Dragon Reunion (Dragon Hearts 8)

by Carole Mortimer

  “I’m Carys’s protector,” Maddox grated. “The only protector she needs or will ever need.”

  Garrett held up his hands. “I don’t have any wish to harm her. She’s your mate, I accept that, but—”

  “My mate?” Maddox repeated incredulously.

  The other man drew a deep breath. “I don’t have permission to explain any of this to you until tomorrow, once our other brothers have returned home. But I promise you, we’ll tell you everything then and let you make up your own mind.”

  “About what?”

  Garrett grimaced. “Whether or not you and Carys want to remain here with us once you’re…together.”

  Maddox gave a humorless laugh. “And why the hell would we want to do that?”

  Garrett shook his head. “I’m obviously not explaining this very well, and the rest of it, I’m not allowed to divulge.”

  “Why not?” Maddox scorned. “I realize you and your brothers are close, but this is ridiculous.”

  “Oh, we’re much more than close,” Garrett assured him. “You just need to accept that, for now, it’s safer for Carys if the two of you remain apart.”

  Maddox drew himself up to his full height. “I would never do anything to harm her.”

  “Not intentionally, no—”

  “I think what my husband is trying to say, and not very successfully—Harry is fast asleep,” the blond-haired and still fully dressed Billie Pendragon assured her husband as she gave him a brief kiss on the lips. “We all know you don’t want to hurt Carys, Maddox, but you might do so without meaning to.”

  “I think I preferred your husband’s pathetic attempts to keep Carys and me apart,” Maddox scoffed.

  Garrett stepped forward until the two men were almost touching. “No one talks to my wife like that,” he grated. “Goddess, I am so going to enjoy beating you to a pulp once we have all this settled.”

  Maddox didn’t back down by so much as an inch. “Why wait?”

  “Because—”

  “Could you keep the noise down?” Bryn came out of a bedroom farther down the hallway. “Aoife is teething and very restless tonight without all the noise out here to disturb her even more.”

  “Well, if you would all just accept that Carys and I are both grown adults.” Maddox took a gentle hold of her arm and pulled her to his side. “You could then go away and leave us to decide for ourselves what we want to do with the rest of the night.”

  “He does have a point,” Tegan murmured as she joined them in the hallway, the sounds of a fretful baby coming from the bedroom behind her.

  “They don’t have all the facts,” Chloe, Nathaniel’s wife and another beautiful redhead Maddox had met at dinner, now stood beside her husband at the opposite end of the hallway.

  “I think it’s a little late for that, don’t you?” Tegan reasoned. “According to Holly, the two of them already exchanged saliva when they kissed earlier.”

  “Ew!” Carys was a little tired of being excluded from a conversation that should have included her because it was about her. “And would someone mind telling me what you’re all talking about?”

  Maddox scowled his displeasure. “You need to put some clothes on before you do anything else.”

  Carys glanced down at the white silk nightgown. It was a sheer material and did very little to hide her slender curves, but it wasn’t see-through. “I’m fine,” she dismissed. “I’m more interested in knowing what’s happening here.”

  “Tomorrow,” Nathaniel promised. “Now could everyone please return to their suites or bedrooms so we can all get some sleep?”

  “Do you think that’s going to be possible for Maddox and Carys?” Chloe frowned. “Remember how we couldn’t keep our hands off each other when we first met?”

  Her husband grinned. “We still can’t.”

  “And how you would probably have killed anyone who so much as looked at me?” his wife persisted.

  A frown creased his brow. “Oh yes.”

  “Remember too how much I burned for you when we were apart?”

  “Fuck,” Nathaniel muttered his irritation with the obvious truth of that statement.

  Carys knew, after working here for several weeks, that all the Pendragon marriages were extremely close and obviously deeply passionate. It didn’t seem to matter that all the couples now had kids they adored. The desire of each of the married couples for each other burned as hot and strong as it ever had.

  Nathaniel having wanted to kill any other man who so much as looked at Chloe seemed a little extreme, though.

  Chloe studied Maddox and Carys from between narrowed lids. “If the two of you make love this evening, that’s it. There will be no one else for either of you, ever. Do you understand and accept the consequences of that?”

  Carys had no idea what the other woman was talking about. All she knew for certain was that she wanted to be with Maddox. Tonight and every other night. That she needed to be with him just so she could breathe properly again.

  She looked at Maddox. “I accept.”

  “I think you’re all slightly unhinged,” he snapped disgustedly, his expression softening when he turned to Carys. “But I accept too.”

  “Fine,” Nathaniel sighed. “I’m pretty sure there’s nothing we can do to stop this happening at this point anyway.”

  “I’m pretty sure I don’t give a fuck what you think,” Maddox bit out harshly. “Carys is mine, damn it.”

  “Could you stop and take a good look at yourself for a moment, Maddox?” Nathaniel encouraged softly.

  “Why?”

  “To consider whether or not you’re usually this much of an unreasonable caveman?” the other man taunted.

  Maddox’s eyes narrowed. “You know, I haven’t known you as long, but I’ve decided I don’t like you any more than I do Grigor.”

  Nathaniel grinned. “Do I look as if I care? We might be related by a…an ancestor from your distant past, but that doesn’t make you any less of an insufferable arsehole.”

  Maddox returned that grin. “Takes one to know one, comes to mind.”

  Carys frowned. “When you’ve quite finished insulting my employers…?”

  Maddox put his arm possessively about her waist and drew her against his side. “You’ll no longer be working for them after tonight.”

  She shrugged. “I’m only here temporarily anyway. My mother is the one who works here full-time.”

  “Your mother doesn’t need to work for them anymore either, if she doesn’t want to,” he assured. “I’m wealthy enough that none of your family need ever work again.” Least of all for the arrogant Pendragon family, the scathing dryness of his tone implied.

  Carys winced. “I very much doubt my parents and brothers are going to agree to that. Any more than I am.” She straightened her spine. “It may not look like it right now, but I’m a fully adult and independent woman, Maddox. Perhaps the Pendragons are right, and we should talk about this again in the morning—”

  “No! I’m sorry,” Maddox soothed in a calmer voice when Carys’s eyes widened at his aggression. “Whatever you want to do, I’ll abide by that decision. Okay?” he cajoled.

  Carys didn’t know what she wanted. Well…she did. She wanted Maddox. Needed him in a way she had never wanted any man before.

  It was unsettling, to say the least, how much she wanted him when she had only just met him.

  She sensed there was something weird underlying this whole situation.

  That initial meeting with Maddox.

  Her heated reaction to him.

  The Pendragons’ reaction to meeting him, even if they did think he was related to them by some long-lost relative.

  The Pendragon family had owned and lived in this castle in North Wales for centuries. They were rarely talked about and seen even less.

  Carys knew a little more about the current family than most because of agreeing to take her mother’s place as housekeeper for three months. But if she thought about it, her mother n
ever came home and talked about her employers. The people in the village didn’t either.

  There had been a rumor a couple of years ago that the brothers currently in residence were involved in bringing illegal guns or drugs into the country by helicopters late at night. But that rumor had been started by the curious questions of a lone reporter. That reporter had been Chloe Evans—no relation—and she was now married to Nathaniel.

  Carys had never thought about it before now, but this lack of knowledge about the Pendragon family was as odd as her unprecedented reaction to Maddox Wilder.

  Which helped make her decision. “I think we should all talk again in the morning.”

  Maddox was barely able to suppress his growl of disappointment as Carys moved away from the protection of his arm about her waist.

  The mere thought of all those hours until morning spent apart from Carys was enough to send him into one of those same uncontrollable rages before “the voice” had helped him to control them.

  A voice that had remained strangely silent all evening.

  “Okay,” he accepted. “But Garrett doesn’t get to stand outside Carys’s bedroom all night.” He glared at the other man.

  “I trust you aren’t implying anything…untoward regarding my husband’s behavior, Mr. Wilder?” Billie Pendragon rebuked sternly before suddenly bursting out laughing. “Goddess, you should see your face!” She held on to her husband’s arm for support as she continued to chuckle.

  Maddox gave a shake of his head, having now concluded this whole bloody family was insane. “Why do you all say Goddess instead of God, like normal people?”

  “Because we aren’t normal or people,” Nathaniel instantly dismissed.

  “I already gathered that,” he drawled. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

  “No, I didn’t, did I,” Nathaniel acknowledged with the obvious intention of not doing so now either.

  Maddox flung up his hands in disgust. “I just want to get the hell away from here and all of you.” His gaze encompassed all the Pendragon family who were gathered in the hallway.

  “But not without Carys,” Bryn guessed.

  His eyes narrowed. “No, not without Carys.” Much as he wanted to leave Pendragon Castle, he wasn’t going anywhere without her.

  Nathaniel nodded. “Then we’re back to the plan of all retreating to our bedrooms and waiting until tomorrow to explain this situation.”

  “And Carys?”

  “I’ll stand guard out here in the hallway until baby Harry needs his middle-of-the-night feed,” Billie offered. “And in case you were wondering.” Humor glinted in her eyes when she glanced at Maddox. “The person I’m protecting her from is you.”

  Chapter Eight

  By the time daylight started to appear, Carys was both exhausted and yet filled with a burning energy that wouldn’t allow her to rest.

  Her desire for Maddox, his touch, his lips, his body, had grown so intense during the night, she literally felt as if liquid fire were coursing through her veins.

  She became so hot, she’d had to throw off even the light nightgown during the night and take a cold shower. Within minutes of taking that shower, sweat had glistened on skin that was hypersensitive to the slightest touch.

  Her nipples ached for Maddox to lick and suck them.

  Between her thighs became so wet with the release of her juices, she’d had to lie down on the bed and pleasure herself to release.

  Several times.

  It hadn’t helped.

  Nothing did.

  Not the self-pleasuring or the cold showers she had taken in between them.

  Worse, several times during the night, she’d heard the growling of what sounded like a wild animal in pain, and instinctively known it was Maddox. That he was aching to be with her as much as she hungered for him.

  By six thirty in the morning, Carys had had enough of the intense sexual arousal and the unbearable heat that wouldn’t allow her to rest. Most of all, she was tired of not being with Maddox. Yes, it had been her decision for them to stay apart, because she was finding all that intensity overwhelming, but she couldn’t bear being apart from Maddox for another moment longer.

  Freshly showered and dressed, she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

  “Good morning,” Holly greeted her brightly as she rose from the chair she had been sitting in. “Dylan thought I would be more comfortable sitting after Billie had to go feed Harry at three o’clock and I took over out here.” Billie and Garrett’s son was only two months old.

  Carys’s gaze lowered. Holly was one of the nicest women she had ever met, and it was more than a little awkward to realize the other woman could have heard some of the noises Carys had made while caught up in her self-pleasuring during the long hours of the night.

  Holly placed a reassuring hand on Carys’s arm. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m a doctor, remember? Speaking of which,” she continued briskly. “Maddox is still proving very stubborn about giving us some of his blood to test. Maybe you’re feeling more obliging?” Her expression was hopeful.

  Carys frowned her confusion. “I don’t see how my giving you some blood will help you to know whether or not Maddox is distantly related to your husband and his brothers.”

  “Trust me.” Holly squeezed her arm. “It will help.”

  She grimaced at the delay. “I was just on my way to see Maddox.”

  “I believe he’s up in the gym with Grigor and Nathaniel.”

  Her eyes widened in alarm. “Both of them?”

  Holly nodded. “Maddox couldn’t sleep, and I believe they’re taking it in turns to keep him occupied.”

  “Will he survive it?”

  “They all will.” Holly chuckled as she linked her arm with Carys’s. “I’m pretty sure a couple of pieces of gym equipment have been destroyed, but the last I heard, none of the men have been injured.”

  Carys wasn’t convinced. “Can I go see him?”

  “If I can take some blood first and a saliva swab?” Holly encouraged.

  She sighed her impatience. “Fine.” She would agree to anything if she could be with Maddox afterward.

  It didn’t take long for Holly to take a couple of vials of Carys’s blood and the swab from her mouth, by which time Dylan had joined them in the laboratory he and Holly shared on the ground floor. Quite how he had known the two women were in there, Carys had no idea. Nor did she wish to know. She wanted, needed, to be with Maddox. A part of her instinctively knew just being in the same room as him would help ease some of this fire consuming and tearing her body apart.

  Holly handed the filled vials to her husband before turning to Carys. “I’ll take you up to the gym while Dylan does the necessary tests.”

  “There’s no need.” Carys shook her head. “I know where it is, after all.” There wasn’t too much cleaning involved with the gym, but she did run the vacuum cleaner over the floor occasionally and flicked a feather duster around to ensure there were no spiders’ webs forming on the equipment or in the corners of the stone-walled room.

  Holly smiled warmly. “I’ll come with you anyway.”

  Carys was too eager to see Maddox again to bother arguing. Instead, she left the lab and ran lightly up the stairs. The closer she got to the third floor where the gym was, the more the heat surged and churned through her veins.

  By the time she entered the gym, her breathing was erratic and her heart pounding, and neither had anything to do with almost running up the staircases.

  Carys forgot about the woman who had accompanied as her panicked gaze instantly homed in on the floor mat in the center of the room where the brothers often sparred against each other for hours. Two of those brothers, Nathaniel and Grigor, their bare chests glistening, dark sweats resting low on their hips and their feet bare, towered over another figure lying on the padded mat. The third man, who wore similar clothing, was unmoving.

  Carys breathed noisily as she hurried to Maddox’s side. “What have you done t
o him?” she accused the two brothers as she knelt beside Maddox, her hand hovering in the air as she almost but didn’t quite touch him. He had dark smudges beneath his eyes, his cheekbones were more prominent, and lines of strain showed beside his eyes and mouth.

  “He isn’t hurt. He’s merely exhausted himself into unconsciousness,” Nathaniel assured.

  She gave a skeptical snort. “That isn’t surprising when there are two of you against one!” As far as Carys could see, there were no visible injuries on any of the men’s faces or chests. Closer inspection revealed none of them had so much as a scraped knuckle.

  “Believe me, he gave as good as he got,” Grigor drawled. “Surprisingly so.” He frowned as he looked down at the unconscious man lying at his feet.

  Carys frowned. “Could the two of you carry him to his bedroom and then leave us alone together?”

  “We can, but I’m not sure we should,” Grigor replied cautiously.

  Carys narrowed her eyes at him. “Last time, out of politeness, I asked. This time, I’m telling you to carry Maddox to his bedroom.”

  Nathaniel and Grigor exchanged a glance before the green-eyed Nathaniel spoke for the first time. “Billie is right. It’s already too late to stop this.”

  Grigor breathed out a long sigh. “Doesn’t mean we should just let it happen.”

  Nathaniel shrugged. “As I said earlier, I very much doubt we’ll be able to stop it once Maddox regains consciousness and sees Carys again.”

  The two men bent down without speaking, one of them taking a firm grip of Maddox’s wide shoulders and the other his legs before they easily lifted him and carried him out of the room and down to a bedroom on the second floor.

  Carys waited until they had placed Maddox on top of the bed before sitting beside him and finally giving in to the temptation to touch him. His shoulder felt hot beneath her hand, just that gentle touch succeeding in sending an electric current surging along the length of her arm.

  Her light touch also seemed to be enough to rouse Maddox as he raised heavy lids to reveal those beautiful green-gold-blue eyes.

  A gaze that instantly became fixated on Carys. “Mine,” he growled.