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corner in the place, not even the edges of the tiers, which were all beveled as smooth as the column and the altar. Issa was reminded of the eddies of air currents she would catch when she first learned to fly as a young dragon centuries before. The memory caused a pulse of the energy that made her ache. She needed to give the collected power to Kris, and soon. But first he had to let her touch him.
    Still ignoring her, Kris stepped carefully down the tiers into the center of the chamber, then stepped up onto the altar. The room grew brighter with a glow that emanated from every surface, particularly in the center where Kris stood. He crouched down, running his hands across the contours of the altar, which glowed a little brighter for a moment under his touch before fading out again.
    In the very center of the altar his hand circled around a deep, bowl-shaped impression, then slipped into it, drawing back fingers that glistened with clear, oily liquid. From the back of the room she caught the spicy aroma of concentrated dragon essence, potent enough to make her core heat up even more than the sight of Kris’s naked, crouching form.
    While Issa watched, the clench of his jaw tightened and he acquired the look of someone bracing himself for something unpleasant.
    “It won’t hurt,” she said gently, finally walking the rest of the way into the room and sitting on the edge of the altar a few feet from where he still crouched in the center.
    “It always hurts eventually.”
    “This time will be different. You watched all the others together. Did they look like they were in pain? I hold inside me a volume of what they felt. Let me give it to you so you can understand. Trust me, you will love it once it begins.” She tried to reach out to him again, but he moved away, sitting on one of the higher sections of the altar and watching her. This was going to be harder than she thought.
    “Alright,” she said and moved to the opposite side of the altar, reclining against another of the contoured backrests that faced the center. She kept her legs together, hands at her sides. “I don’t have to touch you. So why don’t you try to touch me first, instead?”
    “Issa. All I can think about is touching you. I just don’t know where to begin.”
    She nodded and reached into the well of essence in the center, drawing out a bit of it on her fingertips. “Start like this.” She raised her fingertips to one breast and traced a glistening circle around one nipple. The peak of flesh tingled and hardened under her touch.
    Kris slid toward her and knelt beside her a few inches away. His brows drew together and he clenched his fists. “It hurts even being this close. Doesn’t it hurt you, too?”
    “I feel heat, but the longer you stay this close, the nicer it feels. Have you never touched another?”
    “My teachers stayed far unless training demanded it. Then it was always… uncomfortable. The humans I lived with never tried to touch me. Sometimes I thought they might, but something always changed their minds without my even trying to tell them so.”
    Issa ached at the idea of the beautiful man never having felt the touch of a lover. His eyes seemed so expectant now, and so determined at the same time. She had the sense that he would do this even if it hurt him, and it might, but she would be here until it played out one way or the other. Whether she had to comfort him or fuck him were only two sides to the same coin for her.
    “Stay there.” She held her hand out, palm out halfway between them. “Place your hand against mine.”
    Kris raised one fist and slowly unfurled it, stretching his hand out flat in front of hers. His breathing quickened as he moved it closer and a sheen of sweat broke out on his upper lip. As his hand came incrementally closer to hers, her hand tingled with energy and a soft glow appeared in the gap between their palms. Issa sensed her well of energy seeking to escape into Kris, but without her release