Eternal Embers

by Tessa Adams

  She didn’t know what the feeling meant, so she did her best to ignore it—and the way her beast hissed in protest—as she stepped away from him and walked to the passenger side of his now badly dented car. She didn’t know what all these conflicting emotions meant, didn’t know why she was having them now, for this man, after he’d all but abandoned her.

  All she knew was that she couldn’t let them matter. She couldn’t let them change things. She had to take advantage of his sudden change of heart before he decided that leaving wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  “All right, then.” She opened the car door. “Let’s go.”

  The door slammed shut before she could climb inside. He’d followed her, and now he was standing right behind her, his body just a little too close to hers for comfort. “Is there a problem?” she asked, turning to face him. Expecting him to back up at the too-close, too-personal contact. He didn’t step away, though, and suddenly they were face-to-face, chest to chest.

  Her breath caught in her throat and her dragon sighed, stroking itself against the inside of her skin as if it wanted to get even closer to him. She tried to tamp it down, to tell it that it was making a mistake opening up to him again. But the beast wouldn’t listen. It wanted him until it was all but trembling inside of her.

  She didn’t know if Matthew saw it, saw her vulnerability, or if he simply decided to stop fighting himself at the same time she did. Either way, he reached out, cupped the back of her neck and every instinct she had went on red alert, her nerves firing and misfiring as it became that much harder for her to breathe. He pressed at her neck a little, bringing her closer, and she growled a little, deep in her throat.

  His hold was strong, proprietary––and if any other man had tried it with her she would have clawed him. But it was different with Matthew, even after all this time—and hurt. Caitlyn told herself to step back, to get in the car, to move away from him as fast as she could, but her pride wouldn’t let her move.

  Or, at least, that was the story she was telling herself and she was sticking to it.

  “You should let me go,” she said, her voice low and husky and much more inviting than she’d wanted it to be. But the dragon was in control now and no matter what her human side wanted, the beast wanted another taste of Matthew. It had waited sixty years for the privilege.

  “I did that once,” he answered, his eyes as dark and shiny as the onyx pendant she wore almost everywhere. “It doesn’t seem to have endeared me to you.”

  “I—”

  He cut off whatever rambling answer she was going to make with his mouth, his lips firm but soft against her own. At the first brush of them against her own, she felt something inside of her give, melt. Felt the tension that had become so much a part of her in the last six decades simply dissolve.

  And then her hands were in his hair, tangling in the long, silky mess as she pulled him closer, held him to her.

  He groaned a little in the back of his throat and her dragon whined, desperate now to get closer.

  His only answer was a deepening of the kiss, his tongue running along the seam of her lips until she parted them with a gasp. And then he was inside her, exploring her, devouring her, rediscovering all the secrets he’d once known.

  Branding her in a way she wouldn’t soon forget.

  And it was good, amazing, so much better than she remembered. He tasted fresh and clean and crisp, like mint and lemon and cool, sweet water. He tasted wild and exotic, like every dream she’d ever had about him, but had refused to acknowledge.

  He nipped at her lower lip and she moaned—she couldn’t help herself. Even knowing that she was going to get hurt again, even knowing that this strange, powerful thing between them couldn’t last—she wanted more. She wanted everything they had once had, brief as it had been. Wanted everything and more.

  Moving her mouth against his, she loosed the reins on her dragon and let the beast take control. It went wild, desperate for a piece of him. Her talons burst through the ends of her fingers, scraped gently against his scalp before she shifted her hands, ran them down his back in slow, excruciating detail.

  He gasped at the feel of her claws against the sensitive skin of his spine, arching into the embrace as if he couldn’t get enough of it, as if the feel of her nails excited him. She pressed a little harder, not hard enough to draw blood but more than hard enough to get a reaction from him.

  His eyes flew open, his hands sliding down her own back to cup her ass and pull her forward, until her lower body was meshed against his rock hard erection.

  Her knees went weak at the first contact and she wrapped herself around him, let him hold her up as she strained to get closer. She wanted him inside of her, needed to feel him moving over her, his naked body pressed against hers one more time.

  With a muted roar and one, quick downward slice of her talons, she ripped the back of his shirt straight down the middle.

  Chapter Five

  Matthew nearly came as Caitlyn literally ripped the shirt off his back. It had been so long since he’d held her, touched her. So long since he’d had any human contact at all, let alone this feast of the senses. He wanted to gorge himself on her, to devour every part of her until she lived inside of him once again.

  He’d spent the last sixty years trying to forget the feel of her, the scent of her, the deep down rightness of being with her. Now all he wanted to do was remember. Tangling his hands in her thick, blonde curls, he pulled her head back just a little, breaking their kiss despite her little moan of protest.

  The sound tore through him, nearly made him dive back in, but he wasn’t ready yet. He wanted to look at her, to see—There. There it was. Her eyes were darker now, and swirling, the color of the storm-tossed Atlantic just as a ribbon of sunlight broke across its surface. And there was her dragon, her beast, the wild heart of her peeking out at him through long, tangled lashes.

  During their brief time together all those years ago he had longed to see her shift, the most private part of him desperate to see the most private, powerful part of her. She hadn’t done it, though, and he’d had to content himself with glimpses of her dragon. In her eyes, in the suddenly rough hands that caressed him, in the wild sounds she made when he slipped inside her. It had made him crazy, made him desperate and he had nearly said to hell with his search. To hell with finding something that would end his torment once and for all. He had found Caitlyn and she was more than enough for the dark, wild heart of him.

  Or so he’d thought.

  He blocked off the memories, the nightmares and horrors that he couldn’t escape from. And focused on the feel of her soft, sexy body against his.

  “Matthew, please,” she murmured, her body straining against his as she tried to align her mouth with his once again. The second her lips met his, he exploded, imploded, caught fire in the most desperate, painful way. Her lips nibbled at his as her tongue stroked the inside of his mouth and he knew that she was going to burn him alive if he didn’t do something to stop her, to slow down the meltdown he was speeding toward.

  Dropping to his knees in front of her, he peeled her jeans down her long, long legs, stopping only to smile at the scrap of black lace that covered only the barest essentials. Then he leaned forward and pressed a kiss against the lace-covered heart of her.

  She gasped, moaned, pressed herself against him and he fought the urge to rip her panties off with his teeth. Instead, he slid them slowly down her legs and tossed them on top of her discarded jeans.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured. “So goddamned beautiful it turns me inside out.”

  “Then take me,” she told him, the words dark and guttural. Her dragon was in control now—he felt it, saw it, and something rose up inside of him at the knowledge. Something primal and indescribable and so possessive that he almost didn’t recognize himself.

 
Then he was moving, shifting, stripping her and himself. When she was gloriously, amazingly naked, he paused for a moment, just to look at her. Heat swept through him, along with a need to possess her, to devour her. To claim her in every way a man could claim a woman.

  He reached out a callused finger, circled first one dark pink nipple and then the other, reveling in the feel of her and the way she trembled and arched into his touch.

  “Matthew, please,” she whispered.

  “Please what, sweetheart?” He was so turned on that it was hard to talk, hard to think, but he had to know that she wanted him, needed him, as much as he did her.

  “Take me.”

  “Oh, Caitlyn, I will. Believe me, baby, I will.” He lowered her to the ground, shifting so that he was on the one lying against the still warm desert sand and she was the one above him. She pushed up until she was sitting upright, straddling him.

  “This doesn’t change anything,” she told him.

  It changed everything, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. Not now, if it meant risking being turned away before he got the chance to be inside her again.

  Instead of answering, he clamped his hands on her hips, pulled her forward and up until she was poised above him. Her knees on either side of his head. Her beautiful pussy aligned directly with his mouth.

  “Matthew—” she whimpered, her hips moving frantically against his hands. “I need—”

  “I know, sweetheart. I know,” he whispered, blowing directly on her clit. She gasped, screamed a little, and he took her higher, thrusting his tongue deep inside of her.

  Caitlyn arched beneath the onslaught, her dragon ripping and clawing at her as pleasure overwhelmed them both, sensation after sensation flooding her. Frightening her with the intensity of her response to him even as she craved more. Craved everything. She struggled for a moment, against him and the overwhelming feelings inside of her, but Matthew held her still, his strong arms and hands allowing her no surcease from the pleasure that was all but tearing her apart.

  “Matthew, that’s enough! I can’t take any—”

  “You can.” His voice was low, dark, more wicked than ever before and when she glanced into his eyes, she swore she saw flames flickering there.

  And then his tongue—his talented, titillating tongue—went from deep thrusts to long, luxurious licks that had release building along every nerve ending she had. Then he was pulling her clit into his mouth, sucking on her gently even as he looked deep into her eyes.

  It was an incredibly intimate moment, one the scared, hurt core of her wanted to deny, to ignore. To run away from. But he wouldn’t let her retreat, wouldn’t let her back away from the physical sensations or the emotions that were slamming into her one after the other.

  Her dragon screamed and she could feel it moving, just below the surface of her skin. It was as desperate for release as she was, maybe more so, and as Matthew’s hands slid up to cup her breasts, to pinch her nipples, her beast went insane. Her talons slammed through the tips of her fingers and she buried her hands in the sand in an effort to keep from raking them down Matthew’s sides and chest.

  But he was having none of it. He growled low in his throat, grabbed onto her hands and placed them on his chest and stomach, so that she was leaning back, her breasts thrusting skyward and her body completely open to him.

  He arched against her and she flexed her fingers just a little, digging her talons into him as he seemed to want, to need. Not hard enough to draw blood, but more than enough to mark him. To brand him.

  In response—or reward, she wasn’t sure which—he thrust first one finger and then another inside of her. Stroked her G-spot at the same time he licked around the tight bud of her clitoris. Orgasm slammed through her—fast and hard and never-ending—and she screamed. She couldn’t help herself, couldn’t control herself. All she could do was ride the wave of sensation after sensation as they swept through her.

  Matthew grinned against her, then pulled her clit into his mouth and began to suck. His hands grabbed onto her hips, held her in place above him as he continued to torment her. Sucking, licking, spearing his tongue deep inside of her, he loved her until one orgasm blended into another. And another. Until she was so sensitive that just the feel of his breath against her clit could send shivers of ecstasy down her spine. She couldn’t talk, couldn’t think, could barely breathe and still he persisted, until she was mindless and her dragon was completely defenseless.

  “Matthew, stop. Please,” she finally gasped. “I can’t take anymore. I can’t—”

  “You’ll take more,” he growled, thrusting his tongue deep inside of her. “You’ll take everything, Caitlyn. Everything you want, everything I have to give. Again and again and again.”

  He nipped at her then and she exploded all over again, orgasm after orgasm rolling through her as stars exploded behind her dazed eyes. Finally, when she was on the brink of insanity and her dragon was a quivering mess deep inside of her, he pulled her away from his mouth and rolled so that she was beneath him, her body still trembling from the last orgasm he’d given her.

  She grabbed onto his shoulders, her talons digging deep without her knowledge or consent. “Please, Matthew, please. You have to fuck me. You have to—”

  Caitlyn’s whispered pleas ran through him like a live electric current and he felt the stranglehold he’d held on himself and his own desires suddenly snap. With one powerful thrust, he buried himself deep within her. She was slick and hot and so fucking tight that for a moment he thought he was going to lose it before he could so much as take a breath.

  Then she whimpered, her hands pulling at his hair until he was once more looking her in the eye. He gasped at what he saw there—at the beauty of both Caitlyn’s forms that were staring out at him.

  She wrapped her legs around him, pulled him even deeper as her nails continued to dig into the heavy muscles of his back, and he knew he wasn’t ready for it to end yet.

  He rode her hard, his hands braced beneath her hips to lift her higher, open her wider. Over and over he thrust into the wet heat of her until he was on fire, flames of ecstasy burning through his brain, down his spine, over his cock. And still he slammed into her, not ready for this connection between them to end. Determined to bury himself so deeply inside of her that she would forgive him anything, even his boorish behavior of long ago.

  Though it was nearly dark and the desert had cooled considerably since she had landed on front of his car, sweat beaded on his forehead, rolled down his chest and back, and still he continued thrusting. His entire body trembled, his cock screamed for relief and still it wasn’t enough. Still he wanted more.

  He pulled back, draped her legs over his arms and went at her again, harder, deeper. She was sobbing now, screaming, her internal muscles clutching at him with every thrust. Her nails were digging into his hips, drawing blood with every push of his body. Her head was thrashing back and forth, her entire body quivering as he drove into her with all the power and pain that had made him who he was.

  He was buried deep, his mouth fastened on the inside of her knee when he felt another orgasm rip through her—a deep, dark wave so intense, so powerful, that it swamped him, buried him and dragged him under. He felt his own climax rip through him, the tight pulses of her body sending him straight to the edge and then over into the yawning abyss of sensation that waited for him.

  It started at the base of his spine and spread outward—through his cock, his stomach, up his back, around his chest. Pleasure and pain, power and passion roaring through him, flowing from him to her and back again as he emptied himself deep inside of her.

  Chapter Six

  “This doesn’t change anything,” Caitlyn repeated, even as she stroked her hands through Matthew’s thick, dark hair. She didn’t know who she was reminding—him or herself—but she felt the need to say it. The
passion was still there between them, no doubt about it, but that didn’t mean she was going to leave herself vulnerable to him again. Once in a lifetime was more than enough for that kind of punishment.

  He levered himself onto his elbows, stared down at her with an indulgent grin that did nothing to hide the shadows in his eyes. “This changes everything,” he told her, “whether you want it to or not.”

  “No,” she said, fear coming back to life inside of her. She struggled to get out from under him. He tried to hold her in place, but she bucked and twisted until she was free. As she rolled away from him, her dragon roared a little, alarmed at the panic coursing through her.

  “This was just scratching an itch. Nothing more.” She knew she sounded desperate, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t love him again. She just couldn’t.

  His smile faded. “That was one hell of an itch you had, sweetheart.”

  The words hit her hard, had her face flaming with heat. But she refused to back down, not on this. “Maybe it was, but that doesn’t change the fact that this was a onetime deal.”

  He sprang to his feet with all the grace and power of a dragon, his long, lithe body not so much walking as flowing as he stalked her. Her dragon approved, rubbing itself all over her from the inside even as she took a few cautious steps away from him.

  “Don’t run away from me!” he snarled.

  That had her feet locking in place, her spine stiffening in a way nothing else could have. “I think you have me confused with yourself. I’m not the one who likes to run.”

  She watched as the words struck him, knocked him back. But it only lasted for a second before he was absorbing them. Moving beyond them, and the past that suddenly seemed to shadow her every thought.

  “I was an ass,” he said. “A blind, stupid ass who freaked out and ran at the first sign of happiness he’d experienced in nearly a century. And I’m sorry.”