They’d finally connected. Finally. And now they’d be together forever.

Laura snuggled closer.

Kyan stroked her back. His cock pulsed, still hard inside her, and if she had another condom, she might be talked into doing this again.

He’d been so amazing.

The first time had been earth-shattering, but the second time had been even better. What would the third time be like? She couldn’t wait to find out.

Her muscles twitched from the unfamiliar position and so they separated. She rolled off.

He dealt with the condom, dried himself with his shirt, and went to a wall cabinet that turned into a closet. Behind crisp dark blue suits, he pulled out a pair of black jeans and his usual black shirt.

No briefs.

He glanced back at her as though sensing her gaze.

Did she flush?

She reached for her crumpled trousers. Funny how they’d had sex but now they were mates she felt shy.

His gruff voice broke into her thoughts. “Were you truly treated well on the Gnashing Teeth?”

“Absolutely.” Once they’d gotten past the misunderstanding. She buttoned her trousers and reached for her bra. “I’m considering their offer. Seriously.”

He hesitated.

She snapped the closure on her bra and shrugged on her blouse.

He spoke while looking away. “Do not share your healing saliva.”

“My what?”

“Your healing saliva.” He closed the cabinet. “The part that makes it better in your kiss.”

Her jaw dropped. “I think there’s been a — I don’t know — do you mean the thing I said about kissing it and making it better? That’s not a real thing.”

“I had never heard of this phenomenon. However, when you pressed your lips to certain places, although there is no outward improvement, it feels better on the inside.” His blue gaze nailed hers. “Do not share this with any other males.”

She shut her mouth with a click. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

He nodded, satisfied, and then he stiffened and strode around her.

She turned to ask where he was going.

An instant later, his door rattled. A knock sounded on the outside. “Sir?”

“Report,” he said gruffly.

His slight glance back at her explained everything. She furiously buttoned her blouse to be presentable.

“We analyzed the distress calls. And we have a new lead on the medkits.”

She twirled to show she was dressed.

He opened the door. “New lead?”

The younger male nodded eagerly. “It’s the Tourmaline group. We have proof.”

“And the attacks on Chrysoberyl?”

He shook his head.

“Keep investigating.”

“Sir.”

“And contact the Gnashing Teeth.”

The employee nodded and left.

Kyan turned to Laura. “Put on the trench coat.”

“Your trench coat?”

“Yes.” He waited for her to do so and then pulled her into his arms and flew them up the glass shaft. The moon hung low in the dark sky. “Stay with your parents tonight. Tomorrow, you may go home.”

“Can I go back to work?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure it’s safe?”

“The medkit sales records will confirm what I tasked my employees with tracking — that the cult members are identified to human authorities.”

How long had he been watching her apartment? She asked, but he didn’t exactly answer.

“It is safe,” he repeated and stepped back.

“Kyan.” She stepped forward and grabbed his hand.

He did not flinch.

Progress.

She placed a kiss on his lips.

He lasered on her with dark blue intensity.

She grinned, happy all over, and stepped back. “Be safe.”

He nodded shortly. Then, like Superman, he rocketed into the night.

Seeing her parents was wonderful. She shared her adventures and basked in the loving glow of her family. The next day, she repeated her tearful reunion with her housemates, who were still stunned and amazed by all that had occurred. And the school was accommodating and even the Director didn’t yell.

“You’re certain the danger is over?” Bob pressed.

“Kyan is.”

“And you have how many weeks of clinicals left?”

“With the extension? Five.”

He shook her hand. “Let’s make them uneventful.”

She agreed. Whole-heartedly.

To top it off, Dr. Richard had taken a week’s vacation. It was a great homecoming. She slid into her routine as if she’d never left.

The only problem was not hearing from Kyan for three days.

Three days.

On her next day off, she looked up the Onyx Corporation in the directory. An older woman with a smoker’s growl transferred her call to Kyan.

He answered on the first ring. “Have you been attacked?”

“No.” Like that was the only reason she’d call? “I haven’t seen you. Can you come over?”

Silence.

“If you’re too busy, we could schedule—”

“Why?”

Seriously? “Because people who are … seeing each other should see each other.”

She’d almost said “mates” but that was his word, not hers. She didn’t want to use it incorrectly and make this awkwardness worse.

“So, what time works for you?”

“I’ll be there in four minutes.” The line went dead.

Four minutes!

She splashed makeup on her face and shoveled dirty clothes off her bedroom floor. Sexy outfit, sexy outfit … she hadn’t planned for this! No lover should visit in less than an hour.

Kyan tapped on her second-story window three and a quarter minutes later.

Laura opened the window, flushed. “Hi.”

He looked as gorgeous, impenetrable, and serious as the last time she’d seen him. Maybe even more so in his trench coat and rigid arms at his sides.

“Come in.” She was only a little breathless. “This is my bedroom. We could watch a movie. Are you hungry? I made—”

“You’ve seen me.” His terseness cut her off, and he made no move toward the open window.

Oh. “You can’t stay?”

He floated back as if he were going to leave.

“Wait!”

He looked at her, his shoulder already turned away.

She searched for one of the many, many questions she’d wanted to ask. She’d planned on talking a lot. It was hard to compress her hunger for his presence into a quick question.

“How did everything turn out? Did you catch the bad guys?”

He floated to his original position. “The Tourmalines confessed. They and their accomplices are in the brig of the Gnashing Teeth, soon to be transported back to Draconis. All medkits were confiscated and the lizard alien cultists were put on watch lists.”

“Great! I knew you’d catch them.”

His expression did not look pleased.

She sobered. “Any luck with the bomb maker that attacked Chrysoberyl?”

“No accusations. But a repeat is impossible. We are always watching.”

A little shiver crawled up her back.

Kyan in the cloud-muffled sunlight was the most lethal, gorgeous, dangerous male she had ever known. And he was using all his hard lethality to protect.

Her feminine parts flushed with awareness.

“Are you sure you can’t come in?” She squeezed her thighs together. “Just for a minute.”

“I cannot.”

Ugh. How frustrating. But wasn’t it a stereotype that cops were always married to their work? She shouldn’t be surprised. “Then, just come closer.”

He floated a foot closer, still out of her reach. “Why?”

“So I can kiss you.”

His blue eyes flared and he finally looked away. “That is not a good idea.”

A heavy weight settled in her stomach.

She tried to ignore it. “What do you mean?”

He remained silent.

“What’s going on here?” She crossed her arms. His attitude and his reluctance to meet her made the hairs on her body stand up. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“We were never together.”

So that was it. The gauntlet was thrown.

Her heart panged. She sucked in a breath. “We’re mates.”

He shook his head shortly.

“We had the naked sex!”

“In a dimly lit office.”

“What do you need? Stadium lighting?!” She tried to lower her voice. No need to broadcast to the neighbors. “Why didn’t you say something? Or turn on more lights?”

His expression turned accusatory. “You put on clothes.”

“I did not.”

“The barrier.”

Her whole world crashed around her ears. “The condom? You count a see-through plastic birth control device designed to fit on your cock — inside my vagina — as ‘clothes’?”

His jaw flexed. But his bitterness was unmistakable. “You do not wish me to father your dragonlets.”

Oh.

Okay.

Amber said the whole purpose of dragon marriage was to produce offspring. But humans were a little more complicated.

“Well…”

His face closed.

“It’s not that I … it was sort of, I mean — You still haven’t proposed.” She gesticulated. “I fully intend to have kids. I just thought — You’re going against the natural order.”

“Natural order?”

“We’re supposed to date. Spend every Friday arguing whether to go to our favorite restaurant or the one down the street, and whether we watch one of my sappy chick flicks or one of your testosterone-fueled action shows.”

“Dragons do not use testosterone as fuel.”

“I know. Or, actually, I didn’t. Huh.”

He stared at her.

“No, look.” She tapped her index finger into her empty palm for emphasis. “The point is, we’re supposed to date and then we buy a house and then we get married and then we have kids. But you’re too busy with your investigations or hitting on other women or whatever is stopping you from coming to see me. And how can we bring in a kid if we don’t know what our relationship is right now?”

“I do not hit women.” He frowned as though listening to a correction in his translator. “Or entice them.”

She crossed her arms again. “Well, you enticed me.”

“You are odd.”

“Not that odd. You’re so busy putting up a cold front that no one else has braved your arctic manners to reach your heart. You could entice a lot of women if you tried.”

He rejected her violently.

“You’re sexy as sin. Let up a little and women will flock to you.”

He snarled. “How could anyone accept this face?”

“How could they not?” She grabbed him.

He drew back in surprise, clearly not having intended to get within her reach, and she was dragged out the window. Clawing on, she wrapped her legs around his waist and started to slide.

His protective arms closed around her. They dropped like a stone and hit the ground roughly. He absorbed the impact. She felt a mild bump cradled in his arms.

His fury wiped away to worry. He stroked her head.

“How could they not?” she repeated, in a whisper, and covered his parted lips with hers.

He exploded under her kiss. Passion heated as if their office sex had been moments instead of days earlier. His tongue plunged into her mouth, tangled with hers, and drew her out. Weaving, tempting, tasting. Heat flared to her center. His cock hardened against her waist.

She would reach him. He would understand. She would never give up.

He jerked back and dropped her.

Her socked feet thumped the cold, nasty concrete.

He stumbled away, one hand clapped over his mouth. “With me, you are not safe.”

“I’m perfectly safe so long as I’m right next to you.” She stepped toward him.

He flew out of reach.

She stopped. “We’re mates, Kyan.”

“You do not wish to be. Not seriously.”

“I’ve already tried twice to be very serious about it. The first time, I didn’t know, but the second time, I gave it my best.”

His jaw flexed.

“Be honest. Is the condom holding you back? I’ll take a pill. Or, let’s get on with the house-buying and marriage-proposing and we’ll just have a baby. Okay?”

He shook his head. Again.

Well, there you go. “If you keep denying we’ll ever be mates, you must be the one who doesn’t want to be.”

He froze.

The truth broke over her like a migraine. She sucked in a harsh breath. Her heart squeezed with excruciating pain.

“That’s it, isn’t it? You deny I’m serious because you don’t want me to be serious.”

He didn’t answer.

She was not going to cry. She was not going to cry. She was not going to cry.

He hovered like an ice statue.

“I accepted you a long time ago, you know. Not just your face.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut, trying all her tricks to stave off the burning tears. “You’re the one who won’t accept me.”

“I accept you.”

She dropped her hand. Anger was much better than sorrow. “Then why are we still doing this dance?”

He looked away.

“You want your empress.”

He fixed a cold gaze on her. “I will never marry the Empress.”

If they weren’t mates, then what was his plan? Wait, she knew it. “You’re going to pretend to go along with it, then fake your own death and hide out all alone for the rest of your days?”

His eyes widened.

She’d guessed it. “It’s a stupid plan.”

He looked shocked and deeply disturbed. “Is it that predictable?”

“No, I know you. Nobody else would be so eager to give up their home, their friends, and their family.”

“I don’t want to give them up,” he muttered. “There is no other choice.”

“There is another choice.” She thumped her palm on her chest. “Me.”

Concern melted to sorrow.

She gritted her teeth. Speaking clearly, honestly, so there would be no mistake, she declared her truth. “I want you.”

His face clenched with soul-deep pain. His voice roughened to a whisper. “I do not.”

Her heart clenched as hard as his expression. She’d thought, more than once, that they were connected. Soul mates. But when she reached out and opened her heart, he shut up in his soul’s arctic fortress and shot down anyone who got too close.

And she had to accept that.

She turned and picked her way to the sidewalk, then up the stairs to her apartment. He watched her. Seeing her safely inside.

How noble. How protective.

How infuriating.

At the doorstep, she looked down on him. “You can’t be a team of one forever. You need other people. One of these days, you’re going to realize it.”