To Enchant a Dragon by Amanda Milo Page 0,18

her mate.

I suppose it is almost exactly the same, because I think she’s realizing that she’s also truly mine.

“I’ll never see my sisters again,” she whispers brokenly. “I’ll never race the sea with them like before. Even if I could, it’ll never be the same again. I’ll always want to be with you instead.”

Releasing one of her wrists, I bring my fingers down to trace the sides of her face, teasing her hair from where it sticks to the dampened corners of her eyes, her cheek. “Then it’s really only fair. Because if I had my wings back right now, I would never fly away from you. Fly with you, but never away, Adella. You’re mine, and I don’t care if you’re not ready yet to hear this—but I’m proud that you’ve claimed me as yours.”

My words seem to stun her. “I can’t believe I’ve claimed a dragon.”

I move in to nuzzle her lips. “And yet you have,” I say against them smugly. My hand wraps possessively over the swollen, honey-dripping mess that she’s let me make between her legs. Again. “Thoroughly.”

She pinches me in the side. “You don’t have to smirk that little smirk when you announce it!”

“I didn’t.” There wasn’t anything ‘little’ about it. There is nothing little about me. I knock her knees apart, intent on proving it as many times as she’d like.

“You did too! I can feel it against my—”

I steal a kiss.

“Lips,” she finishes, trying not to smile. “And—”

I kiss her again. Instead of giving her a chance to speak, I say right against her mouth, “Let’s go back to your cove.”

Adella goes still under me. She even stops trying to hitch her thighs higher over my back so that my cock takes more of her cunt. “What did you say?” she breathes.

I move my kisses down her throat, my aim for the muscle pounding like a wild thing just below her breastbone. “If you were a dragon, I’d say that it’s time to join our families. We’re committed to each other. And mate-territoriality is for early love. We’re an established pair. It’s safe now.”

“Committed,” she repeats, like the meaning of the word means caged, not dedicated loyalty between loving mates.

But my mate is not a dragon, I know now to remind myself. We’ve had many days together, many discussions. She isn’t instantly going to think as a female dragon would, or come to any of the conclusions that I would think natural.

But she’s still a female.

She’s still my female.

And she has finally declared that she loves me.

I kiss over her heart, my eyes falling shut when her fingers card through my hair, her nails gliding up my scalp, even if her movements are a little jerky, belying her uncertainty over the depth of her feelings for me, her fear. But at my groan, she relaxes. She scritches me with purpose, and—scorched and lemon-zested sheep! I love it when she does this.

I bite her breast, making her shriek in surprise, and shove inside of her, taking her up on the invitation she thought she was secretly going to distract me with.

But this time, when she’s near to coming, I stop.

I even—much to my agony as well as hers—force myself to pull out of her.

“What are you doing?” she cries in frustration, her fingernails attempting to shred my shoulder muscles.

I wait until I have her eyes, then I say, “You’re mine. I’m yours. I want to hear you say it without panicking this time.”

Mulishly, she shakes her head in refusal.

I grin down at her, and with slow teases of my hips, I find my way inside her again, pumping until her mouth falls open, thrusting into her slowly. “My Adella, my love. I didn’t think there was anything I wanted more than to make you come.”

I pull out.

Adella sucks in a deep breath, her eyes showing all her caginess. “Kalos. Don’t do this.”

I slide down her body, my shoulders forcing her thighs to stay spread, my arm locking over her hips, pinning her in place for me. “All you need to do is tell me how you feel. That’s what I want more than anything. Then you get to come.”

Her eyes are narrow slits. “Right now, I don’t think you really want to hear how I feel about you.”

I kiss her mons, then nuzzle it with my nose, making her breath whoosh out of her in anticipation. I roll my eyes up to hers. “Just remember. Three words and I’ll make you come so hard