Mated to the Ocean Dragon (Elemental Mates 3)

Timothy took hold of her hand again, and Liana almost gasped when the electric tingle made the hair at the back of her neck stand up.

What is this?

She didn’t let go of his hand when he led her into the club. She didn’t think she could have, even if she’d wanted to. There was some weird force in place—almost like a magnet, drawing her to him.

Maybe it’s just because he’s hot and I haven’t had a date in ages. Maybe I’m coming down with a cold or running a fever or...

Whatever it was, walking into the club after him felt like a dream. She’d never liked these places before. She’d always felt as if everyone was staring at her and talking about her behind her back.

Right now, the club could have been empty and she wouldn’t have noticed.

All she could see was Timothy, his broad back moving smoothly beneath the silk. Her body pulsed with the throb of the bass. She felt the same kind of reckless dizziness she usually felt after a glass of wine—but she hadn’t had anything to drink today.

Inside, the club was packed. All around her, people were swaying to the music, only half visible in the flashes of light that lit the room.

Usually, she stuck close to her sister and gratefully scrambled into whatever table she’d reserved in a quiet alcove, offering to watch her friends’ purses until her sister finally grew impatient and dragged her off to dance.

Today, Liana couldn’t even say if her sister had entered the club before or after them. All she had eyes for was Timothy, who moved with the fluid grace of an athlete making his way through a crowded pool.

And then the music stopped for a heartbeat. A moment later, it returned with a new beat, and Liana found herself tightly drawn against Timothy.

Before she even knew it, her body was moving in time to the music. Dimly, she recognized the song

She raised her arms, singing along as a strange wave of euphoria rushed through her. She didn’t even mind that she was in the middle of the dance floor, all eyes on her, because right now Timothy was pressing himself against her. Every inch of his body was firm with muscle. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his powerful body effortlessly picking up her rhythm.

Heat flooded her body. All around them, people pressed in, but she’d already completely forgotten about her sister and her friends.

Even in the club’s darkness, Timothy’s eyes were still lit by that strange light—as if they were actual jewels. They shone like sapphires, the color of the ocean.

And she could smell the ocean on him. He smelled like clean water, like salt on wet skin and the wind coming in from the ocean, cool and fresh and wild.

They didn’t talk. Their bodies did the talking. For half an hour Liana found herself dancing with him, breathless and laughing and overwhelmed by that weird, wonderful feeling of being close to him.

She wasn’t a bad dancer—her body’d always effortlessly picked up on the rhythm, and she loved the feeling of losing herself in the music.

But she’d never had a partner like Timothy before. His body followed the swaying of hers as if they’d rehearsed it—or as if there was some magic at work that made them both move, pulling them this way and that.

In the flashes of light, he looked like an ancient warrior who’d come to life for her. The heat in his eyes seemed to intensify as he looked at her, his hands on her back as she raised her arms around his neck, the slinky, golden shirt showing off all of her gyrating curves.

She’d never before felt as sexy as she felt right now. Usually it took a drink to give her the courage to dance with a stranger. But if Timothy looked like an ancient warrior, the way he looked at her made her feel like a goddess.

As long as he looked at her with that heat in his eyes, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought of her dance moves right now.

At last, when the bass changed to a slower, low throb, he pressed close enough to speak into her ear over the music.

“Want to sit down and get a drink?”

His skin was hot and damp with perspiration. Liana trembled at the way he felt pressed against her like that. Beneath the clean, cool scent of fresh water, she could make out a hint of virile musk now, and that sent another wave of heat rushing through her.

She nodded breathlessly, not trusting herself to speak.

A moment later, his hand on her back steered her to a miraculously free alcove. It must have been reserved for him, because there was already a bottle of champagne waiting for him—the real, expensive stuff, Liana saw with wide eyes as she settled down.

Across the dance floor, she could see her sister give her a thumbs-up, and she felt her face heat.

This sort of thing never happened to her. When her sister got her a date, the guy would usually be nice enough to get her a drink and dance for a while—but no one had ever looked at her the way Timothy did. No one had ever moved like him, as if his body knew her moves before she even knew herself.

Of course, most guys fled as soon as Liana opened her mouth afterward and outed herself as a big, embarrassing geek.