When Max returned a short time later, he had a black towel wrapped around his lean hips and his long blond hair and feathers were wet.
“You showered?”
Nodding, he headed back to his pallet on the floor.
He’d also shaved. The fresh, clean scent of soap and dragonswain set her head reeling. But the sight of his stitches across his abdomen, where Carson had tended him, reminded her that he was in no condition for what her hormones wanted.
Too bad, that.
As he lay down, she was overwhelmed by the sheer size of him in his human body. While he wasn’t as large like this as he was as a dragon, he was still a good-sized creature. Still ferocious and delicious.
“You keep looking at me like that and you’re going to have to fulfill that silent promise in your eyes.”
She scowled. “What promise?”
“To climb on top of me and ride me like a giddy kid on the mechanical horse outside of Piggly Wiggly with a sack full of quarters.”
Her jaw dropped. “I’m not completely sure what that analogy means, but —”
He interrupted her words with a scorching kiss that left her breathless and dizzy. “I think you know exactly what I mean.” And to prove his point, he pressed her hand against the bulge under his towel.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
Laughing, he nipped at her lips and then her chin. “You’re worth the pain.”
“Maxis!”
“It’s true.” He slid his hand under her shirt to cup her breast and tease her hardened nipple with his thumb. “Make love to me, Sera. I’ve lived too long away from you.”
“And I, you.” She reached down between them to remove his towel. Her breath caught as she stared at his unadorned beauty. He was unbelievably handsome and fierce.
Best of all, he was hers.
And he watched her with a hunger that was its own form of foreplay. One that made her want to please and tease him until he was as giddy as the child he’d described with the sack full of quarters.
Rising to her feet, she slowly stripped for him like she used to, delighting in the murmurs of pleasure that escaped his lips as he watched her peeling her clothes off. When she was finally naked, he reached for her and pulled her close enough that he could lave her breast while his hands gently stroked and caressed her body.
Her heart pounded as she savored his touch and did her own exploration of his long, hard, muscled flesh. She’d always loved spreading her hands over the massive planes of his back. Feeling the texture of it and the flexing of his muscles as he moved.
“You are exquisite,” she breathed.
“And you are beautiful.” He tongued her ear until chills sprang all over her arms. Laughing, he slowly slid his fingers up her thigh, to the center of her body where she craved his touch most. She groaned out loud at how good his touch felt while he gently played and teased until she was so hot and breathless that she was on the verge of coming.
But this wasn’t how she wanted it to end. And definitely not this soon. Pushing him back, she straddled him and gently impaled herself on his body.
Gasping, Max gripped her hips and thrust against her, driving himself in even deeper.
Afraid he’d hurt himself, she adjusted her weight until he was forced to surrender all control over to her.
The smile on his face made her heart beat faster. “I see what you’re doing. I’m all yours, my lady dragon. Have your wicked way with me until your heart’s content.”
She buried her hands in his damp hair and slowly rode him until they came in unison. Only then did she slide off him and lay by his side as she listened to his ragged breathing.
Closing his eyes, Max held her as he savored the familiar New Orleans and Sanctuary sounds blending with her precious breaths.
So familiar and so alien. Nothing would ever be the same again.
“Where do we go from here, Sera?”