Page 39 of Kidnapped By The Messy Dragon

Then her scent moves. The vinegar thins. Warm caramel comes up where the doubt was sitting, and I could roar with what that does to me.

“See.” I take her hand. “I wanted you before I knew.”

I pull her hand up and press a kiss to the back of it. Her hand in mine is the first thing I’ve ever been scared to lose.

“If you ever doubt the mate bond,” I tell her, “know that.”

She surprises me. She leans in and presses her mouth to mine. I hold real still so she won’t stop.

Her kiss starts soft and slow. This whole valley needs me, and no one in it has ever wanted me. She doesn’t know it, but she just offered me the world. There’s no world without her in it.

Then she shifts. She climbs into my lap without breaking away, her knees on either side of me, and her cool hands come up and cup my face. My dragon’s heat rises to meet her palms. She pushes in deeper, and I answer her, and we find a rhythm neither of us is leading.

Then she winces against my mouth.

I break the kiss. “No. Stop.” It comes out rough. Her hurt is the one thing in this room I can’t burn.

“I don’t want to stop,” she says, and she presses her lips to mine even harder.

So I give her the kiss without the fight in it. I cradle the unhurt side of her face and slow us down, and she softens into my hands.

My dragon goes quiet and warm underneath it all, done pacing at last.

She kissed me first. I plan to be insufferable about that one too.

16

JALEN

She kisses me until the sun sets. The gold in my window cools down to blue while we trade slow, careful kisses, and I’m not mad about it one bit. If the whole valley burned for attention tonight, the news could wait.

Her stomach growls between us.

I pull back. She makes a sound about it, but the one thing I will never agree to is my mate going without what she needs. That includes dinner.

Then she pouts, bottom lip out and kiss-swollen, and I about fall to pieces right there on my own bed.Gah damn, this woman.

I roll us so I’m over her and steal one more. “We can finish after you eat,” I tell her. “You might be sore, but you’ve got another set of lips I wouldn’t mind kissing.” I smirk down at her.

She stares at me blank. Then she catches it, and the giggle bursts out of her as she hits my arm. “You are so nasty.”

I shrug.

I sit up and pull her up with me.

“Besides,” I say, “Dorian’s gonna lose his mind if he can’t have brotherly time with you.” She smiles at that too.

“What?” I ask. “Not used to family settings?”

She puts her pretty lips together and gives me nothing. I have to read her scent to get my answer, and what I find there is old and lonely. “Ah, come on, Zuri.”

“It’s been just me and my mom,” she says. “And when I got old enough to take care of myself, she got married.”

She doesn’t even sound sad about it, and that’s the part that gets me. Losing my clan tore me open, but at least I know they would have stayed. Her own mother looked at this woman and decided she was finished raising her. My chest goes hot and mean about it. Zuri will never be anyone’s leftover again, not while I’m breathing.

“Come here.” She yelps when I pick her up and set her in my lap. I kiss her temple and keep her there against my chest. “It’s only kidnapping if I give you back, right?”

She looks over at me. “This is gonna sound crazy, but I kind of don’t want you to give me back.”