Page 40 of Red Dragon’s Flame

A little smile touched his mouth. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

But he sat down on the bed, the mattress sinking comfortably under his weight. “I can stay as long as you need me.”

“Would you?”

She hated how plaintive she sounded. Weak, when she couldn’t afford to be weak. But the Allohim bursting through the door of her basement hideout kept playing through her mind. She’d gotten lucky, then. She might not be lucky a second time.

Mikah seemed to be reading her thoughts, the way he sometimes did. He grabbed one of the multitude of pillows and stretched out next to her, on top of the covers, his head and shoulders propped against the headboard.

Devon lay on her side, facing him. He was big and warm and solid and magical, and he made her feel safe again.

“Feel like talking?” he asked her. “A lot has happened to you tonight. Your brain must be exploding.”

“Yeah.” But she didn’t feel like talking. They were so close together she was breathing on his right bicep. He still smelled amazing. She wondered if he tasted like cookies as well as smelling like them. And what his skin would feel like to touch.

Experimentally, she reached out and brushed her fingers over his arm. A tiny flame came out of her fingers and danced on his skin. He didn’t react.

“That is so weird,” she murmured.

“What?” he asked, looking down at the flame without alarm. “The fire?”

“The fact that it doesn’t burn you.” She ran her fingers up his arm again. “I’ve never been able to touch anyone besides Auntie May, and only because she had an amulet. I mean, the fire hardly ever came out then, but we never knew when it might.”

“That must have been hard.”

She shrugged. “I’m used to it.” She didn’t talk about how much she’d missed hugs and cuddles when she was a little girl, after her parents died. How the whole world had felt cold and unloving, even though Auntie May did her best. She wondered, running her fingers up and down his arm, what it would be like to be able to snuggle with someone whenever she felt like it.

Heaven.

He finally said, “I’m thinking maybe you better not do that anymore.”

She froze in embarrassment. He was nice enough to stay with her, and here she was petting him like a cat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

He turned his head, looking down at her with those smoldering eyes. “You’re not bothering me. You’re making me want to kiss you.”

“Oh!” Startled, she looked at his lips. They looked extremely kissable, at least to someone of her limited experience. She said slowly, “And that’s bad because…”

“I’m not taking advantage of a friend who almost died, is now half asleep, and is totally dependent on me for the moment.”

That made her smile. “Here I thought you were a barbarian, not a gentleman.”

“Depends on whether I’m wearing my fur loincloth.”

“Damn,” she murmured. “I would have liked to see what it was like. The kissing, I mean. Not the loincloth. Well, both.”

He gave a little laugh. “The kissing would be like pretty much every other guy you’ve kissed, probably.”

“I haven’t kissed any other guys.” At his startled look, she said, “Hello? Flames. Combustion. Kaboom. Death.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “Right.” There was a pause. “In that case…”

Mikah turned to face her and brushed a strand of hair back from her face, watching his own fingers as they trailed down her cheekbone, down to her neck. Then he leaned in and slid his lips over hers, tasting, exploring, teasing her with tiny soft slow kisses that gradually deepened, until she felt like her bones were melting.

He moved closer, pulling her into his chest, and she splayed her hand over all those beautiful muscles, feeling them press against her breasts.

Mikah made a tiny noise of satisfaction, and a growl rose in his chest. Like a dragon purr. She parted her lips to get closer to him, and felt his tongue slide intimately over hers, tasting and tangling and making her breath come faster, her heart pound.

He felt warm and familiar and strange and alien, all at once, and she wanted to tear his shirt and her nightgown off and find out how it felt to press all her skin against his. Something expanded inside her that felt like a note of a song, too low to be heard, only felt.