lifted up as a shining example of an honorable and skilled dragon shifter.
Not Lyndi.
The image of her living with the Red Clan in Mt. Everest, and the treatment she’d no doubt received there—ignored, set aside, devalued—set his bones on edge, his dragon pushing at him from inside.
Female-born dragon shifters were rare. Maybe even more so than phoenixes these days given that the firebirds kept crawling out of the woodworks.
“What do you think you’re doing under there?”
Levi jerked up at the sound of Lyndi’s demand and smacked his head into the disposal. Good thing he had a hard head.
He ducked and sat up out of the cabinet to find her standing at his feet, legs apart, arms crossed. “Fixing a leaky sink,” he said.
“Who asked you to?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Does it not need fixing? Don’t be a grump, Lyndi.”
Her cat-like eyes narrowed, and damn if she wasn’t adorable. “I’m not being a grump.”
“You just don’t like other people helping because you want to prove you can do it yourself. Is that it?”
Her lips twitched, just a quiver, but he caught it.
In a swift move, he lifted both hands and tapped the backs of her knees so that they buckled and she fell forward, dropping to straddle him. He caught her by the waist so she wouldn’t get hurt, lowering her the last bit slowly.
Hands on his chest, where she’d caught herself, the touch a firebrand through his shirt, she stared at him with wide eyes, lips parted, and he grinned, waiting for it.
“Let me go,” she whispered, hardly a sound. “The boys.”
He cocked his head. “That’s all you’re worried about?”
“We shouldn’t—”
He didn’t even let her get through the word, using his hands at her waist to press her down into the hard bulge of his erection, grinding up into her and throbbing harder at the shuddering gasp that escaped her.
“I don’t like that word,” he growled.
“There’s a lot of reasons why,” she insisted. She wasn’t wrong. But she also didn’t move away. That alone was a thousand percent progress in the right direction.
“It’s important that you keep me honest.”
Black eyebrows winged up. “Honest?”
He nodded. “By making sure I know my ass from my elbow when it comes to making you co—”
She surged forward and slapped both hands down on his mouth. “Don’t even think of finishing that sentence.”
Levi chuckled then planted a tender kiss on her palm. Her springtime scent was starting to get to him. With one hand he pulled her hands away then drew one of her fingers into his mouth, sucking gently, captivated by the way her breathing synced to his rhythm, her breasts shifting with each inhalation, followed by a tiny rocking motion of her body that might just embarrass them both if she kept it up.
With reluctance, he let her finger go. “Lyndi, if you keep looking at me like you want to lick me in return, I might just let you. Stretch those pretty lips around my thick cock like we did this morning and be damned to whoever walks in here.” He made sure to say it low enough that none of the boys might actually overhear. Just her.
“Holy shit.” Lyndi smacked him in the chest by way of shoving herself off his body and backed up.
Levi just grinned and leaned back, hands linked behind his head. “What? Too soon?” He only had a week. He didn’t have time to wait any longer.
She just shook her head. “Too everything.”
She spun and headed for the door. “After you finish the sink, the one in the third-floor bathroom needs a look,” she called over her shoulder.
Then disappeared. Running as usual. Someday, he wanted to see her run to him, rather than away.
Claim, his dragon rumbled, a questioning inflection at the end.
For two centuries, between Levi shutting down his instincts and Lyndi shutting him out at every turn, the strength of that initial gut instinct had waned through the years.
But it had never gone away fully. No wonder his dragon was confused as fuck.
Chapter Six
Lyndi hated being separated from her boys. Every time she drove or flew away, she worried that she was leaving them vulnerable. Attor was there, or someone else, always. But still…
Despite “traditionalists” not being happy about them, technically her boys weren’t rogues. They lived with a large group of their kind—basically a colony by themselves. They should be safe, but the inherent biases demonstrated by the Alaz team and the Alliance didn’t make Lyndi feel safe. Not by a long shot.
It scared