Kalos arches a brow at the cat. He accepted his presence here surprisingly well.
“Your animal wants to cuddle,” Kalos says dryly before clearing his throat. “Did you want to join me on the couch?” Kalos asks, letting his gaze drop briefly. The contact probably isn’t necessary tonight with how much of his energy I’ve had today.
“Of course,” I say, not because it would be good to keep feeding the baby heat… but because the idea of not falling asleep in his arms makes my heart hurt.
Gah, I’m in such trouble when it comes to him.
I WAKE from blurry dreams of pleasure, aching with need.
My arm shakes when I reach out for Kalos, but the other side of the bed is empty. I whimper. My hips rock, and the thin robe clings to my hot skin. The horniness from the pregnancy is finally calling all its cards in, and there’s no way that I’ll be able to take care of it myself.
I need my dragon, and he isn’t here.
I don’t even know exactly where his bedroom is.
I blow out a breath in frustration and punch a pillow. Perhaps it’s better this way. I can’t give in to my desires even if I wanted to.
Maybe my body just has a primal need for his presence. His scent. I could go curl up in his office and see if that helps. I’m not prepared to search him out in the middle of the night, wandering the halls of this giant place horny.
I have more pride than that.
I move in the dark, keeping my steps soundless until I come to Kalos’s study. There’s no moon tonight, but his scent fills every inch of this space. I’m familiar enough with his office to try and pick my way to his couch before changing directions. His chair will be the most scent soaked.
The chair creaks as I round the desk, and I freeze. There’s a whisper of movement, and talon tips run up my thighs.
“What are you doing, little thief?” Kalos asks. He must stand because the darkness gets warmer. There’s pressure on my belly from his body, and I shiver in relief. All my senses are attuned to this dragon lurking in the shadows.
“Kalos,” I whisper. A tip of a talon and the pad of a finger drag down the side of my face. I step forward, and he steps back. I bite my lip at the absence of him.
“Isn’t this déjà vu?” I tease instead of resorting to begging right off the bat. My voice cracks. Can he see in the dark? I feel around the desk and turn toward it, presenting my backside to him.
He rumbles behind me. He can totally see in the dark.
“You can catch me rifling through your important papers and demand my body in retribution,” I say, my skin feeling too tight.
“What are you doing here?” he asks, not drawn in by my roleplay.
I pant. “You weren’t there when I woke up.”
“Do you think it’s easy to hold you when you whimper my name in your sleep?” Kalos asks, his words a careful cadence.
My face heats, but I lean forward on the desk, trying to tempt him without words. His body presses against mine, and I moan. His silky robe unable to disguise the fact that he’s already hard.
“I can think of something better for us to do than sleep,” I say.
My stomach presses against the desk, and I frown down at it for a moment before Kalos distracts me.
His breath is hot against my ear before he nips it. “Go back to bed, little queen.”
I make a sound of denial, and it catches in my throat.
“Nothing has changed but your hunger.” He says the words as if the hunger doesn’t have the power to make me want to crawl out of my skin.
I press up on my tiptoes, trying to push my ass against the hardness of his cocks.
“I know,” I whisper. “I know you don’t want anything permanent, and it would just be sex. But please… don’t make me beg.”
I’m signing permission for him to break my heart. In the stark darkness of night, I understand more about myself than what I hide in the light of day. It’s already too late to save myself from heartbreak.
It’s too late, and I’m too hungry to care.
He pauses, and his body throbs against mine. “But I have fond memories of you begging.”
I huff a tight laugh. “They are pretty good memories.”
Until the morning after anyway.
“You need me to provide assistance then?” His hand slides up my inner thigh, and I bite my lip at the flip of our situations. Me, the one in a heat-like state, while he is the thief in the night, stealing away my sanity.
“But whatever will you exchange for my service?” he purrs.
“Whatever you want,” I gasp.
“So needy,” he murmurs. “But your terms are amenable.”
My brain won’t allow me to worry about what he’s going to demand in payment. I’ll gladly forfeit anything to feel him inside of me again.
His talons retract, and his fingers sink into the clasp of my body. I groan. The stretch and pressure act as a balm while barely satisfying the desire in my blood.
“I need your cocks,” I gasp.
“You need whatever I give you.” Kalos’s even voice starts to darken. The dominance that pushed my limits and launched my pleasure into the stratosphere that first night together is a promise that has my toes curling.
“Yes!” I whisper.
He twists his fingers, and they press against a sensitive spot inside me that causes my legs to tremble.
“Mine to do with what I wish.” His words cause a cascade of sensation to flow through me.
“Yours,” I sob. It’s true. I may not be his mate, but he owns my mind and heart even when he doesn’t want to.
His fingers leave me, and he spins me around, catching my mouth with his. The kiss burns me alive and is more beautiful than a sunset. I try to climb his body, but at the press of my belly against him, I ease back. I don’t want to do anything that would cause him to stop, and he doesn’t like to be reminded about the baby.
Kalos lays me back on the desk. A pen tangles in my hair, but I don’t care. When he rises above me, I have a passing worry that my belly is going to be more obvious in this position, but at the first press of silk-covered hardness to my wetness the thoughts disappear.
I moan.
There’s a click, and the desk lamp turns on. I blink at the brightness but freeze at the sight of my dragon over me.
“I took you in darkness last time,” he growls. “This time I want to see the color of your eyes when you come around me.”
He pulls the tie of my robe, and I freeze as it falls away from me. My sleep set stretched over my stomach comes into sight.
I swallow. “But—”
Kalos stops. “But what?”
“I don’t want you uncomfortable with…” I trail off, but my fingers brush the side of my stomach.
He arches a brow. “Do you think that the sight of you swollen with my young does anything but make me want to fuck you over and over again so that the world knows it’s mine you carry?”
My cheeks burn. “You’ve been avoiding it, and I just thought—”
“It was surprising at first. Our child is so much louder against my senses. Harder to ignore.” His talon drags over my tank top strap, the sharp edge tearing the fabric with ease. His gaze snaps up to mine. “I have complicated feelings about many things, but not of how you look and not what it does to me.”