Page 83 of Brushed By Moonlight

The bed creaked, and the sheets tangled around my feet.

Blood pounded in my ears. Lust swirled through my veins. Cries dammed my throat. Then Marius hammered in one last time, and that dam shattered.

My vision blurred, and my whole body sang. And sang and sang, because the high lasted a long time — long enough for me to circle the château a couple of times in dragon form, if I were capable of such a thing.

At that moment, I really believed I could fly like a dragon. I believed I could roar and soar with my mate. I believed all kinds of crazy things, and they didn’t seem at all crazy.

Just as I was about to sag, Marius exploded inside me, and I shuddered with another orgasm. Marius gasped and went perfectly still, a statue chiseled with muscles, veins, and an expression betweenvictorious warriorandshaken to the core. Then he sucked in a ragged breath and slumped, pressing me into the mattress.

I locked my arms around his back. I locked my lips, too, trapping off-limits words a guy like Marius would not want to hear. Four-letter L-words that had no business popping into my mind, even at a time like this.

We lay tangled together for a long time, too lazy — or too wrecked — to move. Eventually, Marius wiped us both off with the sheet, prompting me to make a mental note about moving up laundry day at the château. Then he snuggled in, absent-mindedly tracing circles on my shoulder.

I should have said something or cracked a joke to lighten the mood. Instead, I buried my face in the warm curve of his neck, inhaled, and clung to him.

At some point, nature called, and the only thing that scared me more than marching to and from the bed naked was the thought that Marius might not be there when I returned.

But his eyes followed me both ways like a hawk — or a dragon. A dragon standing guard over a priceless treasure. I gulped at the thought — and at the way he tucked me right back beside him. He pressed a kiss to my temple so gently, I thought I imagined it.

My chest squeezed.

Dangerous. So damn dangerous. Not just the man, but the direction of my thoughts.

If it had been night, we might have drifted off to sleep and dealt with the aftermath…well, after. But sunlight streamed through the windows, laying bare the truth of what we’d just done. Laying bare lots of things, in fact. Big things. My eyes kept drifting down, and I kept yanking them back up.

Finally, I rolled to my side to face him. His eyes — moremysterious lakethanstormy seasfor a change — met mine, then dipped to my chest and slowly, casually soaked in the view.

An uninhibited dragon. Why was I not surprised?

Fair was fair, so I decided to peek too. Down his broad chest, across his abs, all the way to his—

I ripped my gaze away just in time to catch him stifle a grin.

“I don’t know about you, but sex in broad daylight is kind of like…like stealing in broad daylight,” I said. “I feel like I ought to feel doubly guilty.”

He snorted. “Why feel guilty at all?”

I opened my mouth, but no words came. Why feel guilty, indeed?

I finally settled on, “Let’s just say it’s new to me.”

He traced another tiny circle into my shoulder. “Goodnew, I hope.”

I nodded, then caved in and corrected the understatement of the year. “Verygood new.”

“Good enough to try again sometime?”

“I would saydefinitely, but I thinkit dependsmight be a safer bet.”

His brow furrowed. “Depends on what?”

“Neither of us ruining this with whatever we say next.”

His chuckle was a little dry. “Well, then I probably shouldn’t bring up—”

I cut him off with a vehement shake of my head. My decision to help with the heist in Mallorca? “You definitely shouldn’t bring that up. Not if you want to get laid again.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Doyouwant to get laid again?”