“You think my castle is a gold lined monstrosity?” The words were low, but the fury filling each syllable shot through the air and smacked right into Katie.
She turned her head, searching for the source of those words, and met the gaze of one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen.
There was curly blonde hair, and then there was curly blonde hair.
There were bright gold eyes, and then there were bright gold eyes.
There were nice tits and then there were—
“I asked you a question,” the woman snapped.
Katie shook her head, breaking herself out of her thoughts. “I, uh.” She pointed at Joey. “I came for him.”
“Katie…” The warning was clear in his tone.
“What?” she growled at him. “I did come for you. It’s not a secret. Do you think I’d come in here, risk my life, for no good reason?” She paused. “Actually, you are no good reason, aren’t you?” Ignoring the pretty woman as well as all of the other massive males that filled the room, she stomped toward Joey. Joey, who still had his arms wrapped around that dragon chick. “You’re a no good piece of shit abandoning pussy dumbass dragon.”
It took no time to close the distance between them, and the moment she was within reach, she tore her attention from Joey and stared at the dragon chick. She fought for a congenial tone when she spoke to Adra. “I appreciate all the info you gave me, but get the fuck away from my mate.”
Adra smirked and threw off Joey’s arms before striding away. That left the two of them facing off. She drank in his appearance, still marveling that she’d somehow been gifted with such a gorgeous mate. A gorgeous mate who had dark bags beneath his eyes and deep lines of fatigue etched across his features. She should feel bad about his condition. Really. Except… she was in the same condition and it was all his fault.
“Katie, how did you get here?”
“Really? Seven days of not seeing each other after you gave me the best kiss of my life then left me a lame ass Dear Katie letter… And that’s all you have to say?”
His face tightened, lips compressing until they formed a white slash across his face. “This isn’t the place to discuss this.”
“Then where is the place? I thought perhaps it would be at my house. You know, the house you just decided to give me while I was sleeping. You know, right before you walked out of my life! Ahem.” She took a deep calming breath and straightened her shirt. “I believe this is the perfect place to discuss this.”
“Actually, I agree,” the drop-dead gorgeous blonde interjected and Katie swung her focus to the woman.
“And who are you to get all up in my shit?” Katie ignored Joey’s groan.
Admittedly, she was being super bitchy. But after being without him for a week and fighting her hedgie twenty-four hours a day as well as traveling all this way to see his happy ass… Her bitchy pot was overflowing with bitch soup.
A small smirked teased the woman’s lips. “The queen.”
“Who—what?” Katie stuttered and realized some major backtracking needed to occur. “Um… Which queen exactly?”
“The only shifter queen that exists on the planet. Unless the lions have decided to take the ‘king of the jungle’ idea too far.”
Katie had never fainted in her life, but darkness sure was closing in on her now. “I, uh, I’m sorry?”
And by “I’m sorry” she meant “please don’t eat me like your afternoon snack.”
The queen chuckled, the small laugh tinkling through the air and ringing purely off the shined gold-plated walls. Ha! Actual gold. Her insult wasn’t so off the mark, was it?
“Quite.” The queen’s gaze bounced between Katie and Joey and back again. “Why don’t you explain a few things to me? Such as, why you’ve invaded my throne room and thrown accusations at one of my twelve. Actually,” she waved her hand. “I’m really curious as to how you managed to get this far.”
“Well… You see… I think we really need to focus on the problem at hand which is Joey’s behavior. At its core, everything that is happening right now is so his fault.” And Katie wasn’t even bullshitting with that one.
“I see. And how is that?”
“Well,” Katie was more than happy to lay it out on the table, and once again she ignored Joey’s groan. “This dumbass—”
“One of my most trusted guards is a dumbass?” The queen looked as if she’d burst into giggles at any moment.
“Of course, what else? So, he comes in like a rampaging bull—”
“Not a dragon?” This time the woman did giggle.
“Of course not, I would assume your dragons were smarter. Anyway, he comes to town, rants and raves about the fact that he’s my mate. Goes on and on about how we belong together, goes to this really crappy biker bar with me, makes a date to go to this really hoity-toity restaurant,” Katie was on a roll, “and then because of some stupid little dragon—”
“Another stupid one?” Joey opened his mouth as if to answer the queen’s question and interject his own version of events, but she waved him off.
“Yes, of course, you have quite a few, did you know that? Anyway, this one went after a black dragon’s mate. Obviously stupid. And because of that stupid dragon, he abandoned me. But not before ‘selling’ me his grandfather’s house for a dollar. Which, really, was what I wanted when we met, but now…” She glared at Joey, clenching her teeth. “I finally decided that you’re right and I was wrong, and then you fucking left me, asshole.” She took a deep breath and released it with a heavy sigh. “There, that’s the gist of it.”
She tore her attention from Joey and returned it to the woman. She didn’t want to see his aggravation, didn’t want to see his frustration, and she sure as hell didn’t want to see his hope. The man disappeared, leaving a stupid little letter. He didn’t have the right to hope.
“I see…” The queen settled a speculative stare on Joey as she tapped a single finger against her pursed lips. “You’re right, he’s an idiot.”
Before Katie could stop herself, her shout left her lips “Ha! How do you like that?”
“Your Highness,” Joey murmured.
“Nope, I agree with the spiky little thing. I can’t believe you found your mate, and then just abandoned her after a little hiccup.”
Katie was really beginning to like this whole dragon queen lady even if she was drop-dead gorgeous and made her jealous as hell.
“A hiccup?” His voice was low and tight.
“Life is full of dangers.” She waved her hand. “If everyone hid the moment problems arose, nothing would be accomplished. Hell,” everyone gasped and Katie assumed cursing wasn’t generally on the woman’s menu. “If I panicked over every little thing, our kind would still be living in caves.”
“Your Highness, you don’t understand—”
“I understand she is your mate. She is your one. And to deny her is to throw away your greatest gift. You will be stronger having her at your side, not weaker. Perhaps you lost sight of that in your fear.” She stepped back and waved her hand, gesturing toward the other side of the room. “Perhaps the rest of this conversation is best done in private…”
*
Joey blinked after Cadeyra as she turned on her heel and strode out of the main hall with the rest of the twelve in tow. A couple looked back, curiosity stamped on their features, but the queen clicked her fingers and no one, no one, disobeyed Cadeyra when she spoke.
He turned his attention to Katie and blinked again. The fact that she was still alive after asking who Cadeyra was to ‘get all up in her shit’ was something he was still coming to terms with.
“You made the queen giggle,” he said, still amazed by that as well. “Actually giggle.”
Katie folded her arms and sniffed. “Well, us shifter-chicks, we gotta stick together.”
His limbs decided at that moment to lurch into motion and he stepped forward to wrap her in his embrace before she could argue. An arm around her waist, and his
hand buried in her hair, he pulled her close.
“You…” Perhaps ‘stupid little hedgehog’ wouldn’t win him any points here. “Do you have any idea how close you came to getting roasted there?” he asked, leaning back to look into her face. The same lines of tiredness he’d seen in the mirror this week were etched onto her face, and misery shadowed her beautiful eyes. The sight of her pain speared his heart. He’d done that. By trying to protect her, he’d only hurt her more.
“What…what are you doing here?” Had she just come to haul him over the coals? Or had she tracked him down for another reason? A small kernel of hope began to simmer in the center of his chest, extending tendrils outward from his heart.
“I was right to call you dumb.” She arched an eyebrow. “Why do you think I’m here?”
Dumb, his dragon rumbled, inordinately pleased with the insult. Joey ignored it in favor of looking at their little mate. “To tell me I’m dumb?”
“Now you’re getting it!” She punched his shoulder and he winced. It didn’t hurt, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
“What was that for?”
“For being a dumbass, and looking like…like…that!” she exclaimed, then her eyes filled with tears. “And for letting me believe I could have love, then leaving me.”
Well, crap. As soon as the first beaded tear glistened and dropped onto her cheek, Joey was lost. She was here, she’d come to find him, and he had a second chance. One he didn’t deserve after the way he’d run.
“Shhh,” he wiped the tear from her cheek with a gentle swipe of his thumb. “I’m an ass, I know I am. I don’t deserve you. I can’t believe you came here…here…to find me.” His expression dropped serious and he grabbed her shoulders to shake her a little. “Don’t ever come here on your own again. Don’t you know how dangerous dragons are? You’d be little more than a light snack for some of them.”
She smiled and shook her head, her hair dancing on her shoulders. “Yeah? With me and Queenie like this?” She crossed two of her fingers to show him. “And besides, what dragon would hurt me knowing I have a mate that’ll get all stompy-burny on them?”
“Mate?” The hope in the center of his chest unfurled a little more. “You’d still take me as a mate after I was such an ass?”
Katie tilted her head and tapped her lips in such a perfect imitation of Cadeyra that his lips quirked. “Well, first I’d want to know why you left me. A Dear Katie letter? Come on…we’re not in some damn chick flick, you know?”
She wasn’t going to let him off. Before, the idiot that Joey had been would have tried to wriggle and slide, pull some convoluted explanation that exonerated him of all blame, but that was the past and this was now.
Taking a deep breath, he looked her in the eye. “I was scared of losing you. My job, what I do, what I am is… dangerous. I was scared that you’d get hurt, or worse, because of me. Because of what I am and what I need to do. Like Sophia—” he broke away, unable to complete the thought. If he hadn’t gotten there in time.
“I’m fine, remember?” she whispered, crowding closer to stroke her fingertips gently against his cheek. “You saved the day, got the girl…we’ll forget the part you ditched her fluffy ass and came here to play dragon warriors like some over-grown kid.”
“Your ass is not fluffy,” he said automatically, his hands smoothing down her back to that portion of her anatomy. He cupped her boldly and hauled her up against him. In for a penny, in for a pound. “I happen to like your ass just the way it is.”
In truth, he liked everything about her. From her cute nose to her adorable toes—even when they were hidden from view by ugly combat boots—and everything in between.
And what he wanted most at that moment was to become very acquainted with those plump lips he liked so very, very much. He didn’t give her the opportunity to say no, simply swept her into a passionate kiss. He brushed his lips across hers just once in a barely there caress, and then his world became centered on her. On the way she moved against him, the way she opened to him, the way she tasted as she slipped her tongue into his mouth…
She moaned and pushed into their kiss, increasing the pressure of their mouths, and he took it as silent permission to take things deeper. So he hauled her against him more fully, lifting her until her feet dangled and toes hardly brushed the polished floor. He changed his hold, releasing her hair and using it to cup her other ass cheek. With that shift, he encouraged her to wrap her legs around his waist.
Now she was open to him, her very center against the desperate hardness of his cock and he moaned with the blunted connection. He had her in his arms even after the mess he’d made of things. She’d come to him, had barged her way into the dragons’ inner sanctum and made demands he was more than happy to fulfill.
Their tongues tangled, both of them fighting for dominance as well as taking pleasure in this first wave of foreplay. Because it was foreplay. As long as she didn’t tell him no, they would be mated before the night was through.
Katie wiggled against him, hips rocking and rubbing against his length until he thought he’d come in his jeans.
She whimpered and wriggled more, and he tore his mouth from hers. “Katie… Sweetness… You have to—”
He didn’t want her to do anything other than what she was doing right that moment. Her lips and teeth were doing wicked things to his neck. Scratching and scraping his skin and his dragon released a smoky purr. It wanted her to sink her teeth into his flesh and claim him for her own.
When she slithered her hand between their bodies and yanked at the waist of his pants, he realized a change of venue was necessary. He wanted her—oh how he wanted her—but he wouldn’t claim her in the middle of the queen’s throne room when anyone could stumble upon them.
“Hold on for just a moment and then you will be mine.”
Katie raised her hand, and her desire-filled eyes collided with his. “Anything…”
*
Katie said anything and she meant it. She hadn’t come this far to back down now. She’d argued, begged, and cajoled to get to this godforsaken castle and she wasn’t leaving until the deed was done.
“Anything. Please.” And there was the begging.
Joey must’ve taken her at her word, because then they were moving. He strode through the polished halls of the dragon queen’s castle. Katie’s reflection in the highly shined walls followed them as they made the twists and turns toward their destination. She didn’t want to be the guy who had to polish all that shit.
A loud bang and the telltale crack of shattering wood announced their arrival… somewhere. Joey had obviously kicked down a door and now she was surrounded by his scent. Not just because he held her in his arms, but because it came at her from every direction. She lifted her head and glanced around the room, noting the purely masculine decoration and furniture and realized they were now in his room.
Katie peeked over his shoulder and spied the thick wooden door that hung badly from its ancient hinges. “Joey!” She snapped her attention to him. “I can’t believe—”
“Believe it.” He pressed his lips to hers, delving into her mouth without hesitation. She was swept away in the sensual haze of their passion once again. It took no more than that simple kiss to have her arousal at a rolling boil, just waiting to overflow. He tore his mouth from hers. “Always believe it. Nothing will stand in my way when it comes to you, sweetness. Never again.” Next kiss was tender yet still heated. “Not even myself.”
Her heart melted just a little bit, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.
“Joey…” She released a dreamy sigh.
“I want you, Katie.” The words were released with a hoarse rasp. “Will you let me make you mine?”
She had only one answer to that question. “You better. I didn’t spend all that money on a first-class ticket for nothing.”
The order brought forward his smile just as she’d hoped, and then he was on the move again. He strode forward, carrying her dee
per into the room, and it was no hardship for her hedgie to help her view their surroundings.
The furniture was large and sturdy, not decorated with any hint of feminine frills but crafted with large dragon males in mind. It wasn’t intricately carved nor did it have gently curved edges. Her only true descriptor was “manly.” And so very, very Joey.
She had a brief flash of deep rich colors that covered some of the chairs as well as a large swath of dark burgundy that blanketed the massive king-sized bed that dominated the center of the room. And then she became intimately acquainted with that soft surface.
Joey brought her to the edge and then urged her to release him. She couldn’t withhold the whine that leapt to her lips at the idea of letting him go and he was quick to soothe her.
“One sec and then I’ll be inside you. Can’t make love to you with our clothes on, can I?”
Oooh, naked. Naked was good.
She immediately released him, giggling when he tossed her in the center of the bed. The moment her bouncing ceased, she focused on the massive form of her mate. Staring at him, tracing his broad shoulders, flat stomach, and muscular thighs with her gaze, she couldn’t believe she’d gotten so lucky. He was… smoking hot.
And hers. She couldn’t forget that part.
He yanked his shirt over his shoulders, quickly ripping it from his body and exposing a wide expanse of deliciously tanned skin. She licked her lips, anxious to taste him from head to toe and back again. And of course, she’d linger on those very important, absolutely delicious bits.
He reached for the button of his jeans, fingers deftly flicked the snap and went straight for the zipper. She definitely wondered what that part of him would taste like. Her mouth watered in anticipation, and she couldn’t wait to hold him in her hands and feel him between her lips.
“Not quite yet, sweetness.” At his mumbled words, she flicked her attention to his face and whimpered when she noted his resolve. “After we’ve mated and not a moment before. I refuse to wait another second and if you get your mouth on me…” He shuddered. “I’ll hardly last a heartbeat.”
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