Page 16 of Sass Me

His dragon tore at him to claim her, right the fuck now. But he held a tight rein, keeping the beast under the skin. He would care for her, make sure she felt the love that was in his soul for her, first.

Love. Yes, so much more than pure lust. It blew his mind that he could be head over tail in love with a woman he’d met only a few hours ago, but he was.

It must be what knowing there was one person made especially for you, and you for them, meant. She was beautiful, and special, and talented, and all the things he could ever want in a mate. While all that had him completely attracted to her, his soul recognized the amazing inherent value of her, just being her.

“Okay, Steele. Everyone’s gone, I’m safe, you can—whoa.”

Steele picked her up under her legs and headed to where the bedroom and bathroom had to be.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him like the side of a cliff. “What are you doing, we discussed this. I’m too heavy to be carried around like this, you’ll drop me.”

As if. “The only place I’m dropping you is on my cock, after you’ve had a long shower where I rub soap all over each and every one of your curves.”

She stopped clinging and paddled her legs, wriggling in his arms. “Put me down right now.”

What he wanted was her wriggling under him. “No.”

“I will scream my head off bringing every wolf shifter in the city back here to tear you apart.” She took in a deep breath, scrunched up her eyes and opened her mouth wide to do exactly as she’d declared.

Steele set her down, but he also pushed her back against the wall and covered her open mouth with his own. He licked and caressed her tongue with his, inhaling her flavor.

She resisted for the briefest of seconds, then she wrapped her hands into his hair and kissed him back with as much fervor as he was giving to her.

She broke the kiss with a bite to his lip and gave him a shove.

His dragon groaned, loving the rough side of her, the part that had given in and then continued the chase.

“No, means no, buster. Get that through your damn dragon head.”

That was actual anger in her eyes. Gulp.

“I’m sorry, little flower.” He searched for the right words to appease her. “Do you want me to ask permission each time I want to kiss you?”

His dragon was quite literally laughing at him in his head. But, he would do whatever it took to be with his mate even if it was learning a new way to be in a relationship.

“What? No, eww. I don’t want a guy who is submissive. I like the alpha bit. But, even an alpha needs to make sure I’m actually on board for it first.”

Okay, he could work with that. “Are you on board for a hot shower, where I wash your body, and eat your pussy?”

The tiniest of smiles quirked at the side of her mouth, and the sparkle in her eye said she liked that idea. A lot.

“Yes, but not now and not with you. I am going to the scenting ceremony tomorrow. I probably already smell like you as it is. I’ll need about a thousand gallons of my homemade body wash to smell like me again.”

Oh, hell no. He laid his hands on the wall on either side of her shoulders, caging her against the wall. She was his from now until eternity. No wolf, dragon, man, or any other male would ever, ever even sniff her. “You are not going to the scenting ceremony.”

Her face did some eye and brow gymnastics. First her eyes went wide and her brows up, then she narrowed them into a glare, and finally she raised one eyebrow. God, it would be fun learning all her expressions. But, the ones he most wanted to see right now were the ones she made when she came. On his cock.

She poked him in the chest three times, punctuating each of her words. “Yes. I am.”

She didn’t know. She wasn’t a dragon, he didn’t even know what exactly she was, so maybe she didn’t understand. He only barely understood this mating pull himself. “You are my mate.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger and sighed. “Look, Steele. I will admit you’re sexy as hell, and I’m more attracted to you than I want to be.” Her gaze flicked from his eyes to his lips and back. “You kiss like Bacchus himself. But, just because I saved your life doesn’t mean we’re mated. We have a connection, yes, but I’m mating a wolf. Tomorrow. It’s my destiny.”

Fuck a duck to hell and back.

Fleur skirted under and out of his arms and popped into the bathroom before he could grab her and kiss some sense into her. Instead he found himself thumping on the door. “Fleur, let me in.”

“Go pound sand and not my bathroom door. If you break it, I’m sending you back to whatever afterlife you were in, because that’s where my landlord will send me.”

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