Dragon Fall: Masters of the Flame 3 (Mating Fever) by Elsa Jade Read Free Book Online

scent of her deep in his faltering lungs. Ashcraft had been a fool to dangle her half-zombified with that hallucinogenic ring in front of a dragon. Left to her own devices, she was temptation given flesh. No male, of any species, would resist that unwavering, unfathomable stare.
    She tilted up to her toes. Her gaze didn’t waver, but her legs did. Just a little, just enough that he felt honor-bound to steady her with a harder grip.
    “Do you know what I see?” she murmured. “Someone who’s watched over me, kept the nightmares away. I remember…your eyes, shining in the darkness. I thought they were stars, so close I could have touched you.”
    The quiver of her breath against his lips would’ve flattened him if he hadn’t locked his knees. “Why didn’t you?”
    “I was afraid.” Her voice broke. “I’ve always been afraid. Nothing to do with you.”
    The confession broke him where even the years of creeping blight hadn’t. “Esme…” He tried to pull back.
    She anchored one hand behind his neck, pulling herself higher on her toes. “It was always made very clear to me that my value was only figured by what I was worth to others. I couldn’t step out of line, couldn’t do anything that might jeopardize my standing with my family or our community. I was afraid to say what I wanted, ever.”
    He couldn’t keep retreating. Not only was her slight weight enough to knock him over, but her sharing made him determined not to deny her in any way. “You can say what you want to me,” he assured her. “I will listen.”
    “I want someone who doesn’t need me for anything,” she said. “Who already has more than I can give. You are rich, powerful, beautiful—” When he huffed, she threaded her fingers up into his hair. “I am nothing to you.”
    “That’s not true.” The tug to his heart hurt more than her grip on his hair.
    “But that’s what I want,” she said. “Someone who wants nothing from me.”
    He would be lying to her to say he didn’t need her. She had the potential to be his solarys, but he wouldn’t take what he needed when doing so might hurt her. Not when so many others had hurt her, making her believe she was only valuable for what she could give them.
    Claiming her would do worse than break her spirit—it could kill her. And him.
    “I only want what you can give me freely, with all your heart.” His voice was rough in his throat, but he knew she’d hear the sincerity. Because without its heart, a dragon’s treasure was nothing, worthless. He’d rather let every gem and coin sink back into the earth, buried and lost forever, than take anything from her she didn’t want to give.
    She wavered again, canting forward so that her small breasts poked his chest. “I was told to wait, to hold myself back until I could use myself on someone—like I was a goddamned weapon or something.”
    His jaw clenched. She was a weapon. The two stiff, little points of her nipples speared him…
    She peered up at him. “I want to feel awake and alive. I want a night with the man and the dragon who saved me. Is that so wrong?”
    He had saved her so she could slay him, right now, right this moment. “It’s not wrong. I am yours for the night.”
    He couldn’t claim her, but he would be hers. For forever, though he’d not weigh her down with that vow.
    “Good.” She rose up the last quarter inch on her toes to touch her lips to his.
    It was just the lightest brush. Butterfly wings and thistledown would’ve left more of a mark. And yet the contact crashed into him like a meteor, all rock and ice and fire. She breathed out a sigh, almost a moan, and he tightened his hold on her arms, drawing her up closer.
    He opened his mouth to capture the sound, and the taste of cherries and vodka flooded his senses.
    Ah fuck. When was the last time he’d had a drink? Back in the days of mead, maybe? She was like the last fading memory of a Viking warrior maiden.
    Heading into the unknown with a dragon