He’d always loved that most about her. It was nothing for her to come home and playfully flip him to the ground so that she could straddle him. Sometimes she’d stalked him through the woods whenever he went to bathe. As soon as he’d stripped his clothes, she’d pounced like a predator, raining kisses and caresses all over his body.
Even now, she rolled him to his back so that she could lave and taste his chest and abdomen. She lived to be the more aggressive one in bed. It was as if she had something to prove to them both. And he was man enough to give her the lead and lay back and enjoy her play. To let her have her way with his body.
He hissed as she bit his ribs, then went lower to lick and tease his hip bone while her hand cupped his sac and gently massaged him to the point he could barely restrain himself.
“Sera?” He pulled her hand away as he panted with pleasure. “It’s been far too long for you to do that. I fear my control isn’t what it used to be.”
A small pout tempted him even more. “Then I shall have to get you back into fighting shape.” Her wicked little grin enchanted him until she leaned down to take him into her mouth.
“Oh dear gods,” he gasped as everything spun. For a full minute, he was sure he’d explode as her mouth worked its magic on his body. But then just as he was about to lose all control, she gave one long lick to him and crawled up his body until she could smile down at him.
Max sank his hands into the wealth of red curls as they cascaded over her pale shoulders and concealed her plump, full breasts. “My Seramia.”
Seraphina cherished the endearment that she’d missed more than she’d realized. “My precious dragon.” Leaning forward, she kissed those incredible lips before she slid herself onto him.
They moaned in unison. Biting her lip, she took a moment to savor the large, thick fullness of him inside her. No one had ever felt the way he did. Not because he was a dragon, but because she loved him. And as he slowly lifted his hips to thrust against her, she trembled. “I want you to know that I never broke faith with you, Maxis. Since the day we were mated, I’ve never taken another lover.”
“Why?”
“I just couldn’t. No matter how bad it was during my cycle, I didn’t want anyone else. I’d look at other men and they weren’t you.”
The smile on his face warmed her thoroughly. “Thank you.”
Taking his hands, she led them to her breasts as she leaned back and rode him the way she’d dreamed of doing every night since he’d been gone. He filled her completely. And there for a minute, she forgot about everything else. About all the years that had divided them.
Max surrendered himself to her completely. But then he’d always done that. She had a way of reaching past any and all defenses he put up. It was why he’d been forced to leave her. Because she was the one thing he couldn’t say no to.
Ever.
She was his sanctuary.
And his worst hell. For her, there was nothing he wouldn’t do. Even consign himself to death.
When she came in his arms, he held her close and joined her there in that perfect peace. And as they panted, he felt his heartbeat speed up as the thirio rose in his blood. It was an animalistic need to combine his life force with hers so that he wouldn’t be forced to live without her again. It was something all unbonded Were-Hunters felt whenever they had sex with their mates.
He’d made the mistake once of asking her to bond with him. And while her words of declination had been kind, the look of absolute horror in her hazel eyes was forever seared in his heart. It had shriveled a part of his soul to see that harsh reaction.
That rejection.
So he held her in his arms and didn’t bother repeating that nightmare.
Seraphina listened to the fierce pounding of Max’s heart beneath her chin as she traced circles over his chest and around his nipple. Her own heartbeat was trying to synchronize to his. To bond with it. She could even feel her teeth elongate for the ceremony that would fully unite them.
In life and death.
And in her mind, she remembered when Max had first asked her to. It’d been right after they’d been mated. After she’d tossed the knife away and accepted him.
His unexpected request had shocked her.
Now…
“Would you bond with me, Maxis?”
He went completely still and turned rigid around her. “Pardon?”
Lifting herself up, she looked down at him. “Can we bond?”
A light scowl drew his brows together as he brushed the hair back from her face. “There is nothing on this earth I’d like more…”
“Then why do I sense a but in your tone of voice?”
“You know the but. I’m under a death warrant, with pretty much every Were-Hunter in existence gunning for me. And we have two dragonets who need their mother to watch over them. I can’t risk the chance that I fall and take you with me to the grave.”
“I won’t let them have you.”
He tightened his arms around her. “And that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you. But I can’t accept a bond with you right now.”
Wishing for things to be different, Seraphina laid her head on his chest and touched the mark on his leg. “How do we stop the demons who want you?”