" Her heart thundered away against the inside of her ribs, the sound loud in the relative silence of the room and the flutter pulsing against his skin between their clothes. Her breathing pushed her breasts against her shirt. Against him.
Despite the fear pumping adrenaline through her system, she gazed at him with wide eyes that showed an inexplicable trust that grated against him like a sandpaper sponge bath.
“What are you going to do to me?” she whispered.
Almost like she was daring him.
“You’re a mate,” he said.
“So?”
“Mates are like catnip to my kind—an obsession, a driving urge to find our own. What if I took you now, claimed you, pushed my fire into you?”
Her lips fell open on a silent gasp, but fear didn’t reflect back at him even still. “You’d kill me if you aren’t my destined mate.”
So, someone had at least warned her of the deadly consequences should the wrong man try to turn her. Had she listened? He squeezed her wrists a little harder, pressing into her so she couldn’t mistake the heavy cock pressing into her belly. “Yes.”
“You’d lose a part of your soul as well,” she pointed out.
He allowed his lips to tip up in what he fully intended to be a menacing smile. “Perhaps it’s worth it.”
She stared back at him for a long minute. Then, suddenly, her heart quieted, her breathing slowed, her body relaxing under his. “Go ahead.”
She was fucking daring him. Inside his head, his dragon growled, but not a warning, more like approval. The animal side of him liked this woman.
That scared the hell out of him enough to have him fighting the foreign urge to scramble off her.
When he said nothing, she tipped her head. “Just like I thought. All bark.”
Bulls facing off against a matador in a ring dealt with less provocation than this woman was daring to throw at him.
“You talk a good game,” she continued. “But you won’t hurt me.”
Irritation spiked and swirled with a rushing need that had gripped him since the second she’d stepped in front of him in the hangar and he’d recognized her.
Drake slammed his mouth over hers, his kiss both full of frustration, but also determined to frighten her into some semblance of self-preservation. He kissed her harshly, wildly, even as he continued to pin her to the bed.
Except she didn’t whimper or turn away or struggle. Instead, Cami opened her mouth and licked the full seam of his lips, demanding entrance.
Fuck.
Gods help him, he opened, tangling his tongue with hers, reveling in the give and take. Her flavor melted across his tongue, sweet and tart at the same time, imprinting on his mind.
A glow vaguely penetrated his senses behind his closed eyes, followed by a burst of heat that seemed to be originating from her.
Almost as fast as it happened, Drake jerked back with a hiss, staring at a glowing spot under her white tank top. The source of the heat.
Definitely a dragon mate. Which meant off-limits. Another shifter’s mate.
With a groan he rolled away from her, flopping to his back, and flung an arm over his eyes, doing his damnedest to convince his dick to get its head out of the game. “You need to get out of here. "
― Abigail Owen , The Enforcer (Fire’s Edge, #3)
