Liana could not believe the way his kiss made her feel. Electrical jolts sprouted from her lips and rocketed down her body. They sat in her core and warmed her until she felt a hot dampness across her legs. Never before had she experienced anything like this with another man. It made her tighten her fist in his hair, made her reach for his shirt.
Before she could rip the cloth away, his hand snatched her wrist. Dane broke away from the kiss, sudden and unexpected. Both of them were breathing hard. Liana lay back, dazed and utterly confused.
“You want truth?” Dane asked as he stared at her chest. His hands moved to cup her ribcage, the sheer size of them making her feel like a fragile bird in his hands. His thumbs grazed the curve beneath her breasts, distracting her.
“I want…” Liana struggled to catch her breath and set her mind straight again. “I want to feel like your equal.”
She knew it was a ludicrous request. He was a leader. She was a lower ranking dragon in her own family. It didn’t matter what kind of label was slapped on her because of this new embassy, Liana was not his equal. Why she’d just asked to be one as beyond her.
Yet, Dane smiled as he lowered his face into her chest. He sucked in a deep breath of her scent and she had to resist the urge to arch into the touch of his nose against her breastbone.
“You will always be my equal, Liana Taniff. There was never a day in which you were not meant to be my equal.”
Something clicked in her mind, but she was too addled by his touch to see it clearly. What was going on? What was he trying to tell her?
Dane pulled back to look her in the eye. The connection sent the pieces into place lightning fast and Liana found herself scrambling away from him. She pulled away until her back was against the headboard.
Mate, her heart screamed. The monster purred the word. She was bombarded by the realization from every direction. Why hadn’t she seen it sooner? If she had, she could have begged to stay in Wales. She could have put distance between herself and this man until she was ready. She could have stayed away forever, an ocean between them.
Her head fell back against the headboard, eyes on the ceiling as she tried to get herself under control. The wood behind her head was starting to singe and smoke with her anger. She wasn’t as mad at Dane for keeping the secret as she was at the universe for forcing this upon her now, or at all.
How could she stand strong when she stood to lose half of herself now? She worried that even less belonged to her now that Miri was thrust into their lives. From the fear that gripped Dane all afternoon, she had guessed the child’s parents were long gone from this world, leaving Miri with no one but them.
Her heart clenched. Why couldn’t she have lived alone? Why did she have to live with this? Every day would be a trial, waiting for the universe to rip away a part of her.
It was no wonder Dane had so much to fear. The dragon leader had known. He hadn’t fought the bond or the arrival of Miri. Like the mismatched family he commanded, he’d accepted Liana and Miri as another fact of life. Welcomed them, even, she thought.
Finally, she brought her eyes back down to meet his. He waited, patient, expectant, and concerned. Dane was a strong man, one who understood a bit of what she’d gone through. She suspected he’d gone through something similar, but had let the dragons around him chip away at his walls until he was no longer safely guarded behind them.
It was stupid, she thought, to let them do that.
“Talk to me,” Dane asked, his voice hoarse with the need he’d felt moments ago.
Liana’s own body betrayed her and mimicked the feeling. The air smelled of their mixed scents and she felt her body begin to warm again.
She shook her head, against his words, against the urges of her body.
“If I am your mate, then I need the truth,” she said, meeting his gaze with her own, glassy eyes. “Tell me what is happening so that we can fight it together.”
Dane nodded, but didn’t say anything as his hands moved of their own accord. They reached for her and gently pulled her back into his embrace. She should have fought him, should have tried to keep her distance so that her heart would remain shielded. Yet, she gave in to his touch, to his presence.
A long moment passed, where Dane caressed her ribs with his thumbs while he thought. Liana suspected he might lie or subvert the conversation, but he finally gave in. There was only one caveat.
“If I am to confess these things to you, then I want you to try to break down the walls you hide behind. You live in your own little world, afraid of letting anyone in, afraid of letting anyone see you as anything but strong. Those walls need to go down.”
Her brows crashed together as anger roiled through her. The heat rolling off her must have brought sweat to his skin, but he didn’t move from where he held her. How could he ask this of her? How could he ask her to allow pain and torment into her life? There was no way to survive this world if you were not strong. She’d learned that the hard way.
“Being alone does not make you strong,” Dane whispered into the dark of the room. His hand moved to cup the bottom of her breast as though he could not help himself when he was so close, when he was already touching her. “It makes you alone, makes it so that you must fend for yourself and yourself alone. It makes you cold.
“Allowing people into your life, your heart, helps you to become stronger because you have people who are willing to help you. They hold you when your world becomes unbearable, they make you smile and laugh. They stand beside you when the world threatens to take away all that you love.”
Liana’s lips pressed together and she shook her head. “Then why won’t you let me stand beside you? Why won’t you tell anyone what is happening?”
Dane sighed. His warm breath washed over her body, gentle and enough to put out the flame burning inside her.
“Because I have the same fears…” There was a long pause while he relived something long past. She reached up and touched the sides of his face with gentle hands, bringing him back to her. It was such a simple gesture, but she was in amazement at how easily it worked.
“I will tell you a story, then.” Dane rolled away from her so that his weight was no longer pressing down on her. Instead, he laid so that he could curl his body around hers, a shield against the memory as if it might return to attack while they were vulnerable. “I did not grow up here in the American Territory. When I was a dragonling, I could only dream about what life would be like in a sanctuary like this. My family moved around, travelling the countryside…”
“They were the raiding dragons,” Liana whispered into the darkness.
He nodded, the movement felt against her back. Her mate, the man who held a part of her heart in his hands already, had been a raider. It hurt to hear that, but she reminded herself of the person he was now. Liana forced away the images of the crumbled buildings and burnt barns, to focus on the man that lay behind her.
“There was no public dragon family in America yet. We took what we could to survive, because our kind weren’t allowed to take jobs, weren’t allowed to buy homes. I wasn’t as young as Miri, so I don’t have the excuse of innocence that she has.”
“You did what you had to do to survive,” Liana echoed his words. The States had not changed much for Dane and his kind, not in his lifetime. He’d had to forge a new life for his people.
“I must have been in my early twenties when another dragon attacked us. My parents were getting ready to move on, having just raided a number of houses for food and cash. My father did it for the thrill and brought me along like it was a trade to be passed from father to son.
“The other dragon was older. At the time, he seemed ancient and unstoppable. One eye was an empty socket of shadows when he struck my father. It happened so fast. One moment, my father stood before me in his human form and the next there was a dragon atop him. He used one massive claw to pin me to the ground while he ripped my father apart.
“I didn’t even try to fight back. At least, no
t until he turned on my mother. She was just a human woman. Not the best woman, considering how well she fit with my father, but she was my mother all the same. She didn’t stand a chance when the one-eyed dragon attacked her, too.”
Liana trembled in his arms. Not from fear, but from anger. She hadn’t even been born when this happened, but she felt the rage all the same. She wished she could have helped him, could have avenged him.
“The one-eyed dragon left me alive. He dropped his dragon form to tell me that I had a choice. I could die that day, or I could become the kind of man the world needed and live a long life. Stupid, young me attacked him. I should have scars from how he left me, but he left me alive. I was left there, surrounded by the pieces of my family while I healed. It gave me a long time to think, to gather hate around me.
“After that, I spent years hunting him. I had convinced myself I could take him on, until I came across a pair of teenagers lost and fumbling through the world with no one to look after them. They were stealing from convenience stores just to stay alive. There was my chance, I thought, to become the kind of man the world needed. The one-eyed dragon’s words made sense, no matter how much I hated him for it.”
“Let me guess, you found the twins?”
Dane laughed. His breath was a gentle tickle across her bare shoulder. “Believe it or not, when I first approached them they attacked me. I was invading on their territory, you see. Damn near got bested by a pair of half-starved children.”
“I see how well they’ve channeled that energy elsewhere.”
“Oh, yes. At first, I managed to channel it into this cabin. They helped me put it together, just a one floor building at that time. Once they grew older and we brought Isaac into the family, they decided to invest in the monstrosity across from us.”
Us. As though she’d already agreed to let him in, agreed to stay here and love him. The thought made her squirm in his arms. Could she? Could Liana be brave enough to let another into her heart despite the effects loss might have?
Because it wasn’t a matter of strength in this case. No, Maggie was still strong, despite feeling like half a person. The mate of her last leader carried on in order to mold her future into the peace she wanted to see. She carried on with her head held high and determination in her very bones.
It was a matter of bravery, Liana realized. Was she brave enough to bear that kind of pain should she lose Dane? Little Miri already wormed her way into Liana’s heart. In her mind, images of the tiny child being trapped in Dane’s situation made her chest rumble with a growl.
Never had she once believed she would be the mate of a dragon strong enough to lead a family of dragons. Dane led them, not by the ties of blood, but by their oath of loyalty, a much more fragile thing. She’d seen how he reacted to the idea of one of his own being hurt. He cared deeply for each and every one of them.
“Tell me about your element,” Liana said, because she’d never seen anything like it before - because she wasn’t ready to face the truth of their bond just yet. “I saw the smoke, but I don’t know what it means.”
Dane nuzzled her back, taking in the scent of her while he still had the chance. “I can’t tell you where it comes from or what family it’s a part of. My father wasn’t big on lineage and my mother was a human. All I know is that it doesn’t seem half as harmful as dragon fire. Not at first. The smoke is a kind of gas. In small doses, it can knock someone out or render them lethargic. In larger doses, it can be lethal. I hate using it, but it does come in handy.”
It was such a strange element to belong to a dragon, but he was right. If used properly, it was perhaps the most useful element. It could diffuse a deadly situation without ending in violence. It could be what helped him remain in charge of this massive family of dragons.
Dane was a rare man, a rare dragon. He was a fair and loving leader who cared about everyone, even the people outside his claim. Was it so bad to be the mate of such a good man? It was if she lost him.
Liana twisted in Dane’s arms until they were face to face. Her hands moved along his body, searching past the hard planes of his chest until she reached the waistband of his jeans. They popped open and a soft growl emanated from him. His hands gripped her hips and he jerked her into the growing bulge in his pants.
Bravery was not something she’d often thought about. There was blind bravery, the kind she’d been putting on every day as if in challenge of the universe, and then there was the kind of bravery it took to open your heart. What kind of a life was she living if she never opened her heart to anyone? That kind of loneliness and anger at the world could very much twist her into something like the one-eyed dragon Dane spoke of.
So, she pulled her shirt over her head and laid herself bare before him. She was surprised to find that she was not scared. Actually, there was a small bit of hope fluttering inside her chest, a feeling she might have mistaken for anticipation if she had not met his gaze through the dark. The look was echoed in his eyes as he smiled wide and reached to cup her face in his hands. She placed a hand against his chest and gently pushed him back so that she hovered over him.
The kiss he gave her was soft at first, it buzzed with hesitant energy while he waited for the question to be answered. Liana answered by parting her lips wider and inviting him in. She answered by reaching between them to free his cock from his pants.
He was wider, longer than she expected. Her stomach gave a small flip. Could she handle all of that?
Liana broke from their kiss. Dane growled and reached for her to pull her back, but she was quick. She ducked out of his reach with an airy laugh and moved lower. Now, she could get a good view of his cock, the length of it needing more than one hand to hold, and see his gaze on her at the same time. His eyes were hazy with need as he gripped the bedding beneath him.
She smirked, barely giving him notice, before she lowered her lips to his inner thigh. Men always wanted to mark women where the world would see, where the world would know. Liana pulled a bit of the soft flesh into her mouth and flicked it with her tongue while she worked the long shaft in her hand.
There was already a bead of moisture on the tip of his cock. How long had it been since he’d lain with a woman? Had he been guarding his heart against the pain of love, too?
Liana pulled away from the soft skin and began trailing feather light kisses up his thigh until she reached the V of his groin. She looked up from where her mouth lingered over his skin. He was barely holding on, eyes half lidded as he looked down at her like he might snatch her up and flip her over. She smiled, the one she usually saved for prey.
In a way, he was prey tonight. She would have her way with him, torment him until there was nothing else on his mind other than her. It was the least she could do for the man who’d driven with her while she was afraid to fly.
Her lips led her up to his belly button, so that his cock rested between her breasts. She could tell from the tremble in his body that he was fighting the urge to take her. She was impressed with his control. It must have come with the job. Liana laid another trail of feather light kisses down the other side of his abdomen, toward the soft skin of his other thigh. There, she licked and teased the skin until she’d left her mark.
There would be no other woman who would look at him. Her scent was all over him, all over his groin, along with her mark. Satisfied, Liana shimmied out of her jeans. Without the thick layer of cloth, her scent blossomed in the air and Dane could no longer restrain himself.
With a soft growl, he reached down for her hips and rolled them over so that he was on top. Liana thought he would plunge home inside of her, thankful that she’d taken to using her diaphragm, but a familiar look crossed his face. It was playful and promised pleasure. She should know, she’d worn it only moments ago. A jolt of anticipation hit her in the stomach, making her body tight.
His head dipped down and a tongue flicked the folds of her womanhood. She cried out with surprise, her hand reaching down for his hair. His tongue touched place
s that hadn’t been touched in a while. Why she’d worn the diaphragm was beyond her. Maybe, deep down she’d known and it had only been a matter of time before she fell into bed with him.
All that was struck from her mind as his tongue plunged deeper. It lapped in long strokes that hit every nerve on the way. She saw fireworks behind her eyes, explosions that danced in her abdomen. Dane laughed with pride, the sound sending vibrations of pleasure through her core.
“I’m going to make sure I do this at least once a week. Maybe a few times a week.” Dane nibbled the skin along the inside of her thighs and she felt her muscles twitch in response.
Liana writhed atop the satin bedspread. She couldn’t imagine doing this each week. She couldn’t imagine someone wanting to get on their hands and knees for her so often. But Dane made it seem like he enjoyed it, like he couldn’t get enough of her, of the taste of her.
***
Dane wasn’t ready for the taste of his mate. It was intoxicating. He wanted to devour her, hear her scream his name as he lapped up her pleasure. His tongue darted between her folds to caress the most sensitive parts of her, making her squirm as he held her hips.
He delved deeper, pushed past the folds, teasing her entrance. She was ready for him, slick with need, but he wasn’t ready for that. Dane wanted to make her come first. He wanted to feel her shiver in his grasp while he coaxed her up and over the precipice.
Which she did, plenty. As his tongue danced over her part, Liana squirmed and trembled, her back arching the closer she came. He raised a hand and cupped her bare breast. Her nipple was taught in his hand, ready to be plucked and teased. She clasped a hand over his, keeping it there as he brought her waves of pleasure.
“Dane,” she said, breathless. “I’m going to come.”
She said those words as if she should wait for him. This was not about him. His tongue flicked over her most sensitive place while his thumb and forefinger teased her nipple. He wanted her to know what he could do for her, what he was willing to do for her with nothing in return. That was how he led. That would be how he loved.
Fated Dragons Complete Series: Books 1 - 5 Page 51