Rearing up, he caught the switch with his claw and clicked off the light before nosing out of the bathroom. The room beyond was dark. He hadn’t really thought about how long he had been in the bathroom, but obviously, Terra had already gone to bed. Alex slipped out and looked over the room. Sure enough, he could see her all tucked in on the far side of the mattress. Carefully, he slipped past the end of the bed and headed for the armchair. Surely, Terra wouldn’t want him in the bed after he had abandoned her like that. It would be tight, but he could curl up on the chair for the night.
“Don’t you even dare.”
The growled words stopped him from climbing into the seat. Alex turned to look at the form in the bed. He could feel the waves of anger coming off her. He swallowed hard. Maybe he should have just given in to their desires earlier.
“Unless you want me to kick it, get your ass up here. Now.”
Lowering his head, he slinked back across the room and around to the open side of the bed.
Terra sat up and flipped the covers back for him.
Feeling guilty, he climbed up and lay down. “I’m sorry,” he gurgled.
Terra flipped the covers back over him.
He turned his head so he could watch her out of one eye. “Please don’t be mad at me.”
She let out a loud sigh and lay back down, facing away from him. “Just go to sleep.” Her voice held a sharp note of hurt in it.
Alex swallowed hard and closed his eyes. It took several minutes of arguing with himself to come to the decision to stay in this form for the night. Tomorrow, he would shift back and apologize to her. Somehow, he would find a way to make this up to her.
7
Consciousness pulled at Terra’s mind as she floated on the edge of an uncomfortable sleep. It was much too hot under the covers. She tried to flip the material back but found she couldn’t move. There was something heavy on her. Awareness slammed into her as her brain snapped awake. It wasn’t just something heavy on her; something very warm was tangled around her. There was only one thing it could possibly be. Her fingers shifted under the covers to touch the hot object behind her. She hoped to meet with hard scales, but what she felt was a lot softer.
At some time during the night, her dragon had shifted back into a man and wrapped himself around her. And it wasn’t just an arm draped over her. Oh no. He had both his arms wrapped around her middle, and his leg was slipped between hers. Now that she was awake, she could feel his breath tickle across her skin from where he had buried his face in her hair at the back of her neck. And somehow, he had managed to work her shirt up to an almost indecent level. His fingers lay splayed across the bare skin over her ribs. Just a slight shift upwards would have him palming her breast. The thought of his fingers on her brought those rosy tips to hard points, and she shut that thought down as fast as she could.
Terra drew in a deep breath, trying to calm the fluttering of her heart. Talk about mixed signals. Last night, he had made it very clear he wasn’t interested in her. As if leaving her hanging weren’t enough, he had shifted in the bathroom so he wouldn’t have to explain himself. Then, he had even tried to sneak off to the chair instead of taking his side of the bed. Now what was she supposed to do?
Turning her head, she tried to peek over her shoulder at the sleeping man, but he was pressed into her so hard that she couldn’t turn far enough. And speaking of hard, there was definitely something solid pressing into her back. She should have just let him sleep in the chair. Closing her eyes, she relaxed back into his grip. It really wasn’t that bad being caught by him. Honestly, it was quite nice waking up being held. She wiggled a little, trying to get more comfortable.
A growl sounded from behind her, and her dragon man buried his face deeper into her hair, if that were even possible. He also tightened his grip around her as he took a deep breath.
Terra froze, waiting to see what he would do.
He let the air out in a long sigh and went back to the deep, even breaths of sleep.
Letting out the air caught in her own lungs, Terra decided it was time to get up. After what had happened last night, it was probably best for both of them if she wasn’t in his arms when he woke up. Especially with the evidence of his arousal pressed so firmly into her back. He was probably dreaming of some leggy blonde with big boobs. Having him wake up to find it was just her would be rather disappointing, and she didn’t know if she could handle that type of rejection again.
She pushed against his arms, hoping to move them, but they held her fast. Like solid steel bands.
He let out another growl that froze her.
Geez, it was like someone was taking away his favorite toy. Sighing, Terra glanced over her shoulder again. It looked like she wasn’t going to be able to get free without waking him up.
“Hey, Cookie,” she whispered, using the nickname she had given his dragon when they’d fled her home.
He growled again.
She patted his arm, trying to wake him up. “Wake up, Cookie.”
“I’m not Cookie,” he growled, but his hold never loosened.
Irked, Terra tried to shoot him a glare, but she still couldn’t turn far enough. “Then what the hell am I supposed to call you? I can’t go around calling you ‘hey you’ all the time.” She squirmed in his hold, to no avail.
“Anything but Cookie,” he grumbled. Letting out a long sigh, he relinquished his grip.
Terra took the opportunity and climbed out of bed and away from him before he could clamp back down on her. She yanked her shirt back down into place before turning to face him. “You have issues, buddy,” she growled as she stormed over and grabbed up her bag of clothing. Right now, she wanted to put as much distance between them as possible. A nice shower should help clean him from her mind. As if she could forget the exquisite feel of him against her skin. Damn it, if he hadn’t made his position clear last night, she would have spent the morning rocking his world.
The sound of the bathroom door closing between them broke Alex’s heart. Yes, he did have issues, and she didn’t know the half of it. He should have just come to bed as a human last night. At least then he could have kept on his clothing… or at least part of them. But no, he had come to bed in his lesser form, thinking that would save them from more awkwardness. How stupid could he be! Of course, his instincts would have shifted him into the form that was best for the situation, and his instincts were pushing him to claim Terra. Therefore, human was the form he had taken while asleep. There had to be a special level of hell where people liked to torture themselves with denied pleasures, because that’s where he found himself this morning. God, she had felt good in his arms.
A shiver ran through his body at the sound of the shower turning on. She was there, just feet away from him, getting naked. It was all he could do not to get up and follow her. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, trying not to envision her soft skin glistening with water. Maybe if he went in and begged, she would forgive him for his stupidity. But, then again, doing that would put him right back at the point where he had been last night. If he let his desires control his actions, he could easily do something that they might both regret later. When dragons chose a mate, it was for life. Alex let out a long sigh as he thought about that. Sex didn’t automatically mean a mating bond was formed, but he just knew if he gave in, there would be lasting consequences to the choice.