After marriage came sex. Mal was ready.

Cheryl had signed the marriage application. That was the human form of marriage. Now she must perform the dragon rites of opening her body to him.

His chosen bride licked her sweet lips and stood on tip toes to nuzzle him. “I do.”

Exaltation pounded through him.

He gathered her softness in his arms and flew her to his bedroom. She gasped as the floor fell away from her feet.

His wings ached to emerge and his scales jumped beneath his skin, but he suppressed both urges, holding onto his human form with iron control. He did not want to frighten her. And it was unnecessary—dragons mated in dragon form, but Cheryl could not. He would… what did humans call mating? Love? He would love her as a human.

There were already obvious differences. Dragons did not kiss. When he had heard of the strange human phenomena, he hadn’t been able to imagine why someone would want to mash their faces together, but now, he understood.

Cheryl tasted like an addiction. She made sweet noises that hardened his cock. He craved her more now than he had ever craved anything in his life.

He needed to taste her again.

Her small hands twined around the back of his neck. Accepting him. Needing him back.

He laid her in the center of his dragon-sized bed and ripped his clothes away, shredding them. He needed to press his nude form to hers.

She rose on her elbows and studied his nakedness with her wide brown eyes. This was a familiar look. Was she studying him even now like an artist?

He needed her to study him as a man.

“Touch me,” he commanded.

She sucked in a breath. “I’ve been looking for so long, I can’t believe I’m really here.”

“Believe.” Mal rolled on top of her, resting his weight on his knees and elbows, and flexed his biceps.

She sighed with pleasure.

But he needed more. He took her hand and pressed her cool palm to his hot belly.

Her eyes flew to his face. “Um…”

“You must touch me.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing. It won’t feel very good.”

“It will feel very good.” He pressed a kiss into her palm. “Now. Everywhere.”

She stroked his shoulder. Hesitant and soothing. Testing out his shape. Learning about the male she claimed.

“Yes,” his hissed into her ear, and sucked on her soft lobe.

She gripped his shoulders and moaned.

Moaning was what he needed. Her, out of control, driven by him to the edge of passion.

He rolled onto his back and flipped her on top. She squeaked. Her jeans-clad thighs straddled his abdomen. His shaft pressed against the seams.

Mal gripped her waist. The flat bones made the perfect rest for his large hands. He would grip here later when he thrust into her slick channel.

She teased her lower lip between her teeth. Her hands rested on her thighs. She stared at him with longing.

He needed more than stares.

“Touch!”

She jumped and brushed his pectorals with her fingertips. Feather-soft, at first, then harder, like an artist sculpting clay. Her thumbs tested his flat, dark aureoles and moved down the bulging ridges of his abdominal muscles.

Her tongue teased the corner of her lips and the color of her cheeks darkened. She rubbed her cleft against his shaft.

He throbbed with readiness.

She caressed his pectorals. Her touch owned him, imprinted her scent onto him. Now all females would know he belonged to her.

Her hands drifted lower. She scooted back. Her wide eyes fixed on his hard cock. Her pink tongue wet her lips.

He pulsed with her silent encouragement.

She hesitated.

“Cheryl,” he growled.

Her hungry gaze flicked to his eyes, then trailed down his wide chest, taut abdomen to the hard V and back to his proud cock. With shaking hands, she carefully wrapped her talented fingers around his long shaft.

Pleasure throbbed in his cock.

He thrust against her palms.

Surprise and then interest lit her features. Her beautiful lips parted. The syrupy scent of her arousal increased, clouding his mind with hunger. “Could you come like this?”

If she meant spill his seed, the answer was yes. “Immediately.”

Shock flashed in her eyes. “Just from me touching you?”

From her touch, and also from the blush warming her cheeks, and the sexual heat rising from her body, and her intoxicating taste still on his lips, and her sweet hips gyrating in too-tight jeans, and the scent of her arousal he, too, was going to possess.

Hot pleasure pooled in his scrotum and shot out of his cock, unloading in her hands and striping her clothes in his white, creamy semen.

“Yes,” he said.

Her surprise turned into a wonder-filled smile. She looked down at his markings, the peak of passion she had brought him to, and her wonder turned to a pleased expression.

She should be pleased. She had done this to him and it was only the beginning.

His cock hardened again in her dripping hands. “Now, you.”

Shadows of doubt crossed her face. “Me?”

“Take off your clothes.”

“Um, what do you mean? This is all new to me.”

“Me too. Clothes off.”

“Um, how about just the bottoms?”

“No. I must worship all of you.”

The shadows deepened. She released his cock, taking away the sweet pressure, and rolled off. She bounced upright, wiped her hands on her jeans, and crossed her arms over her hoodie-clad chest. “You don’t want to see that.”

“I do.”

“You think so because you haven’t seen me naked yet.” She scooted back an arm’s length. “You’ll lose your hard on.”

He rolled onto his knees and gripped his shaft. It quivered from how close he still was to passion. “That’s impossible.”

Her gaze focused on his arousal. She licked her lips and her cheeks stained a dark color again. Her hands went for the hem of her hoodie. “Okay. Turn out the light and I’ll do it.”

That was a terrible insult in the dragon world. She was a human and couldn’t know that, but it still held a sting.

He moved on his knees until he was right in front of her. “Cheryl.”

Her brows folded with concern. She bit her lip. Bargaining. “I could get under the covers.”

“I need you naked.”

“You don’t have to see everything to have sex.”

“I do.”

“No, you really don’t.”

He lowered his head so she felt the entire weight of his need in his gaze. “I do.”

Her forehead smoothed to curiosity. “You’re insistent about this.”

“A dragon who copulates for convenience will slip into a dark place with any partner. A dragon who wishes to take a mating flight with his wife will bare himself completely in the bright light, and her too, showing they know exactly who they are with. You cannot hide from me. Not now.”

She focused on his face again. Cautious hope fought with deeply embedded mistrust. “If I take everything off, do you promise you’re still going to want me?”

“Yes.”

She worried the hem of her hoodie between her fingers. “Um… well, I do want you to feel like this is real. But…” She tugged on the hem as though fighting with herself. “This is hard. I think you’ll have to help me.”

He released his shaft and pounced on her.

She collapsed under him with a willing sigh, as if it were easier to have this conversation when he was hard on top of her, grinding his implacable erection into her soft belly.

Her navy hoodie rubbed against his naked chest and her jeans caressed his cock. It was good to feel her through the interesting fabrics.

She closed her eyes. “This is more intense than I dreamed.”

“I need to touch you. I need to mark you. I need to possess you.”

She moaned. “I’m not special.”

“You are very special.”

“What do you mean?”

He pushed his hands up her hoodie and cupped her swelling breasts.

“Mal,” she gasped and arched her back, pressing her breasts into his hands and opening her body to him.

Although she was fearful of showing her nakedness to him, she did want his caress. Her hands circled his biceps to tug him closer, her legs twined his, and her mouth sought his.

He rewarded her with a long, soul-tingling kiss.

If she needed his help, he would help. Because he needed her.

He shoved the hoodie fabric up her chest, released the creamy globes from her bra, and took one dusky nipple into his mouth. She tasted like heaven. He sucked her unique flavor and swirled his tongue over the hardening pearl. His.

Her hands knotted in his hair. “Oh, god.”

She accepted him.

He needed all of her to accept all of him.

“Off,” he ordered and shoved the hoodie over her head.

She lifted her hands and shimmied out of it. Although she needed his help to start, she was a willing participant. Her beige bra went flinging over his shoulder. He yanked her jeans down, admiring her white cotton panties for one hot moment before tossing them aside to reveal her shimmering pink femininity.

She was magnificent. The line of her softly rounded shoulders led down to full handfuls of breasts, a shapely waist flared to her strong hips and curved thighs, and dark curls fringed her delicate feminine vee. The scent of her arousal intensified, hooking him by the nose like a lure.

His cock throbbed, threatening to stripe her in his juices right now.

She covered her jiggling breasts with both hands.

Cheryl did not want him.

Fear speared him in the center of his chest. He couldn’t get back his breath. The agony—turning away, refusing him after he had broken so many rules to present himself to her, denying his existence—twisted in his soul.

Not Cheryl too.

He reared back.

“Mal?”

“Reveal yourself to me!”

“What? Oh.” She blinked as though she hadn’t realized she was covering herself. “Oops. Sorry. I got distracted.”

“Why does distraction cause you to deny me?”

“I’m not denying you.” She rose on one hand, her other arm locked around her belly, and stared at him like he was crazy. “Hello? We are naked here. Having sex. I am very into this. That is the opposite of denying you.”

“You continue to cover yourself.”

“It happens.”

“It cannot happen!”

“Look, I’m shy! What’s your problem?”

He pushed her down on the bed onto her back. “I need it.”

“Huh?”

“I need your nakedness. It belongs to me.”

“Belongs?”

His implacable shaft pressed against her trembling cleft.

She moaned and rubbed against him.

He held her still. Pressing her bare chest to his bare chest. Her forehead to his forehead.

Her arm around her belly resisted their union. Resisted him. Her arm was her last barrier.

He waited for her to surrender.

She rubbed against him. Enticing him even with her arm crossed. “Mal. I want you. I’ve always wanted you.”

Her words were the balm his soul needed.

He nuzzled her. Their lips touched fire.

She was a human. He was too demanding. This was new to her. But it was new to him too, and he hadn’t realized he needed her to accept him. To accept him fully, as her lover, to reveal her naked body without any barrier between them.

He glowered his need into her shocked eyes. “I must have you. Give yourself to me.”

“I am. I’m trying.” She wiggled the arm between them, laughing a little about it and shaking her head in wonder. Her forehead wrinkled, tickling him. “I can’t believe you’re this desperate about me. I’m not special.”

There was that word again. Special. It must have a different meaning than the one he was familiar with.

“No,” he agreed since the other response hadn’t eased her fears. “You are Cheryl.”

She blinked.

“And I need you.” He murmured his truth, down to the great green honest heart of him. “I need all of you.”

Her flushed cheeks darkened at his lingering gaze. She lowered her arm… and covered her mound.

“Reveal yourself,” he ordered, desire roughening his voice.

She bit her lip. “Are you sure you’ll still want me?”

Her question awoke his deepest protective, possessive instincts.

She must never doubt herself again.

“You are life,” he growled. “I want you as I want my next breath.”

The fears in her sweet eyes dissolved under his steadfast promise. She moved aside her trembling hands.

He kissed down the slender column of her neck, squeezing her gently rounded buttocks for the tactile contact he craved.

She pushed into his caresses with pleasure-filled moans.

He trailed his tongue down her trembling belly, swirled his tongue in her belly button, the place that connected life in humans and in dragons, and continued to her soft cleft. Tasting her. Memorizing her. Luxuriating in her.

She was attractively shaped, a slit of pink in the delicate curls, and already damp.

Amazing.

Her hands twitched. She wanted so badly to cover herself.

He gave in to her silent command and stopped studying her. Instead, he delved his tongue into her and coated the wet lips with her honey in long, groan-inducing strokes.

“Mal,” she gasped. “Wait. This is… you want to?”

He stroked her hot nub. “I want to taste you.”

Her panic receded to hunger. She seemed uncertain over whether she wanted to run or stay. “It’s… sure?”

“Give,” he growled and latched on to her bud.

She whimpered, breathy and needy. He suckled her. She moved her hips to match his strokes. “Mal.” Her gasps heightened with desire. “Mal!”

Beautiful release fluttered across her features. Her body clenched around his fingers. She gasped and clung onto him. Her hips shuddered. Then, she lay still, legs flopping wide, opening herself to him. “Oh. That was amazing.”

She was.

He surged up her body, ramming his elbows into the blankets bunched around her flushed cheeks. She smiled, sweet and pleased to see him so close to her. “Hey.”

His cock head nudged against her hot, wet entrance.

Her mouth opened in surprise. “Oh. Yes.” Her legs twined around him and pressed him deeper.

He obeyed her command and eased in, slipping his rigid manhood into her relaxed, but still tight, femininity. Her channel gripped him like a satin glove. She gripped his butt cheeks. He bobbed deeper, pressing into her femininity.

“Oh. Yesss. Ohhhhh.”

She gave away all at once, and with a sudden shock, they joined completely.

She tightened, holding him in place. Her thighs trembled. Awe parted her lips.

He reveled in their completion. “You are mine.” He kissed her.

She kissed him back.

Driven by the ancient urge, he moved.

Soft, gentle, delicious thrusts united their bodies. His cock massaged her, plunging in and out in the ancient life-giving rhythm of their ancestors. He tasted destiny and infinity. And Cheryl wrapped around him, urging him on, gasping and moaning. She was the reason he lived. Now, and forever.

She cried out and arched. He drove her to orgasm a final, soul-shattering time. Release whipped through her.

As she clenched him from within, he unloaded his hot cum inside her.

They were one.

He collapsed.

She was his. And he would never be the same.