…
Lucy set her drink on the bar and frowned. Alec watched her from the couch, his body still, and his poker face gave nothing away. Surely she had not misread his cues all evening? She untied the side of her dress. The wrap fell open; her sexy white lingerie gleamed against her skin in the moonlight.
Still Alec didn’t move.
“You aren’t interested now?” She wanted to sound vampish, but her voice trembled with uncertainty. “Was I too easy…you know before, in the spa?” She pulled the sides of the dress around her stomach protectively.
Alec dropped his foot and sat forward. “Lucy, I want you more than anything.”
“Then why are you just sitting there?” Lucy fought to keep her smile playful. She knew the hurt of rejection showed in her expression, but she would not turn and run. He would have to say the words.
Then she would leave. Disappointment sucked at her heart. It would probably be for the best.
Alec drank deeply from his glass before setting it aside. “I want to be sure that you are ready for things between us.”
“I am taking my clothes off here.” Lucy pulled apart the dress to show him one more time what he was missing. “How much more ready do I have to be?” She walked up to him and brushed her leg against his knee. A crackle of electricity moved up her thigh.
She leaned in harder.
Alec inhaled. His eyes met hers, then wandered down her body slowly. The hair on Lucy’s arms stood on end, but his lack of initiative doused her desire.
She chewed on her lip and stepped back. “Just say it…You’ve changed your mind.”
“I haven’t changed my mind—”
“Then what?” Lucy tied her dress back on, hot humiliation whirling through her head. “You suddenly realized that I’m not one of your models after all?”
“No.” Alec jumped to his feet and paced in front of her. He blew out a long exhale and pushed his hand through his dark hair. When he dropped his hand, Lucy saw that his fingers were shaking.
What was going on?
“Lucy, you are very, very important to me.” He stopped several feet from her. The gap between them seemed wide and arctic.
“Yeah, yeah, so you keep saying.” Lucy just wanted to be gone from there before her hurt busted through her facade of no big-deal-ness. “If talking about something made it so, we would all live in very different worlds.”
Alec’s features tensed, and his hands fisted at his sides. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Like I said, I have trust issues.” Alec’s posture sent nerves dancing along her spine, and not in a good way. “I’ll just be going now.” Her words cracked a bit, and she quickly moved toward the door.
“Wait.”
Lucy turned with her hand on the knob and took a surprised breath to find him right behind her.
Alec stared into her face, his dark blue eyes narrowed and assessing. He smiled gently and lifted his right palm to brush the edge of her jaw. The same electricity she had felt before moved from his finger to the fine hairs on her face and settled in the back of her throat, achy and tight. Liquid pooled at the outside of her eyes. Joseph, Mary, and Peter. She would not cry like some damn stood-up prom date.
Alec’s thumb stroked the slight moisture, and he frowned. “This must all be so confusing for you.”
“I’m fine.” She shrugged off his touch and blinked hard. “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
“Lucy.” Alec put both hands on her shoulders. “The problem is not you.”
“Um hum…” She nodded and forced a straight smile to her lips. God, this was exactly like her ill-fated prom date.
The closed door at her back seemed an inconsequential barrier to escape.
“I want you to stay. I want to touch you. I want to make love to you.” Alec dropped his hands and again moved his right palm through his hair. “But, you need to know that I am a dragon.”
Lucy’s jaw dropped, and a feeling not unlike the elevator vertigo made her wobble on her heels. “A dragon…”
“Yes.” Alec smiled, looking relieved. “I am a shape-shifting dragon. But, I have a human form.” He motioned to his body with both hands. “When we make love, it could be very intense.”
Lucy stared at him with her mouth open. He seemed sane. Her brain tried to process the information logically.
Alec Gerald thought he was a dragon…
Seriously?
Or was this some rich man’s way to push the envelope on sex?
“You want to role play as a dragon?” Lucy stepped toward him. She could try that, she guessed. Intellectual curiosity squeezed her brow, and she thought through what she knew of dragon myths. “Am I the medieval maiden then? Or am I a dragon, too?”
Alec laughed. The sound was low and mischievous, and it sent a fresh cascade of anticipation through her body. “Definitely the maiden.” He walked to her, untied the dress, and dropped it to the floor. “You are gorgeous.” His eyes traced her collarbones, burning a trail of shivers down her skin. He took her hand and led her to the couch.
Lucy followed, trying to decide what a maiden would do next.
Alec dropped her hand and shrugged off his suit jacket and shirt. His chest was just as spectacularly muscled as she remembered from the spa. Broad shoulders narrowed to his waistband. The valleys and ridges of exposed muscle were defined by shadows from the moonlight, thick and strong.
“Your skin is so pale. I love that about you. I can see your veins, here and here.” Alec touched her temple and pulse at her neck, and Lucy felt her blood jump.
Alec sat back on the couch, his knees wide, and looked at her appreciatively.
“All the better for you to sink your dragon teeth into.” Lucy smiled, happy with the retort. She could do this. She could be a maiden for a night.
She straddled his lap. Her high-heeled feet swung off the floor, nearly unbalancing her. Alec moved his hands up her hips and pulled her snug to his groin. His erection pushed against her, making her squirm to get closer.
Lucy trailed kisses down his bare chest. His skin was salty and hot with the fresh taste of eucalyptus. “You still smell like the steam showers.”
Alec inhaled and leaned his head back, closing his eyes.
“I have other pale skin,” Lucy whispered against his ear.
Alec’s eyes snapped open. “Show me.”
Lucy unsnapped her bra and let it fall to the floor. In the moonlight, she knew she had to appear the palest version of herself.
Alec reached a hand behind her and pulled her forward, easing her breast into his mouth, his tongue circling the sensitive skin.
Hot spirals curled in her belly, and Lucy threw her head back. “Ahhh…yes.”
Alec tugged at the corner of her panties, and the lace fabric broke and fell.
“Those were my favorite,” she said, holding his head to her breast. “Part of my maiden’s trousseau. For my wedding…to the knight, who wants to kill you, fierce dragon… We should hurry before he catches us.” She panted out the story.
“I’ll get you more.” Alec’s voice was husky and deep as he found the throbbing nub between her legs.
“Ohhhh.” Lucy held onto his shoulders, riding the push of his clever fingers, the elemental beat in her body as loud as the music from the theater show that still echoed through her bloodstream.
“No.” She bent his arms behind his head. “This maiden wants to take her dragon this time.”
She worked shaky hands under his belt and opened his pants. His manhood sprang into her hands, engorged, the vein pulsing with need. Lucy ran her finger around the tip. Alec groaned, the muscles of his chest contracted, and his hands fisted behind him so that his biceps bulged.
Lucy felt powerful. For this moment in time, he was hers. All hers. “Say that you want me.”
“I want you. Forever.”