And suddenly, his confidence faltered a second. How the hell would he convince her to leave everything she knew, abandon her family and friends, and come live with the dragon-shifters on PineRock? He mostly loved his clan, but it was remote. And humans weren't allowed to visit whenever they felt like it, either.
But it wasn't like he could live with her in the human world. All dragon-shifters were required to live on a clan somewhere in the US—the government needing to keep track of them. While he didn't always like that, it wasn't as if he would do something stupid, like try to pass as a human to live with Tori in her home.
Her home. How much did he really know about it? All he could recall was that she lived in North Las Vegas from her contract,
but nothing else about it. Sure, even the dragon-shifters knew about the casinos in Las Vegas proper, but he couldn't imagine his book-carrying female spending most of her time there.
While sex with his female was amazing, he needed more of her, to find out what she liked and didn't like.
Damn, he had some wooing to do, sort of like speed dating on crack, to get where he needed to be.
Victoria arched against him, and he felt the instant she woke up when she melted even further into his side. Despite the fact he'd lost count of how many times he'd had his mate over the last two weeks, her early morning voice stirred his cock from semihard to granite within seconds as she said, "Good morning. Is it Jose-Jose, or Mr. Dragon right now?"
He kissed her cheek. "Jose. My dragon is sleeping."
She glanced over at him. "Sleeping? Since when does he do that? Your beast barely allows me to sleep."
He turned her until Victoria was on her back. Caressing her cheek, he decided to be blunt and see how she reacted. Maybe not the most romantic way to go about it, but it would help him figure out how to move forward. "He's asleep because the frenzy's over." He moved his hand over her lower abdomen. "You’re carrying our baby."
She blinked the last of sleep from her eyes before they widened. "So I'm pregnant?"
A smile tugged his lips. "Either that or very, very good at hiding your own scent from a dragon-shifter. Which, I might add, would be something new."
She lightly hit his chest, and the playful gesture relaxed him a fraction. If she could be playful, she wasn't freaking out.
Victoria replied, "Aren't you supposed to be super nice to me now?"
He moved his hand up her body, lazily kneaded her breast, and finally ended by cupping her cheek. "Nice would be boring to a female who likes to mark with her nails."
She raised her brows. "Hey, I won't apologize for that. You asked for it."
He nipped her bottom lip. "I did, and don't ever stop doing it."
He waited to see if his hint of the future would make her nervous, hesitate, or some other negative sign.
However, she merely rolled into him and hitched her leg over his hip. "Then, Baby Daddy, I want to go back to sleep."
Jose could leave it at that, but that would be the coward's way out. So he tilted her head until she met his gaze. "Are you okay with it all? And yes, I know it was the whole point of the lottery, but there's a difference between words on a page and the real thing."
She smiled slowly. "You taught me that, didn't you?"
She was referring to the summary warning about dragon-shifters. Apparently, they needed to add "wild, growly, and delicious" to the description.
"I mean it, Tori. I'll have to call ADDA later today, and then reality sets in beyond this cabin."
Placing a hand on his chest, she lightly stroked her fingers, unaware of how each pass made him want to toss her back and take her all over again.
Seriously, he would never get enough of his female.
She finally spoke again. "As long as you don't ditch me as soon as we get to Clan PineRock, then I think I can face reality just fine."
"Don't even suggest I'd abandon you," he growled.
Though he wanted to say more—that he wanted her as his mate forever, and that it wouldn't take much more for him to fall in love with her.
But even Jose knew not to push too much too soon. That was another thing that had caused the other dragonman's mate to run and leave him in misery.
As if sensing his dragon stirring at her comment, she traced his jaw before leaning up to kiss him briefly. "Of course you won't." She smiled at him, the sight making his heart skip a beat. She added, "Although maybe we could take a shower together before you call ADDA? As much as I enjoyed the frenzy, it'd be nice to explore you slowly. With my tongue."