would be the one to have her this time—not the Heat.
He lifted a hand to her face, settling his palm on her cheek and splaying his fingers to slide them into her dark hair. Her eyes met his, and he did not look away. Staring into those dark, soulful orbs, he rolled his hips, pushing deeper into her. Her breath hitched.
“My mate,” he rumbled, trailing the tip of his thumb claw along her delicate jaw.
“Yours.” Elliya wrapped her legs around his waist. “And you are mine, Falthyris.”
She had spoken that claim before, but he did not resist it this time, did not reject it. Those words only heightened his arousal, only built more pressure in him.
Pulling his hips back, he drove into her again. “Forever.”
They held each other’s gazes as their bodies moved in a new, sensual rhythm, flowing as smoothly as the river around them, as swiftly as their racing hearts. The surrounding world fell away—the blue sky, the cool water, the smooth stones underfoot, the canyon and the comet’s curse; all of it ceased to exist.
Elliya was Falthyris’s universe. She perfumed the air that filled his lungs, her warmth seeped into his scales, her hooded eyes kept him enraptured. The splashes of pink on her cheeks and her full lips was all the color he’d ever need, the gleam in her eyes all the light he could crave. The slide of her sex around his shaft was ecstasy. Each stroke made his legs feel weak, made his belly tighten, made his throat constrict and a thrill arc across his body.
The pressure became too much, the pleasure and pain too strong. Only she could provide him relief. Only she could provide him release.
He quickened his thrusts, the tips of his claws grazing her scalp. Her sex quivered and contracted an instant before pleasure overcame her. Grasping his face between her hands, she slanted her mouth over his, caressing his lips as she moaned.
That contact between their mouths, for which he had yearned since the first and only time she’d done it, was the spark that set off the explosion within him. His wings snapped out and swept around Elliya, wrapping her in their embrace. His rhythm faltered, and he growled against her lips as his seed burst from him on a wave of sheer rapture so intense that stars pulsed across his vision and his mind shattered into a million pieces.
But that did not stop the pleasure, and he’d not had enough. Through pure willpower, he forced his pelvis to keep moving, creating more of that sweet, torturous friction, coaxing out more of his seed and wracking his body with shudders.
Elliya clung to him, tearing her mouth away to press her forehead to his, her breathy moans ragged in her throat. Her essence flooded him even as her sex greedily milked him for more, and he obliged her body’s demands as best he could.
When finally there was nothing more to give, and they were simply clinging to each other, chests heaving and breath labored, Falthyris sank onto his knees. The river water flowed cool and gentle around their bodies, easing the heat of their mating.
“Press your lips to mine again, Elliya,” he commanded.
She lifted her head and chuckled. The soft vibrations of the sound coursed through her body and straight to his cock, making it twitch inside her.
“You wish for a kiss?” she asked.
“Is that what you call it? A kiss?” He grazed her bottom lip with a claw, and her tongue flicked out to lick it. Another spark of hunger roared within him.
“It is.”
Falthyris slid his hand back to grasp her hair, angling her face toward his. His heartfire blazed. As great as his pleasure had been, as incredible as this joining had proven, he was ravenous for more of her. “Your mate demands a kiss, female.”
The corners of her mouth curled up in a wicked little smile. “And if I refuse, dragon?”
“Then I will plead for one.”
“Dragon, you do not—”
Falthyris slammed his mouth against hers, silencing her words, stealing her breath, and claiming what was his.
12
Elliya fell upon Falthyris’s chest, panting, her body thrumming deliciously in the aftermath of her orgasm. Her sex quivered around her dragon’s hard cock, which was still buried inside her. Her thighs were coated in his seed and her essence, and the rest of her skin bore a sheen of sweat.
A contented rumble rolled through Falthyris’s chest. He kneaded her back, thighs, and ass with his clawed fingers, seeming to want to