Before she could think about what he might do later with the aforementioned parts, the dragonman’s voice snapped her back to the present. “Right, lass, then let’s go.”
~~~
As they entered the great hall, Bram resisted the urge to haul Evie tightly against his side and growl at the other males looking their way. It might be early yet for the dinner, but there were already ten or twenty clan members inside.
And too many of them were single dragonmen.
His dragon didn’t help matters by roaring inside his head. We should not be here. We should be home with our female. The others are thinking of ways to steal her.
Stop being daft. They are just curious.
No. Look at the lust in their eyes.
Bram tried to push his dragon aside, but the beast resisted and roared again. No. You will not protect her. I must do it.
Of course I’ll protect her. We must be here for a few hours. It’s for the future of the clan. Don’t you want to protect them?
His dragon fell silent. Protecting the clan and their young was one of the few things that could rival protecting a mate in a dragon’s list of priorities.
His inner beast’s voice was sullen when he replied, Don’t let the Scottish leader touch her.
I’ll try my best.
His dragon somewhat pacified, he scanned the room until he found Kai on the side with Mel and Samira. Once the Protector gave him a nod that all was well, Bram led Evie up to the front of the room where the dais for him and Finn was located. A quick glance told him Finn was still off to the side talking with Arabella. Or, rather, flirting with Arabella. He couldn’t tell if Ara was distressed or not, but before he could act, Evie’s voice broke his thoughts.
“It looks like Finn has met his match.”
He glanced to Evie, who was smiling. “Arabella looks irritated to me.”
“There’s a fine line between irritation and enjoyment. Personally, I think they’re hitting it off, which is strange given what I’ve heard about Arabella MacLeod.”
He motioned with his head for them to take a seat at the table. Evie unfastened her cloak, slipped it off, and Bram’s jaw fell open.
The dark blue material of her dress not only made her skin glow, it hugged her breasts before cascading over her round stomach until it brushed the floor; the tease of curves and skin made him hard.
Since it was only fastened over one shoulder—for easy access for a dragon-shifter to change forms—one of her pale shoulders was bare. In that instant, he wanted to lick every inch of visible skin. The precious time from earlier hadn’t been enough to sate his desires. Not even close.
Evie raised one dark red eyebrow. “What? It’s a dress. You’ve seen me with less.”
He stepped close and took a deep inhalation of her scent. “Yes, but you’re wearing the traditional dress of my kind and it’s one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen.”
His female frowned. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just some blue material. Believe me, you haven’t seen sexy yet.”
With another step, he whispered against her cheek, “Maybe I should add that as a condition to our mating—you need to dress in your sexiest clothing for our post-mating ceremony night.”
He could hear her thundering heartbeat and smell her arousal. Good. She could suffer just as much as he. If Bram wasn’t careful, everyone in the room would know he had a hard-on.
Evie brushed a hand against his chest. “We’ll see if you earn that as a reward or not.”
He smiled. “You are a conquest I’m going to enjoy very, very much, Evie Marshall.”
Before she could reply, he turned them toward the table and gently pushed her toward their chairs. As much as he enjoyed standing close to his mate-to-be and teasing her, he needed to sit down to hide his hard cock. For the next few hours, he would think of his clan and not a naked Evie under him as he pounded into her tight, wet pussy.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he sat down and placed a hand on Evie’s thigh under the table. The contact reassured both man and beast of how she was safe. Before he could stop himself, he squeezed her plump flesh.
Mine, his dragon said.
Ignoring him, Bram decided conversation would help drown out his inner beast’s demands and he switched back to a safer topic. “Arabella’s had a difficult time getting past her trauma from a decade ago, but ever since Melanie forced her way into Arabella’s life, she’s been doing better. Her biggest struggle is accepting her inner dragon. But, to be honest, she was more at ease with Finlay Stewart earlier than she is with most of the members of our clan.”