My cheeks burned as I realized he had seen me ogling his belly and below. ‘‘Do you mean sex?’’ I asked with bluntness. ‘‘If so, you’re wrong. Oh, it’s true what Cyrene said, not that I am in any way pleased that she felt it necessary to share that fact with everyone. I haven’t had sex with a man before. But I’m not a shy, innocent virgin, either. I’ve seen movies. I’ve read books. I even attended a series of Our Bodies, Ourselves seminars during the 1970s. I’m not a prude or a stranger to sex; I’ve just never engaged in it with another person.’’

‘‘I see.’’ His eyes twinkled at me in a way that made me want to melt into a puddle of goo. He leaned over slightly and nudged me with his shoulder. ‘‘Do you like flavored massage oils? There is a passion fruit oil that I would very much like to try on you.’’

A vision rose in my head of Gabriel doing just that, which made it difficult to swallow. ‘‘The issue I have is not one of sex,’’ I repeated. ‘‘It’s sex with men.’’

‘‘You are not going to try to convince me that you prefer women, are you? Perhaps you enjoy both sexes? I do not share that ability, myself, but I will not condemn you for it. However, I will not share my mate with any other, woman or man . . .’’

‘‘No,’’ I interrupted, inadvertently putting my hand out. It touched his chest. Little flames broke out at the ends of my fingertips where they rested against his flesh.

He looked down. ‘‘You have already gained a control of my fire. That is very good. Aisling could not control Drake’s fire for months. It still gets away from her every now and again. It pleases me greatly that already you are so in tune to me that you can master my fire.’’

I jerked my hand back, jumping up from the bed, pacing to the door and back again before stopping in front of him. ‘‘Please just let me talk. I have something important to explain, and it’s not in any sense of the word going to be easy.’’

‘‘Very well,’’ he said, nodding. He leaned back on the bed, propping himself up on his arms. ‘‘Proceed.’’

I wanted to fling myself on him, rip that robe right off his body and lick every inch of him. I spun around, marching over to the window in order to get a grip on my libido.

‘‘I would be more than happy to acquiesce, not to mention reciprocate, but I doubt if you’d get much explaining done,’’ he said.

‘‘Will you stop reading my mind?’’ I asked, exasperated. ‘‘I didn’t know dragons could do that.’’

‘‘My sept can’t, not normally, but my mother was from Australia.’’

I blinked at him a couple of times, as if that would help me understand.