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Kissing Salem had always been a treat.
He’d always been comfortable just taking his time, and that was one of the things I had missed most when I’d left.
The partners I’d had over the years were wonderful. Some of them had been shapeshifters, but many of them were humans who never learned my secret. Quite a few of the people I’d dated, however, had always been in a rush.
They’d wanted to hurry to the taking-our-clothes-off part.
They’d wanted to rush through sex.
They’d just always been hurrying to the next best thing, and that wasn’t me. That wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to do that.
What I wanted, what I needed, what I craved more than anything else in the damn world, was to just have something to savor.
And in that moment, I was choosing to savor Salem.
He kissed me like no time at all had passed. He kissed me like he couldn’t get enough of me, like he was crazy for me, and I loved it because I was crazy for him, too. I was wild for him. Passionate for him. Needy for him.
He reached for me and tugged, pulling me over him so I was straddling him as he stayed on his back.
“Salem...” I didn’t want to be on top of him. I was heavy, and he was all muscle. There was a part of me that worried I was going to hurt him, but somehow, he seemed to read my mind.
“I told you,” he said, nipping at my lip, “you’re not too heavy. I’m very strong. Besides, I want these beautiful breasts rubbing against me.”
He ran his hand over the front of the shirt I was wearing, gently squeezing my breast through the thin fabric. I wasn’t wearing a bra, and my nipple instantly hardened.
Okay, so yes, this was what I wanted.
“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen them,” I told him.
“Show them off for me, then,” he said.
That was another thing I liked about Salem. He didn’t just beat around the bush. He was clear in what he wanted and needed. He always just told me what he was thinking. He always just told me what he needed.
He didn’t play mind games with me. If we were going to play any sort of game, the rules would be laid out ahead of time and we’d both be aware of what was happening.
There were no rules right now. No games. No jokes or tricks.
This was just us.
It was just two long-lost lovers alone in the darkness of the night, and I had nothing to lose.
So, I tugged my shirt off and tossed it aside.
We were both shapeshifters, so we could both see just fine in the darkness. I had a sneaking suspicion that dragons could see better than polar bears, but I wasn’t going to ask too many questions about that.
“Wow,” he murmured, reaching for me.
“Good wow?”
“Good wow,” he agreed. “You’re so fucking gorgeous, Miranda. I love your pretty nipples.”
He ran his thumbs over my nipples for a moment before placing a hand on my back and pulling me toward him. I thought he was going to kiss me, but instead, his mouth moved toward my breasts and he started teasing his tongue over them: one at a time.
I held my breath.
All of a sudden, I felt young again.
Fresh.
Wild.
Free.
I was swept back to being a young woman and falling in love for the very first time.
And I remembered the night he marked me as his mate.
It was a stormy night, like this one, and the two of us had been holed up in a tent. For some reason, we’d thought it would be like, totally romantic to go camping together on Dragon Isle.
We’d been right.
*
THE RAIN POUNDED AGAINST the tent, but I barely noticed because I was clinging to Salem’s shoulders like I was going to fly away if I stopped. There was also a part of me that thought I was going to die if he were to stop.
I was new to sex, and I was new to love, and I was new to being completely fascinated with the dragon shifter who was currently beneath me in this tiny little tent.
I groaned as I neared orgasm. I could feel the pleasure bubbling up inside of me.
“Don’t stop,” he murmured, thrusting up into me. “I love hearing all of the little sounds you make, beautiful.”
“I like the sounds you make, too,” I said to him.
He was all masculine. He was groaning and breathing hard and going completely feral in the moment, and I loved it. I loved everything about what he was doing and about how he made me feel.
And yes, I was getting so very, very close.
When my orgasm finally claimed me, I felt my pussy pulsing around his cock. He came, too, thrusting deep inside of me. At that moment, he tugged me close to him and dug his teeth into my neck.
I hadn’t been expecting it, but I wasn’t mad. I liked it. I knew what he was doing, and I hadn’t grown up around any polar bears, so I didn’t know if we were supposed to mark our mates the way that dragons liked to.
The pain of the mark mixed with the pleasure of my orgasm, and it was this intoxicating mixture and I was going to spend the rest of my life chasing after.
I knew that I wanted to feel this way again.
I also knew that I never would.
*
“MORE,” HE GROANED INTO my breasts. “I need more of you, cupcake.”
And I felt the same damn way.
Running my hands down his shirt, I grabbed the fabric and tore it. I’d read once, long ago, that the only reason people in movies could tear shirts so easily was because the collar had been pre-cut to allow the fabric to rip.
I’d never needed to do that.
I was a polar bear.
I was strong.
I was wild.
And I could rip off this dragon man’s shirt if I damn well wanted to.
He smirked as I ran my fingers down his abs. They were pure steel, the way they’d always been. A lot of people thought that dragons were all in shape and fit, and to a certain extent, that was true. What a lot of people didn’t realize was that Salem also worked out obsessively. It had been therapy for him after his parents cut him off. It had been something he could do to take back control of his life.
“You like what you see, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
“I can smell you.”
“Good,” I laughed. “I can smell you, too, big boy.”
“So, you know I’m turned on by you, Miranda.”
“If I couldn’t scent you, I’d still have a pretty damn good idea considering just how hard you are right now,” I told him. His cock was still covered by his pajama pants, but it was hard and ready for me, pressing at my ass. I wiggled, rubbing myself against his length, and he groaned.
“Don’t tease me,” he said.
“I think you like it, though.”
“I like a lot of things, cupcake.”
“Like what?”
“Stand up,” he told me.
So, I stood. I wasn’t small or tiny. I was a curvy goddess, and I was tall for a human, but small for a polar bear. My size didn’t bother me and now I knew that it didn’t bother Salem. Sometimes, I met people who felt I should be ashamed about my body, but I always offered them a quick fuck-you and a there’s-the-door.
Now that I was standing above the spicy dragon shifter, looking down at him, I wondered what he thought as he gazed up at me.
“Take off the pants, beautiful,” he commanded.
“Is that an order?”
A laugh.
We’d always loved playing games together. Sometimes those were BDSM-y games where one of us gave the orders and the other one took them, but sometimes they were just playful games.
That was one of the things I’d always loved most about Salem.
When I compared him to the people I’d been with over the years, the biggest difference was that Salem wasn’t afraid to laugh. He wasn’t afraid to be silly. He could be serious, of course, but he could also be goofy and relaxed and just fun.
And I needed that.
We all needed that.
Having someone who wasn’t afraid to be fun was so damn important in a relationship, and right now, I was hoping for fun.
Being with Salem after dealing with Lane and Kevin and Keith was just...
Well, it was a relief. It was like a giant weight had been lifted off my chest, and I could just be.
“Do you want it to be an order?”
I nodded.
Oh, yeah.
I wanted to play Salem’s games tonight.
I wanted to do whatever it was that was going to get us both so damn hot and excited that neither one of us could hold back.
Salem had always been generous with the orgasms, and I was perfectly happy to use that to my advantage tonight.
“Take off your pants, cupcake,” he said.
I watched his eyes as I slid the pants down and stepped out of them. I tossed them aside and then stood over him once more. He had a perfectly clear view of everything – my legs, my ass, my pussy. He could see the curve of my tummy and he could see my breasts.
And he could see my face.
“You look so fucking good, Miranda.”
I licked my lips because I knew what he was going to say before he even said it, and I was so damn ready for it.
“Sit on my face,” he said.
Once again, I asked him quietly.
“Is that an order?”
“Oh, it’s a fucking order. Sit on my face, baby. Don’t hold back. Don’t hover. Sit on my face and fucking smother me with that beautiful pussy.”
“How could I resist that?” I asked.
And so, carefully lowering myself onto his mouth, I pressed my hands against the wall behind the bed for balance. I knew I was hovering, though, and not completely letting myself drop down on him, but then he grabbed my hips, and he tugged me toward his mouth, and he started licking me.
In that moment, I lost sense of everything around me. Time seemed to both stand still and stretch on forever as Salem made me come for him over and over. By the time I’d had my third orgasm, I was exhausted and spent and felt like a fucking goddess.
I collapsed beside him on the bed, completely worn out, and he chuckled as he kissed me.
He rested beside me, stroking my cheek.
“You’re a damn goddess,” he said to me.
“I feel like one.”
“You are.”
“I hope you’ve been treated like one,” he told me.
I paused. We hadn’t talked about who we’d been with while we were apart. Salem seemed to understand my hesitation because he kissed me again.
“I don’t care that you’ve been with other people. Fifteen years is a long time. I only care that they’ve been good to you.”
“I feel the same way about you,” I said.
And I didn’t really want to know because it didn’t really matter. We’d been apart, and now we were together. I didn’t know what this meant. I didn’t know if this meant we were “back on,” or if this was just a temporary thing.
He was going to protect me for a little while, and in the meantime, we’d sleep together.
Was that it?
I wasn’t sure.
Reaching for him, I pulled him close to me. I kissed him and ran my hands down his back as he melted into me a little bit. When he pulled back, I could tell that this would be all we’d be doing tonight.
And he still had his pants on.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
“You’ve had a big day,” he said. “I should let you sleep.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want to fuck me?”
He laughed. “I always want to fuck you, cupcake, but you’re yawning, and we can save it for tomorrow. You deserve some sleep.” Then he frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“I forgot.”
He hopped up and went to the dresser, where he pulled out a silk pillowcase and brought it over to me. I raised an eyebrow.
“You still have that?”
“I don’t usually sleep with one,” he told me. “I feel like I just slide off the pillow all night.”
Quietly, I watched as he took my pillow and swapped out the cotton pillowcase for the silk one. Years ago, I’d explained how I used a silk pillowcase to take care of my hair, and the fact that he’d kept one for me after all of this time blew my mind.
He took the cotton pillowcase and tossed it in the laundry hamper. He paused in the door for a moment.
“I don’t have any bonnets,” he said quietly. “I can fly to Nellenston and get you one in the morning.” Salem glanced toward the window. “I don’t think I should leave you in the storm, though. Not tonight.”
My heart melted a little bit.
This sweet dragon man was going out of his way to make me feel safe and wanted and cared for, and he was looking after me.
He’d grown up with white parents in the most uptight household I’d ever heard of. It wasn’t like he knew anything about caring for black hair until he’d met me. Only, I’d taught him, and he’d remembered.
That was the thing that made me really want to cry.
He’d remembered.
“Come here,” I whispered, opening my arms.
Salem came back to bed, climbed under the covers with me, and nestled in my arms.
He let me hold him, and I snuggled against him for a very long time. He didn’t fall asleep for a while. We didn’t talk, either.
We just stayed with each other.
This was another thing I’d missed. Salem had always been so damn good at just keeping me company, but now that things were still and quiet and we were alone, the fear I’d been feeling before he licked my pussy started creeping back into my mind.
I was pretty sure that the person who was after the flash drive was my boss, but what if it hadn’t been?
What if there was more to the situation?
And what if the people involved managed to find me here?
I didn’t want to put Salem in any kind of danger, and there was a very real part of me that feared I had.