‘‘Mean what?’’

‘‘That you can’t control yourself around me because I’m so much a part of you? You meant that?’’

He picked me up, carrying me over to the bed, spinning me around so I was astride his thighs as he sat. ‘‘I wish it was different. I wish I had the ability to retain my control when I’m with you, but I am obviously lacking in character.’’

‘‘Oh, Gabriel,’’ I said, my heart melting at the look shining from his eyes. ‘‘No one has ever said anything so beautiful to me.’’

‘‘Beautiful?’’ His dimples flashed to life for a moment as he shook his head. ‘‘I have never met a woman like you, May.’’

‘‘A doppelganger, you mean?’’ I asked, sliding my hands up his arms.

‘‘No. A woman who finds my lack of self-control an attribute rather than a flaw.’’

‘‘It means I really matter to you,’’ I said, kissing the corners of his mouth. ‘‘So much so that you can’t stop yourself from showing your inner dragon when we make love.’’

‘‘You are my mate, my life. You are bound to me. You do more than matter, little bird—you are my reason for existence.’’

‘‘That,’’ I said, pushing him backwards onto the bed, ‘‘is not the least bit true, and we both know it. However, due to the fact that you are the sexiest dragon I’ve ever met, and I’m probably going to expire if you don’t make love to me in the next ten seconds, I’m willing to let it go for now.’’

‘‘My mother said,’’ he started to say, but I kissed him to a stop.

‘‘I love you,’’ I said, the words tumbling out unexpectedly.

Gabriel’s eyes opened wide. I froze for a second, unsure of what to do or say, but that dilemma ended quickly when he lifted me slightly and shifted me forward, impaling me with a swift upward thrust of his hips. ‘‘Foreplay later,’’ he growled, the cords in his neck standing out as his eyes shut for a moment in ecstasy.

The intrusion into my body was fast and hard, but not unanticipated, making me moan with pleasure as he pierced parts that had been too long without him. I leaned forward to kiss him, his hands hard on my hips, urging me to a faster rhythm.

‘‘I want all of you, Gabriel.’’

His eyes opened to flash with quicksilver brightness, his gaze hot enough to scorch. But his dragon fire came from his mouth as he pulled me down, taking my breast in his mouth, bathing it with fire that danced down my skin until it covered us both. I gasped as he pistoned upward even harder, deeper than he had been before, the sensation of his mouth on my other breast almost pushing me over the edge of sanity. I gripped him hard with my knees, watching with amazement as the taut, brown flesh between my thighs turned iridescent, forming into white scales that rippled upward into a beautiful silver that was almost as bright as Gabriel’s eyes. The body beneath me and inside me thickened, lengthening and changing in ways that were both wholly foreign and yet somehow familiar. The hands that gripped my breasts changed as well, the long, brown fingers changing to silver, tipped with curved claws the color of blood.

Part of my brain shrieked to me that it was wrong, that the man I was riding was no man—he was a beast—but my heart knew the truth. The tension inside me built until I flung back my head, arching my back as I was locked in an orgasm, the muscles embracing Gabriel tightening with an ecstasy that was almost painful. Gabriel thrust upward at the same time he roared his pleasure, a primal, terrifying sound that echoed in the room and in my soul. There was a word in that roar, one word: my name. The fire leaped between us, back and forth until there was no ending and no beginning. It just was—and so were we. I knew with every atom of my being, every infinitesimal part that combined to make me, that Gabriel and I were one. Nothing could ever change that—no demon lord with delusions of grandeur, no authority in this world or any other, existed that could take me from him. Gabriel had somehow become an integral part of me, and that thought shook me to my core.

‘‘Mayling!’’

I slid off him, collapsing onto my stomach, the blanket beneath me cool on my fevered flesh.

‘‘Little bird, did I hurt you?’’

The hand that grasped my shoulder was human again, the fingers long and sensitive. I laid my cheek on the bed, clutching the blanket as my body shook with the aftereffects of both Gabriel’s attentions and my own realization.

I was me, May, created wholly formed, and independent of all, even those to whom I was bound. Even when I had accepted my role as Gabriel’s mate, when I had agreed that we were fated to be together, it never occurred to me that he would become necessary to the very act of living.

I had just survived a six-week separation from him. And yet I knew at that moment, knew without a shred of doubt, that quite simply I could not exist without him. It was a terrifying realization, one that left me feeling powerless and angry.

The hand on my shoulder slid away. ‘‘Did I frighten you?’’ Gabriel asked, his voice quieter, filled with emotion.

I turned my head to look at him. ‘‘Yes,’’ I answered.

Pain was visible in his eyes. ‘‘I’m sorry. I would not frighten you for the world, but I cannot control the shifting—’’

‘‘No,’’ I interrupted, sitting up. ‘‘It wasn’t that. You meant it, didn’t you?’’

He was silent for a moment, no doubt reading my thoughts. ‘‘Yes, I meant it. You are life to me, May.’’

‘‘But you told me you were born in the seventeen hundreds. How could you live for three hundred years without me?’’

He examined my face for a moment before leaning forward, his kiss so sweet it made me want to melt. ‘‘Before you, I merely existed. Now I will truly begin to live.’’

Chapter Five

‘‘Weh-hell, look what the cat dragged in.’’

I entered the dining room, determined to keep my face placid despite the fact that everyone in the house had probably heard Gabriel and me the night before. ‘‘Good morning.’’

Jim, demon in Newfoundland dog form, looked up from where it lay on the floor with a copy of a Paris newspaper, cocking one furry eyebrow at me as it examined me from toes to nose. ‘‘Wow. I would have thought you’d at least be walking funny or something after all that boink—’’