“What do you want to do, then?” I asked, my skin flushing as his gaze roamed over me. I was wearing a dress he had picked out for me, black, slinky, and backless. The neckline plunged down to my waist, the material clinging to my body in a way that seemed almost to caress my flesh.

His face was all hard planes, not a line of softness to be found anywhere from the black slashes of his eyebrows, to his arrogant, aquiline nose, and the stubborn line of his jaw. The expression in his eyes, however, was unmistakable. “Do you have to ask?”

“I suppose not,” I answered, taking the hand he held out. He pulled me forward onto his lap so I was sitting astride him, the material of his pants rough against the flesh of my inner thighs. It was a rather risqué position in public, but I trusted that the shadows were deep enough that no one could see us. I let my fingers dance along his skin as I unbuttoned his silky shirt, reveling in the feeling of him. His hands slid up my bare thighs, curling into my hips to pull me closer to him, until we were nestled together in an intimacy that was only hampered by our clothing…and the environment.

Drake’s mouth burned along my neck as he kissed a path down my chest, nudging aside the clinging material to reveal my breast.

“Sweetie,” I said, squirming when he took my nipple in his mouth, laving his tongue over the tip. “Not that I want to stop you, but this is a public place.”

“No one can see us,” he answered, allowing his dragon fire to lick along my flesh. I arched my back against the sensation, my entire body tightening, as if poised to explode.

“Someone could come back here to talk to you—”

“There is no one else. There is only you and me.” His eyes all but burnt my flesh, his pupils narrow little slits against the glittering green.

My fingers curled into the thick muscles of his shoulders as he slid his hands under my dress, quickly snapping the minuscule satin straps of my underwear, his mouth taking possession of my nipple just as his fingers danced along my sensitive flesh. I sucked in my breath, arching my back again as his fire swept over me, his touch driving the tension within me to a breaking point.

Around us, people danced, drank, talked…and for all I knew, made love in the darkened alcoves just as Drake was making love to me with his hands and mouth.

“It’s too much,” I moaned, stopping him just long enough to pull his shirt off, moaning again when I leaned against him, my exposed breasts brushing against the soft hairs on his chest, breathing in the wonderfully spicy dragon scent of him that seemed to sink deep into my bones.

“There is no such thing as too much when it comes to you, kincsem,” he murmured as I stroked the wonderful muscles in his chest and arms. I wanted to touch him, all of him, with my hands and mouth and body, my passion driven by the desire to give him as much pleasure as his still-dancing fingers were giving me.

I kissed him, urging him with my body and mind to what I wanted most…and then he did it. Dragon fire filled me, burning through my heart and soul, lighting my very being on fire until I thought I would explode in a wild conflagration that would destroy us both. The fire poured back from me to him, the cycle complete, filling me with joy so profound it almost drove me to the brink of ecstasy.

“Take me home,” I all but sobbed, desperate with my need for him, wanting what we had together, frantic to revel in the fire that was shared between us. “Dear god, take me home right now!”

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me with him as he fell backwards into pillows that tumbled from our bed to the floor. The material of his pants beneath my thighs melted into steely, hot flesh, flesh that shimmered goldish green for a moment before resolving itself into familiar muscled thighs.

“You shifted,” I said on a gasp as his penis nudged my sensitive parts. “For a second you shifted, just like you do when you have an orgasm.”

“I’m not that far off,” he growled, biting my neck. “I want you, Aisling. I need you. I cannot live without you. You are mine, my treasure, my love, and no one will ever take you away from me.”

“Never,” I swore, trying to twist to reach him, reach the part of him that I desperately needed burning deep within me.

“No. Not tonight. This night is for you,” he growled, his fire licking along my skin. He spun me around, moving so that I was facedown on the blankets, his body covering my back. My breasts, sensitized by his dragon fire, rubbed against the cool of the silk pillows as he parted my legs, entering me just enough to leave my body hanging on the edge of anticipation.

“Drake!” I yelled, pounding the pillows, helpless to pull him into me as I wanted.

“I do not wish to harm you.”

“The doctor said it was perfectly safe to do anything that was comfortable, and if you don’t finish this in the next few seconds, I’m going to die of sexual frustration, and then you’ll have to explain to everyone why I’m dead with a tremendous scowl on my face!”

His growl matched mine as he lunged forward, his fire filling me even as his body did, the combination of the two pushing me into a deep well of rapture that seemed to consume me. The world condensed to the moment, the sound of his body meeting mine, of the growls of pleasure that came from deep within his chest, his breathing as ragged and fast as mine.

“I love you, Aisling.” Strong, tanned fingers splayed on the pillows next to my head changed into blue claws, the flesh of his arm shimmering into iridescent scales as fire burst up in a ring around us. I took his fire into me and returned it with a shout of completion that he picked up and continued, our bodies and souls and hearts burning as one for a bright, endless moment that would live in my memory for eternity.

And then I woke up.

“Goddamn it!” I swore, as soon as I realized the space next to me was cold and empty. I punched Drake’s pillow, wanting to scream to the heavens. My body still hummed with the aftershocks of the pleasure he’d given me…but had it been real? Or just a figment of my disturbed mind? “Damn it! Damn him!”

A thump sounded against the door connecting to the opulent bathroom that Jim had claimed as its bedroom.

“What?”

“You OK?” Jim’s voice asked, muffled.

“No! Oh…hell!”

“Abaddon.”

“Hell!” I yelled, and punched Drake’s pillow again.

“Can I come in, or are you and Drake gettin’ it on?”