He pulled his head back, breathing her intoxicating scent into his lungs, tasting her on his tongue. Need, more intense than he had ever experienced shot through him, making him want to tear her sexy dress right off her body.
Pain, then fury, chased the dazed expression from her face. Shaking her head, she pulled out of his arms. “I’m nobody’s mistress. Release me and you can go back to her, guilt free.”
So desperate to keep her from breaking their bond, he had forgotten what she had seen, what she had undoubtedly assumed. He wasn’t going to convince her of anything standing on stage with a crowd full of rowdy drunks watching and catcalling. Snapping his mouth shut, he picked her up, cradling her to his chest. When she struggled against him, he growled at her, meeting her glare with one of his own before throwing her over his shoulder. She wasn’t going to get rid of him without at least hearing him out.
“Put me down this instant.” She didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t need to. He would hear her if she whispered, even amongst all these people. The soft curve of her ass fit perfectly in his large palm, and he fought the urge to rub it as he held her snug against him.
When he ignored her and kept walking toward the door, she gave a frustrated growl that vibrated against his back. “Put. Me. Down,” she snapped.
He couldn’t help but smile, his mate had a temper. “Not until you hear me out.”
“Put me down—please.” The words were polite, but he’d bet his bottom dollar that she was already plotting her revenge.
“No.”
She growled again, this time more menacingly before she raised her hand and smacked him right on the ass. His chuckles joined the howling laughs from the drunkards nearest the door.
“I was going to wait until we’d done talking, but if you want to start with foreplay, I’m happy to oblige.” He lifted his hand and smacked her ass as she’d done his, before rubbing it like he’d been wanting to do all along.
“Why, you arrogant, selfish, egotistical—”
“Don’t forget sexy.”
She stopped struggling. He was enjoying having this feisty she-dragon in his arms and wasn’t about to set her down, no matter how much she wriggled. The door swung closed behind them, and he kept walking.
“Where are you taking me?” The small quiver in her voice had a fresh wave of heat rushing through him.
He rubbed a slow, gentle circle over the spot he’d spanked. She hadn’t told him to stop, and although he couldn’t feel the soft skin beneath the skirt, the last thing he wanted to do was stop touching her. So he kept on stroking. “Somewhere quiet so we can talk, and since I don’t know where you live, my place it is.”
“You can set me down. I can walk.”
“Will you come willingly, then?” He made another rotation with his hand, slow and deliberate, knowing she was as affected by his nearness as he was by hers. He could smell her desire, and it fuelled his own.
She sighed. “I’d rather you just say the words and be done with it so I can move on before…”
He stopped short and set her down in front of him, keeping her within reach in case she tried to bolt. “Before what?”
“Before it’s too late.” She bit the words out.
He leaned in close, his nose inches from her own. “Too late for what, precisely?”
“Too late for me to shift back.” She glared at him.
Of all things, that, he hadn’t expected. “Fuck. How close are you?”
Her gaze flicked to his shoulder. “Close.”
He growled, drawing her gaze again. “How fucking close?”
“A few days, a week maybe, if I’m lucky,” she choked out. “If you release me now, I may have enough time to find—”
“You’ll find no one.” His skin itched with the scales threatening to spring out from beneath it. Just the thought of any other male being near her made him want to roar, never mind having another’s hands on her.
She swallowed hard. “You would deny me a full life?” She blinked fast, but not before he noticed the tears shimmering in her eyes.
“I deny you nothing.”
“I told you, I am no one’s mistress, and I meant it. I refuse to sit alone night after night waiting for someone who belongs to someone else.” She clenched her jaw and tried to step away from him.
“I don’t belong to anyone else, and neither will you.” Many humans and even some dragons took on more than one lover, but he sure as hell wouldn’t, and neither would she.
“I saw you in the forest. With her. Do you deny it? You never came back. You stayed there, all night—with her. I waited for you on that blasted trail for hours, and you never came back.”