by Nicole Hall
The thought disturbed her. She didn’t do long-term relationships; her future was too questionable for that. Oren deserved better than a hot mess dryad princess. Eventually, he’d have to remove the mark connecting them and let her bond with someone else, probably her betrothed, but Dru held out hope they’d find another option.
“I don’t know of anyone else who wants to kill me. Keely says I can be brash, but it’s never made anyone homicidal before.”
Oren’s thumb stroked across her lower back, and Dru tried to enjoy the moment without jumping into his lap again. “I’ll keep digging. You’re part of the ruling family, so politics can’t be discounted.”
Dru snorted. “With Hollis in control of all dryad magic, there’s her way or death. If a rival family tried to off me against her wishes, she’d choke off their power until not one of them could continue the line.”
“Do you know much about the rival families?”
“I just told you everything I know, and that was pretty much a direct quote from Hollis after she first found me. She was trying to ‘ease my fears’ to convince me to come home.” Dru dropped her hand to his waist and dug under his shirt until she found warm skin. Much better. Maybe if her betrothed looked like Oren she’d be more interested.
“I guess there’s one more thing. I’m technically engaged to some rando from a rival family. We’re supposed to bond before I connect to Ljos, but I plan to find a way around that. Hollis was hoping for an heir first, but I’m not about to get busy with some guy I’ve never met for the good of the bloodline or whatever. That’s why I need to find Brianne so bad. Hollis has been threatening lately to use her instead.”
Oren’s arm tightened. “You haven’t met your fiancé?”
“No. He’d a dryad, so he’s still in Vethr.”
He brushed a kiss across the top of her head. “You don’t feel any loyalty to this dryad?”
Dru laughed and tilted to look up at him. “No. Hard no. I choose my romantic entanglements. If I decide to have royal babies—and let’s face it, that possibility seems really slim at the moment—I’ll do it with a man I picked. My body is mine to control.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that, but would he, or his family, be upset at your romantic entanglements?”
The familiar sensation of unwanted responsibility closed in around her, so Dru gave it the finger by flicking open the button on his jeans. Oren’s lips twitched into a smile as if he knew her rebellious thoughts. Or maybe he liked where the evening was heading. Either way, his current reaction ranked way better than him retreating to his bedroom.
“I can’t answer your question. As far as I know, unless Hollis tells them, they have no way to monitor what I do in Terra. I wouldn’t put it past her to share juicy tidbits of knowledge if she thought it would benefit her, but I don’t see a way that could happen.”
Dru slid her fingers south, encouraged by the heat in Oren’s gaze, but he stopped her with a hand over hers. “We’ll go looking for Brianne in the morning. Together. I’m starting to think it’s not safe to leave you here alone.”
“I’m going to ignore the obvious double-standard there since you’re taking me with you, and I’m going to accept a delay because you make good points. Now, back to our previous topic.”
“I’m not hiding from you.”
She wiggled her fingers. “Then what do you call running for your bedroom each night instead of putting your hands on me?”
His voice roughened. “I have my hands on you now.”
“And I’m wondering how long before you leave me sitting on the couch alone.”
“In my line of work, a distraction could get someone killed, and you’re one hell of a distraction. If I promise not to leave after, will you have a conversation with me first? I like a woman to want me for more than my stunning physical prowess.”
Dru snorted out a laugh and pulled her hand back into the safe zone. “Fair enough. What do you want to talk about?”
“Is it true that dryads can turn into trees?”
She laughed. “What a useless ability that would be. No. The closest I can get to turning into a tree is the tree of life tattoo on my lower back.”
Oren leaned over, trying to get a peek. “You have a tramp stamp?”
She smacked him in the shoulder. “I have a tattoo in a place where I get to choose who sees it. That’s a super offensive term, by the way. Where did you even learn it? Shouldn’t someone who’s spent very little time in this realm have a less solid grasp on the worst parts of the English language?”
He shrugged. “Most of my language skills are courtesy of a spell, but I try to pick up idiomatic phrases to help myself blend in better.”
Dru studied his big form sprawled across the couch and half of the coffee table. “Good luck with that. I can’t turn into a tree, but my magic makes things grow, which is useful in the sense that it gives me a way to bring some of the outside world to me no matter where I am. The world is so open, and stuck inside, I often feel…trapped.”
“I understand feeling trapped. For all the vastness of the realms, I’m often restricted in my actions.”
“How so?”
Oren’s chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath. “I’m tied to my people in a way my clanmates aren’t. When I was young, I promised myself to the elders in a bid to make up for the absence of the others. It became a sort of cage that stopped me from using the full breadth of my abilities unless I did it in secret. As time passes, I’m beginning to see that their choices to break away may have been the correct course, and I may have made a mistake.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Seth and Aiden have both found their mates. They have bright futures ahead of them.”
Dru’s stomach sank. “Is that what you want? A mate and a bright future?”
Oren ran his hand in a circle around her back. “I was content before to bide my time serving the elders, but recently, my desires have changed. Unfortunately, it may be too late for me.”
Dru rubbed her cheek over the soft cotton of his shirt. “There are a lot of things I want that I apparently can’t have. More green space. Better magical skills. The prospect of living past my next birthday.”
His shoulders stiffened. “You’ll live past your next birthday.”
“Speaking of promises we can’t keep, I want to kiss you again, but it doesn’t seem fair when I can’t offer you any kind of future.”
Oren slid his hand around her neck and nudged her chin up with his thumb until she met his eyes. “Trust me to take care of your future. All I want is you.”
OREN
Dru inclined her head once, and Oren stopped resisting the urge to take her mouth. She made a purring noise in the back of her throat and edged closer. Her lips parted, and his tongue slipped inside to deepen the kiss.
Being with Dru made him want to abandon his responsibilities and claim her in every way possible. Her taste and her scent and the way she responded to his touch all worked against his need to fulfill his assignment. The plan to learn more about her to help him resist had backfired in a big way.
Despite leaving every day to search for leads to Brianne, Oren couldn’t make himself travel too far away from Dru for any length of time. The farther he got from her, the more his chest tightened urging him to run back to her side.
He’d left to meet his contacts and search the air for a hint of Dru’s sister, but he’d also hurried back. Oren had realized quickly that he couldn’t keep his hands to himself around her, and her response left no doubt that she wanted him just as much. The problem centered on his inability to concentrate on the outside world when Dru touched him. His entire focus narrowed to her, and he couldn’t afford that kind of blindness. So he’d avoided her, unsuccessfully it seemed.
With Dru next to him, her mouth under his, the pull eased, and he could sink into her. He kissed her, reveling in her heat. She curled into him, pushing his shirt up so she could spread her hands over his chest. Her fi
ngers skimmed the mark they shared and heat shot straight to his cock.
Oren groaned as she threw a leg over his hips and sank her weight onto him. He let her take the lead, keeping his hands on her face and in her hair. They devoured each other, sharing breath and refusing to break apart.
She adjusted her weight to delve inside his jeans. Oren gasped when she closed her hand around him. He trailed his mouth to the mark on her neck, laving it with his tongue and sucking the skin against his teeth.
Dru nearly shot off the couch. She ground herself against him and her hand, moaning low. Satisfaction filled him at her obvious pleasure. His turn to explore.
Oren slid both hands down her back and inside her tiny cloth shorts to caress her ass. His fingertips teased her entrance as she arched back into him. A few swipes of his fingers made Dru growl when he avoided full contact.
She wrenched back off his lap, and Oren let her go. The building pressure in his cock might kill him, but worse was the fear that he’d done something to push her away.
Dru didn’t go far. She stood between his legs with a sassy smile and pulled her tank top over her head, then her bra. Her shorts and panties went next. Oren’s hands itched to reach for her again as each piece of clothing flew, but he wanted to enjoy the moment. Her confidence was sexy as hell.
She propped her hands on her hips, completely naked in front of him. “Your turn.”
Oren looked his fill before he pulled his tee shirt over his head to join hers.
Dru’s brows shot up. “Your dragon moved.”
Oren glanced down briefly to see Fehr had shifted to his other arm. He could usually tell when the dragon tattoo moved, but he’d been a little distracted. “He does that.”
She stared at the dragon, and Fehr stared back, unblinking. He’d have to explain that particular bit of magic at some point. Not now. Now, he wanted Dru to crawl back into his lap, naked and wild. His muscles trembled as he held himself still and let her decide where this would go.
Her eyes met his and the smile returned. She took his hand and pulled him to his feet. “Let’s go take advantage of that big bed.”
“This is what you want?”
She let her gaze trail down him and back up. “Oh yeah.”
Oren followed her docilely to the bedroom, but the second the door closed behind them, he jerked her close and ravaged her mouth. She’d made her choice, and he’d make sure she wanted no one but him.
The possessive thought settled inside him, but Oren refused to examine it. Dru’s taste and touch were much more captivating.
She stopped him with a hand on his chest, pulling back with a gasp. “Protection?”
He pulled a condom from the pocket of his jeans and grinned at her before shucking them across the room along with his underwear.
She nodded in approval. “Very nice. Do you always carry around a condom?”
Oren lifted her onto the bed and followed her down, ecstatic to finally have her naked underneath him. “Only since I met you.”
Dru brushed her lips across his and dragged a foot up his bare calf until his weight settled between her spread thighs. “That’s pretty presumptuous.”
Her heat scorched him, and it took all his control not to dive into her. “Just following your rules, kalia.”
Her laugh turned into a protest as he eased off of her to roll the condom on. He lowered his head to her breasts, taking his time with each nipple until she writhed underneath him. Dru’s quiet, broken whimpers drove fire through his blood. He dipped his fingers between her legs, and she rode his hand with abandon.
The mark on her neck called to him, and he trailed his lips over the glowing knot design he could clearly see. Oren circled his thumb, and she tightened around him, crying out. Her palm met the mark on his chest, and a sizzling current of power shot through him. Dru’s back arched, and he felt her magic burrow into him through the bond, altering the spell he’d used before.
Her nails clawed into the dragon on his bicep as she dug into his ass with her heel. Oren replaced his hand with his cock and plunged forward. She braced herself against his arms and met him thrust for thrust. His hand tangled in her hair, and she dragged his mouth back to hers.
A swirling mix of his pleasure and hers spurred him on, rushing between them through the newly-formed bond. She pleaded nonsense words against his mouth, and Oren palmed her ass to adjust the angle. Dru groaned as she came again.
Oren buried himself in her, surrounded by her scent, and let go. His magic curled around hers in a tangle of power. The hand he’d fisted in her hair relaxed, and he dropped his forehead to hers. The glow from her mark faded in his peripheral vision.
Dru took a jagged breath, and Oren shifted his weight off of her to clean up. After, he kissed her shoulder and pulled her back against him. Dru snuggled closer and sighed. Fatigue hit him hard, but he wasn’t ready to sleep yet.
The magic he’d used to bind them had altered when she’d completed the connection. As his heartbeat calmed, he could feel her contentment. He knew she liked his warmth, knew she wanted to sleep with him curled around her, knew she feared how much she liked him.
Their magic intertwined to carry him past her usual shields to the secret depths of her. With effort, he pulled himself back. Dru drifted in sleep, and she was most likely unaware of what they’d done. She trusted him, and he wouldn’t betray that trust even if retreating felt like cutting off a part of himself.
Oren prodded at the tender spot inside him where he felt the connection to her. The cursory bond he’d created using the marks had transformed into something much stronger, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret the change.
9
DRU
Dru woke up face to face with a dragon. The dark room made it hard to be sure, but enough light spilled over the bed from the city outside that she thought Oren’s tattoo had changed position again. It still draped across his bicep, but the snout faced her instead of away.
She shouldn’t be surprised—he’d told her he was a shape shifter—but he hadn’t realized the position had changed when she’d pointed it out last night. If he’d moved it on purpose, wouldn’t he have known where it was?
Her head rested on his shoulder, and his arms clamped around her. Dru stretched her legs out, giddy that even at almost six feet tall she could only barely reach his feet with her toes. The rough hair on his legs tickled her, and she pressed her lips against his warm skin with a smile.
His fingers splayed across the back of her head, tangling in her hair, and Dru looked up to meet sleepy blue eyes.
“Go back to sleep, kalia. It’s not morning yet.”
Lethargy dragged at her, but Dru found herself content to snuggle next to him in the predawn light. “What’s the deal with your dragon?”
A smile flitted across Oren’s face. “If I answer your questions, will you go back to sleep?”
“Hard to say.”
He tilted his head to graze her hair with his lips, inhaling deeply. “They were right. The scent is like a drug.”
An odd burst of pleasure ran through her, making her squirm against Oren’s hard body. “You’re not going to distract me this time.” Dru ran a finger down the dragon’s snout, like she’d done the first time she saw it. “He’s beautiful.”
“Thank you. His name is Fehr, and he acts as a sort of totem for me. A spirit animal.”
Dru stroked the sleek scales up Oren’s arm, feeling his breath catch under her cheek. “Why does he look like a tattoo?”
“I saved him, and he bound himself to me. He chose to manifest on my skin.”
“Wow, bindings seem really popular among your kind. What does he do?”
“Lends me strength when I need it. Gives his own insight. Other fun things. He likes you.”
The dragon seemed to lean into her touch, but Oren could have just been flexing. Dru rubbed him again, and this time she was sure she felt pressure against her fingertips as well as a distinctive tingle of magic. No matter ho
w jaded she thought she’d become, life had a way of surprising her.
“Hello, Fehr,” she whispered. Later, she’d probably feel silly for talking to Oren’s arm, but the happy buzz of magic against her hand made her grin.
Oren trailed his fingers up her spine, and Dru shivered. “Any other questions?”
She hesitated. Relationships weren’t her thing, so she usually had a policy against sleeping with the guys she let close enough to see her naked. This was the part where she should make an excuse and go back to her own room, except she’d already fallen asleep with Oren. And she wanted to again, badly.
“Stay.” He whispered the word against her hair, and Dru frowned. Had she been that obvious? “Stay, kalia. Get some sleep.”
His hand made a hypnotic rhythm up and down her back, and Dru let her eyes drift shut. She didn’t want to leave. His warmth felt fantastic, and a rigid part of her deep down relaxed.
Oren knew the truth. He knew what lay in her future, knew she couldn’t give more than the moment. The realization freed her to enjoy the time they had. Dru let go of the responsibility and tucked her leg between his.
She’d stay. For now.
The second time Dru woke up, she was alone. The bed carried Oren’s scent, but definitely didn’t carry the man. She buried her face in his pillow, which she’d been cuddling in her sleep, and debated passing out again. Mornings sucked, and she’d rather wake up next to her sexy temporary roommate. Preferably naked.
After a few seconds of half-assed effort, Dru admitted defeat. Her brain had woken up, so the rest of her was doomed to follow. She pursed her lips and sat up, tossing her hair back out of her face. The apartment felt empty, which disappointed Dru. He’d asked her to stay, then left before she got up. Rude.
Honestly, his absence seemed like a huge waste of potential morning sex. Best case scenario, he was organizing breakfast. Worst case scenario, he’d headed back to Aecantha to live out his life as a hermit shepherd. Or something. She was still fuzzy about what they actually did in Aecantha without coffee or Wifi.