Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Then that feeling of love grew tenfold, so intense that heat began to boil her insides. Everything about her suddenly wanted him, needed him, to get so close that their insides burned together in a scorching fire until they melted together as one.
It was the hunger in her eyes that matched his that gave her away.
Like a statue that looked like it had been carved in pain, Ryu stayed unmoving, still holding true to his honor.
“May I touch you now?” he asked like he was desperate for water after walking days in an empty desert and only she could satiate his thirst.
And just like he had promised her she would, she would beg for his touch if it came to it.
Desperate himself to finally touch her, Ryu not only wouldn’t make her beg, but he couldn’t. He needed her more than the air surrounding them. All he wanted was to satiate the hunger he had felt since the moment his eyes caught her sleeping form. So, when she softly nodded her head for him to touch her, he slowly raised his own hand to cover the delicate one that still rested on his cheek.
Turning into her palm, he placed a light kiss in the center that he was certain sent an electric current through her, as it did him. Then, with the electricity between them rising, he pulled her closer to him, wrapping her in his arms and holding her tightly, taking it all in.
Her sweet scent that smelled of the honey she frequently drank in her tea.
Her soft frame that he was scared of hurting if he held her too tightly.
It wasn’t everything he had hoped and imagined.
It was more.
Finally, he was able to run his hand through her hair in the way he had always wanted to, no longer needing to be so precise and delicate so he wouldn’t touch her. Finally, he was able to freely let the silky strands run through his fingers.
“You’ve felt this the whole time, haven’t you?” she whispered while tears slid down her own face as she began to cry.
Getting lost in her misty eyes, he returned the favor by wiping away the tears that rolled down her beautiful high cheeks. He could only nod, remembering …
Ryu had only just flown out of his village and crossed the ocean that separated his village from the outside world when the scent hit him. It was like every instinct had him on high alert as the pheromones of a woman below entered his blood stream.
It was his fated mate, and he knew it.
His magic kept him protected from being seen as he morphed and landed back on the earth in the small village just below. He couldn’t believe how close she must have been this whole time.
Following her scent wasn’t hard. He just found himself losing his breath in anticipation as he climbed the forsaken mountain. What was she doing up here, anyway?
When he reached the top, he spotted her at once as the sun shined down on beautiful locks of hair that glistened like fire in the sun. The orangey-red hue wasn’t a color seen in these parts of the earth, which made him feel as if he was imagining her.
Thinking she must be a visage, he softly approached to find her sleeping peacefully at the edge of the world. Still unbelieving of his luck, he inched closer, wanting to see her face.
And at the first glimpse, his breath hitched in his throat, and he found himself breathless.
The left side of her face had been scorched with the element that ran through his dragon’s veins. He stared at the pink and translucent branching veins; she looked as if she had been kissed by fire.
If a mate was ever made for a dragon, it was this one. Now he only needed a name, and a single touch, and then his lineage would be saved …
Oh, how easy he had thought that was going to be, but fate was a fickle, funny thing. It wouldn’t be until he returned to his village that he would know if they had mated before the last cherry blossom fell.
15
Consequences
“There?” Eira’s mouth dropped open as she looked out at the open sea. “That’s where you live?”
“Yes.” His eyes smiled amusedly at her. They had yet to leave since their true mating bond had formed.
Eira couldn’t believe it as she continued staring out at the little island far away in the distance, covered in trees. Every day, she would sit at the edge of this cliff, looking longingly at the secluded land, and now she understood why.
Her heart had been calling for her to go there. All the while, she had thought it was because her loner heart craved isolation, but that hadn’t been the case at all. It was because her heart had instinctively felt her fated mate’s presence there, which made her ask, “How did you find me?”