck the left one into my mouth and tongue it while she works herself on my dick. Her skin tastes like salt. She digs her fingers into my shoulders, and the headboard knocks the wall. When I switch sides, she shudders against me.

With my arm around her waist, I take the pace from her. I drive up and bring her down to meet each thrust. She cries out at the new angle and rakes her nails down my sides. This position is hell on my back, but my dragon doesn’t care.

I kiss along her throat. “Look at me.” Her silver eyes are blown wide when she does, her lips parted. I don’t blink. I thrust up into her again and watch her face come apart.

I pull her down into a kiss and swallow the sounds she makes chasing her release. She rocks into me harder. I tighten my grip and give her everything she’s working for. She screams into my mouth while her whole body locks up. My vision whites out when her walls clamp around me.

She keeps bouncing on me through it until I can’t think. I come with her on a shout that’s too loud for the room, and I don’t give a damn. I pour everything I have into her. The claim mark on my neck throbs. My eyes roll back. My thighs shake under her while she wrings every last shudder out of me. When there’s nothing left, she slumps onto my chest.

Her breathing slows and evens out. I pop her ass. She makes an indignant noise, but she’s too tired to mean it.

I squeeze her. “This isn’t over.”

“Shut up and sleep,” she grumbles.

My laugh pulls at the healing skin across my shoulder. She’s already boneless and drifting off. With my dragon quiet and my mate sprawled over me, I close my eyes.

34

AYA

My eyes snap open at the sound of footsteps coming up to the door, but I don’t move. Ezra’s arm lies heavy across my waist with his breath puffing warm against the back of my neck. His skin has run hot on mine all night. Our sheets smell like us. If it were up to me, I’d stay in bed until his wings finish healing. I’d feed him and not let a soul up the stairs.

It’s not up to me, though. Someone is on our porch. I sit up naked and look down at Ezra. He winces as he wakes. My chest pinches to see him hurting. His back still aches from the fight. I catch a whiff of lavender. It’s my cousin Samara, Angie’s youngest daughter. What is she doing here? She’s alone. I can smell that much. Since when does she leave home without her coven of sisters? Tiana and Kiara are always close behind her. My wolf stirs. She’s every bit as curious as I am.

Samara knocks on the door, and I climb off the bed with a groan. When Ezra tries to sit up, I growl.

“Lie back down,” I tell him. “It’s just my cousin.”

He ignores me and sits up the rest of the way. I pull some underwear from the dresser, then a pajama shirt with its matching shorts. I finger-comb my hair and turn around. “I’ll be right back. Let me see what she wants, and then I’ll get you something to eat.”

I walk over to kiss him, but Ezra wraps his hand around the back of my neck and deepens it. I giggle and sink into him. He moves his mouth slow and sure against mine. The bond pulls warm and low in my belly. He can hardly stay upright, but he takes his sweet time with me. He’s my mate. I’m still getting used to the word, but I already know I’ll never get tired of it.

When he finally releases me, his brows pull together. You’d think I was leaving him for a week instead of walking downstairs. I tap his chest. “Ezra, you are impossible. But go ahead, meet me down there if you want.” I hold his gaze. “Just like I have to learn to let you take care of me, you have to do the same. We take care of each other. Not one over the other.”

He nods, then breathes out, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I’m leaning in to kiss him again when my cousin cuts us off.

Samara’s voice carries up from the porch. “I know you can hear and smell that I’m here. Did I come at a bad time?”

I head for the hall. When Ezra pushes to his feet behind me with a hiss, I frown at him over my shoulder.

I jog down the stairs and open the front door. Samara stands on the porch with gold constellations stitched on her dark cloak and a crescent moon at its hem. She’s the shortest of Angie’s girls and nearly disappears inside it. Her braids are pulled back and hang long down her back. Her freckles glow blue over her nose and forehead.

She steps in as soon as I pull the door wider. “I’m here for my mom, since she…”