Citrine’s skin was practically buzzing with the rush of heated excitement. It felt like his dragon would set everything ablaze if he didn’t give his mate what she wanted this very instant.

And even if this was something very different in his mind than in Robbie’s, this was the one way he knew he couldn’t hold back any longer.

He took the stairs two at a time as he made his way through Robbie’s home and, at her direction, found her room and opened the door. Her room was an interesting mix of childhood trinkets and modern furnishings, with a desk and a laptop for working and pictures on walls and in frames.

The kind of memorabilia Citrine didn’t have from his prior life and didn’t care to collect in this one. But maybe he would with Robbie. Maybe he’d finally have memories he wanted to capture now that he’d found his mate.

He laid Robbie down on the bed and came over her, closing his lips over hers once again, wanting to drink as deeply of his mate as he possibly could. She moaned lightly, the safe silence of the empty house enveloping them in privacy.

Her lips tasted of roses. The warmth of her body next to him was like autumn sunshine, warm and refreshing.

When he dipped his tongue into her mouth this time, she opened, wanting more. And as he stroked, as he tested her and found the most sensuous spots, her body tensed beneath him, curling into the bed from the arousal of it.

When he finally ended the kiss, she practically had to gasp to catch her breath.

“I just… I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she murmured excitedly.

“Yet here we are,” Citrine said, his mouth coming to the base of her neck and sucking on the soft skin there, making her let out a light squeak as the sensation overtook her.

Citrine had seen her thoughts. He’d known ever since he came how badly she wanted him. Had she felt that way when they worked together in Seattle? If so, how had he missed it?

Regardless, he wasn’t going to miss a single thing about her now.

His hands found the curves at her sides, teasing him beneath the oversized shirt she wore. Then, as he continued to kiss her neck, moving in widening circles as he reached the base of her ear, he reached higher, squeezing her breasts softly through her bra.

“Oh, yes. More.” She sighed, sounding carried away with satisfaction.

Resisting the urge to use his claw to cut through the buttons of her shirt, he instead tore it apart, sending buttons flying every which way into the far reaches of her room.

But Robbie didn’t even seem to mind as he pulled the shirt away from her, almost in a trancelike state of arousal, accepting everything he gave. He quickly undid the clasp of her bra, then pulled it and her shirt off around her shoulders, and immediately kissed one nipple, already peaked and wanting.

She moaned more loudly at that, writhing beneath him as he straddled her on the bed. When he seized the other nipple between his lips, she did it again, hands grasping desperately into the sheets beside her as if she had nothing to hold on to.

That wouldn’t do.

Pausing for a second, he plucked her hands in his and wrapped them around the back of his neck, and she looked up at him, surprised.

“Hold me. Only me,” Citrine said. Then kissed her breasts, this time squeezing them with his hands as he did.

As she tightened, her fingers dug into his skin, urging him, pulling him closer, deeper into their pleasure.

But he was already in over his head. And with each passing second, it only became more apparent.

While he rubbed one thumb over a nipple, pressing into it lightly and making her back arch from pleasure, his other hand found the button of her jeans, flicking it open and pulling the zipper down. His hand dipped beneath her silky panties, and he felt delicious wetness as he explored her soft folds.

It wasn’t until his finger found her center, stroking it lightly with a few small motions, that he truly felt Robbie’s strength, her nails raking his back and shoulders with surprising force.

But Citrine wasn’t at all worried she’d break skin. His natural toughness would protect him. But even if it didn’t, it was only evidence of how badly she wanted him. How well they matched, how perfectly made for him she was. The missing piece to his jigsaw puzzle.

He stroked once more, and she came for the first time in his arms, grasping as she cried out in overwhelming pleasure and release. She was so beautiful, so unfettered and unrestrained, that it transcended anything he’d experienced before.

For several long seconds, it overtook her. But when it finally passed, he started once again, determined to see his woman in that beautiful state as much as possible.

Even as an eternal dragon, there was but one life to live. And he intended to use it in service of his mate.

He went into a steady rhythm against the tiny nub with his finger, flicking then pressing lightly, then making small circles in reversing directions as she tried desperately to hold back however she could.

But it was no use. And when she came again, this time his name was on her lips, muttered between oaths and sharp gasps of air as she lost all control of her body momentarily.

Weeks of searching. A lifetime of waiting. This made everything worth it.

When she was able to relax, he looked into his mate’s eyes. Deep, velvety brown, and so beautiful. Her cheeks were flushed, her expression aroused and uncertain.

“Should we stop?” she asked.

“Do you want to stop?”

There was a momentary pause. Then she shook her head, a slight smile curling at the corner of her lips as she looked up at him in anticipation.

“Then hold on,” Citrine said, pulling off her jeans and underwear in one smooth motion, then spreading her legs as he began to lower his head between her hips.

* * *

White sensation brighter than the sun shot through Robbie’s body as Citrine’s tongue covered her clit. She almost came right there, forcing her eyes open to look down at him. Everything, from his gorgeous, thick dark hair to his symmetrical features to his burning amber eyes, made her arousal that much hotter.

He radiated dominance, controlling her pleasure, giving her everything she could have never dreamed of having, showing her things she didn’t even know about herself.

Like with the wood chopping earlier, he was poetry in motion, masculine body controlled and positioned solely for her.

Robbie tried to hold off, tried to think unsexy thoughts to last a little bit longer. But how could she focus on anything but the electricity coursing through her and the overwhelmingly sexy man now giving her everything her heart desired?

Orgasm ripped through her again, and this time her fingers gripped his hair as tight pleasure culminated in an explosion of release to every finger, every toe, every far reach of her body.

“Citrine, I…” She trailed off, stuck between wanting to go further, go all the way with this man, and the niggling fear that she would ruin everything if she jumped the gun on this. Responsibility and want had never been more at odds in her entire life.

“Just one more,” Citrine said—no, more like commanded. The wolf in her responded to him unlike anyone else she’d ever met. She was an alpha, the top of the food chain, beholden to no one.

Yet when she was around him like this, when she felt the raw masculine passion he kept hidden behind the veneer of self-control and pleasant smiles, it made the wolf inside her want to howl.

Yet she knew he would stop if she wanted. Knew that he was only reading her desires, giving her what her body wanted, even when her mind tried to logic its way out of so much goodness it felt her heart could burst.

Robbie finally just nodded in response, and Citrine came down between her hips once more. She was so sensitive now, so taut that even the warmth of his breath lightly coursing over her threatened to tip her over the edge.

But she’d never known so much desire since the day Citrine had walked into her life. And now the gate was open. It was like an open dam spilling forth with limitless need that could only be sated by the man himself.

She felt his tongue lightly flick against her clit. Then he moved slightly and looked at up at her, wanting her attention.

“Can I?” he asked, stroking her entrance.

“Oh, hell yes,” she said.

She then felt another sensation deep inside as he entered her with one, then two fingers. The feeling was as arousing as it was exciting, setting off tiny sparks and awakening her to a new kind of want. A want to be joined with him, body to body.

Robbie’s wolf howled at that, and she tried to ignore it as, with its last ounce of strength, her body resisted the waves of pleasure that were fast approaching.

But Citrine was unrelenting as his warm, wet tongue covered her and his fingers thrust inside her at the same time. Friction and motion working in tandem that felt so good it would be confusing if it wasn’t also so clarifying.

There could be no worries about the future, fretting about the past when all she could focus on was this moment between the two of them.

Citrine hooked a finger within her, stroking somewhere that made her spine jolt from the sheer sensitivity of it, and she came. This time, Citrine came above her, holding her as she held him so tightly it was as if her life depended on it.

The only word on her lips was his name, over and over. But it felt natural, even right, as she drowned in the depths of her release for what felt like an eternity, then came back up for air, still in his arms when she surfaced, surrounded by his embrace.

For what felt like minutes, she just held him, not wanting to let go of this fantasy that she’d somehow been swept up in instantly. Outside the door to her room lay the world, the reality of what her life was and her destiny as an alpha responsible for her pack. In her, she was just a woman, a woman with wants and needs and a man who showed he could fulfill all of those if she only let him.

But perhaps that was the point. Tomorrow was going to come whether she wanted it to or not. And the next day. It was much better to stand and face it head on than simply dreading it.

There was an opportunity in front of her if she could just get up the gumption and simply reach out and take it.