“See? That wasn’t so hard to open up, was it?” I shifted, positioning him so that I could sink down and give us both the pleasure my body wept for. “All you had to do was just tell me—Oh, holy hallucinations, you’re bigger than before!”

I swear as I sank down on him that he was larger… and hotter. I did a little moaning of my own as he invaded me, pushing his way in to where my muscles could ripple around him.

“I am just the same as I have always been.” His eyes widened when I made a little swiveling move in order to accommodate his girth. “That!”

“Hmm? Seriously, did you get bigger when I wasn’t looking?”

“Do that again. You asked what I liked. I like that.” Little pricks of pain touched my hips as he urged me into repeating the movement. “Christos, yes!” I looked down. “Claws, Kostya. Oh, never mind, you can leave them out. It’s kind of arousing, to be honest.”

I sank down the last little bit until he was wholly enveloped in my heated embrace, and looked down at him. His eyes were a field of onyx with brilliant little flecks of mercury.

“Wow,” I said, my mind and body focused on his invasion. “You’re really there, aren’t you?”

“It is good,” he agreed. “You may be on top more often. But only if you begin to move. Do you need help? I will help.”

He urged me upward.

“I don’t need help, but I have to say, I like it when you do that. Oooh, and that, too.”

His hands had moved around to my back, leaving little trails of fire as he stroked a path up my spine. “I’m sorry I’m not bouncing up and down on you, but I swear you inflated. All right, I’m going to try a downward swoop. Are you ready?”

“I may well expire if you don’t, so yes,” he said, his entire body as taut as a bowstring, his eyes glittering, and his claws pricking softly on the flesh of my behind.

I sank back down on him, my back arching when he pulled me down enough that he could catch one of my breasts in his mouth.

And that was all it took. The second he blew fire on my breasts, my brain just seemed to kick into high gear, and I found myself riding him like a rented mule, his hips bucking beneath me when I found a rhythm that had us both mindless with pleasure. My muscles tightened around him when he gave a hoarse shout of purest joy. At that moment, I didn’t care that the others might hear us, didn’t care that I had bound myself to a man who carried more emotional scars than me, and wasn’t thinking at all of the wisdom of falling in love with a dragon in human form… I just knew that I was meant to be there, at that exact moment, and that Kostya was my future.

You said the L-word, my mind pointed out some time later, when Kostya had rolled us over so that I lay tucked partially beneath him, one of his legs thrown over mine, his even breath ruffling my hair. Are you so sure it’s not just an infatuation?

I smiled to myself even as those thoughts rattled around in my head. I loved the fact that Kostya was always grumpy, defensive, and had a secret vulnerable self that called to me.

I just loved him.

Fifteen

The détente, as I thought of it, was held in the hall of Aisling’s house.

“Aisling says that you have brought the payment that Drake demanded of Kostya for his help in freeing you?” Rene asked when Aisling came out of one of the ground-floor rooms. She smiled at me.

I waved and smiled back. She patted Jim on his head before he returned to my side and sat down.

“Payment?” I glanced back to the open door of the kitchen. Kostya lurked just inside of the door, out of the line of sight of the room where Drake likewise stood watching us through an open door. We had discovered that if the two men couldn’t see each other, they didn’t seem to mind relatively close proximity. “There is so much I could say about a brother that makes you pay for helping you… but I’ll save it for another time. I don’t have much money, Kostya. Do you have a check or something for me to give to your brother?”

An odd look passed over his face. “Oh. That. Er…”

“Why are you looking guilty? What’s happened?”

He straightened his shoulders and looked down his nose at me. “I am a wyvern. Whatever choices I make are best for my sept.”

“I’m not in your sept,” I couldn’t help but point out. Much as I wanted to force him to admit the obvious—that I was his mate and that he needed me—I knew that wasn’t going to be the way to start our life together.

He waved a dismissive hand. “That applies to all my decisions. I do whatever is for the best of all concerned.”

“Uh-huh.” I tipped my head to the side. “What did you promise Drake? My house that is no more? Jim? Me?”

He gave me a look that clearly said I should know better. “You tried to give Jim back already and cannot.”

“That’s just because I don’t know how, and Aisling couldn’t really explain what I needed to do. So if it’s not any of those, what did you off—Oh no, Kostya, you didn’t.”

He looked away, suddenly absorbed in a kitchen cabinet.

“Really? You told Drake you’d give him my magic ring?” I marched over to him and poked him twice on the chest. “It’s not yours to give away!”

“It is of great value, priceless to be exact. It would naturally appeal to Drake.”

“Whereas something trivial like me wouldn’t, you mean?” Now I was irritated with both Kostya and Drake. “Gee, talk about treating family like crap.”

The look Kostya gave me was priceless. “You are angry with me because I did not offer you to my brother?”

“Of course I’m not,” I snapped. “And stop being reasonable when I’ve got hurt feelings.”

“Aoife.” Kostya pulled me against his chest, rubbing his hips against me in an attempt to distract me that was pretty darned obvious. “That implies that you are not worthy of his high esteem, and you are. Even if I shared women, and I do not, Drake knows I value you more than the ring, and thus when he asked for payment, he demanded only what I was willing to give up.”

I bit his chin. “All right, given that and the sentiments you expressed in the alley, I’m willing to move past hurt and into acceptance of the fact that you offered Drake something that isn’t really yours.”