Dazzled: Reckless Desires - final ARC by J.K. Harper

surprise him. Swallowing another groan, he lightly held her face with both hands as he allowed himself to feast upon her mouth.
    Lacey tasted exactly how he imagined. Only better.
    Running one hand down to the small of her back, keeping the other curled behind her head, he pressed her close to him. The lush promise of her body that had been teasing him was even more sumptuous than he had dreamed during many restless nights of imagining her softness beneath him. Murmuring against her lips, he let the curve of his fingers drop down a little farther to touch the soft roundness of her delicious ass.
    Lacey gasped against his mouth in surprise, but she didn't pull away. Instead, she pressed closer to him, pushing her hips against him in a way that caused his vision to darken with intense desire.
    "Like this so far?" His dragon rumbled through his voice, lending a fiery edge to it.
    She nodded against him. The tiny, breathless little moans he could feel dropping from her lips into his mouth excited him even more.
    "Good. I don't think I could've waited another minute." Sebastian let his tongue explored Lacey's mouth, the intense heat and openness with which she welcomed him getting him harder than solid oak.
    She murmured something unintelligible against his lips, but he thought it was Me, either.
    The world faded away into a soft black explosion of velvet, punctuated with shooting stars, engulfed as he was in the soft, warm feel of Lacey's curves beneath his hands. Her lush body pressed against his with as much if not more fervent desire.
    Mid-kiss, the craziest vision of him flying as his dragon while Lacey rode fearlessly on his back, laughing with sheer joy, shot through his mind. It startled him so much he broke their contact, pulling back and opening his eyes to look at her. Her eyelashes fluttered open, her plush mouth a darker red from where his lips had been tenderly yet firmly savaging hers.
    That was a careless moment of confusion. Although he fully intended to have Lacey, she would never know about his dragon side. That was something he would never trust to tell her. To cover up his momentary confusion, he said the first thing that popped into his head, aching and raw in its indisputably sensuous desire.
    "There will be more of this, I promise.” His voice was raw. Slightly ragged from kissing her, his breath still coming fast. “You will want to feel my touch, Lacey. My fingers on your skin. Stroking, traveling along your body, dipping into every curve and rounding over every soft swell. And you won't want me to stop.”
    She swallowed hard, her eyes shadowing into a blue so dark they seemed almost purple. Just as she opened her mouth to reply, the sound of a small group of people tumbling out into the courtyard made her retreat away from him.
    Silently Sebastian swore. He reached for her, but the fragile, exhilarating moment had been shattered.
    “I—we can't,” she said, taking a step back. Her fingers lifted up to her lips, feeling them as if they still burned. A deep breath. Another step back.
    Damn it all.
    Lacey shook her head. Her chest was heaving, and he knew, he knew she felt the undeniable attraction between them, but her professional walls were well up again. “I have to get back inside,” she finally said. She looked at him for a long moment before she wrenched her gaze away.
    It took every ounce of self-control Sebastian had not to reach out and stop her as she left.
     

Chapter Nine
     
    When the alarm buzzed on her phone, Lacey pushed her chair back from the desk, stretched her arms over her head, and luxuriated in a back-cracking stretch. She was working on an article about the exhibit. Since naturally the topic interested her intensely, she sometimes could find herself looking up a few hours later, stiff from sitting in the same position for so long. She'd learned back in grad school to set timers to make sure she got up every hour to move around a little bit and hopefully not drop dead of a