Page 47 of Dance with the Dragon Duke

The knob clicked twice, and dusky, magical light illuminated the threshold. Carrying her easily, he brought her inside his tower and climbed the steps to the top. The gilded telescope stood angled toward the sky. A plush armchair faced the broad window, one that usually sat on the first floor.

Apparently, Dragons could redecorate their magical hoards however they liked. Not for the first time, Tomorrow was jealous of his connection to such a fantastical place.

Instead of taking her to the wide bed as she had anticipated, he dropped into the armchair and sat her in his lap. The sky darkened and filled with bright stars. They watched them quietly, his tail hugging her hip under the blankets. Her eyes were heavy, but she didn’t want to sleep.

“Should I put you to bed?” he asked, his voice low.

She shook her head against his shoulder, hesitant to explain herself. But then he was so big and broad beneath her. So strong. She was certain that if anyone could handle her fears, it was her dragon duke.

“It scares me how much I’m sleeping,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “What if I go to sleep again and . . .”

“. . . don’t wake back up,” he finished for her. He pressed his lips to the top of her head and breathed deeply of her hair. Then he pointed to the stars that he loved, drawing her gaze out the window, and her thoughts with it. “That one is called Thorvald. And that one over there is known as Sword of the Fierce, and it reminds me of you.”

She chuckled, giving in to his distraction. “I don’t think I’ve ever held a sword in my life.”

“Still so fierce,” he insisted, snuggling her close. “My mate leaps into dangerous alleyways, charges at wolves, lets fairies bite her, and tames dragons.”

Her next laugh shook the blankets. “There’s absolutely nothing tame about you. And your mate also jumps at shadows and has never met an earthworm that didn’t make her scream from fright.”

“Little earthworms? Really?” Humor brightened his voice.

Tomorrow shivered. “Disgusting and slimy. I want them all far away from me.”

“There are no worms here, and no shadows,” he soothed. “Only stars and beautiful treasures like you.”

Curled up in his lap, Tomorrowfeltlike a treasure.

It occurred to her then that, despite her insistence that she was worth saving, she’d been pushing him away, not because she wanted to spare him the heartache—or not only for that. She’d allowed all the pitying looks and patronizing opinions to sway her over the last year. She’d let them make her think she was less of who she had been.

But she wasn’t less. She was just sick. She was changed, and that wasn’t the same thing as being less than. And if she wanted to love this man with her whole being for as long as she could, then she damn well deserved to.

Dark told her star stories, enfolding her in the comfort of his heat and the rumble of his sonorous voice. Some of the tales were humorous. Others were moving. Each of them filled a well in her heart.

“I was scared to walk amongst the stars before we met,” she said, “but you make them seem so wonderful.”

She felt the weight of his tears when they landed in her hair, and she found his hand under the blankets and held it. She moved over his lap as he gathered himself, feeling a different sort of stirring beneath the wool of his trousers.

“You should hold still,” he warned playfully. His voice was thick, edged in grief and colored by longing.

“I don’t want to,” she confessed. Bringing her lips to his neck, she kissed him slowly, then spoke directly in his ear. “I want to make you feel good.”

And she wanted to feel alive, not like a person hiding from death. She wanted to show him what she felt for him with more than her words. He inspired her passion, and she desperately wanted to continue to stoke his.

Tomorrow shifted her weight to straddle him, and she cupped the growing bulge, elated when his groan carried around the room.

“I want to see what you look like when you come,” she said, and she felt his appreciative growl in a pulse between her thighs.

Tomorrow worked down the fall front of his trousers. He helped her with his drawers. She palmed his length, and the silken head grew damp in her hand. Wanting to see more of him, she unbuttoned his waistcoat and the shirt beneath, then she pushed them open.

Sensitive scales trailed down the valley of his abdomen, widening below his navel. She teased them with the pads of her fingers and watched as the skin around them pebbled with gooseflesh.

His cock was thick and heavy in her hands. She lowered to her knees between his legs and kissed the tip.

“Is there something I should know first before I get started?” she teased. “Will fire come out of you?”

His head went back, and he laughed raucously. “You’re safe with me and all my dragon parts, Sunshine.”

His tail followed her onto the floor, unfurling down her back, a hot comfort along her spine. When she took him in her mouth, his fingers laced through her hair. Soft and strong, his tail cupped her ass.

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