Page 34 of Flameborne: Fury
“Don't hide from me.” His voice was ragged. His eyes alight with need.
“I'm not,” I breathed. “I don't know how to... I want...so much.”
Donavyn nodded and closed his eyes, tipping his forehead against mine, his chest heaving rapidly. “Me too,” he rasped.
He cupped my face, then turned and dropped his chin, his breath thundering across my cheek as he let his lips play from the corner of my jaw, down my neck, pressing me into his hand cupped at my other cheek.
“God, Bren. I've fought it,” he murmured against my chilled, damp skin. “I didn't know...”
“What?”
He froze.
Slowly, like I was a startled horse who might bolt, he drew back until he met my eyes again. His were tight with worry, his breath rushed and heavy.
“The dragons, Bren. Kgosi and Akhane... They're mates.”
I nodded, though my breath rushed out at the words.
Donavyn's heated gaze tightened. “This draw we feel. Thisdrive.You understand what that is? What it means for us?”
A thrill detonated in my chest, spiraling down to a heated pool behind my navel. Nerves mingled with need and I gave him a shaky smile.
“It means... this.” I reached for his chest, his wet leathers that I'd already half unbuttoned, and slid my hand between the wet cotton of his shirt and his broad, firm chest, shivering again when I felt him tense under my palm.
He cursed and swayed closer, but as the thrill in my belly rose to meet his kiss, he caught himself. Muttering, sliding a hand into my hair and holding me as he tipped his forehead against mine again, panting.
“Bren, it's not just the dragons,” he rasped, swallowing audibly, his fingers curling into my scalp and sending another wave of delicious tingles down my back. “It's us. Me and you. This is... this need isus.”
I blinked, but didn't want to keep my eyes open. I wanted to sink into the electric snap of his touch, and electric crackle spearing through my belly.
I reached for his buttons, nodding. “I want this,” I hushed. “I want you—”
“No, Bren,” he said hoarsely, grabbing for my hands. “You have to understand.” Then he swallowed and locked eyes with me, holding my face, his gaze intense, blazing like the sun. ”You're...” he swallowed again. “You'remymate.”
My breath caught on the word, as it echoed in my ribs and sent my heartrate to the sky. A torrent of emotions suddenly tangling like snakes in a pit, fighting for dominance in my heart.
“I... we...”
“Yes,” he hissed. “Mate.Mymate. Bren, you'remine.”
The word sang in my chest and for a moment I was gripped, hanging on that word.
Mate... mine...
Suddenly, the draw to him, the grief when he had turned from me, the hole he left when he grew distant. It all made sense. Instinctively, I grabbed for him, my hand on his chest, nails clawing into his skin.
He groaned again and gripped my arms like he'd pull me close, but then he stilled. “Bren... I want you—”
“I want you too—”
“—but I know... I know you've been hurt. If you need me to stay away—”
“No!”
“—I'll wait. I'll... I'll find a way. I can't have you look at me with fear in your eyes. But this is awar.I need you to tell me—”
I grabbed his head and pulled him down, kissed him with all the urgency and desire doing war in my flesh. The moment our lips touched, that pressure in my chest burst forth and shot through my veins in sparkling, gleaming trails that racedunder my skin to meet every place he touched—my chest pressed against his, his knee between my thighs, his hands sliding over my shoulders, down my sides, my thighs, clawing into my ass to pull me harder against him until we both clung and gasped.
