Page 39 of Love Bites Extra Hard

I swam quickly to the bottom of the pool and found the tunnel where it connected to the rest of them. I took a few of the branches just to see where they led—into the other pools in the room.

When I took the tunnel down into the mountain, I realized it branched off in more than a dozen different directions. It probably led to other hot springs, in other caves. Ones that may or may not be connected to the dragons’.

I itched to explore it, but figured I’d been gone long enough to scare Talon already.

So, I turned around and went back.

The moment I made the turn into the tunnel that connected to the oval pool, Talon’s scale-covered hands were on my waist, yanking me to his chest. He held me pinned to his body as he hauled me to the surface of the water and out of the pool.

I made a noise of surprise as he sat me down on the ledge, already growling at me as he shifted back. He’d mentioned thatSylvester couldn’t drown, but I hadn’t considered that Talon could stay underwater as long as I could.

“You scared the hell out of me. You can’t just fucking disappear,” he snarled, resting his hands on my knees. “The cave system is worse than a maze. I?—”

“Easy. I was careful, I just wanted to check it out.” I put my hands on top of his.

He growled at me again, water dripping from his hair. “Cave diving is notoriously dangerous. We’ve lost more than a handful of dragons to it over the centuries. I couldn’t fucking handle it if you disappeared beneath the water and didn’t come back.”

I studied him for a moment.

His eyes were dilated.

His chest was rising and falling rapidly.

I really had scared him.

And though his possessiveness wasn’t anywhere near logical, I knew how to help with that.

I patted the stone beside me. After a moment, he reluctantly climbed out of the water, taking a seat next to me. I slipped a leg over his thighs and sat down on his lap, wrapping my arms around him.

His body went still.

I pressed a kiss to his cheek, and he pulled me closer, lowering his nose to my hair and inhaling.

“Bet I don’t smell like anything,” I murmured.

“You smell like you.” He inhaled again. “And me.”

“Well, Ihavebeen wearing your clothes.”

His hand moved over my mostly bare back, and I closed my eyes.

The way he touched me was unlike anything else I had ever experienced. There just wasn’t anything like it. Definitely nothingbetterthan it.

Maybe I still wanted him.

“We still haven’t fucked it out of our system,” I murmured.

He gave me a gravelly laugh. “You’re not going to fuck me out of your system.”

“Not if we never do the deed.”

“When you’ve had me inside you, you’ll just want more.”

“My experience says the opposite.”

Talon’s hand continued moving over my back, slow and steady. “Your experience has been with men who weren’t strong enough to handle your magic. I am.”

“You talk big, but I haven’t seen any proof of your claims.”

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