An oddly disconnected voice moaned nonstop as wave after wave of exquisite tension wound me tighter and tighter, my body tense and hard and trembling with an indefinable need that I knew to the depths of my soul only he could fill.
And still he tormented me. Four separate times my body arched up, on the very edge of an orgasm to end all orgasms, and each time he sensed my nearness and changed the angle of his attack, his mouth caressing a different spot until I was shaking with frustration, ecstasy, and so many other emotions I couldn't begin to name them.
"Drake!" I sobbed, my fingers tangled in his hair, trying to pull him closer, demanding that he allow me the completion I was going to die if I didn't get. "If you have any mercy in your soul—finish!"
Heat seared into me, scorching, sizzling, singeing, and all sorts of other s-words that my brain was too overwhelmed to think of. Dragon fire burned a hot brand deep into my womb, arcing through my body like lightning until I exploded in an endless flame of ecstasy. I don't know if I actually went up in a fireball of Drake's fire or not, but I can say this: When I returned to consciousness and gathered enough wits to make sure my body was still whole and not desiccated and charbroiled, there was an Aisling-shaped outline burnt into the sheet.
I blinked in bemusement at Drake. He was lying on his belly, his chin resting on my pelvic bone, an extremely smug, thoroughly masculine smile on his face.
"I told you that you'd like it when I breathed fire," he said.
"Just as soon as I recover use of my limbs, you are going to pay for that smile," I told him. "Do you happen I0 have one of those heart attack kits handy? I think I'm going to need defiberilizaton or whatever it is they do to get people's hearts going again. At the very least, my brain is going to need shocking to get it functioning."
He laughed, pressing a kiss into my belly before crawling up my body. *That is how dragons mate, Aisling. You will get used to it with time."
"Glorioski, I hope not!" I pushed him onto his back, summoning enough strength to roll over and plop myself on top of him. "And what do you mean that's how dragons mate? You didn't do that the first time we made love. You said we had to do it the dragon way then, because you were claiming me. Not that I had any complaints, mind you, but I would have remembered this."
"You had not agreed to be my mate then," he answered, heat simmering in his eyes. He winced as my thigh brushed his erection. "Now it is different. Now you are truly mine. I can take you in many ways which will be new to you."
"Really? New is good, I look forward to being fully indoctrinated into hot, steamy dragon sex," I purred, sliding my hand down to boldly caress him, smiling as he sucked in air when I wrapped my fingers around the hard length of his arousal, wallowing in the flickers of desire that were visible in his eyes. "Did you know that when you're aroused, your pupils get dragonier? They get longer and thinner until they are little slits of black in a beautiful sea of emerald."
He groaned as I bent my head down to capture a pert little brown nipple that peeked through his chest hair. "You have no idea what you do to me, do you, mate?"
"Oh, I have an idea," I said, reaching lower to gently scrape my fingernails first along his balls, then up the long length of his penis. His hips bucked upward, forcing him back through my hands. I looked down his body, enjoying every little bit of it, from the lovely bulgy bits of his chest to the flat belly, and lower, to the thick ropes of muscles along his thighs. "You really are beautiful, Drake. You take my breath away—you're just that gorgeous. I'm actually salivating looking at you. When you took this form, was it something you planned, or did you just think human and this is what resulted?"
His hips bucked again, thrusting up off the bed as I began to stroke him, quickly finding a rhythm that had him clutching handfuls of the scorched bedspread. "I don't—I can't—you're going to make me—Christ's bones, woman! Don't stop!"
I grinned my special wicked grin at the look of furious disbelief on his face as I released him in order to swing my leg over his hips. I paused long enough to take the very tip of him into my mouth, taking a moment to swirl my tongue along the sensitive underside.
Drake began to yell. In Hungarian.
That was all I needed. With one last loving flick of my tongue, I slid up his body, positioning him so that when I sank slowly down upon him, we both gasped in delight. He was so hard, so hot, almost as hot as his fire as he burrowed deeper into me, my flesh clinging to his as I sank down his full length, tightening every muscle I had around him.
His back arched off the bed.
"Let me see the dragon in you, Drake," I whispered against his lips, claiming his mouth as he'd done to mine so often, my tongue dancing an enticing tango around his as my hips moved. "Let me see the real you. Let go of yourself."
A tremor rippled down his body as I moved up and down on him, riding him slowly at first, but driven to a greater speed both by my own need and by the passion that filled his eyes. Beneath my legs the skin of his belly shimmered, blurring for a moment as it shifted from tanned skin to yellowish-green scales, then back to skin, so fast I almost didn't catch the change. His fingernails lengthened into long blue claws, wickedly sharp, digging almost painfully into my hips as he urged me on faster and faster.
"AislingP he cried, his eyes opening wide as his climax claimed him, and for a moment, for the space between seconds, he shifted, changed from man to dragon, and I was filled with an emotion unlike anything I'd ever known. It was power, it was rapture, it was ecstasy and fear and joy, all rolled together and merged into something totally new. He caught my shout of exultation in his mouth as the strength of my own orgasm drove him to peak a second time.
Hours later, when Jim stood outside our door and started singing at the top of its lungs in a very off-key voice in order to convince me to take it out for its morning walk, I looked up from where I was plastered against Drake's body.
"That was, hands down, the most erotic night of my life. I feel like I ran a marathon. My body is weak, my brain is numb, and my girl parts are still smoking. Is it going to be like this every time, or were you just starting things off with a bang, so to speak?"
The very edges of his lips curled. "You are mated to a dragon, kincsem. You will have a bang every night."
I glanced up to see if he meant the double entendre, but his eyes were closed.
His lips curled even more, though.
He meant it.
13
“What do you mean, I could have a bun in the oven? Drake is a dragon! I'm a human! That's a cross-species thing!"
Jim sauntered over from where it had been watering a small laurel shrub, one eyebrow lifted in delicate scorn. "You were a human. Now you're a dragon's mate, signed, sealed, and spent-all-night-making-little-dragons."
I stared at the demon, my mind screaming in horror. I had nothing against kids per se, but I wasn't ready to have them yet. Not to mention that I wasn't sure I wanted to have them with Drake. Not only did he not seem terribly paternal, I wasn't ready to be mom to a dragon. "But— but—it's got to be physically impossible! Last month, when Drake and I... I asked him about condoms, and he said that pregnancy was impossible between us, and that he didn't have any nasty dragon or human diseases, and since I don't either, we ... No. You're wrong. You have to be wrong."
Jim shrugged, and sat to scratch behind its collar. "You agreed to be his mate last night. You swore fealty. He accepted you. That makes you officially a dragon's mate.
“You're immortal, no longer human. You're kind of human plus, if you get my drift."
"That doesn't mean that suddenly Drake has super sperm that can leap a building in a single bound."
The big demon stood up again and shook itself before nodding toward the front of the hotel. Rene had pulled up, right on time, and was standing chatting with Tiffany. I tied on its drool cloth and followed after it. "A discussion of Drake's swimmers is going well over the border into Too Much Information Land. Just how do you think dragons reproduce, anyway?"
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"I assumed they mated with female dragons, and then, I don't know, the females laid eggs or something."
Jim shook its head, muttering something about getting with the times, but the damage had been done, I tried to remember just what Drake had said the first time we made love, but I couldn't recall the exact details. I made a mental note to question him about it before he laid claw on me again, then slapped a smile on my face to greet Rene and Tiffany.
H—and I said to him, 'Josef, you might be an oracle, but that doesn't mean you know everything. I was born to be a virgin. It is a very high calling, and a most important position. Where would all the witches and sorcerers be without blood of a virgin?' And do you know what he said to me? He said, *I might not know everything, but I know enough to recognize an ice princess when I see one.' Wasn't that thoughtful of him? He thinks I am like a princess. One made of ice. I like ice. It is pretty and shines nicely. Good morning, Aisling. Good morning, demon. I was just telling Rene the lovely compliment I had this morning."
"Yes, we heard. Ice princess. That's really ... uh ... nice. Morning, Rene. Are you both ready to do a little hermit hunting?"
Rene opened the back door to the cab. Tiffany swept inside with a regal smile. "I am most anxious to help you, Aisling. I feel it in my bones that today we shall be triumphant." He squinted at me as I started toward the back of the car. "Something is different about you today, yes? You look ... how is it said, like the cat who has eaten all the milk? Have you done something? Something important?"
Jim barked a short laugh. I ignored the demon and tried to look a little less like a woman who had spent most of the night being pleasured to the very tips of her toe-nails and more like one who was professional, determined, and every inch reliable. "It's 'cat who's licked up all the cream,I and nothing has happened, nothing at all. Nothing important."
Rene tipped his head as he eyed me even more carefully. "There is something different, Aisling. I know I am not mistaken."
My hand went to the chains around my neck. Thus far Rene hadn't shown any signs of caving under the influence of the dratted amulet, but at last its magic had worked its way through his normally placid temperament. My heart sank. I was counting on Rene to help me, but if he started acting like all the other lovesick mortals, I'd have to keep away from him.
"Honestly, there's nothing. Now, if you're ready, we can head out to the first park. I figure if we split up, we'll cover more ground, so I cut up maps I bummed from the concierge. Each one of us will take a section of the park and search for the hermit. Then we'll rendezvous and report our progress."
Rene still wore a puzzled look as I got into the car, followed by Jim. The demon stepped on my foot while climbing over me to claim the window next to the jump seat.
"Whoops. Sorry, Mama."
"Stop it," I hissed, making mean eyes at Jim.
"What was that?" Rene asked, sliding behind the steering wheel.
"Nothing. Ignore Jim, It's just being a smart-ass."
"Better than being a dumb-ass," Jim intoned, its head out the window.
"But not as good as an ice princess," Tiffany pointed out, smiling at her reflection in the rearview mirror.
I heaved a mental sigh. It was going to be a long, long day.
We found the hermit shortly after noon, sharing a pond in the Budakeszi Wildlife Park with a couple of fallow deer. Jim had been fretting because I insisted on searching one last park before we had to call it quits and return to the hotel. I had two more apprentice interviews, and I'd promised Drake I would attend a clan function with him that evening. It was my first time to formally meet his dragons, and I was more than a little nervous about the whole thing.
"But this is a wildlife park," Jim protested, its furry lips curled as it glanced around the parking lot. I passed out maps to the park. "It's big. And I don't see any handy food stands."
"We'll search as much of it as we can now. If we can't cover the whole thing, we'll come back this afternoon, after we get something to eat and I meet with the Guardians," I promised. "Jim, you search the area surrounding the big-game enclosures and the wildlife feeding points. I doubt a hermit would be there, but we shouldn't overlook any potential hiding spot. Tiffany, if you could take the Z trail and check out the beech forest, that would be helpful. Rene, do you mind doing the open woodland? I think I can handle both the pine and the oak forests. We'll meet at the owl enclosure next to the main entrance in an hour, OK?"
Everyone agreed, and we scattered, Jim's grousing following me as I headed off to the deepest part of the park. There were a couple of trails that wound through the acreage of the park, taking the visitor through a number of environments, the surroundings changing from deciduous trees to marshland to alpine forest. It was gorgeous, and I only wished I had more time to appreciate the flora and abundant fauna. As it was, I was about to head back to the entrance when I spied a little glimmer of water through the dense oak trees. I left the trail and carefully picked my way through the undergrowth to a little pond.
A small long-necked, white-spotted deer about Jim's height lifted its head from the pond, gazing at me with big, liquid eyes that showed no fear. I've always liked deer, but this one was so elegant, so beautiful in its purity, it took my breath away.
"Oh," I said softly, freezing so as not to startle the deer. It blinked impossibly long eyelashes while it considered me for a moment or two, then turned and slowly made its way around the perimeter of the pond.
A man's voice spoke Hungarian behind me as soon as the deer disappeared into the growth. I spun around, a strangled little scream emerging from my throat. "Lord above, you scared me!"
The man was clad in what I thought of as ranger clothing—khaki pants and shirt, a kerchief knotted around his neck—and his hands rested easily on his hips. Surprise lit his dark eyes for a moment, then changed to amusement as he grinned. "You are American? You are tourist?"
"Yes to both," I said, looking back toward where the deer had disappeared. "Did you see that little deer?"
"Ddmborju."
"I beg your pardon?"
"It is a ddmborju. A female. Her name is Draga."
"Dragon?" I asked, for one moment wondering if the dragon population in Budapest was unusually high. But a closer look at this man's eyes ruled out that idea—his pupils were normal circles, not the elongated ovals that marked dragons' eyes.
"Draga. It means"—his hands swept out wide while he searched for the word—"darling."
"Very appropriate," I said, glancing around the pond. There wasn't much else to be seen but shrubs, trees, and a couple of yellow ducklings floating with their mother at the far end of the pond. "I hate to sound nosy, but do you come here often? To this park, that is, not just this pond?"
He nodded. "Very often."
"Oh, good. You just might be able to help me, if you don't mind. I'm looking for a man who might hang out a lot around the park, and I wonder if you've seen him."
"Hang out?" The man half turned, gesturing for me to go before him, back toward the hiking path.
"Camp, maybe. Or live in an abandoned ranger's hut or something. His name is Gyorgy Berto, and he's probably pretty shy around people, so I wouldn't be surprised if he stays away from contact with the public—"
The man started laughing even before I finished the sentence. I pushed past a laurel bush and glanced back at him. He smiled. "I am Gyorgy."
I stopped. "You are? You're a hermit?" He didn't look like a hermit. His hair was short, he didn't have a long, scraggly beard or dirty, unkempt fingernails, and his clothing, while unexceptional, was reasonably clean considering he lived in a wildlife park. Not only that, he hadn't shied away when he came upon me.
"Hermit—that is an interesting name. I prefer erdolako, a woodlander."
"Woodsman?" I asked, relieved. Given Gy Orgy's paranoia regarding mail, I had assumed he was one of those people who had retreated entirely from society, a modem-day Howard Hughes, but without the money. Gyorgy looked perfectly
normal. He was obviously just a man who favored spending time in the peace of the woods. "Well, I'm very happy to have found you. I've been looking for a couple of days, and the people who hold your mail had no idea when you would be coming by to pick it up."
He brushed that away with a flick of his hands, the sunlight filtering through the trees and dappling his chest and arms. 'The summer, it is so crowded in the city, you know? Tourists everywhere with their constant talking, constant moving around. They do not sit and appreciate the beauty of their surroundings. It is too noisy, too busy there now. I will go into the city when the leaves start to change to red and gold. Not before."
"I know what you mean about noisy and busy, but I've always felt thai to be part of the charm of a big city, although I admit I really like staying on Margaret Island. It's so peaceful, a wonderful oasis of beauty smack-dab in the middle of the city." I pulled the chain bearing the hermit's amulet from beneath my blouse, happiness filling me at the thought of being rid of the annoying thing. Tin from Damian Carson Antiquities. I have the amulet you bought. I'm sorry I've been wearing it, but people kept trying to steal—"
"Aisling? AISLING? Ais—oh, there you. You must come quickly. Your demon, it is having a fit of the most large sort!" Tiffany ran toward me, her lovely face shadowed with concern. She paused to give Gyorgy a smile (shy) and bat her eyelashes (not so shy) before turning back to me. "You must hurry! The demon, it is on the ground, writhing about, with much froth coming from its mouth. I think maybe it is dying."
"Oh, god," I swore, taking off at a run. I glanced back, yelling over my shoulder to Gyorgy, "I'll be back as soon as I can. Sorry about this!"
I don't know if he heard me. He was too busy staring at Tiffany, a stunned expression on his face, his hands hanging limp at his sides as he looked at her, just looked at her without saying a word, without even noticing that I had run off. Tiffany, for her part, gave him an extremely coy glance before turning to race lightly after me.
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