To Enchant a Dragon by Amanda Milo Page 0,12

humor in it. “I was going to say I’d start a great fire. Creator, I should be able to do at least that much as a man—and I don’t even know how.”

His forehead thuds against my shoulder, making me jump.

“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he mumbles. “Just… counting my failings as a mate and finding them too numerous to bear.”

Tentatively, I pat his chest. “I believe that you mean well, Kalos.”

At my use of his name, he shudders. Then his lips find my shoulder blade, and he leaves a light touch of them against my skin and says, “I vow to you that I do mean well. And if I can get us through tonight, I promise I will learn ways to do better. For you. For both of us.”

He looks at me then, straight at me, and I see determination, and steel... and a longing like I’ve never experienced before.

As a mermaid, I am a lover of men. Sailors, mostly, and whatever fisherman stumbles to our coastline—men who take one look at the nubile young women in the water and start counting their lucky stars. Those men see our faces and breasts and are filled with temporary lusts.

My dragon sees me as more entrancing than a shiny-winged insect (I smile when I think of our shark-and-dragonfly discussion), but I’m really not sure what he considers beautiful beyond that. He seems to see me, Adella, and not just a pretty face or pert breasts barely covered behind seashells. He doesn’t know me, but he’s made it more than clear that he desperately wants the chance to show me that he can be a good mate to me.

He hasn’t had the easiest day either. For him, I’m the biggest mistake of his life. I could leave him now and never look back. He will pine for me forever, if his claim of matehood to me is to be believed. Rather than curse his luck, he’s trying to make the best of this. He’s failing, and it’s upsetting him.

He could use comfort, as could I. “Kalos?” I ask.

His eyes have not wavered from gazing into mine. It’s a little intoxicating. “Hmm?”

I slip out of my seashells, pressing my breasts against his chest. I almost smile at his stunned expression as my nipples drag over his skin. He must be more sensitive now than he ever could be in his dragon form.

“Would you lie with me?”

Instead of leaping at my offer, Kalos blinks down at me like he’s trying to wake himself up from a dream, even a pleasant one. His gaze skips around us, lips slightly parted on account of his jaw falling slack, and he takes in our surroundings like he can’t quite believe we’re here, or that I’ve asked him if he’d like to spend this night in my arms.

He snorts in his apparent disbelief, and I have to grin as there’s the tiniest puff of dragonsmoke.

I reach up and take his face in my hands. “I’m asking you if you want to comfort me. I was thinking that you’d like a little succor yourself.”

Purpose and resolve chase over his face before his mouth sets in a solemn line. “I would like this very much.”

And the man who believes himself to be my mate dips his head and meets his mouth to mine.

CHAPTER 8

KALOS

My cock, even with my body in this form, does not quite belong to a human man, I don’t think. Mine is ridged, with oil-glands along the sides and two feathery extensions at the end for tickling my mate’s inner channel.

They’re waving towards her now, hungry. And skydrakes above, I want to sink into this female like I have never wanted anything else in all my lifespan.

I grab myself at the base and angle the tip for her opening, grasping her hip with my other hand and bending my knees to bring our bodies more in line.

Adella catches my wrist and pushes my hand away from my cock. “No, Kalos.”

My gaze locks to hers and I stare at her in mist-minded confusion. I’m completely at a loss for what she was asking for if not this. “No?” Lust makes my tongue thick.

“Not yet,” she replies, laughter lacing her words. And she takes my fingers and uses me to pet herself from her breasts all the way down her stomach.

“Oh,” I utter, my voice rougher than I intend. All along the length of her belly, she is silk.

She guides me lower still, and I find that there’s something