Page 5 of Smoke and Lure

“I can see your lips, love.”He set the rock on the small table and leaned close to her face.There had to be more going on than her swollen lips.Liekki didn’t miss her slight flinch back, trying to maintain space, but he ignored it.“Open your mouth.”

“Ifff...wine...”She kept her hand over her mouth and squinted her single hazel eye with its dark, long, thick lashes at him.

For a brief moment, he thought about what it would be like to have both those eyes un-swollen gazing up at him while he—

His sharp inhale cut the thought short.

When she still refused to open her mouth, he flexed the muscles in his jaw.Damn, this woman is stubborn.

“Open,” he growled, allowing a hint of his beast to rumble into the texture of his voice.If the damn dragon wanted to care for her, the beast would assist in making her obey.

Her mouth popped open, but her flaring nostrils made it apparent she was unhappy with her response to him.

Peering into the shadowy recesses of her mouth, he spotted something but wanted a clearer view.He instructed, “Stick out your tongue.”

With only slight hesitation, she slid her thick tongue forward.

That’s when he saw the black honeybee stinger nestled right in the center of her tongue.It had to be doing more than muddling her speech; it had to irritate her mouth, too.If he had stopped momentarily and thought about what he would do, he would have told himself no andwarned himself off.

But he didn’t, and that was the only reason later when he evaluated his actions, he could come up with how he’d ended up with his mouth on hers.

He closed the distance until he was able to glide his tongue along her swollen, raspberry-red appendage.

Liekki felt a short puff of air from her mouth, the lightest sensual caress across his tongue.The wispy breeze of gasp sent a hot shiver along his spine.Gently, he stroked up from the tip of her tongue to almost the center until he brushed the rough end of the stinger.

He lifted a hand into the soft nestle of tangles of her hair at the back of her neck, telling himself he did it to hold her in place as he tended to her injury.To get the right angle, he moved in closer, pressing his lips to hers, firm but with caution toward her tender skin as he circled and circled the foreign object inserted in her tongue.The tiny stick sat embedded deep, and he had to push down on her flesh to help force the stinger higher so he could grasp it.

Air brushed his cheek in a rapid rhythm with each breath she released from her nose.

He knew if he placed his hand—that rested on the bed beside her hip—over the woman’s heart, he would feel a matching pound to his.

Regaining his focus on his task, he shifted his tongue to the forked extension of his dragon’s, just like he had done to remove the other stingers.The dexterous split allowed him to not only pinch the needle but carefully work it up, up, up until the worst piece slid free from her tongue.

His dragon had a nice fire roaring in Liekki’s belly, aiding him in destroying the stinger when he swallowed it.

Once he removed the offensive spear, there wasn’t any reason for his mouth to still be on hers.There was no reason that his tongue—human tongue—was stroking the length of hers toward the back of her mouth or over the roof of her mouth.

He told himself he only checked to ensure all of the stingers were out, and he was helping to heal her tongue faster.

His beast backed up his claim by sending the right amount of healing smog to fill her mouth and soothe her irritation.But drawing her tongue into his mouth and suckling it didn’t seem to fall under the guise of providing first-aid.

And when he saw her single eye lower and heard her moan, his fingers were fisting her silken strands that flowed over the back of his hand and kept her mouth just at the right angle.He was definitely fucking kissing her.

She tasted so good.Liekki had to blame the alluring sweetness of her kisses on the honeybee.Because she was kissing him back, taking the deft strokes of his tongue and sucking hard on it.Shit, he could plunder her mouth for hours and want more.

He was an unruly, horny bastard.Liekki was a few strokes away from fucking her mouth and lowering her back to the bed when he felt the unexpected, sizzling heat as a ball of fire rolled up from his core past the rapid beat of his heart and into the back of his throat.Dragon’s kiss.

Fuck.He snatched his mouth away.

The woman’s gasp was harsh at his shocking actions, most likely the unprovoked savagery of his kiss and the sudden ending of it.

Liekki scowled at her.Not because the kiss was her fault.Hell, no.He’d been the one to instigate it and take it too far.No, he was pissed at her because the dragon wanted her.He.Wanted.To.Claim.Her.

If Liekki hadn’t been quick, the slick, scaly bastard would have given her the claiming kiss.

The cheeky beast wasn’t apologetic as it stretched out languidly inside him, spitting out one small fireball after another against Liekki’s heart as if in a single man’s tennis game.

“Back off!”Moving quickly, the woman grabbed the rock from the table and held it up high.

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