Hauk gasped as he felt her warm hands on his skin. He shivered at the sensation of finally being touched by someone who wasn’t trying to hurt or kill him. And when she moved from his lips to his throat to lave his skin, he thought he’d lose complete control of himself and come immediately. His entire being simmered with heat.

Even better, she didn’t recoil in revulsion of his scars. Her lips didn’t curl from disgust. There was nothing in her eyes but desire and hunger. She didn’t see him as unworthy or lacking.

She saw him.

No female had ever given him such a gift. In her arms, he felt worthy and whole. There was no judgement. No bitter past that made her hate him. It was just the two of them.

And she wanted him.

Throwing his head back, he roared as unimaginable pleasure consumed him.

Sumi hesitated at a sound the likes of which she’d never heard before. It was a wild, primal cry that quickly reminded her he wasn’t human.

Something driven home when he looked at her and she realized his eyes were now completely red. The color of blood. More than that, they glowed in the darkness.

Was he still him or did Andarions morph into something else whenever they had sex?

“Dancer?”

He answered her with a tender, sweet kiss that belied the ferocity of that cry. Rising up on his knees, he held her against him with an ease that was even more terrifying than those glowing eyes. Yet his touch remained gentle. He left her lips so that he could nuzzle his face against the crook of her neck. Ever so tenderly, he scraped his fangs against her collarbone.

“Touch me, Sumi, please,” he whispered in ragged need before he ran his tongue over her ear.

She wasn’t sure what he meant until he led her hand to the bulge in his pants.

Hauk ground his teeth as she cupped and squeezed him in her tiny, delicate hand. All his life, he’d wondered what it would be like to have a female touch him intimately like this.

Now he finally knew.

It was sweeter than any dream he’d dared allow himself. Unlike his callused hand, hers was gentle and questing. It gave him nothing but bliss. And when she dipped her soft hand into his pants to touch his cock, he had to fight to hold himself back as he panted with desire for her. For a full minute, he couldn’t see straight as she boldly stroked him and made him even harder. His body was both hot and cold. Fevered and chilled. He’d never known anything like this before. Every part of him was alive and far more sensitive than normal.

It was similar to what he felt in a good fight, and yet so much more intense.

So much sweeter.