“Certainly, if you like. But my mother reminded me I was remiss in giving you a gift.”

“What sort of a gift?” I asked, curious despite my better intentions. I peered over his shoulder as he shuffled through a couple of black leather boxes inside the safe. He pulled one out.

“Ah, there it is. It is tradition in my mother’s family for the men to give their brides a necklet. This one was my great-great-grandmother’s. I think you’ll like it. It’s gold.”

He opened the case, and instantly the smell of the gold hit me. It was a hundred times more potent than the gold dust he’d used earlier, leaving me feeling as if I had been zapped with electricity, every hair on my head standing on end as the rich, sensual, intoxicating scent of gold permeated my pores. I ripped my clothing off, actually ripped it off, flinging myself on Gabriel as I snatched up the thin square plates that had been strung together in a tight choker of gold, rubbing it between us as my body turned into one gigantic erogenous zone.

“Gold,” I said, making a little purr of pleasure as the metal touched my bared flesh.

Gabriel’s smile was slow and knowing. “I thought you might like it, since you enjoyed the dust. Kind of makes you tingle, doesn’t it?”

I licked him. “I want to rub it on you.”

Instantly, he was naked, his eyes burning with a fire almost as bright as the one that he had started in me. “I’d rather you rub yourself on me. Well, perhaps both you and the gold.”

“Mmm.” I arched my back, trailing a red claw down his chest, the other hand dragging the gold necklet across his collarbone. I kissed the path the gold had followed, tasting both Gabriel and the arousing bite of gold. I wanted him, all of him, right then, and there was nothing or no one who could stop me. He was my mate, we had gold, and there was only one way things were going to end.

“Take me,” I demanded, flinging myself on him and wrapping my legs around his hips. The impact of me slamming into him so unexpectedly resulted in him taking a couple of steps backwards until he bumped up against a table. He sat down on it suddenly, impaling me as he did so.

I squealed with absolute pleasure at the invasion, squirming against him, the sleek silver scales on his chest sliding against my own in a sensation so erotic, my mind was completely consumed with thoughts of nothing but joining body and soul with him, our dragon essences bound together until there was no discerning a difference.

The last little fragment of my true self gave a hopeless cry of defeat, checking the dragon shard for a moment.