Page 47 of Balthazar's Fire

“We?”

What was he talking about?

“Naturally.” Balthazar flashed her an even wider smile. “You don’t think I’m leaving you unattended until I have Monroe leashed, do you?”

“But Balthazar,” she started. “I’ll be fine. Especially now we’re both being so vigilant. Oliver took us by surprise last time, but he can’t do that again.”

“That’s true,” he agreed. “But he can use his brute strength to gain access to you and if I’m not around to look after you, then…” Balthazar didn’t finish his sentence, but the knots in her belly concluded his hypothesis. Oliver meant to do her harm—she knew that much already. “I won’t leave you again. Not as bait for that monster.”

“I appreciate you looking after me, sir.” Meeting his dark eyes, she recalled how good he’d looked between her thighs. “I really do.” She clenched at the illicit recollection. “But I’m sure your brother doesn’t want me hanging around when he meets you.”

“I don’t care what he wants.” Balthazar’s voice was firm. “This isn’t about him. It’s about me, and you…” His lips twitched as he mused on his words. “It’s about us.”

“Is there an us?” Even after everything they had been through, Cherie refused to assume Balthazar’s intentions. He was a good man, as well as a phenomenal lover, but that didn’t mean he wanted her chained to his side for the foreseeable future, and she didn’t expect him to.

“Hey.” His brow furrowed and for a moment, Cherie thought she saw genuine hurt flicker in his chocolate brown gaze. “How can you say that after this morning?”

“I’d love there to be an us,” she replied, tracing her fingertip over the lines on his forehead. “But I don’t take anything for granted. I mean, we still scarcely even know each other.”

“I know enough.” The aroma of her arousal goaded on his breath, threatening to distract her from his sincerity, but Cherie remained glued to those large eyes, knowing he deserved that much. Balthazar had been her hero from the first moment she’d set eyes on him. “And I believe you feel the same way, pet.”

“I do,” she whispered.

It was the strangest thing. A couple of days before and she’d been in the midst of the longest sexual drought of her life, and now both her ass and her sex were sore from Balthazar’s attention, and she’d relished both intimacies.

“Although I’m still not sure about my new pet name.” She scowled at him playfully. “It makes me sound like an animal.”

“Oh, but you are,” he murmured. “I’ve heard the guttural cries escaping your body, remember? Maybe you have another creature hidden inside of you that needs to come out?” His eyebrow cocked at the idea.

“You’re the only animal who has been inside of me, sir,” she told him wryly.

“Just as well,” he chuckled, rising to his feet and taking her with him. “Have I told you how jealous and possessive dragons can be?”

“Erm, no,” she squealed as he carried her out of the room and up the stairs to the bedroom. “Something I need to know, sir?”

“Only how much trouble you’ll be in if I discover that some other animal has been inside you.” His stare drilled into her.

“Trouble?” she parroted, enjoying the joking nature of their conversation. “What kind of trouble, sir?”

“The kind that will see your ass bright red and filled with my cock,” he told her matter-of-factly before dropping her gently onto the bed they’d shared.

“Filled with your cock?”

Fresh heat colored her face as she imagined the penance he described. She could never envision any reason to be with another man again, but somehow, the concept of the punishment he bandied sounded scintillating.

“Hmmm.” He nodded, reaching for the bag she had taken from her place and dropping it onto the covers beside her. “You heard me.”

“I…”

Christ, that sounds amazing!

“Oh, you like the idea of that?” he probed, chuckling as he dressed himself quickly. “I’ll have to rethink then. It’s not much of a punishment if you’re reveling in every moment.”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, watching as his fine-looking ass disappeared inside his pants. “I’ve never had a cock there before.”

That made him pause, and slowly, he peered at her over his shoulder.

“Never?” he pressed.

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