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their
lovemaking had put there. She should be warned...but then, what good would it
do?
    Guilt was another emotion Kaden wanted no part of. He buried it
as best he could and focused on the beautiful woman with his dragyn-ka glinting at her neck. The wave of possession
that swept him was more than satisfying.
    Mine, he thought.
    She wore nothing but her towel, and Kaden enjoyed letting his
eyes wander over her curves. He wanted to peel off the fabric, shred it with his
teeth.
    “Come back to bed,” Kaden said, though he knew already that she
would take her time about listening to him.
    “But I’m all wet.”
    “Good.”
    She laughed softly, and he could see that a little of her
apprehension had returned. It gave Kaden pause. He was no expert at soothing
nerves, not any more than he was at seduction. His kind had always been sought
after sexually, lovers to play with before the dragyn-ka was given—if one was lucky enough to find the woman it had
been meant for.
    He’d had many women, taken them hard and fast, made them weep
his name with pleasure. But that had been long ago...and Tess was nothing like
any of them. It made him feel...odd. Uncertain. He hated feeling uncertain.
    “What would you have of me?” Kaden asked. It was not a question
he’d ever asked before. The words felt strange to him. Tess, however, seemed to
appreciate them. Her eyes softened as she spoke.
    “I...don’t really know,” Tess said. “We didn’t exactly do a lot
of talking last night. I don’t feel like we sorted anything out.”
    Kaden tilted his head, puzzled. “What was there to sort? I said
I would protect you. Then you fell upon me like a wild thing. What else was
needed?”
    Her blush was lovely, even if he didn’t understand it.
    “Yeah...I’m not really sure what came over me.”
    Kaden chuckled. “It is the same force that made my dragyn-ka yours. Some things are made to belong to
others. And you are—”
    “Don’t say it,” Tess interrupted, holding up a hand. Her grasp
on the towel slipped with the other hand, and barely managed to stop the entire
thing from falling to the floor. Kaden gave an approving growl.
    “When fate speaks, you should listen. And when your towel no
longer wants to be wrapped about your body, you should also listen.”
    The look Tess gave him, utterly flustered, touched him in a way
he didn’t expect. He found himself trying to reassure her, another first.
    “Come, Tess. I will not hurt you.” He patted the bed beside
him. For whatever reason, he wanted nothing more, in that moment, than to have
her there.
    “I know you won’t,” Tess sighed. “Even if I don’t know why I know that.” Her eyes skimmed over him, pausing
between his legs before returning to his face. She tucked a lock of wet hair
behind her ear.
    “I don’t think we’re going to get much talking done if I come
over there.”
    Kaden arched an eyebrow. “Talk quickly, if you must, atirra . Or sing for me instead. Your voice was a
treasure I did not expect.”
    He was glad he said it, since it made her smile. And not just
any smile...this one seemed to light her from within.
    “You liked it? I figured you were still dead to the world.”
    “Dragons love music,” Kaden told her. “We value it as much as
we value our gold and jewels. Our cities are—were—built high within the walls of
cliffs, and the air would echo with song.”
    The memory was bittersweet. But somehow, here in this room, it
didn’t hurt as it once had. Even when he looked away, he could feel Tess’s eyes
on him, and he feared he had given away more than he had intended.
    Her words, though light as a caress, confirmed it.
    “You lost everyone,” she said. “Are they really all gone?”
    She made him wonder, when he had forced himself to stop
wondering long ago. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “We were already few enough.
When my city was attacked, I saw many killed. There were sorcerers among them,
and the air was so thick with magic it