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  “I will,” Magnus said sincerely. “And I don’t want to intrude any further. That’s all I wanted to say. I’m sorry.”

  “There’s no need,” Isaak said, almost at the same time as Josie said, “You don’t need to.”

  She smiled. “You weren’t yourself, then. We can’t blame you for what you did while you were being controlled by Bain – and you shouldn’t blame yourself, either.”

  Magnus nodded. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  Josie watched as the smallest glimmer of a smile crossed his face, and then he turned away, moving back into the crowd. Josie watched his broad back until he disappeared into the ocean of people.

  “Do you think he’ll be okay?” she asked, turning to look up at Isaak.

  “I think so,” Isaak said, still looking after him. “It’s hard, not knowing where you come from. But I think he’ll be all right.”

  Josie nodded. “I hope so.”

  She meant it. It didn’t seem right that someone could have their entire past ripped away from them like that. She hoped Magnus would take them up on their offer of assistance.

  If he does, then I’ll do everything I can to help him, Isaak sent to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

  I know you will, Josie sent back. I know.

  ***

  Back at their hotel room, Josie found her mouth opening wide in a yawn as soon as the door was closed behind them.

  “Are you tired?” Isaak asked, a smile quirking at the corner of his lips. “Do you need to sleep?”

  “Later,” Josie said, pulling him toward her, her arms around his waist. “Much later.”

  She could feel his smile against her lips as she lifted her face to his, kissing him firmly. Sure, she was tired – but not too tired for this.

  She’d been aching for his touch for the past three days. She didn’t think she could hold out any longer, tired or not.

  “It’s been too long,” Isaak growled as he kissed his way down Josie’s jaw, and then her throat.

  Josie felt her knees grow weak, clasping her hands around his shoulders to keep herself upright. “Much too long,” she agreed with a gasp, as his hands slipped under her shirt, finding the soft skin of her waist.

  When Isaak kissed her, Josie found it hard to do anything other than just be kissed – his mouth drove all rational thought from her mind. His lips and tongue drove her utterly wild, and had done every day since the first time they had made love back on his island of Calauria.

  So when he pulled back, it took her a moment to register what had happened.

  “What’s happening?” she asked, breathless, opening her eyes. “Why did you stop?”

  She looked up to see Isaak looking out of the balcony door at the mountains that rose in the evening sky, just beyond the outskirts of the city.

  “Josie... do you want to do something crazy?”

  Josie blinked. “Such as...?”

  Taking her hand, he tugged her over to the door, opening it out onto the balcony. The night was mild, but Josie still shivered a little at the touch of his hand.

  “Let’s go up there,” he said, pointing.

  Josie shook her head, not understanding. “Up where?”

  “To the mountains.”

  All at once, Josie understood what he was saying. Despite herself, she grinned.

  “You’d be taking a pretty big risk, shifting in the middle of a city like that,” she said, raising an eyebrow mock-scoldingly.

  Isaak snorted. “I don’t care. I’ve had enough of hotel rooms and conference halls and other stuffy places. I want to be with my mate under the stars, with nothing between us and the sky.”

  Josie laughed as she pulled him back into the room.

  “Wait, wait!” she said. “Let me get some things first.”

  Walking quickly across the room, she knelt in front the small hotel safe and quickly entered the code. Opening it, she withdrew the items from the Novak hoard that had been designated as Isaak’s personal items, and which they carried with them whenever they were traveling.

  Isaak’s eyes seemed to light up as she draped the golden necklaces about her throat. Sometimes, it felt strange to be doing this – she had never imagined that she would ever even see, much less touch and wear, items of such great rarity and value.

  But a dragon’s hoard was second only to his mate in his heart. The hoard had been protected with Isaak’s ancestors’ blood – and she wanted to honor his clan’s traditions.

  “Let me,” Isaak said softly, coming to kneel next to her on the floor by the safe.

  In the next moment, he had taken up a pair of luminous golden bangles, sliding them reverently onto her wrists. He caught up her hair with emerald pins, sweeping it back off her face. Drop earrings came next, trailing diamonds and rubies almost all the way down to her shoulders.

  And then came her tiara, the piece that Isaak had crowned her with in the formal ceremony that had declared her his mate. It wound around and around in intricate curlicues, with pink diamonds nestling in clusters in its design. It was the most beautiful thing that Josie had ever seen – besides Isaak himself, of course.

  But that wasn’t the last piece that Isaak placed on her.

  Last of all, of course, came the ring – her ring.

  The sapphire ring she’d had for years, without ever realizing what it meant.

  Isaak slid it reverently onto her finger, its deep blue depths reflecting the hotel light across his face. The small diamonds that surrounded the flawless blue stone twinkled.

  “Now, I’m ready,” Josie said. “Now, we can go.”

  Isaak only grinned as he took her by the hand. Together, they ran out onto the balcony, before Isaak leaped off without hesitation, transforming mid-air into the most magnificent red-gold dragon Josie had ever seen. The delicate membrane of his wings unfurled into the night sky, holding his muscular body up seemingly without effort.

  Josie laughed, clapping her hands over her mouth at Isaak’s daring.

  If anybody sees us –

  Then hurry up and climb aboard! came Isaak’s swift reply.

  Well, Josie thought, I can’t argue with that.

  Going to the edge of the balcony, she stepped up onto the railing before jumping lightly onto Isaak’s shoulder, catching hold of one of the defensive spikes that protruded from it. In the past, she never would have dared to do something so bold – but, after finding out that dragons existed, she felt she could do anything. Isaak would always be there to catch her if she fell.

  She settled herself at the base of his neck, gripping his spines tightly.

  Let’s go!

  Isaak’s only response was to sweep his wings up, filling them with air, and lifting them high into the night sky.

  Josie resisted the urge to laugh out loud as they raced through the air. A feeling of pure freedom surged in her veins, the wind rushing through her hair, the stars twinkling above.

  Flying was something she had always dreamed of doing, ever since she had first decided that she wanted to study birds. She had loved watching them dive and swoop, arcing through the air like they weighed nothing at all, with gravity apparently meaning nothing to their flight.

  She had never dreamed she would get to experience flight on anything other than an airplane.

  But here I am, riding on the back of a dragon, she thought, her heart pounding with excitement, her skin flushed from the rush of the air. With nothing at all to hold us down.

  Isaak stretched out his wings and soared, the light of the town beneath them, the light of the stars above. Josie would have been perfectly happy to stay here forever, if only she hadn’t known that what was to come was even better.

  Folding his wings, Isaak brought them in to land at a small glade on the side of the mountain. The trees hid them from any prying eyes – not to mention the fact that this particular area would have been impossible to reach by anything other than flight. There was no chance they’d be surprised by curious hikers.


  Isaak transformed again the moment Josie slid down from his back – and a moment later his lips were on hers, hot and hungry.

  “We need to get you out of those clothes,” he murmured, as his hands fumbled with the buttons of the sensible shirt she’d been wearing all day – a far cry from the tank top and shorts she was comfortable in for fieldwork.

  “Mmm, yes please,” she replied, her own hands scrabbling at the zip of her pencil skirt. These clothes were way too confining!

  Between the two of them, they made short work of her suit. It wasn’t long before it was tossed to the grass at their feet, utterly forgotten.

  Josie moaned as Isaak lowered his head to her breasts, still cupped inside her bra. She raised a hand to run her fingers through his dark hair, urging him downward, until he was teasing at her nipples with his lips and tongue.

  “Oh, God, Isaak...”

  He always knew just what to do to drive her wild. She could already feel his erection, hot and huge, pressing against her thighs, and she herself was growing wetter by the second. It never took long for her to reach a fever pitch of desire for him – but they still liked to take their time, all the same.

  One of his hands slid up her back, releasing the clasp of her bra, while the other slid down, pushing down her panties.

  The jewelry about her wrists and throat jangled as Josie shuddered, throwing her head back.

  “Yes,” she breathed, as Isaak slowly lowered her to the forest floor. “God, yes. Please, Isaak – show me –”

  “You’re mine,” Isaak growled as he planted kisses down her belly, and then her thighs. “All mine, asteri mou.”

  Josie squealed, squirming up against him as his tongue brushed against her, finding her core immediately. He opened his mouth, spreading her thighs with his hands, clearly seeking more of her – more of her smell, her taste.

  Josie could do nothing but gasp and writhe as he explored her with his tongue, licking her everywhere, one moment teasing her clit and the next plunging deep inside her.

  “Oh, God, oh Isaak...!”

  Josie closed her eyes, her hands raised above her head in total abandonment as she felt herself racing closer and closer to the edge. Isaak’s expert tongue knew just what to do, how to find all the right places within her. Desperately, she twisted on the grass, her thighs either side of his head, as he brought her closer and closer to the heights of her pleasure.

  She came with a cry, stars flashing before her eyes, every muscle in her body contracting and releasing as wet heat surged from her body.

  When, panting, she could finally open her eyes and lift her head, she could see Isaak’s chin glistening with her own wetness – and he licked his lips, seeming to relish the taste of her.

  “You’re amazing,” he said, his green eyes luminous in the dark. “The way you taste...”

  Josie laughed, still a little breathless. “Come here,” she said, raising one limp arm to beckon him. While her orgasm had been stunning, there was more she wanted from him tonight.

  He kissed her fervently, as if he could never get his fill. She wound her arms around his back, drawing him down to her, pulling his body against hers. Again, she felt his hard length against her, and she parted her thighs, wanting him inside her.

  As always, he understood her perfectly. Josie threw back her head as the head of his cock pressed against her slick folds, finding her entrance and sliding inside.

  Her hand clamped to the back of his neck as he slid home, inch by inch, slowly filling her.

  God, Josie, the way you feel...

  Isaak’s voice in her mind was like an extra layer to the pleasure she felt. It was almost as if she could feel his pleasure too, and together they heightened each other’s bliss. Every movement he made seemed to wash over her and back into him – and when she squeezed her inner walls around him, the groan he let out seemed to resonate in her very soul.

  This is what it means to be mates, she thought, as Isaak began to move his hips. This is what it means to find the other half of your soul.

  “You are mine,” Isaak groaned, his hips snapping forward and making her cry out in pleasure. “And I’m yours. All yours, Josie. My sweet, beautiful mate...”

  Every movement he made drove her higher and higher along a spiral of ecstasy. She could feel her muscles tightening as she reached for her release, her body coiled tighter than a spring.

  My love. My mate.

  In the end, it was the touch of Isaak’s mind against hers that sent her tumbling over the edge, crying out her bliss to the stars above.

  Her back arched beneath him, her muscles pulsing and straining, and she heard his own cry as he too fell with her into infinite pleasure. Her body tightened around him, and he kissed her breathlessly, their lips finding each other in the dark.

  Josie’s body twitched helplessly in the aftermath of her climax, Isaak still wringing bright splinters of pleasure from deep within her.

  For a long time, all they could do was hold each other, arms wound around each other’s backs, until finally, finally, Isaak could apparently bring himself to move. With a groan, he lifted himself and then lay by her side, his chest glistening with sweat, pulse fluttering in his throat.

  It was a longer time still before either of them could speak.

  “Do you really have to go back?” Isaak asked as he curled his body around hers, taking her in his arms.

  Josie blinked drowsily, her hand curling over his waist. Above her, the stars were like a luminous blanket. “I probably should, but...” She laughed. “Forget it. If anyone thinks I’m moving from here, they’re wrong.”

  She felt the hot puff of Isaak’s breath against her cheek as he laughed. “You’re the boss, boss. Pretty sure after everything you’ve done these past few days, you could just click your fingers and have them all come running.”

  “Damn straight.”

  Josie could feel fatigue pulling at her limbs, her eyes, her brain. All she wanted to do was sleep, wrapped up in the arms of her mate.

  Isaak was right. She’d done enough for one weekend. This time was just for them. They could worry about everything else in the morning.

  Sleep, my mate.

  “I will,” she murmured, turning her head to kiss Isaak’s forehead.

  She had her mate.

  They had his clan.

  And everything was perfect.

  A note from Zoe Chant

  Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

  Please consider reviewing Fated for the Dragon, even if you only write a line or two. I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.

  Page down to read a special sneak preview of A Mate for the Dragon, the first in the Lost Dragons series.

  The cover of Fated for the Dragon was designed by Isabelle Arden.

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