“Why?”
He shrugs. “Brains and brawn.” He taps his foot as he faces the horizon. “I suppose I didn’t want to pair with Griffin. I suppose none of us liked the idea of having to depend on one another.”
“Or share a mate?” I ask, wondering if jealousy precipitated all of this.
“No,” Rainier says quickly. “I don’t think that was the problem. We don’t love like you humans do. And as our whole life is spent in jeopardy, just having someone to come home to is everything. With other supernaturals trying to hunt us for our blood and others coming to steal our mates, it’s nice to have another dragon watching out for the one we love.”
I nod because it’s foreign to what I’m used to, but it makes sense.
He faces me, and the wind whips his magnificent hair behind him. He looks like an old-fashioned warrior, though he’s still in jeans. “Do you love Seth and Griffin?”
“I don’t know,” I say quickly. “I care about them, as friends.”
“Have you… copulated with them?”
My cheeks go flame red. “No.”
His eyes narrow in on me. “But?”
“But we’ve done other things… maybe.”
He walks forward a step. “Like what?”
There’s something in his gaze that makes me hotter. Something slightly predatory but safe at the same time.
“Make out.”
He walks all the way over to me and grabs me by the hands, pulling me up against him. Then one arm comes around my waist to hold me as the other cups my head to tilt my face up. He brushes my hair back with his thumb and then lowers his lips to mine.
I’m unable to say no to him. I don’t want to. My body wants him. My heart… finds all of this confusing. How love works. How I can want multiple men. How I can begin to have feelings for all of them.
“Mmm.” I moan against his mouth because right now, I feel so safe and supported that all I can think of is Rainier.
“That’s right,” he says softly, moving his lips to my neck as his hand presses my face to his shoulder. “Think only of me.” His hand trails down my waist, making my hip tingle where his fingers are resting.
Then he comes up to kiss me again, and his lips are everything as they part mine and his tongue dips in to caress me. I’m tentative at first, letting tension build in me as a delicious ache starts to form between my legs.
Then I join him in the kiss because I haven’t promised anyone anything. I’ll bear the consequences later.
He grabs me under the thighs and hefts me against him, wrapping my legs around his waist. Then he backs me up against the side of the alcove wall so we’re kissing on the edge of the ocean, but I’m fully supported and safe.
As we break apart, I’m breathless as I stare at the ocean. So beautiful, so wild. So like this dragon in front of me.
I love how my hips are against his taut abdomen, how I can feel his ridged abs against my clit, even through the jeans. After so much stress, I’m desperate for release, and as I grind against him, I let out a little mewl at just how good it feels.
Rainier stiffens and looks down at me. Then a warm smile spreads his lips slightly, and I feel like I’ve seen something really rare.
He carries me over to the sleeping mat I saw before and lays me down on it. I’m practically shaking from how turned on I am, how much I want more of his kisses, his touches… more contact with those incredible muscles.
He kneels over me, straddling me. His hands run up over my knees, long-fingered and deft. His motions are slow and deliberate as he moves up my body, sliding his hands over my thighs, gripping my waist, and then squeezing my stomach gently before finding the button on my jeans.
His eyes meet mine for a moment, asking permission, and I nod eagerly, putting my hands in my hair as I feel a slight sense of shame for wanting this so bad.
“Don’t feel bad,” he says softly, undoing the button and pulling the zipper down. “Not for wanting me when you’re meant to. You’re a dragon heart. That means you were meant for me.” His eyes shutter. “Or someone like me.”
“I don’t know anymore,” I say, running my hands up his chest to feel his shoulders. He lets me explore, closing his eyes for a moment to enjoy my touch.
For a second, his magnificent body and the ocean behind it make my breath stop in my throat.
Then his hand moves into my underwear, and I’m back in the moment again. “Oh my God, don’t stop.”
“I just have to feel you,” he says, lightly rubbing my clit so I arch and jerk in response. It’s already so aching and sensitive. “There you are, dragon heart.”
“Don’t call me that,” I say softly, though he can call me whatever he wants if he keeps stroking me in that gentle, efficient way. Just how I like.
“It’s true, though,” he says, rubbing a little harder, circling my clit in an achingly slow movement that just barely sears the edges of everything I am. “Because you’re my heart.”
I buck against the feelings that come with his words. I’m not sure what to do about his assertion, because right now, I’m just lost in anticipation of the pleasure that can come.
“How can you…? You barely know me,” I grate out as his fingers dip down to play in my wet slit and then agonizingly move up to my clit once again.
“I knew when we kissed,” he says. “It’s different with dragons.”
Thinking back over the past few days with all of them, I have to agree.
It’s definitely different with dragons.
I put my hands in my hair again as he continues to stroke languidly, pulling away whenever I get too close to the edge. Oh God, he’s teasing me, and looking up into those glinting silver eyes, I can tell he likes it.
“I so rarely lose control that it’s a gift to watch it happen,” he says quietly, removing his finger from my clit. He comes up over me and pulls my jacket off, leaving me only my tank. Then he slides his hands up under my bra and grabs my breasts, squeezing lightly, then firmer when he sees how I squirm.
I love how he hefts them up, the possessive glint in his eyes as he thumbs my nipples, tweaking the hard tips slowly back and forth as I squirm beneath him. Sensation buzzes through me, from the electric touch of his hands to the way his thigh is now grinding against my wet heat.
Rainier is an unstoppable force when he wants something, and right now, I can tell he’s determined to make me feel as much as possible before finally making me come.
I reach up for his belt buckle, undo it, and pull it to the side, gasping as I try to stay focused. His counterattack is to come down, unhook my bra, push it aside, and take one of my nipples in his hot mouth.
I let go of his belt and arch back, loving the way he laves over me with his rough tongue, the way it sets off sparks in my already heated body.
If it weren’t for the sound of waves, I would never know we were on the edge of the ocean. I would think we were in the middle of a fire.
He moves from one nipple to the other and sucks gently, worrying it with his lower teeth as his other hand moves to pinch the wet nipple he just left.
It’s so sensitive it’s almost painful, and I moan as I buck against his hand. My sex thrusts up against his thigh again. So hard. So steady. So perfect.
I can’t control the way I feel about him. I just know this feels right.
I’m getting closer, and between his attention on my breasts and the lightning building between my legs, I don’t think I can hold on much longer.
Then he pulls back again, breathing heavily and leaving me staring at him aghast as I look up.
“No,” I say. “No, no, no. You’re not leaving me like that.”
“No,” he says, and his hair is mussed, his face flushed by effort. But his eyes are glowing. Wild. “I just wanted to see my effect on you. Wanted to see you this close to the edge, dragon heart.”
And it’s okay for him to say that. Because he explained what it meant to him.
And frankly, he can say anything as
long as he gets back to rubbing my clit.
His hand takes the place of his thigh, slipping again into my panties. “So wet. So warm. So perfect,” he says. He removes his hand and licks his finger slowly, savoring the taste. “Nothing could be more delicious. Your pleasure makes me alive inside.”
I just gape at him, too turned on to think straight, as his finger dips down there again. I still reach for his buckle, but he brushes my hand way.
“You tempt me too much,” he says. “And besides, what I want today is your pleasure. Not mine.”
I let out a little growl. “But I want yours.”
“It’s complicated,” he says. “For us, intercourse is involved in mating. Not always, but it’s a component.”
“What’s the other component?”
“I’m not sure if I should tell you.”
I narrow my eyes at him.
“Sharing blood,” he says. “I guess you might as well know since you’re getting involved pretty deep with us. Also, I don’t want another dragon to mate you without your consent.”
“I see,” I say as his finger dips down to my entrance. He plays lightly. Then his eyes meet mine. I love how often he asks for consent. I nod quickly, and one finger dips in, then another, stretching and filling me. Oh God, what would it be like with his…?
My eyes look at the impressive bulge pressing against his jeans. What would it be like with—
“Not today, Anna,” he says softly. “You have time to decide if that’s what you want.”
“So I can’t have sex without mating?”
“You could,” he says. “But I can’t have sex without wanting to mate you. Right now, it’s enough to just be with you. But if you touch me, if you welcome me inside you, here…” His fingers gently hook up against my G-spot, making me gasp from the ache. “Then I don’t know how I could hold back.”
He withdraws his fingers slowly, then presses them back in, gliding softly. His thumb caresses my clit, making my whole body tighten in confusion.
I’m feeling so many things everywhere that by the time he comes forward to gently kiss my neck, sucking down on it, I can’t hold on any longer.
I break apart in his arms, clutching his shoulders as my body is wracked with sharp waves of pleasure. Waves that seem to echo the sea. He removes his hand and uses it to hold me as I wrap my legs around him, wanting to cling on for dear life.
Just as I’m coming down, I feel him press a light kiss to my forehead. I stare up at him, burning. Did that really just happen?
“That was beautiful,” he says, gently laying me back on the pad and rolling onto his side next to me. His hand rests on my stomach possessively, and his leg tangles over mine. His head is propped on his hand, which is propped on his elbow as he looks down at me. “So did I catch up?”
I take a heated breath, not wanting to compare him to any other moment. “I don’t know. It was just…”
“Just?” His eyes are amused.
“Just magical,” I say with a sigh, curling into him.
“I’m glad,” he says, pulling me in a little tighter against him. I just want to stay there in the warmth, enjoying the ocean, but as the glow of orgasm fades and my body returns to normal, I can’t help worrying about what just happened.
I sit up, rubbing my arms for second before grabbing my clothes. “I shouldn’t have done that. My friends…”
“Your ‘friends’ have survived years without you. They can wait a little longer.”
“But I shouldn’t be… doing things like this while they’re captured.”
Rainier sighs, sitting up as well and resting a hand on one bent knee. Looking at those hands makes me blush, thinking about what they can do to me. “Then I’ll let them go. But I warn you, things might not go well with Griffin.”
Especially after what just happened.
But Griffin and I never discussed being exclusive. He said he wouldn’t sell me, but then in the cell, he said he was glad I was someone else’s problem.
So yeah, I might not be able to resist getting busy with him because he’s hot and delicious, but I don’t owe him any explanation for what I do.
We had only just begun to understand and care about each other.
But then a part of me worries I have ruined it.
“No,” Rainier says, putting a hand over mine softly. “You haven’t ruined anything. And if he’s a dragon worthy of you, he will let you make your own decisions and wait to see if he gets chosen.”
“But he’s… complicated.”
“I know,” Rainier says. “But if he hasn’t learned to not be selfish, then he hasn’t learned from the thing that led to all of us being banished. And he needs to, Anna.”
“But not by being in a cell.”
Rainier eyes me. “You’re right. I was wrong to do that. But I’ve seen him lose control before, and you haven’t.”
“I mean, I’ve seen him fight, but—”
“Anna.” Rainier’s eyes are patient but slightly frustrated. “He came here for a reason. I’m not trying to slander him, because I know he is trying to be better for you, but he’s still a huge bully. A dangerous one sometimes.”
It’s hard for me to picture it, knowing what I know of him. Yes, he’s protective but kind of a big softy. “Perhaps he’s changed, being in the Blur.”
Rainier frowns. “Or being around you. Regardless, I just think you should be careful.”
“With what?”
“With your feelings,” Rainier says. “Dragons can be handsome and charming, but… it’s not going to be an easy road with anyone in our group.”
I stare up at him. “What do you think I’m supposed to do next? Griffin and Seth came here to see if it was possible to mate with me. Do you know if it is?”
Rainier cocks his head. “I don’t know if it’s possible when it comes to fallen dragons. I do think you could mate with me or Lee—or both.”
“Is Lee the blue dragon?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Why did you say your group doesn’t have a blue dragon?”
Rainier avoids my gaze, then sighs. “Lee was… hurt.”
“How?”
Rainier stands, then extends a hand for me. As he helps me get dressed, his silence worries me. Then finally, he speaks. “That’s something you should talk to Seth about. Though, we’re all a bit responsible.”
“So Lee isn’t a dragon anymore?” I ask.
Rainier presses his lips together, then shakes his head. “Not exactly.”
“Then what is he?”
“I told you. You should talk to Seth.”
“But you know Lee.”
“Not that well,” he says, running a hand through his hair as he walks to the edge of the cave ledge. “Not as well as I probably should have. But then, he’s busy in the human world, and I have been straddling two worlds.”
“What does he do?”
Rainier eyes me. “Lawyer.”
“A dragon lawyer. That’s funny.”
Rainier folds his arms. “There’s nothing funny about what happened to Lee. Nothing funny about anything that happened that day.”
“I know. I just—”
A loud boom sounds, followed by a shockwave that makes the cave floor rumble, and both Rainier and I stumble, almost falling to the ground. Rainier’s hand quickly steadies me, but his eyes are wide with concern.
“What was that?” I ask. “Where are we?”
“Not that far from town,” he says, shaking his head. “Dammit, I—” He grabs my hand and jerks me to the edge of the alcove. “I should have dealt with this sooner. Come on. We need to—”
A screech sounds overhead, and then a large, sparkling red object drops down, blocking nearly the entire entrance of the cave.
Shimmering flame-red irises glare at us, and enumerable ruby scales glisten in the overcast light.
It’s Griffin. I know it just by facing him. And he’s magnificent in dragon form. His huge, leathery wings are covered in spikes
and beat the air as he hovers. Then his dragon eyes narrow in on Rainier, and the slits of his pupils flare.
“We settle this now. Above.” Then he flies up out of sight, and I hold on to Rainier as the wind from Griffin’s wings nearly bowls us over.
“What was that sound?” I ask. “Why did the ground rumble?”
Rainier’s eyes are cool and his bearing is collected as he walks forward, getting ready to shift. “I have my guesses, but I suppose we’ll see when we get up top and I have to face him.”
He jumps off the ledge and I fight back a scream as he falls, but then he hovers up in dragon form, extending his head for me to climb on. Trusting him and trying to summon my bravest self, I run onto his head and down his neck. His wings are there to catch me between them just as I’m about to fall. As always.
As his wings beat up and down and we lift to the grassy field at the top of the cliffs, I see Griffin in human form again and pacing, a red aura emanating around him as he walks.
He stomps the ground, and a shockwave goes through it, making me wonder if my eyes are working.
But then his blue-gray gaze meets mine, and I know everything I’m seeing is real.
Which means Rainier is about to fight Griffin, and I just have to hope neither one gets killed.
29
Anna
“You really thought you could just keep me there, locked up like some dog in a cage, didn’t you?” Griffin says, his voice a low growl, his fists clenched tightly as he looks up at Rainier’s dragon as Rainier lands in the field. For a moment, his gaze darts to mine, and it softens ever so slightly.
“I’ll admit I had my doubts. Now I see I’ll just have to make adjustments next time,” Rainier replies.
With one last great flap of his wings, Rainier touches down almost so lightly I don’t realize we’ve hit the ground until he lowers far enough that I can slide off his neck. The soft, gray-green grass feels wobbly and unstable under my feet after flying, and I take a second to get my bearings.
“There won’t be a next time.” Griffin’s eyes are locked on Rainier, who’s now standing next to me in human form. How can they change so quickly? “I’m never going to let you near Anna again.” White teeth show as Griffin paces only a dozen or so feet away, still looking gigantic, the muscles in his arms and chest flexed.
Bad Dragons: Special Edition Complete Series Page 20