Great bursts of lightning thundered above us as Karun kissed me, slowly at first, then with growing fervor. I felt my body heating, and it had nothing to do with the dragon fire burning in front of us.

Karun had saved me and then used his own life energy to revive me. I was floored by the act, by the risk he had taken. More still, knowing that this stone connected to the most integral part of his being, what I felt as I held it, the sensations it emanated were overwhelming and thrilling.

His mouth pressed to mine, and our lips molded and moved in synchrony. One of his hands slid to my neck, cupping my chin and drawing me further into the kiss. The other hand, rough and firm, slid over my breast. His hot palm cupped and squeezed gently, coaxing my nipples to hard points.

I heard myself sigh and pant at the sensations and heard his own breathing hitch. The hand at my breast snaked around to my back and slid down as he maneuvered me to a reclined position on the sparse purple clover that carpeted bits of the cave floor. He lay down beside me, his form hovering and pressed against my side.

I gripped the ropy muscles of his shoulders and traced my fingers along their sinuous edges and onto the hard lines of his back.

My shirt was still soaked, but the cold was wholly dispelled as he moved his fingers under it, sliding up to the under curve of my breast. I couldn’t breathe at the contact of his bare hands on me.

I broke our kiss and looked into the silver eternity of his eyes. Moving his hands from my body, I reached down and peeled the black tank top and underwear off me. He looked down at me with such blatant desire. I had never felt so sensual, so powerful. Karun, dragon prince, wanted me.

“Take me,” I whispered.

His eyes flashed with the need that I felt pressed against my leg, but he hesitated. “Are you sure that is what you want?”

I had never felt so sure of anything before, but the sweet combination of emotion, desire, and excitement left me short of words. Instead, I simply nodded.

With a small sensual growl, he dipped down again to kiss me as his hands slid down and found the place where I wanted him most. His eyes darkened as my body responded.

“Does this please you?”

I felt a sweet, sensitive tension building inside me as his long, determined fingers traced, explored, and discovered me.

“Yes,” I breathed.

When my breathing came out more and more ragged, Karun left my mouth to kiss and suck at my neck. His hair tickled the sensitive tips of my breasts as it draped across my chest. I arched at the sensation, and he responded in kind by moving his mouth lower, taking one breast into his mouth as his hand worked between my legs, ratcheting the tension more and more.

“And this?” he asked, his words vibrating against the skin of my breasts.

“Mmm . . .” I murmured.

He brought me to the edge of release, rolling his fingers in smaller and tighter circular motions. I sucked in my breath, gripping at his shoulders hard as he slid one long, ropy finger into the core of me.

What had felt like the plateau of my pleasure suddenly rose and rose in a way I had never experienced before. I moaned, and the husky sound came out like no sound I had ever made.

I muttered his name in prayer, needing him to hear my thoughts because I was too far past words.

Just then, the hard pressure at my leg left, as did his hands. My body screamed at the loss until I felt his great body shift over mine. I never saw the briefs he had worn leave him, but when my hands slid down to grip the taut curves of his buttocks, there was no barrier left.

I locked eyes with him as I slid my hands to explore him at last.

“This pleases me greatly,” I said in a voice brimming with excited confidence.

He was thick and hard and so much better than I had guessed. I traced my fingers along the considerable length of him, then gripped and stroked, getting both of us worked up.

He lowered his body, his hands coming up under my thighs and opening me to him but pausing to feel me again, his strong fingers working me into a frenzy. Panting, I raised my arms to his chest, to the solid, carved wall of muscles along his pecs and abs. I tipped my hips up to him just slightly, feeling the heated pulse of him at my entrance.

It was invitation enough, and he entered with steely restraint. I felt his body tense and saw the burning in his eyes, the set of his jaw, as he pushed forward into the warm heat of my center.

The fingers of one hand still worked, pulsing and circling my most sensitive spot as he withdrew the hot length of him. My muscles tightened, aching for him to return, and when he did, he did with more insistence, filling me and bringing me closer and closer to the climax of this sensual dance.

I moaned, panted, and grabbed at him, clenching as he quickened his strokes. He plunged deeper still, taking me to the depths of sensation I had never known existed.

My fingers bit into the skin of his biceps, and the cave filled with the sound of my voice as I cried out his name, finally reaching the peak, clenching at him in a sweet release that rolled on and on as he pumped harder and faster. It was like my body was an open vessel through which sensation rushed in ceaseless currents.

Surrendering to this new reality, I held his eyes till the last when he cried out, his hard body shook, and I felt the ripples of his pleasure as it poured through me. It felt as though I had experienced his climax with him.

For just a moment, we were afloat in a sea of passion and euphoric sensation. Entangled, I didn’t know where he ended and I began.

Thunder struck loudly outside, but it paled in comparison to the raw power of our joining.

Breathing hard, he collapsed forward, bracing himself on his forearms over me and letting his face rest in the curve of my neck, his lips pressed to my throat as his hot breath brought my wayward nipples back to attention.

For minutes, we lay there, sharing breath, the beating of our hearts mating in their own erotic way. Here, still, I felt faint surges of the orgasm that had rocked through me.

Karun rolled over to my side, keeping a hand at my breast and licking and kissing at my chest and shoulder like I was a treat he couldn’t stop eating.

“Did that please you?” I asked, smiling and warm in this newfound intimacy.

“Very much so,” he muttered.

I had never made love like that. I wasn’t a virgin, but what I had done before didn’t even qualify for the term. I felt like I had crossed through a veil I had never known existed.

The thought stuck with me. I rolled to my side, propping my head up with an arm and stroking at the hard, mossy green of his chest.

“That was pretty new for me. Is it . . . is it always like that for you?” I asked, not really wanting to know but needing to ask because I hadn’t ever thought it could be like that. I had never imagined that sort of physical intimacy, that sense of connection. I certainly had never experienced such unending waves of pleasure.

“No, it has never been like that,” he said quietly, one hand still upon me, unmoving, his eyes serious and difficult to read.

I laid my head in the crook where his muscled arm met his chest and raked my fingers lightly across his skin.

“I thought I was going to die today,” I said wonderingly.

“You nearly did,” he added, and then, after a moment of silence, “I was terrified that you might.”

I mused, “Maybe I did, and this is just my projection of the afterlife. After all, that was reality shattering sex.” After a pause, I asked, “Do you regret it?” I hoped I knew the answer.

“I could never regret that,” he said as he stroked my arm. “Actually, I do regret part of it.”

My heart sank. I wasn’t expecting that.

“I didn’t get to spank you silly,” he deadpanned.

We both laughed, and I swatted at him but he grabbed my forearms and pinned them to my chest, lifting me up above him just enough to lick at the incredibly sensitive skin of my breasts.

I sighed approvingly, and he eased me back down, kissing my neck, maybe leaving marks, but who cared?

He lifted his head and stared at me. He tangled his fingers in my hair, brushing it back from my face and playing with it in his hand.

“You are so beautiful,” he said.

“So are you.” I smiled, but then I wondered, “What do Dragselian women look like? Are all Dragselians as gorgeous as you and your brothers?”

“The Dragselian race is blessed with many gifts. Compared to Earth human standards, we are exceptionally fast, exceedingly strong, our senses are more acute, and we possess the ability to heal from virtually any injury. However, like any race, there is great variation in physique and appearance. Good looks are not inherent. Though, I will take it as a compliment that you assumed as much.”

I moved my hands, exploring his toned torso and finding the light dusting of hair that led to his remarkable shaft.

“Are all human women so sexually voracious?” he asked, breathing more rapidly as my hands closed around him.

Laughing as I stroked, I said, “I guess it’s just being with a dragon-man—it brings out the harlot in me.”

He was throbbing in my palms and I was startled at the speed of his readiness.

I sat up, pushing him down onto his back so that I could enjoy the full view of my dragon-man, naked and straining with desire.

He was chiseled perfection, and in the warm light of the fire, I was in awe of his beauty.

Humbled that he was in the throes of passion from my touch, I worked to earn the honor.

Throwing my knee over his outstretched legs, I straddled his knees and bent down, bringing my lips to his swollen manhood in my hands. I licked tentatively, reading the responses of his body, and parroted his words back to him.

“Does this please you, Karun?” I asked, dropping my voice to a seductive purr as I let the vibrations of my words shudder against his shaft.

He groaned his approval so I continued. I lowered one hand to support the weight of his smooth, round balls. They felt taut in my hand, so I gently caressed and massaged them, then paid my respects with my tongue as I traced them.

I wet my lips and closed them around his girth. He arched, and I felt him strain not to finish right there.

Sucking, I lowered my chest and angled it, allowing my breasts to press against his firm thighs.

“I need you, Andromeda,” he pleaded. I loved the sound of my name coming from his mouth, his deep, ragged with passion voice.

I felt his legs stiffen, and he seemed to grow in my hands, in my mouth.

I was ready to taste his hot release when he bolted upright and lifted me effortlessly into his lap, my thighs straddling his waist.

He impaled me, making me gasp at the sheer joy and pleasure of it. We rocked like that, his face buried in my chest, my hands tangled in his silver blonde hair.

His hands gripped my cheeks and lifted me in time to a rhythm that quickly brought me to the same level of arousal.

My skin felt on fire everywhere, but it burned hottest where his core stone rested against the skin of my solar plexus and at the crux of my womanhood where he entered me.

I threw back my head on a scream as he groaned and we both came together. Like before, it was a wave of unending sensation. We were locked together in the shattering release of our passion for minutes, it seemed.

Gasping for air, I rested my head on his shoulder with him still hard inside me. Every tiny movement reinvigorated the pleasure, not just for me, but from the apparent throbbing of his member, it seemed, for both of us.

I wanted to never leave this position. I wanted to stay wrapped around him, in his lap, penetrated, forever. Thunder struck what must have been directly above us, shaking the ground and our still joined bodies.

“Oh, God, Andromeda,” he ground out as another wave of pleasure slid through us both. Staying still for a while, just sharing breath, the wave finally began to ebb.

He pulled back, brushing away the hair that had fallen into my face and looking into my eyes.

“You were right,” he whispered.

Nice as that was to hear, I asked, “About what?”

Searching my face, he finally said, “Something is definitely happening here.” His hand fell to just below my breasts and rested on the stone.

It still hung between the weight of my breasts, searing me. I raised my hand to it, covering his, and remembered the sensations I felt when I had touched it as he slept.

“When I woke in the canyon, I felt you . . . well, I think I felt this.” I loved the way his calloused hands felt tangled with mine.

“I think I felt . . . your emotions. Is that possible? Am I crazy?” I asked.

He tangled his fingers with mine, interlacing them and bringing them to his lips.

“No, you’re not crazy . . .” he said, his voice trailing off. Laying us both down again, he slid free of my center. We each lay on our sides facing one another.

I waited for him to finish his thought. When he didn’t, I prodded, “Exactly what is this thing between us?”

He was silent for a while. “I don’t want to frighten you.”

“You won’t, but I need to know.” I stared into his eyes pleadingly. “Ever since I met you, it feels like there has been this invisible force pulling me toward you. If you understand this or know more, tell me.”

“I don’t fully understand. In my culture, it is something you choose to do, not something that happens of its own volition.” He paused. Looking down at our entwined hands, he continued, “If it is what I believe, we are linking.”

“Isn’t that what Zaruv and Jennifer are going to do?” I asked, forgetting that I wasn’t supposed to have heard that conversation.

He grinned. “So you were listening.” I blushed and gave a sheepish smile.

“Not intentionally . . .” I croaked.

He laughed, released my hand, and reached behind me. The spank was quick and light. I laughed and grabbed at his hand but he was too fast. Instead, I missed and ended up rolling backward, away from him. He caught me and dragged me back, bringing my back up against the length of his body.

I shifted, pressing into him, reveling in the feeling of our bodies molded together.

Sucking in his breath, he muttered, “You keep doing that and I won’t be able to finish explaining.”

Marveling at the pressure at my lower back and his stamina, I asked, “You don’t wear down easily, do you?”

“You might say that there are many distinct benefits to Dragselian regeneration capabilities.”

“Hey, you won’t hear any complaints from me. Okay so finish explaining before you ravish me again.”

His arm had wrapped around my waist as he continued, “As you said, Zaruv means to link with Jennifer. They have an understanding, it would seem. Which is what confuses me—I have never heard of it happening on its own. Linking is, essentially, the joining of life energies.”

That sounded pretty serious, and yet it didn’t really bother me. It felt exactly like what was happening.

“It is a mating of souls, you might say. As each Dragselian is linked at birth to their core stone, so we do when we find a mate.”

Tracing his fingers around my belly button, he asked, “Does that scare you?”

Closing my eyes at the sensation of his rough fingertips on my skin, I answered, “No. Maybe it should, but since my brother’s death, I’ve learned to hold on to the good things when I find them and worry about the consequences later. Whatever this is feels right, and I want to see where it leads.”

“You’re pretty reckless, you know,” he said, nuzzling into my neck.

“I know, but that’s why you love me,” I jokingly quipped and realized belatedly that I might have just gone too far. But hell, we had both just acknowledged that our flipping life energies were mated.

For his part, he growled and lifted my thigh, the length of him sliding into me again, where it felt so good. With his other hand, he reached over my hip and teased with his fingers, first at my breast and then lower, his fingers plunging into the small patch of curls where we joined.

It didn’t take long for my body to start responding.

Karun thrust slowly, casually. As he did, he whispered in my ear, “You are a jumble of contradictions, you know that? I can’t quite work you out and yet I’m driven to unravel you. I want to learn every curve of your body, explore every crevice of your soul. I want to consume you and be consumed by you.”

He edged me slowly, purposefully closer to the brink of release.

“I need you, Andromeda, do you understand?”

I felt helpless against the immensity of so much pleasure and the emotion roiled within it. Still, something in me recognized what he was asking, what he was needing.

“Yes,” I panted, intoxicated by the hedonistic thrill. “I understand,” I gasped.

His pace quickened and surged into a rhythm far more primal. The slick glide of him, in and out, brought me to a swell of crashing ecstasy.

I let out a cry, and we crashed in it together as he bit down on my shoulder, the brief, faint shock of it mixing with the pleasure and enhancing it.

We were drunk on each other, tumbling through layers of sensation. Not just of our bodies. It felt like my mind, my spirit, was overflowing with joy. Every cell in my body seemed to be pulsing in the waves of our connection.

The fire was nearly dead when I finally felt lucid again.

I had fallen flat on my back, as had he, our hands laced together, limbs outstretched everywhere as we recovered from what we had just done.

He had marked me as his mate.

Maybe it was because I wore his stone that I knew, or maybe it was just so instinctive that I understood without his explaining it. We were joined now, and nothing had ever felt so natural, so honest and good . . . so absolute.

We fell asleep to the sounds of the storm raging outside, enveloped in the warmth and safety of this newfound connection.