Page 29 of Fire in Stone

“People died…” My voice broke as the images of fire annihilating anything in its way rushed through me again. “God, it was terrible.” I laced my fingers together behind his neck to stop them from trembling.

“Only the people who meant to harm us died, Amber. No innocents were hurt.”

“Are you sure?” That was a relief to know.

He nodded. “Trust me, you don’t need to mournbracks. They feel nothing but what Madame tells them to feel, and that’s mostly rage. Had they caught me again, they would’ve done much worse things to me than what I did to them.”

“What could be worse than burning alive?” I shuddered, which seemed to resonate through his body, too.

“You don’t know what Ghata is capable of,” he said grimly. “As her powers grow, so does her ability to hurt.”

“She truly is a cruel woman, isn’t she?”

“Cruel, yes. But not a woman, she just looks like one. Ghata was never meant to be a wife, a mother, or anyone’s friend. She has long since lost the ability to love or sympathize. She’s nothing but wrath with an unquenchable thirst for power.”

No wonder he so fiercely tried to escape that creature.

“Would she follow you to Nerifir?” I asked.

“She may wish to do that.” There was no fear in his voice. “But once I cross the River of Mists, I don’t think she’d bother. The chance that anyone would land in the same time as me would be way too small to even try.”

“Good,” I breathed out, carefully lowering my arms from his neck to his shoulders.

Every muscle in my body was cramping now. I’d held on to him with so much force, I had no idea how I hadn’t strangled him yet.

Loosening my legs around him just a little, I moved my hips from side to side to get the blood flow going, lest my feet fall asleep.

“Amber…” He flexed his hand on my butt, keeping me in place. His voice sounded rough and low. “Don’t.”

I stilled, venturing a glance at him between my half-open eyelids. His lips were pressed together, his brow furrowed in a pained expression.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Not wrong. In fact, this feels a little tooright.” He adjusted me slightly higher around his waist.

The full awareness of our position finally hit me. With my legs spread and wrapped around his middle, my panty-covered crotch pressed directly against his naked body. Naked. Because all his clothes had been torn to shreds when he’d turned into a dragon.

I suddenly found myself wondering if he was hard.

Was he?

Judging by the blush glowing through the warm-brown skin on his cheeks, he probably was. Now, I tried veryhardnot to imagine the things that might be happening right below my ass.

“Shit.”

I flexed my arms, climbing higher up his body. The effort only brought my boobs closer to his face, with his chin ending up right above my cleavage.

There just was no win-win situation in this position.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed out.

He exhaled a nervous laugh.

“It’s not your fault. You can’t help looking, smelling, and feeling as wonderful as you do.” His thick eyelashes shaded his eyes as his voice dropped a notch, gaining that velvety rumbling note once again. “It’s not your fault that you’re the best thing I’ve held in my arms in over a decade. The first woman I’ve touched…”

He pressed the side of his face to mine, taking a deep breath.

I kept completely still now. Up here, I had no defense against him. I couldn’t put any space between us. I couldn’t even stop hugging him. The much bigger problem, however, was that I didn’t feel like doing any of that anyway, though I knew I should.

---