Chapter Twelve

Flora

HE’S CONSUMING ME—his mouth, his touch, his very presence. The world around us stops revolving, or at least it feels that way. It’s as if I’ve been waiting for his lips my entire life. They’re firm where mine are soft. I consume right back. He plays with my mouth and I realize he understands the finer finesse of kissing. Who would have guessed that an egotistical megalomaniac would take the time to learn to kiss a woman properly? He explores my lips like they’re an exotic treasure. When he bites my bottom lip, I open for him and he accepts my invitation. His tongue twirls and parries with mine. His head moves slightly and he pulls me closer to deepen the kiss. I swear my brain rolls out of my head, across the floor, and out the door.

There’s something else going on too. His incredible body, which is now fully pressed against mine, burns a trail of fire everywhere we touch. My hands go to his forearms and they’re as big as my thighs but not soft at all. He’s pure corded muscle with amazing skin pulled tightly across the plains and valleys. My fingers travel over his rippled arms.

A smidgen of brain cells fire within my skull and suddenly I’m obsessed with one thought.

Escape.

I can’t allow this to happen, even though everything inside me wants it to. More Ashrac, more kisses, more skin on skin. My eagle took notice of the dragon and that’s not a good thing. Eagles mate for life. Hell no, not with dragonbreath. I move my head back, his follows, and the kiss deepens further. I clench his arms and try to push them away.

He growls into my mouth and a swell of energy rolls over me. I give in and drop my hands from his arms to sneak one behind him to rest on his ass. Resting is not exactly the correct word. Squeezing and rubbing over his naked flesh is better. Oh yes. And don’t think I can’t feel the thick appendage pressing into my belly.

My, oh my.

Our lips part, his head comes up, and his eyes go from lovely ice blue to completely feral in a snap. This man, who hasn’t given thought to the woman he kidnapped, wants me. I’m so damn turned on that breathing is something that takes thought to accomplish. I want him too. My eagle wants him. How the hell did this happen? His fingers skim my lips, gliding across them in wonder. My heart goes all squishy. I can’t have sex with him, and yet right this minute there’s nothing I want more. He’ll never understand. Eagles remain virgins until we find our mate. If I sleep with Ashrac, he will be my mate for life even if we never see each other again. Admiring his body is completely different from admiring his mind, or the man he is on the inside, or his willingness to accept me for who I am. I don’t know him well enough to mate with him. Hell, I don’t think I want to know him that well. The truth is, Ashrac is a spoiled dragon with no sense of compassion. He kidnapped me. It’s wrong that I should want him sexually.

His eyes tell me he thinks he’s won. He leans back in and his head dips.

“No more,” I say in a strong voice that belies my true feelings. I want him so damn bad.

“You want to say yes.” He thrusts his hips against me so I understand exactly what I’m saying no to.

“I want a Tesla too, but that’s not happening.”

His lips are an inch from mine and they tip into the sweetest smile. I realize I’ve crossed my eyes so I can watch it. He full-on smiles at my goofy face and I want him even more. With a show of strength, I push him back. He only goes because he wasn’t expecting it. The smile clears off his face and now he’s unsure. I imagine not many women turn him down.

“I can’t sleep with you, Ashrac. You need to take me home to Earth. I know you think I agreed to you kidnapping me but I did not.” There, it was out. Now I’ll see what he does with it.

He steps into me again and his forehead tips into mine so we’re touching. It’s such an intimate gesture and it throws me. So does what he says. “I’ve gone about this mating thing wrong. I have a lot of work to do in my lab but if you give me a few days, I’ll put my work aside and prove to you that you want to be here with me.” His head lifts and his lips press against my forehead. It’s the sweetness that makes me want to agree. “Besides,” he continues before I turn him down, “I’ll be dead from brittlemortis soon and I need someone to hold my hand when I die.” He steps back and looks at me with an expression I can’t decipher.

His eyes are smiling and for just a second I wonder if my jig is up. He’s also looking at me like he sees me for the first time. The fact that he’s willing to give up his lab work for a few days leads to words I shouldn’t be saying. “Three days with a condition.”

“What’s the condition?”

I sniff and wiggle my nose for added effect. “You bathe.”

Now his smile turns glorious and my heart skips a beat. He lifts his arm and sniffs. Now his nose movement matches mine. “I’ll bathe, promise.” He abruptly turns away and walks to the cake I made him. He lifts it in his hands and cockily strolls back to me. From five feet away, he launches the cake while I watch in seeming slow motion as it tumbles top over bottom and splats against the front of my chest. The power of the throw is so strong, it forces me back against the counter. Ashrac follows. When he’s a foot from the mess he just created, one long finger comes out. He wipes a dollop of cake from my chest and brings his finger to his mouth. “Delicious, just like you promised.”

“Why did you do that?” I ask in shock.

“Oh, come on. You made the cake green to piss me off. The least you can do is admit it.”

My smile breaks through. I’ve given him three days to convince me to stay. It won’t happen, but I plan to have fun. How many women have a gorgeous dragon shifter at their beck and call for three days? And, I look down at the gooey frosting covering the front of me, he liked my cake.

His next words send my lady parts into a tailspin.

“Besides, I want you to bathe with me.”