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  “I would like that. But we can’t try it until I’m awake. Why don’t you just take your clothes off?”

  Naaz almost objected. Being naked would have just made him feel more like a deviant sexual predator. But she had a point. If it was about power, removing his clothes would take some of that power away from him.

  “All right. You win. I’ll get naked for you.”

  He bent down to unlace his boots and kick them off, then peeled his shirt over his head. Red dust clouded the air, and he realized how very filthy he was. There was nothing to be done about that issue now, but his griminess somehow made him feel better when he stood beside her pristine body, clad in nothing but the dirt of his travels.

  That’s what his past was, after all. A fucking ordeal that had tarnished his very soul the same way the red dust of the godforsaken wasteland outside coated his skin. Somehow being naked beside such a perfect example of purity made that darkness feel superficial … If he could love a creature as flawless and genuine as Asha, didn’t that make him a better person?

  “I’m afraid to touch you now … I’m kind of a mess. I’ll get you dirty.”

  “Can I try something? I want to test my magic. See if I can make this work. I’ve never had someone close enough to try with, and my breath never made it out of the sarcophagus before.”

  “Anything you wish.”

  “Stand close to my head.”

  He moved to the end of the pedestal again, standing as close as he dared. This left less than a foot between his groin and Asha’s lovely profile. He instinctively covered his erection, as though its presence might offend her.

  “I’m here.”

  As he gazed down at her, shimmering iridescent smoke began to seep from her nostrils and the corners of her mouth, as if some small fire had been lit inside her and was starting to burn. The smoke floated around her head like a halo, and he could sense some effort going on from the little whispers of encouragement she emitted inside his mind. It was endearing … as though she were trying to coax a small animal into doing a trick.

  The smoke grew thicker and changed direction. He forced himself to hold still as the tendrils crept to the edge of the pedestal and floated farther, reaching out into the air where he stood, like fingers grasping for purchase on something.

  “There you are!” she exclaimed when the first soft tine of smoke grazed his hand over his crotch.

  The smoke flooded over him then, billowing in denser clouds from her nose and mouth until he was completely engulfed in a shimmering prismatic cloud. His skin tingled at the contact and he closed his eyes, swallowing the knot of emotion that choked him.

  “This will work best if you breathe, my love,” she said.

  Naaz inhaled, the very act of deliberately expanding his lungs helping ease the ache of this strange transformation that she seemed to have triggered in his very soul. The cloud of magic flowed around him, swirling in eddies against his skin, around his hands and arms. Up over his shoulders and down his back, the smoke carried away all the dust and grime of his travels and left behind nothing but his raw, aching hope that he could somehow be worthy of the woman who saw fit to give him this gift.

  “Now you’re all clean,” she announced in a pleased voice moments later.

  Naaz struggled to regain control of his voice. His eyes burned as he lifted his arms and gazed at them, then down his body at the complete lack of any sign of his journey. But better than that, he felt scrubbed clean on the inside, his every regret washed away in the flood of what he could only describe as forgiveness that had filled him.

  He was left with the overwhelming need to be near her. Not desire, but something far deeper.

  “Asha,” he choked out when he could finally speak again. “I need to hold you.”

  “Yes,” was all she said.

  He eyed the pedestal and found the hard surface too uninviting for what he had in mind. He leaned down and slipped his arms beneath her shoulders and knees, lifting her and cradling her against his chest. His heart pounded at the closeness of all her soft skin.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To bed, baby. Where I can hold you and make love to you like I mean it.”

  The bed was a huge construction with elaborate, twisting columns of carved stone that held fire beneath its surface, much the way Asha’s skin seemed to glow from within. The bedding was the softest down-filled mattress with luxurious silk sheets. Naaz was sure he’d sunk into a cloud when he climbed on and lay Asha down against the fluffy pillows.

  He slipped down beside her, still cradling her against his chest and marveling at how small she felt compared to the way she completely owned his every thought.

  When he settled with her head resting on his upper arm, he bent and pressed another brief kiss to her lips.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Now it’s my turn to make you tingle all over.”

  “This feels good already. Your body against mine … I like how you’re both hard and soft.”

  He glanced down between them at the stiff thickness of his shaft resting on the curve of her hip. The contact itself made him ache for more, but this had to be about her pleasure first.

  “Ignore my dick. I can’t help myself, being this close to you.”

  “Is that the part that’s so hot against my hip? I feel the core of your power soaking through my skin right there. It makes me feel even more alive. I want more of that.”

  “You can have all of me after you’re awake. For now, I want to make sure you know how good you can feel. Like this …”

  He shifted his arm out from under her and rose up, propping himself above her with his free hand resting on her chest. Slowly he began to draw it downward, caressing between her breasts, around her ribcage, then up again to cup her breast and graze his thumb over her nipple. The small bud tightened and pebbled against his skin, and Asha let out a mental sigh that sent a pleasant shiver down his spine to settle into his cock.

  “I want more like that,” she said.

  “Good, because I have more.” He toyed with her nipple, tracing the pale pink circle of her areola until she panted inside his head and errant wisps of smoke escaped her mouth and nose. Then he switched to the other breast and teased until its tip was also flushed, bright and hard as a ripe cherry.

  His mouth watered and he gave into the craving, dipping his head to take one bud into his mouth and suck.

  “Oh, yes. Please kiss me like that everywhere.”

  Naaz couldn’t help but let out a hungry growl as he opened his mouth and took in more of her breast, swirling his tongue around the supple flesh and grazing his teeth across her nipple until the sweet sounds she made drove him wild.

  Feverish for more, he rose and swung his leg over her to straddle her. He cupped her breasts, pushing them together and bent again, teasing both nipples in quick succession while her presence squirmed inside his mind.

  Soft heat soaked into his balls and he twitched, flinching as he realized he’d forgotten how naked he was. He hadn’t meant to let his cock brush that close to her core, which he realized now was radiating heat.

  “Why do you pull away?” she asked.

  “Not ready to go that far yet. My cock can’t have you until after I make you come.”

  “Let me feel it. Please. The magic soaks into my skin when you touch me with it. It makes my soul feel alive. The deepest parts of me sing with want.”

  “This turns you on?” he asked, leaning back on his haunches and lowering his ass until his skin met hers again and his balls rested just beneath her navel. His cock was a thick, rigid pole, and he gripped it and pushed down until it lay along the center of her belly like a slumbering snake.

  “I feel … swollen. Like I’m about to burst out of my skin if you touch me more. But that’s what I want. I want you to kiss me and touch me until I catch fire and come to li
fe again for real. Touch me with your tongue, with your hands, with your cock.”

  “Your wish is my command,” he said, and bent again to take one nipple in his mouth, this time deliberately allowing his cock to slide against her skin, tilting his hips to give her the friction she seemed to want. His balls grazed over the top of her bare mound, and he was acutely conscious of the swell of her thighs and the heat coming from their apex.

  He encountered warm wetness and paused, his eyelids fluttering closed at the realization that she wasn’t simply responding to him in mental whispers and sighs, but that her body indeed reacted to the pleasure he was giving her.

  He traveled lower, his head pounding with the barely checked desire to push her thighs wide and slide into that damp heat. He slowed long enough to savor the sensation of her crease parting slightly under the pressure of his cock. Beneath the sensitive head of his shaft, her tiny clitoris beat a steady pulse, reminding him how very alive she was and how strongly she desired what he hoped to give her.

  “You can be inside me. It’s what you wish, and I wish for it too.”

  “Not yet baby. Not until I can look into your eyes while you ride me.”

  “What will you do until then?”

  “Keep making you wet like this.”

  Naaz forced his cock past the temptation of her sweet snatch and kissed his way down her belly. He pushed his knees between her legs, spreading her open, then sat back again to enjoy the sight before him. She was still serene and beautiful, as though she merely slept, but a slight pink flush now betrayed the level of desire that filled her. Her breathing was quicker, more tendrils of smoke steadily threading their way from her nose and mouth. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was simply faking sleep and playing some demented little game to make him do all the work.

  He was happy to comply.

  The glistening pink of her pussy spread wider as he pushed her knees farther apart. Her scent brought back memories of night blooming jasmine that grew in the gardens outside the palace where he’d been born. The aroma reminded him that Asha had been conceived in that very palace not long after his own birth. What could their lives have been, if the vile creature who’d been his master had never existed? Would they have been raised together from the start, the daughter of a goddess matched to one of her godchildren?

  He lay down between her legs, pushing her thighs up until her knees bent and her legs splayed, supported by his arms when he hooked them around her thighs. The breathy sound of his name filled his mind when his lips brushed over her slick folds and his eyes closed to let the scent wash over him fully. Even though her voice was still only in his head, he imagined she spoke it aloud, urging him to pleasure her.

  Even if he’d only been a slave like his parents were to Belah then, he’d have happily been Asha’s slave. With the first gentle graze of his tongue up the seam of her pussy, he let himself imagine they were back in that palace. That none of the past three thousand years had happened, and this moment was their first experience—the awakening that had been denied them by the beast he’d called a master.

  He closed his mouth over her delicious, smooth folds, sinking his tongue deep into her luscious juices. He was determined that this would be the beginning of the two of them making up for not having had those three millennia together.

  Her body’s reactions were enough to urge him on. As he teased at her clit with his tongue, her petals grew soaked, and he licked the sweet ambrosia of her nectar away, reveling in the way she sang his name inside his head. He doubted her orgasm was what would wake her; he’d learned from the others that the human mate’s Nirvana was the key, but his cock wept, and the sensation of the soft sheets beneath his hips made him reflexively thrust into the silken fabric.

  All his senses were inundated with Asha, the slick velvet of her core beneath his mouth, the sweet flavor of her juices on his tongue. She made no sounds for him to hear, but the cries inside his head grew louder and louder. To be the man to drive this perfect, untouched angel to such mad desire was intoxicating, and he redoubled his efforts to push her higher.

  Her flesh quivered and pulsed beneath his mouth and he slipped a finger into her opening, aching to feel her tight channel around part of him. He wasn’t disappointed, especially when she moaned a desperate, “Yes! More!” that encouraged him to push another finger in and fuck her with them both. She clenched around him, a surprisingly strong, deliberate movement that was at odds with her otherwise placid body, but he only had a split-second to wonder at the movement before his mind split wide with the piercing cry of her orgasm.

  Wetness flooded his mouth, along with a bright surge of pure power the likes of which he’d never experienced. He’d been a whore or a stud his entire life and was no stranger to the flood of magic when a dragon climaxed, but Asha’s magic was pure white fire. It shot through him, searing away everything but the knowledge of his desperate love for her. And before he could control his reaction, his hips bucked into the bed, the friction against his cock providing just enough pleasure on top of the overwhelming rush for him to come harder than he ever had.

  He didn’t let himself stop to enjoy the moment, dead set on drawing out her pleasure for as long as possible. It wasn’t until a pair of hands gripped his head and pulled him away that he realized what had happened.

  He lifted himself up in a daze, blinking down at the lovely creature beneath him. Strange iridescent eyes like mother-of-pearl gazed back, framed by long lashes that blinked slowly up at him.

  “Hi,” he said, his mouth quirking into a smile.

  “Hi back,” she replied, then launched herself into his arms, barreling him over with a laugh.

  He found himself pinned by unexpectedly strong hands. She peppered his face with kisses, her lithe body rubbing delightfully against his, making his flagging cock fully hard again.

  “No moving!” she said when he struggled to pull from her grasp.

  He laughed and lay still. “As you wish.”

  “It’s your wish. You lay there, and I molest you. It’s my turn.”

  “As long as that means I get to be inside you now.”

  “Oh, that’s exactly what it means.”

  She rested her hands on his chest and pushed up, her hair a tangled mess as she stared down at him in utter wonder. Without speaking, she raised her hips and tilted forward until his tip slipped between her slick folds. The heat of that contact made him groan.

  “I want to touch you …” he said, but was halted by the press of her mouth against his and her tongue plunging between his lips. This was he kiss he’d hoped for, the one he’d dreamed of for so long, and he groaned and tilted his head up to kiss her back.

  At the same time, she pushed down onto his cock, letting out a whimper as her tight sheathe accommodated his thick shaft. And then she was riding him, not like the chaste virgin he’d expected, but like the wild, powerful dragon he knew she really was. And he wouldn’t change a fucking thing.

  Chapter Ten

  Neela interrupted the scene in the reflecting pool with a puff of breath just as her brother lifted Asha’s sleeping body and made his way to the bed. She bit down hard on her lower lip to stave off the sudden surge of pride and elation. Naaz would be all right. And to think he was on the verge of turning around and leaving not long before the last ambush …

  The surface of the water cleared to mirror smooth again, but she kept staring at her own reflection, trying to decide if she might somehow be lacking. Perhaps she needed to find her own self-worth before Zorion would show himself to her.

  But that made no sense. She was ready for him. She’d bared herself already. He was the one holding back, and she wasn’t sure why.

  Candlelight flickered in the reflection, revealing the rough-hewn red stone of the cave’s ceiling. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, feigning interest in the surface as though she were still watchin
g her brother’s drama play out. She had an idea.

  She gripped the edge of the basin and leaned closer, deliberately widening her eyes. “Z! Something’s happening! Come look!”

  Her back instantly warmed from his proximity and she resisted the urge to close her eyes and lean back against him. She kept her gaze fixed on the water and waited.

  Sure enough, the shadow behind her soon coalesced and grew solid. Iridescent eyes glowed from within an ebony face shot through with a web of fiery light. Her heart nearly stopped at the beauty of his reflection, a sight as divinely perfect as the Milky Way had been all those nights painted in the night sky above the Outback. She saw eternity in his eyes, and wanted to let herself fall into it and never leave.

  “I see nothing,” he said, his coal-black brows drawing together. Then time stopped as his eyes met hers in the reflection. Alarm filled his gaze, and in a split-second, he disappeared just as quickly as he’d appeared. Too late, Neela realized that she’d been staring wide-eyed with her mouth hanging open. She cursed at herself. She’d probably looked like she was paralyzed with fear.

  “Z, goddammit, I’m not afraid of you!” she yelled at the empty air. The ache of frustration inside softened a little in sympathy. In a softer voice, she said, “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  She sensed no telltale brightness in power revealing where he was, but wandered down the winding tunnels anyway, hoping she’d find some sign. Eventually she found her way back to the makeshift break room for the Hunters who apparently served Zorion now. The men were different than the ones she’d seen earlier, but gave her wary looks nonetheless.

  She wandered on and found the barracks, which was a room similar to the one she’d awakened in, with cozy alcoves cut into the walls in tiers acting as bunks.

  Several of the beds were occupied with large, vaguely man-shaped lumps. One Hunter was still awake. He stood looking into a small shard of mirror propped on a ledge near a waterfall trickling from a crack in the rock into a rough basin cut into the wall. He had remnants of shaving cream on his cheek, head tilted as he fiddled with something against his neck.