Page 24 of Surge of Heat

Her gaze finds mine. “I told you from the beginning that I had someone who was important to me. I never lied to you.”

“He’s not a dragon!” I shout, and she flinches. “You have no future with him. He’s nothing to you. But you and I? We’re dragons. Together. We’re pulled together by biology itself. There’s no fucking reason you should smell like that asshole.”

“I needed to cover my scent,” she says softly.

“But that wasn’t the only reason,” I accuse. “You could’ve picked any prick to cover your scent, but you chose the one you have ‘complicated’ feelings for. A man who seems to think he owns you. And I can’t help but think you’ve given him a reason to think that.”

She tilts her head, studying me. “I told him about you too, before we… before we were together. He said he understood.”

I laugh, but it’s a cruel sound. “You really thought a man like him wouldn’t want you for his own?” I swallow around the lump in my throat. “Or that a man like me wouldn’t?”

“Evander…”

“Don’t,” I growl, struggling to control myself. “All I can fucking smell is him!”

I rub my hand over my head, feeling like I’m on the edge of something dark and scary. My whole body hurts, but not nearly as much as my chest. I want to kill that man. I want to rip him to pieces until there’s nothing left of him for her to cling onto.

“Do you want me to go?” she asks, those eyes of hers pleading.

Go? Going is the last thing I want.“No, I want you to smell like me.”

She hesitates for a minute, but then moves to stand beside me on the bed. “Evander…”

I grab her arm, tugging her toward me. “Please, I just really need to feel your skin right now.”

To my relief, her expression softens and she obeys, climbing on top of me. I slide the covers down, so she’s resting atop my cock, and I instantly harden.

She leans in and rubs herself against me, and I rub right back, sliding my hands down her arms, gripping her hips and her ass, painting my scent all over her. With each second that passes, my dragon side calms, but it’s not enough for the man within me.

“I want you to tell me everything about him.”

She stiffens above me. “That’s not a good idea.”

“I need to know,” I tell her, tightening my grip on her.

My dragon wants to fuck her. Hell, I want to fuck her, but I need answers first. I need to know how deep this connection is between her and the non-boyfriend… so I know just how to shatter it and claim her for my own.

She swallows, and I pull her closer, sucking on her neck. Marking her as my own as her pulse picks up. “His name is Aydan.”

I slip one of my hands into the front of her robe and stroke her breasts. “And, how long have you known this Aydan?”

Her reluctance to talk is clear, but I don’t care. I’m good at making people talk. “All my life.”

All her life?“How?”

She’s breathing faster. “We grew up practically next door to each other. We’ve been friends since we were kids.”

I keep my lips against her throat as I ask, “And at some point your little friendship turned into a fuckfest, but he wasn’t willing to commit?”

She laughs lightly. “No, not at all.”

I wait. My patience is slipping. My cock is aching. The pain in my body is a not-so-subtle humming in the back of it all.

“Aydan and I have always been friends. I thought that was all he wanted, but I wanted more. And then, just a few days ago, at the Phoenix Institute, something happened between us that shifted things.”

Happened?“What?”

She seems to pause for a really long minute. “We almost had sex, but then we didn’t have time to talk about what it meant. I thought maybe he regretted it. I wasn’t sure, but before we had a chance to talk, I was with you, and I didn’t know where I stood with Aydan.”

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