“Please,” I said on a half whisper, my mouth finding his. I poured the fire that roared within me into him, taking back his own in return. He didn’t answer me with words, simply managed to free himself from his pants, his hands urging me onward. The skin of my belly rubbed against his, my breasts, aching and heavy, brushing against the soft hair of his chest. The touch of his flesh against mine caused the most incredible sensations to roil around inside me. I stared down at him in surprise, unable to sort out what was happening to me. “It’s as if I’m one big erogenous zone,” I murmured, closing my eyes in bliss as I rubbed against his chest again, my back arching as flames burst up around us.

“It’s the shard,” he said, his voice rubbing against me in an orgasmic rush matched only by the sensation of his hands on my breasts, teasing and tormenting me until I wanted to scream with both pleasure and frustration. “It’s part of the dragon heart, the essence of all dragonkin. You’re sharing some of the sensations we feel.”

“Then the gods be thanked that I’m a doppelganger, because I don’t think I could survive this,” I gasped as he took one of my nipples in his mouth, bathing it with a heat hotter than the sun. I saw stars—I literally saw stars as I slid my hands up his sides, my scarlet claws leaving little trails of fire on his skin.

“You will survive this and much more,” he said into my breast before turning his attention to its mate. I groaned as he bit gently on the nipple, my body tightening as he pulled me downward again, claiming my mouth once more.

The fire burned around us, but it was nothing to what was consuming me from within. I writhed against his body, my tongue dancing around his as it swept into my mouth, tension mounting deep inside me until I knew I was going to climax.

A burning brand bit into my hip as he dug his fingers . . . claws . . . into my flesh before trailing even lower, down over my hips and behind, parting sensitive flesh. I suckled his tongue hard as his finger dipped inside me, a thousand little muscles tightening, the intrusion as hot as molten steel. It pushed me over the edge, and I went flying in a way I’d never done before, time holding its breath for a moment as I changed, shifted into a form that was different, yet familiar. I was bathed in fire and light, and I threw back my head to roar my rapture to the heavens, but the voice crying aloud was not my own.