Page 75 of Dragon Blood

Astred pressed her bottom against Kai, moving her hips until his hard length slipped between her thighs, where she gripped him tight, sliding back and forth as he continued to work her over with his hands.

Her self-control grew hazy under the rising ardor. Her dragon pushed at her surface.

‘Take him. He is ours.’

“No!” she growled, fighting her need to give in.

Kai stopped immediately. His chest rose and fell against her back, he pulsed between her thighs. “Red?” His velvety voice caressed the shell of her ear.

She gripped his hands, pressing them against her chest and belly, pulling his powerful arms tight around her.

He nuzzled the crook of her shoulder, pressing a heart-breaking kiss below her ear. “I’ll leave.”

Astred tightened her grasp, seeking strength to control the erratic pounding of her heart as her body continued to smolder. She didn’t wait for her mind to clear. Pressing his palm to her heart, she whispered, “I don’t know what’s left of me to strip away during the next ritual, Kai. We both know I want you as much as I can’t have you. Even as consorts, like King Long and Jolena Kane. Committing to you will only make our time apart all the harder.”

He nodded against her hair. “They seem to make it work. But I understand how it’s different for you. I see that now.”

“Maybe they aren’t bonded at all. Just… an understanding?”

He shrugged around her, tightening his hold. “I couldn’t even begin to guess what their arrangement is, my love.”

My love.

Astred squeezed her eyes shut as her heart wrenched on those words.

I opened the door. I invited him in. This is my doing.

‘We want this.’Her dragon’s voice drowned out her human thoughts.‘We have the right to our heart.’

What of my mother? The Dragon Mother?

‘They were not the ones that created the divide and forbade males from cohabitating with us. As you’ve seen, others have made it work.’

The refugee camp. Kymri and Jori—though that was still so new. The Eastern Dragons. Other paranormal communities.

But could we?

Can Aeleftheria risk her safety, and that of the Dragon Mother? Their existence is bound to her protection. They didn’t have the luxury of love and domestic happiness.

“Aeleftheria can never have a king, Kai.”

His body tensed, then slowly eased from around Astred, releasing her. “Do you think that’s what this is about?”

“No, I—,” She spun around to protest. To deny the rest of the words.

“I don’t want your fucking crown, Astred. Why would I? If you think that’s who I am, then what the fuck am I doing here with you?” The intensity of his dark, glittering eyes boring into her made her drop her gaze for the first time in her life.

Her pulse rushed in her ears as they stood face to face, barely inside the threshold of her stateroom, naked.

She met his eyes again, bearing the anguish and flare of anger in them. The hurt.

She may as well have slapped him in the face.

Shame filled her.

I’ve hurt him again.

“As a hybrid, I don’t belong in any one place or to any one people. Not like you.” His voice was so soft it fractured the last vestige of her resolve to hold him at bay.

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