Page 35 of Sass Me

The shard vibrated against his skin under her fingers. Her eyes went wide and flicked between her hand and his face. She lifted her hand and the shard glowed brightly into the night. Then it floated up from his skin, reaching toward Fleur.

Fleur’s own necklace lit up and drifted off her neck. “Whoa.”

Steele took the small tree-shaped charm in his hand. It disintegrated into twenty or so multi-colored dragon scales that lifted into the air, swirling around his shard, drawing it from him to Fleur, and placing it around her neck.

Some of the light from the crystal flowed into the dragon mark on her skin, turning the bruising into a shimmering ink-like tattoo.

Steele’s own dragon tattoo, the literal representation of the dragon part of himself, thrashed on his skin in response, absorbing another fraction of the light, and reveling in it.

The power he’d felt in the parking lot when he’d put his shard on for the first time after meeting Fleur, flowed through him again, reigniting in him.

He grabbed Fleur and held her tight against his chest. The power building inside threatened to overtake him and his dragon pushed to the surface. Until Fleur raised her hand and stroked his cheek.

He looked down into her eyes and saw his own soul reflected back.

“Shh, dragon of mine. Your soul is safe with me,” she whispered and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.

Yes. Only with her.

Steele kissed her back, wanting to take her again, reaffirm their new lives together.

A hot whoosh of air and clapping of hands behind him stopped that idea dead in its tracks.

“That’s was quite a show you two put on. A little vanilla for my tastes. I would have had her plump ass in the air, fucking her hard, dragon style, but to each his own.”

Steele whipped around, pushing Fleur behind him. His dragon shimmered near the surface ready to defend and attack whoever thought it was funny to invade this intimate moment.

A man, only partly visible in the shadows, leaned against a nearby tree.

“Who the fuck are you?”

His dragon writhed under the surface, fighting to get out. Something was very wrong with this stranger. He wore no shard, and had no light in him. He didn’t just slip between the shadows, he was a shadow.

Fuck. Demon Dragon.

The stranger plucked one of the many white flowers that had sprung up from Fleur’s desire manifesting itself. She squeaked and a mountain of leaves swirled around them, covering her from the neck down and Steele from the waist.

Her layer of protection might guard them from the demon dragon’s view, but not much more. This was no ordinary hellion. His human form was too real, his speech too precise and natural.

Fucking dumbass move to be so vulnerable when he knew demon dragons were in the area. He should have taken her home. His mate lust had put her in danger.

The demon sauntered toward them, twirling a jeweled dagger through his fingers. “Too bad you gave your little whore nymph that shard.”

“Stay behind me.” If he told Fleur to run he knew he could keep this demon occupied long enough for her to get away, but there could be others lurking. Where were the rest of the dragon warriors? Shit.

He lowered his voice. “Fleur, do you know how to get back to the scenting circle? I need you to find the wolves or any other dragon. They’ll protect you.”

“Now, now, don’t send her off. The others are all busy fighting or fucking. Let’s just keep this between us, shall we?”

“I’m not leaving you to battle those things again without me.”

“You must. I can not risk your life.”

“Screw you and that. I’m not risking your life, ya dumb dragon. You’re mine now.”

Any last bit of doubt that Fleur wanted to be his mate disintegrated in the heat of her words. Yeah, he was dumb, for her.

He couldn’t afford not to use his head and every other resource at his disposal to protect her.

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