Page 37 of Centaur Bolt

He’d been huge, all teeth and claws and raw animal power. But he didn’t frighten me. As soon as he landed, I reached for him—I wanted the man, not the beast.

And his Dragon had given way to his human.

Magnificent wasn’t enough of a word. Huge, cut like a Greek god with tattoos chasing over his naked skin. And I didn’t know how Kiko would rate him, but when I pulled his head low and kissed him, I tried to wrap my fingers around him. And failed.

His groan had sent an answering tremor clear through me, but then he’d wrenched away. His eyes were wild. For just an instant, they reminded me of the trapped bobcat, all fury and panic. Was he afraid of me?

I remembered, then, something I’d read about taming wild horses. “You can’t force fear,” it had said. “Let them go, and they’ll come back to you. Or not. It has to be their choice. But if you push, you’ll lose them forever.”

Letting my Dragon go was the hardest thing ever. But my heart had heard the truth of those words—because I, too, was a wild thing.

When he flung himself off the cliff, I ran to the very edge. Breathed a sigh of relief when the crimson wings spread and carried him safely away… Until he vanished in the clouds.

I closed my eyes and pushed my face into the wind. Imagined what it would be like to fly.

But what I heard wasn’t the wind—it was waves, washing up on a beach.

When I opened them again, I was no longer on the cliff. I now stood upon a rock-strewn beach, staring out at the crashing surf. The wind tossed my hair, pushing and pulling it over my eyes.

A big hand came around from behind, the fingers stroking my face as they tucked my hair behind my ear. It should have startled me, made me yank away, but I knew those fingers.

I turned into his grasp, tears pricking my eyes as I looked up into his sunburst gaze. All thoughts of the Dragon vanished. This was where I wanted to be, and if this man tried to bolt, I would follow.

Cara had told me to give him time. But now he was gone. And all I had was this.

“Riley.” My name was breathed rather than spoken, and it sent a thrill straight through me. He might not be real, but I’d underestimated my desperate need to see him. To touch him…

I reached to wind my fingers in his thick hair and pulled his face down to mine. His lips were surprisingly soft and warm. He moved one big hand behind my head, and plundered my lips as though they were his last link to life. His fingers brushed those short hairs on the nape…

I moaned, fastened the fingers of one hand onto his upper arms, and flung a leg over his thigh. My other hand eagerly moved across his abdomen—and contacted something smooth and warm that wasn’t skin. Several somethings that interlocked. They hugged his contours like a bodysuit. But what my fingers fastened on pushed up between them, bursting free as it thrust for the sky.

Marcus pulled back slightly. “Incompetent cuppage,” he muttered.

I glanced down to see that his lower half was clothed in scales, like a Dragon shifter’s. And he had patches of fur over his belly, dappled brown and gold.

“What—”

“Little gift from my inner monsters,” Marcus whispered. His hand sifted gently through my hair. “I don’t want to talk, Riley. If this is the only way I can have you, then so be it.”

A million questions flew through my brain, but then his fingers played with those short hairs. It sent zings of electricity straight through to my core.

My mind dissolved in static, and I yanked him down again to my lips as my hand wrapped as far around his thrusting length as it could go. And stroked.

He shuddered and twitched beneath my hand. Something rumbled—I thought at first he was growling. I pulled back to see that the sky overhead had gone pitch dark, and thunder rolled across it.

He pushed into my grip, sliding through my fingers with a hiss of breath. I dropped my gaze—the storm had moved into his eyes. When lightning flared across the clouds, his eyes flared, too.

My heart accelerated as I released him and slid down his body, trailing my tongue over the exposed skin. The scales dropped away as he pressed into me, both hands sinking into my hair to guide me. When my lips closed over his burgeoning flesh, he ratcheted a long groan, and then my name.

“Rileey…”

He was big. Too big, really, but I managed, using lips and tongue and the teasing fingers of both hands. I moved them to cup the heavy weight of his balls. And pulled ever so slightly.

He gasped, and his fingers tightened. His reaction leaped straight up his length, making it kick in my mouth. I sucked, and his knees buckled. He exhaled a cry, his grip shifting to my arms as he pulled me free. His fingers shook, and when I looked up, I saw swirling eyes the color of midnight, and dark scales chasing along his cheeks.

Marcus or beast, I didn’t care. They were both him, and I wanted them. One big, callused hand slipped over my breast, teasing the nipple, and I arched into it before grabbing it and moving it down. Across my belly, and between my legs.

I sensed the barest hesitation as I guided his fingers into my slick heat, showing him where and how to rub and circle. He caught on in an instant, his warrior hands igniting every nerve of me until I panted and ground against him.

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