‘‘You’re not an animal, Gabriel.’’ One corner of his mouth went up. ‘‘Well, not in the traditional sense of the word. You’re a very enthusiastic lover, but you seem so human, it’s just hard to remember that this isn’t your real form.’’
‘‘I am still the same being no matter what form I wear,’’ he said slowly, his eyes filled with warmth. ‘‘And you are my mate, the woman who has completed my life. Dragons frequently shift in the throes of sexual ecstasy, but if my dragon form makes you uncomfortable, then I will endeavor to control it.’’
I bit my lip, hating to make such a big deal about it, but at the same time, pathetically grateful that he would stay in human form. ‘‘I’m sure it makes me the worst sort of bigot to say that I’m uncomfortable around something that doesn’t look human.’’
His dimples popped into life. ‘‘Do you know that you shadowed at your moment of climax?’’
I gazed at him in surprise. ‘‘No! I did? I didn’t feel it. Are you sure?’’
‘‘Sure that the woman I held in my arms suddenly became almost entirely transparent? Yes.’’
‘‘I’m sorry,’’ I said, feeling the need to apologize. ‘‘Did it unnerve you?’’
‘‘No. There is nothing about you that I could ever find disagreeable.’’
I held my tongue, not wanting to ruin the moment of intimacy, allowing him to pull me back down against his body, still hot, but now dampened by our experience.
Lazy fingers drew patterns along my back, slowly moving up to my shoulder. A sensitive spot of skin reminded me of the burning sensation. ‘‘What was that brand you burned into me?
He traced out a pattern on my shoulder blade. ‘‘It is the mark of the silver dragon. It signifies you are my mate.’’
I frowned. ‘‘I’m not sure I like being treated like a piece of cattle. Couldn’t you have asked me first if I wanted it?’’
‘‘All members of the sept wear the symbol, here, in the small of their back.’’ He touched a spot on my lower back. ‘‘Only wyverns and their mates wear them higher, on the shoulder.’’
‘‘Let me see yours.’’
He obliged by sitting up, turning to the side so I could see the emblem that had been burned into his skin. I touched it, following the pattern. It was in the shape of a hand bearing a crescent moon. ‘‘That’s actually quite beautiful. What does it symbolize?’’
‘‘Our relationship with the sept, and nature,’’ he said enigmatically, pulling me up as he got to his feet. ‘‘It is morning. I wish I could let you have the rest you deserve, but you must first accept me as your mate so that I can make the preparations to present you to the sept.’’
I glanced down to the floor, where a few minutes before I had been writhing in ecstasy. ‘‘Didn’t… er… our lovemaking qualify as me accepting you?’’
He shook his head, his eyes still almost glowing. ‘‘You must formally take me as your mate.’’
‘‘All right,’’ I said, extremely aware that I was standing naked next to a beautiful-also naked-man who could shift into dragon form at the merest whim. My mouth went a bit dry. ‘‘What words do I need to repeat?’’
‘‘Whatever is in your heart.’’
‘‘Are you sure?’’ I asked him after a few seconds of silence. ‘‘There is Magoth to consider-’’
‘‘He will be taken care of, I promise you that, Mayling.’’
My better judgment warned me against accepting what he offered, but my heart leaped at the thought of having my cake and eating it, too.
I would trust him, trust that he was the one person who could survive being in a relationship with me. ‘‘I am May Northcott, doppelganger, and your mate. Your life is bound to mine, and mine to yours. I accept you into my life, and will do my best to make you and the silver dragons happy.’’
He pulled me into an embrace, my breasts immediately turning into strumpets as they pressed themselves against the flesh of his lower chest. ‘‘I, Gabriel Tauhou, wyvern of the silver dragons, take you as my mate, to guard and protect, to care for and cherish, to the end of my days.’’
The kiss he shared with me burned with dragon fire. I welcomed it, rubbing myself against him as it blazed through me, igniting fires I’d assumed were slumbering. With a growl, he tossed me onto the bed, following to kiss a blazing path from my neck to my breasts.
‘‘We’re going to do it again?’’ I asked, amazed but pleased to see his penis beginning to swell.
‘‘Now we will mate like humans,’’ he said, lifting his head from the valley between my breasts. His gaze scorched along my flesh, leaving me trembling with need. ‘‘But this time, we will take it slowly. I will pleasure you at length, giving you the time you need to-’’
I grabbed his head, wrapping my fingers in the thin, soft dreadlocks, pulling his mouth down to mine at the same time I wrapped my legs around his hips. ‘‘Now,’’ I yelled into his mouth, biting his lower lip.
He laughed even as he shifted his hips, thrusting into my waiting flesh. ‘‘My demanding little bird.’’
‘‘You have no idea,’’ I groaned, thrusting my hips up to meet him, my tongue twining around his in an erotic dance that begged for more. ‘‘Give me your fire. Please.’’
He didn’t say anything more, just released his dragon fire until it consumed us, sending me soaring once again into a world that consisted only of Gabriel and me, and the blaze that we built between us.
Chapter Eleven
‘‘Let me see if I have this straight.’’
I rubbed my forehead and wished for the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes that a portal would suddenly open up next to me to take me a thousand miles from this spot.
‘‘Despite the fact that you had just finished explaining to me why you could not get involved with any man-’’
Cyrene ’s voice was drowned out for a moment by the arrival of another fire engine.
‘‘-to the wind and slept with Gabriel? Oh, Mayling, really!’’
In the blissful silence that followed the siren being silenced, Cyrene ’s voice was clearly audible.
I closed my eyes and wondered what would be the worst thing that would happen if I was to suddenly shadow in front of the twenty or so people who now turned interested faces upon us. Luckily, the crowd gathered had other things to capture their attention, and turned away from us almost immediately. All but one person, a tall, wiry man who examined Cyrene and me with speculation I found almost offensive.
‘‘I don’t think everyone in the entire country heard you,’’ I said in a low, dangerous voice, giving the man a thin-lipped look. He blinked a couple of times, then moved off.
Cyrene rolled her eyes. ‘‘The point is that despite everything you had just told me, you slept with Gabriel, and had such incredibly wild sex that the bed was set on fire. Am I correct in that summation of the evening’s events?’’
I grabbed her arm and pulled her as far away from our audience as was possible, my cheeks hot with embarrassment. We were standing a block away from the hotel, huddled with other guests in various states of undress as the fire department put out the blaze that had damaged part of the floor my room was on. ‘‘It wasn’t like that!’’
‘‘And unless that very handsome fireman who brought out my things was mistaken, your little lovefest with Gabriel not only caused the furnishings in your room to burn-a fact that evidently went unnoticed by either of you-but the fire spread to adjoining rooms?’’
I ground my teeth.
‘‘Do I have all that correct?’’
I lifted my chin and gave her a look of my own. ‘‘There were extenuating circumstances. Not to mention the fact that the hotel’s fire prevention practices are clearly out of date. The sprinklers didn’t go on until the curtains were almost gone.’’