My self-consciousness faded away as soon as I saw his expression. He was looking at me like nobody ever had before. Like I was his most prized possession.

The black orbs darkened with desire.

"You are so perfect." His voice sounded thicker as his gaze flicked all over me "You are the most tempting entity to walk this earth. You are the snake in the garden of Eden. You are also the apple."

I bit my lip and giggled "I think you are only with me because I smell like apples. I know how much you love them."

"I only love apples because they smell like you. Because they taste like you. They remind me of you." He said against my earlobe.

He leaned down and cupped the back of my legs to scoop me up in his arms. I was carried to the bed in the middle of the room.

Two steps later and he laid me on the mattress. Next thing I knew he had climbed on top of me. His starvation was completely undisguised as he went back to showing my mouth attention.

My fingers found the back of his shoulders. Right where his medusa tattoo was. I found myself gripping the skin as he moved his lips to my neck.

His lips trailed over my jaw and my throat until he reached my collarbone. He sucked on the skin as I allowed my eyes to roll to the back of my head at the pleasurable torture. I panted desperately for air as he did so.

When I heard the small deep groan from his chest and felt the absence of the hot air on my neck, I opened my eyes and found him staring at me as softly as I had ever seen him.

Stone gripped the bedsheets beside me as met my gaze and asked tenderly "Are you sure you want this?"

I bit my tongue to hold back a laugh because I felt like teasing him as I questioned "What if I wanted you to wait forever?"

He reached for my hand and brought it to his lips as he left a gentle kiss there "Then I would wait forever for you."

It was not too fast. It had always been in the making. There had been such a build-up of emotions since had I met him that surely the release was going to be explosive.

"I want you." I assured him as I smiled up at his devastatingly attractive face "I have never been so sure of anything in my life. I am more sure of us than any of my theories."

Satisfied with my answer, he clutched my thigh and lowered his head to the tattoo on my thigh. Then he kissed it. He left soft kisses all over the ink, curling along the shape of the dragon’s tail.