Page 76 of Dragon’s Ending

“No?” He leaned closer, his voice low against my ear. “Because earlier you told me to fuck history.”

Heat curled low in my stomach. “You’re taking that quote slightly out of context.”

“Mm.” His fingers slid lazily beneath the hem of my shirt to trail along my spine. I just about managed not to shiver. “Care to elaborate on your position?”

There was something brighter in him now. It definitely wasn’t happiness. More like the reckless energy that came from surviving an ordeal, as if he didn’t know what to do with all the adrenaline left behind.

My pulse kicked harder as his fingers skimmed teasingly over my skin.

“I think,” I said carefully, “my position is that you’re trying to distract me.”

“Historian,” he murmured, stepping between my knees where I sat, “I would never.”

Liar. I barely had time to fumble my phone down before he kissed me.

My hands slid beneath his jumper, warm skin and hard muscle beneath my palms. Dominic made a soft sound into my mouth and pressed closer immediately, craving more contact the way he always did. Given what I now knew, that nearly broke my heart.

He pulled back just enough to rest his forehead briefly against mine.

“You’re thinking again,” he accused softly.

“I’m a historian. It’s my fatal flaw.”

“That’s not what you’re thinking about.”

No. For once, I wasn’t thinking about history. I looked at him. God, I loved him.

Apparently my face gave something away, because Dominic’s expression swiftly changed, becoming almost unbearably open for half a second. Then he kissed me again, harder this time, and my ability to think vanished entirely.

We made it along the landing to his room eventually, bumping into walls as we went because Dominic apparently found it impossible to navigate and kiss me at the same time.

By the time we collapsed into bed, there was only warm skin, breathless laughter, and Dominic under me, eyes dark and soft. I took my time with him, needing him to feel exactly how wanted he was. I made every touch deliberate, every kiss lingering.

Dominic, unsurprisingly, lasted perhaps three minutes before he lost patience with that approach and hauled me down into a bruising kiss.

“Less emotional eye contact,” he demanded breathlessly. “More action.”

I laughed against his mouth and obeyed.

Afterwards we lay tangled together beneath the covers while the old house creaked quietly around us. Dominic was sprawled half on top of me, relaxed and loose-limbed now in a way he hadn’t been all day. My fingers drifted lazily up and down his spine while his heartbeat slowed beneath my hand.

Eventually, he lifted his head. “You still want to go flying?”

“Yes,” I said immediately.

“Good,” he murmured. “Because I think if I stay inside this house much longer, I may actually start biting people.”

“Start?” I asked, tilting my head back to show him the mark he’d left on my neck.

Typical Dominic—he didn’t look in the least ashamed at being caught out. “People who aren’t you,” he clarified.

I kissed him once more before we finally forced ourselves out of bed.

Chapter Thirty

BEN

We launched into the dark sky together, the ground dropping away beneath our wings. And just like every time flying with Dominic, it was glorious. In the air, the events of the day no longer loomed so large. We weaved through clouds, flew far lower than was wise above the trees, almost colliding with a very startled owl, and circled around one another.