She patted the couch next to her. “Come over here. Don’t look so afraid of me. You’re such a big guy.”

She’d invited him to sit by her. Happiness pumped through him as he sat next to her, careful not to get too close. Like with a small animal that had finally decided to trust him, he didn’t want to move too quickly and scare her off.

“So what happened?” she asked.

“I just went and found him,” Kai said. “After you told me what he was, I couldn’t leave him out there. It was my fault he got away.”

“No,” she said. “You stopped him from hurting me. It wasn’t your fault he left.”

“I should have stopped him. I did. Now I don’t want to talk about it.” He cocked his head, looking her over, letting his eyes linger on her breasts, her belly, her soft, feminine hips. The female human form was truly something to take in, though he’d never thought so before he’d met his mate.

“Are you a… a chubby chaser?” she asked.

He raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Well, if you don’t know what a roofie is, I guess you wouldn’t know what that means either. I mean… It means you like… bigger women.”

“No,” he said. “I like small women, like you.”

“I’m not small.”

“You are compared to me.”

“All women are compared to you,” she said with a snort of frustration.

“I don’t want all women,” he said. “I only want you.”

Her mouth snapped shut at that, and he noticed she had the cutest little dimple at the right side of her lips. “I just mean… Do you like women who are fat?”

He sat up abruptly, letting out an angry breath. “There you go again, calling yourself something that you would apparently be mad at me for calling you. I don’t get what you mean.”

“My body,” she said, gesturing to herself nervously. “I’m not like… like Liz.”

“Is that your friend?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Well, if you’re asking, I obviously prefer you to her.”

“See, that’s not obvious at all,” she said. “Most people prefer Liz.”

“I find that hard to believe,” he said, folding his arms. Still, his mate was modest, too. That was a fine quality.

She rolled her eyes and leaned on the arm of the couch, as if she were frustrated with him somehow.

He didn’t really get it. He’d been living with the other dragons, and some of their mates were much like her in form. Some were different shapes than others, but all were very desirable to their mates. Wasn’t that all that mattered?

She made his mouth water, and everything, from her hair to her fiery golden eyes to her softness, felt as if it had been made perfectly for him.

But he could sense this topic was important to her, so he decided to try and understand it. “Fat,” he said, looking over at her. “Is that this?” He reached out to take a soft handful at her waist and was shocked when she slapped him sharply, knocking his hand away before he could even touch one soft little inch.

“Hey!” he said. “What was that for?”

“That’s my body!” she said. “You don’t get to touch it however you want.”

He lifted his shirt and studied his abdomen. “But I don’t think I have any. How am I supposed to show you what I mean?”

Her face was deep red as she looked away from him. “Maybe I really should have left after all.”

The hurt he could feel from her nearly broke him, and he scooted closer, gently reaching out as she allowed him to take her chin in his hand. He turned her face so she could see his eyes when he spoke.

“Renee, I think you’re beautiful. Why does the rest of it matter?”

“I just… My whole life, people have made fun of me,” she said. “It’s hard for me to believe you could just walk in and want me without being some sort of… sicko.”

“Sicko?” he asked. “The guy I just tried to drown is a sicko. I’m just a little bit odd. But not because I like you. In fact, you should give me the names of everyone who made you feel this way, and I can hunt them down and set them straight. You are beautiful.”

She shook her head, but he didn’t release her. “I’m not. I know that. I just… If you have a fetish—”

“What is a fetish?”

“Oh gosh, you’re innocent,” she said. “It’s when someone is turned on by something odd—”

“Liking you isn’t odd,” he said, feeling frustration rise in him. This went beyond modesty. What was wrong with his mate that she couldn’t see what he saw in her? Marina was right about human women. They saw themselves all wrong.

He wondered if it was human men who did that to them.

“Who made you feel like this?” he asked. “That you aren’t beautiful just as you are?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She put a hand over his wrist, trying to make him release her, but he couldn’t. This was just too important. He had to make sure she heard.

“You’re right. It doesn’t. Every woman I’ve met wants me, and I want you. I really, deeply want you. Why won’t you just believe me and take all I have to give?”

“I want to. I… I don’t want to get hurt,” she said, turning her eyes away from him. “I know I’m wrong inside. I know I shouldn’t feel this way—”

He kissed her then because he couldn’t see her hurt anymore and because he was an awkward dragon who didn’t know how else to show her what he was feeling. How incredibly beautiful she was.

How much he wanted her.

How he would never let anyone hurt her in this world.

He’d known there would be difficulties when he met his mate, but he’d never expected it would be like this. Still, Renee was worth it. If she needed him to show her, he’d show her as often as possible.

Until she believed it as much as she believed in the sun. Until she was as sure of her beauty as he was sure of the tides.

She resisted for a moment, squirming awkwardly, then relaxed against him, her soft hands going up to circle his neck as he pressed her back against the couch, deepening the kiss.

She moaned slightly, letting him press his hard muscles against her soft curves, and he slipped his tongue between her lips, pressing her open gently so he could explore her wet depths.

She moaned again, and her arms wrapped tighter around him, her soft body pushing up against him, feeling like utter heaven, unlike anything he’d ever imagined in his life. Her tongue thrust against his in a hot dance.

She was shy, tentative, and he was as well, wanting to take it slow, wanting not to scare her, trying to follow the signs of her body in what she wanted.

Her hips unexpectedly thrust up against him, and he smoothed a hand over her soft waist, unable to resist grabbing and holding her there as she ground against him. He wanted to cry at the amazing feel of her body, the softness his dragon had never expected to find, the way her whole form seemed to accept and encircle him, the way his hand was so firm in contrast to her vulnerable curves.

How much it made the protector in him want to breathe fire at the entire world to keep them away.

When she was here like this, moaning against his mouth, becoming bolder in asking for what she wanted, her small body writhing and pressing to his, her hands digging into his shirt now and pulling at his collar, he felt his human and dragon in total agreement for the first time in so long.

This was his mate, and he wanted her. And if she was willing, he’d take her right now.

* * *

What was she doing? She was behaving like a total, wanton slut. That’s what she was doing.

She gasped as she broke the kiss, feeling as though she’d pass out if she didn’t breathe for a minute. His body was so hard, so muscled, smelled so amazing. How did he still smell like an ocean breeze after a shower? How was he so big? And how did he manage to make her feel so sexy about the things she was usually self-conscious about? If anyone else had tried to grab her waist in the heat of a kiss, she didn’t know what she would have done.

But the way he’d let out a hungry growl, pressed his body against hers as though he couldn’t get enough, and swiped his tongue in possessively made her not care anymore.

He was a man who wanted her, a man she wanted back, and that was all that mattered.

She was really angry at anyone who had tried to make her believe otherwise.

His handsome face was intense, overwhelmed, and incredibly hungry as he stared down at her, moving from her eyes to her lips and back again, silently telling her what he wanted.

She’d never felt like such a woman. Never felt wanted by such a man.

It was a wonderful feeling, heady, delicious. It was the perfect way to embrace this adventure, this escape from her everyday life.

She trusted Kai when he said he wanted her. And now, as she became aware of a hard length that was surely impossible to fit inside her pressing against her leg, she didn’t even have to trust him.

He wanted her. That was for damn certain. And who cared why? Didn’t every woman deserve to feel beautiful? When she was able to ignore society’s messages, magazines, and the comments of unsupportive people, didn’t she love herself a little when she looked in the mirror? Didn’t she think she had pretty nice, thick hair and fine hands?

Didn’t everyone have at least a few reasons to feel beautiful, and shouldn’t there be others out there who saw the same things?

She didn’t have time to keep thinking about it as Kai dipped his head hungrily, nipping at her neck, making her jump against the cushion. She was trapped, his prisoner as he kissed his way to her shoulder and brought one big hand up to toy with the off-shoulder sleeve of her dress.

His touch, coarse but velvety, tickled her, and she squirmed against him, pressing her body to his.

He let out a hiss and jerked back from her, and her body missed the warm, tingling excitement of his lips.

“Dammit, I can’t think when you move like that,” he said, shaking his head, making the short waves there bounce slightly, still damp.

“I don’t know why,” she said. “It’s not like I’m all hard and fit like you.”

“Like me?” He scoffed. “Why would you want to be like me?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Why do you want to be that way?”

“I have to be strong,” he said. “To protect you.” He leaned forward, nuzzling his nose against hers in a surprisingly affectionate gesture. Then he stole her lips in a harsh, possessive kiss. His tongue dove inside aggressively, and she moaned as she was pinned fully against the cushions by his hard body.

When he pulled back, his blue eyes were almost feverish. “I can be strong, and you can be… sumptuous.”

She stared at him, trying to process it. Sumptuous?

“Perfect,” he said, running his hands down her sides, over her hips to her thighs, which were clenched tightly together to calm the ache of her arousal. He tickled her slightly at the inside of her thighs, and she parted for him.

Oh, this was wanton and wicked, but didn’t she deserve to have this for once in her life? She didn’t care if it never happened again. She would have this, this passionate, hot fling, to remember her entire life whenever she questioned if she was beautiful.

She’d remember Kai, his handsome features taut with concentration and then utter ecstasy as his fingers found her wet panties and stroked over her center. She’d remember the way he kissed her as he propped himself over her and let his fingers slowly explore her folds. The way she cried out when he found her clit.

His shocked look of surprise and then pride as he made her buck again and again under his hands.

He seemed as in awe and wonder of the moment as she was as he took over control of her body, making it shake under his hand as he took her toward the inevitable. Something she’d never experienced with a partner before and on her own only with a vibe.

But as Kai moved slightly, propping one knee between hers to keep her open, moving his fingers more frantically as she thrust against him, as he kissed down her neck and shoulders to the top of her cleavage, she felt the hot pressure build inside her to an unbearable pitch. And then she broke.

She felt utterly shattered as she came apart in his arms, stolen over by pleasure, able only to cry out his name again and again as she writhed in shock against the waves of the strongest orgasm of her life.

“Kai, Kai,” she murmured as she finally came down, realizing he had wrapped one arm around her, holding her close possessively as his other hand had stayed at her center, stroking her through her release.

She looked up at him in confusion, wondering how someone who barely knew her could work her body so profoundly, almost as if he were able to read her mind and see things she hadn’t even been able to consciously want.

“Kai… I… How…?” Her body was still thrumming, and she saw hunger in his eyes again. Hunger she echoed even as her body felt exhausted from release. She had to have more. She had to have it now.

She reached up and grabbed his face, pulling him down to kiss her. This time, she slid her tongue into his mouth, and he let out a little growl as his body tightened against her and his hand left her folds to prop him up on the couch.

“More,” she whispered as she released his mouth and looked up into his eyes.

She could have sworn something flashed there for a moment, that his eyes changed to slits and then back to usual, but she was sure she was imagining it. That her head was light from the shock, the pleasure she’d had already.

Her mind was playing tricks on her, for certain.

But one thing Kai didn’t do was play tricks. Even after one day, she knew he didn’t play around. That if he said something, he meant it, and if he wanted something, he got it.

And if she asked for more, then she was definitely going to get it.