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“I can smell your need.” He leaned his head down and whispered in her ear. “If I kneel before you and slide up this short-ass skirt that had every male in here panting to get a glimpse of your pussy, how wet would I find you, little lure?”

Little lure . He never said it like lore.

..an abbreviation of her name, but pronounced it with a U, as if she were purposely doing something to draw and attract him.

He had to stop calling her that. Every time he used the nickname in his husky, nefarious way, it was like he was stroking between her labia, along her slit.

The walls of her sex quivered, and the inside of her thighs became slick.

Liekki’s hands clenched and dug into her supple thighs as he hitched her up against the massive imprint of his cock; the hardness seemed to test the zipper of his pants.

It was right where she wanted, all he had to do was grind his stiff length along her clit in just the right way, and she would find an ease to the agonizing tension between her legs.

He lifted a hand and dragged it up under her single braid and brushed the back of his hand over one of her taut nipples as he passed it.

She whimpered.

No man had ever taken such liberties. But she sat there verklempt and couldn’t get her passion-addled brain to formulate the words to ask him to stop.

Truthfully, she didn’t want him to stop.

Liekki took hold of her braid, wrapped it around his hand until it was wound tight, and his fist rested at the back of her head.

With his grip on her hair, he angled her head back before slowly licking along her full bottom lip. He licked like he had all the time in the world. Then he went back the other way.

His large hand hoisted up her thigh until her knee pressed into his side and settled her just right against the bulge at his groin.

She pulled her hands back. There was too much heat under his skin. It pulsed like a heartbeat under her touch and made her heart want to follow its rhythm.

No . Because of his hold on her, she couldn’t lean away from him, but she still pressed her palms against the cool steel of the table—to ground herself.

Grounded or not, lightning struck when Liekki took her mouth, and she was its target.

The searing heat happened along her tongue first, then traveled to her heart and set her blood to boil, only to scorch the inside of every one of her veins on the way to her pussy.

When Liekki curled his tongue around her tongue, stroking along the shockingly sensitive underside, her clit was set ablaze and instantly became the conduit of her pleasure.

She moaned. She needed more, and he gave it to her.

Liekki was no gentleman, tentatively brushing her tongue and trying to coax her to play. Hell no. He demanded she join him in building their desire and wasn’t gentle about it as he captured the tip of her tongue between his lips and sucked hard, drawing it deeper into his mouth.

His hands held her firm but didn’t move; neither did he grind or thrust his hips. Even in that way, he ruled her, commanded her body by denying her his touch that would take her to the brink but purposely left her to hover on the edge of satisfaction.

She could have sworn she felt and tasted fire inside his mouth. But she had to be losing her mind because that didn’t make sense. However, before she could decipher the truth of what she encountered, Liekki drove their oral coupling back into her mouth.

There, he caressed her thoroughly as if he could stroke every one of her tastebuds before the tip of his tongue made a path behind her teeth, tickling the delicate skin there before grazing the rough of her mouth. He was everywhere.

Then she sighed as she became aware of his taste. Like his smell, it was intoxicating...more so. He tasted like hot-honeyed midnight and as potent as a rye-whiskey-induced wet dream.

Oh, god! She hungered for him.

His tongue thrust in and around, painting her mouth in the delicious, sweet fire.

He didn’t have to move because she was bucking, drunk on his fiery flavor. She knew it had to be impossible. No one could taste this good, and no one could make her body melt with a kiss.

Avalore moved her hand off the table, trusting him to hold her but not caring if she was falling.

She was falling. She became aware of her spine against the table and the icy press of the steel touching the bare flesh of her back between the top and skirt.

Maybe with someone else, it would have been possible that the shock of the cold would have jolted her back into their senses.

It reminded her she didn’t like the man, that she was trying to flee and get as far away as possible from the large, broad-shouldered beast, but not while the very overbearing dragon-shifter she wanted to leave was hovering above her.

And she wanted all his considerable weight on top of her.

She gripped his sides, holding him against her where she needed him, even though the insufferable man remained still.

Liekki’s growl vibrated along the recesses of her mouth.

He began to thrust deep and deeper into her throat, and she was sucking hard on the length of his impressively long tongue while she pressed and rubbed her swollen, needy clit against his hidden hard length.

She didn’t care that she was making his pants as wet as her throbbing folds were.

Avalore cared about nothing but reaching the oasis at the bottom of the cliff as she swallowed down more and more of the hot, sweet fire.

Faster and faster, she humped his covered length, needing to get there. Unsure of where there was, she knew she’d find paradise when she arrived.

Then it happened: the seal on her lust broke, and she felt the explosion between her thighs first before it rocketed up into her core and set off a lightning storm.

Her body bucked and shook below him, scraping her short nails over the firm, muscled flesh of his waist as his kiss smothered her screams and cries of pleasure.

Little fires were everywhere in her body, and she knew only Liekki could bank them. She wanted him to tear off her clothes, touch her aching, taut nipples, use his deft fingers to stroke her pussy, and drive his stiff cock inside of her.

Instead, he tore his mouth away.

That’s exactly how she felt when he ended the kiss like something she needed to survive was ripped from her.

“ Myhnn .”

“Liekki...what—?”

He pressed his forehead against hers, and she felt his labored breath pelting her swollen, sensitive lips.

She kept her eyes closed because the humming in her body was too strong for her to take in another sense. She may be forced to beg him if she saw the blue illumination or the deep, dark-blue flames trapped in his eyes.

That she had sense enough not to do right now.

“Little lure, be warned.” His fingers flexed tighter in her hair. “If you tease with another man, allow any other to flirt with what is mine...you have consigned him to his death. I promise you I will take my broadsword to his neck and deliver his head to you at our bedside. Here me in this.”

Then he was gone, leaving her splayed on the table with her heart pounding, the remnants of his hot taste in her mouth, and her bare toes curling as her legs swung below the tabletop.

Finally, she pried open her eyes and stared at the high, stone ceiling. She wanted to be pissed at his Neanderthal ways, but her mind hadn’t recovered enough to grab the reins of her anger that lay with her pride on the floor.

Avalore shoved herself up, refusing to be caught in such a defeated position. The man wrecked her, but she would never confess that to him or anyone. It was just proof to herself that she needed to get out of this place soon.

Sliding off the table, she prayed her wobbly legs would support her. When she heard people walking, she turned and spied the Great Hall staff coming out of the back with bins and trays, collecting the discarded dishes on the tables.

She felt a little guilt that she...no Liekki’s antics; she’d place the blame squarely on the shoulders where it was due: He had kept the workers from doing their job.

You were just as culpable grinding beneath the big man on the table.

Shaking her head at her annoying inner voice and forcing her chin up, she strutted out of the hall.

“You okay, Avalore?”

She spotted Chumana leaning against the wall by the door, appearing patient but not bothered; however, the arch of her elegant brow showed she was concerned.

Avalore’s cheeks heated. She was sure the other woman had heard her moans, but she fisted her hand at her side and shoved away the embarrassment. “I’m good. Let’s go get these clothes and shoes.” So, I can get the hell out of here.

~YH~

His fucking dragon thought his ass was slick.

Claiming fire?

The beast rolled over and stretched, too damn satisfied with its antics.

You haven’t even claimed her. That is an action word, not a want.

Liekki growled as his dragon merrily painted a picture in his mind of just how claiming happened, featuring Liekki and Avalore on the table naked and him buried so deep inside of her that his dragon’s stem could extend and locate her womb like he needed sex education.

I don’t need your fucking mental Etch A Sketch, either.

Myhnn .

Yeah, I heard you the last fucking time. Just because you desire something doesn’t mean you'll get it...or should get it. Liekki stomped toward the Mckenna office building and tried to ignore that he’d whispered the same word to Avalore. Thank God she didn’t know the Drahk language.

His beast was getting out of control. It had been close in the Great Hall.

Instead of going to Aodh’s office, he would prefer to be flying to burn off the fires of lust roaring in his core.

Last night had been torture, sleeping another night on his couch and knowing the tempting Avalore was right above his fucking head in his bed.

He knew she needed to rest and finish healing.

Hell, he’d known that when he arrived home, and blew more healing smog over her while she slept.

But knowing something didn’t stop his body from wanting something else.

The reason it had been damn close at the hall. He should not have touched her. When he walked in, he should have just kept going to the head table, eaten his early morning meal as he intended, and exited.

But he admitted to himself that he was way too attuned to her.

And when he’d heard his friend’s words and seen the way Brantley was looking at her, as if the food on the table hadn’t been enough and he wanted to feast on Avalore as his dessert, Liekki had lost his shit and made a beeline towards them.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuck!

Yeah, it had been close. And that damn nothing of an outfit she wore, borrowed from Chumana, was too damn tempting. When Avalore rose, it didn’t matter that she was angry at him, his gaze had taken in her bare midriff, full breasts, and golden-brown skin of her shapely legs.

Brantley was none too happy about him cock-blocking, either. Drahks were free to fuck anyone they chose as long as they weren’t mated. But, Liekki didn’t give a shit about their rules of sexual liberation, not when it came to Avalore.

And that was a fucking problem.

And that’s why it was too close because it had taken all his strength not to rip off the too-tight top that showed her hard, large nipples just right, and shove up her skirt and make way for his hard, throbbing cock.

Shit, he should have told Chumana to find a nun’s habit for Avalore.

He inhaled deeply and smelled the lingering scent of the spiced ginger and sweet honey caramel of Avalore.

He let out a loud growl that sent birds scattering, and more than a few heads were turning his way. He knew his behavior shocked those in the Thunder because they were used to his light and jovial attitude.

It was a good thing he finally arrived at the office because all he could hope for was that Aodh’s assistant Yeongi had enough paperwork to keep his mind occupied and off Avalore.

Otherwise, he’d shock people more if they caught him running laps around the office building every half hour to keep himself from chasing down Avalore.