Free Diamond Dragon (Awakened Dragons Book 4) by Terry Bolryder

said. “We’re all alone. No shifters around. No cages.” He looked out at the forest. “And it’s beautiful.”
    She nodded. “I guess so.”
    “And when you came down to see me, didn’t you ever wonder? Didn’t you ever fantasize about me, lying up there in your bed?”
    She averted her eyes, but her flush deepened as she made a quick nod. “I couldn’t help it.”
    He grinned. Maybe it was just the food or the beautiful scenery or the closeness brought on by the touch between them, but everything seemed possible now. She wasn’t pushing him away.
    “So maybe just a kiss, then?” he asked. “You could do worse than to have your first kiss from a dragon.”
    “Just a kiss, then.” She submitted.
    “I should warn you a kiss usually leads to more.”
    She shook her head, her pretty blond hair shaking around her, becoming fuller and a little wavy with the humidity. Between that and the hot look in her eyes, there was a sultry feel to her that made him instantly ready.
    “I haven’t kissed anyone because I think that should happen with feelings. But I guess a kiss isn’t so much. And if I hold off too long, it could happen with someone awful, like it almost did. But any more than that I feel should only happen between people who have feelings for each other.”
    “Feelings?” he asked. “What do you mean? We’re friends, aren’t we?”
    “I mean like serious feelings. Like getting married kinds of feelings.”
    “I can see why you haven’t kissed anyone.”
    “It honestly hasn’t seemed that appealing with anyone, and I’ve been busy. And then, you know, when you’ve waited so long, you just think, I might as well wait for the right one. But then something like what happened with Galen happens and makes you realize it’s stupid to place so much importance on it.”
    “Okay,” he said, standing and stretching. “Just kissing, then.”
    “One kiss,” she corrected, taking his hand and standing as he pulled her in against him and tilted her chin up. “Don’t you want to go in the rain?” she asked, her warm breath teasing him, making steam against the cold air around them.
    His arm snaked around her waist. “No, I want to kiss you right here, sheltered from the rain, with the sound and feel of it all around us.”
    She nodded, biting her lip and pulling it through her teeth slowly enough to make him ache.
    This was Bridget. His escape partner. His friend when he’d been in captivity.
    Why did it feel so important that he be the first one to kiss her? The only one to kiss her?
    He didn’t know, even as his lips slid over hers, fitting them together perfectly, filling his empty heart with a warmth he’d never known.
    What he knew was, now that he’d had a taste of her, he was never going to get enough of this woman.

Chapter 7
    B ridget closed her eyes as pleasure washed through her unlike anything she’d imagined, and she relaxed into Alistair’s iron-strong, supportive grip.
    Her hands came up to press on his chest, and she loved the feel of his arm around her.
    She was still so embarrassed to admit she’d fantasized, but after how good he’d made her feel just touching her hair, she couldn’t hold back anymore.
    He was hot, and she might not have another chance to take her first kiss on her own terms.
    And this was one she’d always remember, with the rain falling around them, cool breeze swirling but unable to reach them, and the soft shelter of the trees and the cabin.
    But the biggest shelter was in his arms.
    In his kiss was a promise, gentle and tender and nothing like she’d pictured. But then he coaxed her lips open, and the kiss grew hotter, more urgent, his tongue seeking access to her deepest spaces.
    When she recovered from the sheer pleasure of it, she met his tongue with hers, stroking tentatively as he let out a low groan against her mouth.
    Her hands moved down over his hard waist to his trim hips, tempted to go even lower as he grinned against her mouth and