Amethyst Bound

by L Shannon

  And the absolutely worst part of it all was the burning need in me to protect Ben at all costs. I wasn’t entirely sure I would let him walk away. A deep part of me whispered that I’d never let him go. I couldn’t protect him if he left me.

  But who would protect him from me? From Amethyst?

  “Are you thinking or ignoring me?”

  “Thinking,” I whispered. “We can go to my house first. I think we can make it in three or four nights. If we stop in the morning near a town, you can get anything you need there.”

  Or leave me then. He hadn’t actually said he was leaving, but how could I miss that the plan he’d outlined was all you, and no longer us? Swallowing a lump, I had to face the truth—he would leave and it was probably for the best. At least for him. I couldn’t help but search his face and see all the hurt he’d already taken after knowing me for less than one night.

  “Do you think it would be better to get some fresh clothes and buy tickets for a commercial airliner?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t explain it, but I’m sure they would think of that and be watching the airports. Besides, I don’t have any ID or money here.”

  “Okay.” He shrugged. “Do you need to rest first or are we leaving right away?”

  I felt tired but not in any way that sleep would help. “I guess we should go right away.”

  His busted lip quirked up. “Can I have my shirt back before you change?”

  “Good idea.” Much as I liked the sight of him shirtless, he’d freeze to death flying without protection. I slipped out of the shirt and dropped it in his outstretched hand. I missed his scent immediately. The cool air tickled over my bare body, but I didn’t bother to hide myself. After all, he didn’t have night vision.

  “Where does the clothing go, anyhow? Is it torn up or melted or something?”

  “I don’t know. It just goes away.”

  “Maybe I should give you some room too. I wouldn’t want to be melted or whatever.”

  I waited for him to move back and then reached for the image of Amethyst. Her glittering body surged to my call and filled my mind with a completeness that eased a little of my pain.

  “You learn quickly.”

  “I’ve always had to.” The dragon form felt so much stronger, almost invincible, but I still ached just as much inside as I had before. I lowered my shoulder and moved my right wing to make room for Ben to climb up. The feel of him clinging to my neck ridges shivered through me. It felt…right. Just as the press of his thighs against my shoulders was comforting, like a hug.

  “He is right for us.”

  Amethyst couldn’t know that. People moved on all the time. In my fear I knew Davis would be one who left.

  “You do not know that. You must give him a chance to prove himself. I can look into his mind and see nothing but acceptance for us. You could see this too if you dared to look.”

  Great, my dragon thought I was a coward. “I believe you, but I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” In a way I did believe her. But thinking he might stay really didn’t change my fear of him leaving.

  I leaped into the air and we swept northward. I figured if we stayed near the coast we shouldn’t have trouble finding smaller towns and villages. We would need the towns to get food, which I was reminded of rather rudely by my growling stomach. Or rather, Amethyst’s stomach.

  “I hunger.”

  Much as I wanted to cover more ground and eat later, I couldn’t argue with her request. It had been quite a while since my last meal and I felt the pangs as strongly as she did.

  “I can hunt quickly. Then we can continue.”

  “Hunt?” Oh no…she wanted to hunt living prey. What would a dragon want to eat?

  “There are herd animals in the wilds below us. One of those should fill me well. I could set Ben down and we could hunt.”

  “Not we, chica. If you are hungry enough to eat food without cooking, fine, but I don’t need to participate.”

  “That could be a problem.”

  “I won’t let my hang-up stop you.” It wasn’t that big a hang-up, after all. “Davis? Can you hear me?”

  “Yes.” There was wonder in his tone.

  “Amethyst wants to hunt. We can put you down to save you the experience.”

  “No need to do that. If she doesn’t mind, I can hang on for a little hunt. What does she plan on going after?”

  He took to it easier than I did. I didn’t bother to pass on the information to Amethyst. I knew she’d have heard him too. I even heard her whisper of a voice tell Ben to hold on a moment before she took control of our flight and dove for a small herd of running guanacos. Their cinnamon-and-light-brown shapes dodged back and forth just beneath Amethyst.

  But the dragon didn’t reach for any of them. She circled lazily and ran the llamalike animals back around. I didn’t think she was playing with them but couldn’t see why she hesitated.

  My breath caught as she struck. She was so lightning fast. With a snap of her jaws and a swipe of one foreleg, she pinned a larger male and crushed its throat in one motion. The other animals scattered then settled almost at once, as if they knew they were now safe from her hunger.

  I, however, was not saved from the experience of her rending the animal into bite-sized bloody morsels.

  “Davis! Please talk to me. I need to be distracted.”

  “What would you like me to talk about?”

  “Anything.” I squeezed my mental eyes shut but it didn’t keep out the scent of the blood or the taste of the hot meat as Amethyst tore pieces off and swallowed them without chewing. “Please, Ben…tell me about your family and where you grew up.”

  “I can do that.” He sent me the image of his hand tightening over mine and even though I didn’t have a hand, I clung to the image. “I grew up in Vermont in a really small town where my dad was the doctor at a small family practice.”

  I could see the image of his father in his white coat.

  “My father was a good man who cared for his family and his patients. He died a couple years ago from a heart attack.” Before I could offer any sympathy, he continued. “Mom still lives in West Castleton, and so does my little sister, Cheryl.”

  I pushed aside the part of me that felt the bone crushing under Amethyst’s powerful jaws. I might revel in how her strength offered us weapons to keep us safe, but I wasn’t ready to deal with the act of her feeding. Or with how part of me was enjoying it. I stubbornly kept my focus on Ben. “Do you visit them often?”

  “I haven’t been back since Dad’s funeral. I was planning on spending some time with them after this dig. I guess that won’t work now.”

  Through our connection I could feel how much he missed his family. Even while I rejoiced at his hinting about an obligation to me, I couldn’t expect him to give up a visit with a family he obviously loved. “You can still go. I don’t want to keep you from your family.”

  “I don’t want to leave you, Toni. Being here with you is where I feel I should be. Maybe after you’re more settled I can make a trip up to see them. Of course, I don’t even know where we’ll be.”

  “I can tell your family is important to you. Let’s see to my boss first and then maybe we can both go up to West Castleton so you can have a nice long visit.”

  “Thank you, Toni. I really do want to see them. I will always regret not seeing Dad before he got sick. I think my mom and Cheryl will both like you. I hope you’ll like them too.”

  A rumbling groan welled up in my dragon body, drawing my mind away from Ben’s distraction. Then, without any other warning, I belched flame out over the ground, searing away the little bit of dry grass.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Ben said. “Maybe next time you can cook the meat before chowing down on it. How did you do that?”

  “I did not mean to breathe fire,” Amethyst answered. “All that meat made me belch and out came the flames. It has been a long time since I controlled my fires.”

  “Let’s hope you d
on’t get the hiccups then.” Ben shifted as if settling in.

  Oddly enough, the tensing motion of his thighs pressing against my skin—scales—was sensuous in an unexpected way. Did he feel anything similar? Or worse, could he feel what I felt?

  “I guess we should be going. This is going to be a long flight and I’m kind of wishing we’d risked the airplane.”

  Amethyst’s voice rolled over us both. “We should be there by morning. Already, we are near to crossing the ocean.”

  “How is that possible? We had half of a continent to cross first…”

  “We travel quickly.”

  That was putting it mildly. If we could go from Bolivia to northern Mexico in one night of flying, I was relieved and more than a little impressed.

  “You should both rest. You might find it unsettling to travel over water, and there will be much to do when we arrive.”

  “How can I rest when we’re the ones flying?” I asked her.

  “You can trust me to navigate, and let go of your need to control our every motion. Just as you backed away from my feeding, you can rest while I fly.”

  I should, but could I give up my need to be in control even with Amethyst? “Can I trust you to not burn down the world while I sleep?”

  “Of course.”

  I heard the laugh in her thoughts and would have smiled if I’d had lips. I’d felt a lot of things from her, but no desperate desire to end the world. Ben shifted around on his space between ridges and I wondered how he would be able to sleep there. Still, if he was trying, so should I.

  “I’ll try to rest. Don’t let Ben fall into the ocean, and let me know if you need directions.”

  Amethyst gave a huff and I laughed mentally at her disgust. She’d never let Ben fall, nor would she admit to needing aid finding my home. Somehow her very human response did relax me.

  Chapter Ten

  I awoke to the sense of coming home. Through Amethyst’s eyes, I looked down and watched in awe as my small cottage came into sight. The biggest wonder of all was that I could see it crystal clear even in the dim predawn light.

  “Our eyes can see well in the dark.” Amethyst settled onto the sandy beach that stretched out in front of my house instead of a yard.

  While Ben slid from his perch, I felt Amethyst yawn mentally. Almost before Ben’s feet touched the ground, I shifted back to human form and my dragon half settled into a restful slumber.

  Ben’s eyes ran over my body like a caress.

  “I have some clothes inside.” Though I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hide from his burning gaze or revel in it.

  “But do you have any food? I’m starving.”

  I didn’t have much food. I rarely kept any perishables in the cottage because I didn’t spend much time here. Still, I retrieved my hidden spare key and opened up my home. It took all my self-control to keep from telling him to not touch anything. The act of inviting another person into my space left me feeling exposed. Or maybe that was because I was hanging around buck naked again… Yeah, that might be it. I hurried in and pulled on a T-shirt and shorts and then wandered back out to where I found Ben rummaging in my cupboards.

  He’d already found my can opener and was digging into a can of SpaghettiOs. I don’t think he even heated it up.

  The urge to tell him to leave my things alone hit me again. Which was ridiculous. My house wasn’t all that homey or personal. Far from it. I had a few trinkets here and there that I’d accumulated from all over the world, but even those were less than personal. Would he see my house as bare, with its basic furniture and limited decorations?

  I pictured how the rooms would look with his books stacked everywhere and was surprised to find the thought pleasing.

  “You really don’t have much here,” Ben said from the kitchen. “I need to head into town to grab some things anyway. Do you want to make a list of supplies for me to pick up?”

  My breath caught at his wording. Why did he assume I wouldn’t be going with him? Was he planning to run again? Could I let him escape me or would I chase after him like a vengeful wife?

  Or possessive dragon…

  “Toni?” He was scribbling out his list.

  “Whatever you want is fine. I’m not picky and at the moment I’m not hungry.” At least not for food. The thought of never seeing him again was raising a fire inside me, a need to mark him, to show him how much I needed him. My suddenly vivid imagination saw me crawling up his body, pinning him to the counter where he leaned. I would devour his scrumptious lips and plunder his hot mouth.

  I didn’t remember walking across the room but there I was, tugging his chin around to meet his lips with my kiss. This wasn’t a mild, kiss-me-goodbye, have-a nice-day-dear kiss. No, this was a singe-your-knickers-off, you’re-mine-forever kind of kiss. I wanted him to know there was no one anywhere in the world who would be able to touch him with fire like I could.

  Dragon fire.

  Damn if he didn’t seem to catch on quick. The pen and paper fell to the floor unnoticed and his arms crushed me against his chest while I bathed him in heat.

  I had control and was not surrendering the lead in this dance. I angled my attack and plunged into his mouth, delving, sparring and conquering.

  Mine.

  I pulled back enough to rip my T-shirt off, and I do mean rip, laughing as Ben’s eyes widened. But better still was when he lifted me onto the counter and buried his face between my breasts. He licked a circle around the pendant, then kissed his way to one tight nipple while claiming my other breast with his hand.

  The combination left me aching and wishing I had lost my shorts too. As the thought crossed my mind, a burst of fire skittered over my skin. And my shorts were gone. Fortunately, Ben didn’t seem to be burnt by the blast of magic. In fact he didn’t even raise his head.

  He did, however, slide his free hand up my thigh, not even hesitating when he ran out of leg. His thumb brushed over me and I bucked into the contact, almost throwing myself from the counter.

  I sank my fingers into his thick hair and anchored his mouth where he sucked at my breast. My blood rushed in a roar through my body. The world spun around me. I wanted the moment to go on, but I wanted to move past it to fill the aching need which left my body crying out.

  His thumb slipped through my folds and caressed in shallow sweeps. I melted against him, opening my thighs wider, demanding more, which he thankfully gave. His fingers joined in and explored my flesh with a thoroughness that stole my mind and offered back a concentration of my senses to this one moment, to the places where our skin collided, to the overwhelming desire that felt like flames sizzling over my flesh.

  He abandoned my breasts with a final kiss to each and sank lower, trailing kisses over my ribs and belly. And then the man nuzzled between my thighs and took me into his mouth. With his fingers still tempting and teasing, his lips and teeth took me over the edge into a shattering release. My body clenched over his touch and I was lost. I fell back, and lay gasping on the countertop.

  Ben’s masculine chuckle rolled through me and then he was standing. I heard the rasp of his zipper. The whisper of fabric. His thrust joining us together was so filling…and just like that, I was back in the game.

  He caught my hands, anchoring me against his motion. I did the same by wrapping my legs around him and straining my thigh muscles to lever myself against him. And still it wasn’t enough. I hovered at the brink of a second orgasm, desperate for that last taste of completion.

  He growled and pulled back, turning me facedown on the counter and joining us once more with the slap of skin.

  The angle was tight and his strokes hard, almost brutal.

  Exactly what we both wanted…needed…had to have.

  Three strokes later we hit that pinnacle together. He buried his face into my hair but must have found it wasn’t close enough. I agreed and turned into his embrace, pleased to feel he had half a stroke left to rejoin us even after the motion.

  Once facing him, I gave
in to the urge to claim and worship his talented lips, catching the lingering taste of my own desire there as well as the flavor that was all Ben. Well, Ben and SpaghettiOs.

  “Mmm.” I burrowed into his arms, feeling peculiarly safe even while the world and even reality shifted around me.

  “Oh no,” Ben groaned into my hair. “I don’t think my legs are going to hold us much longer.”

  “Then my vote is to try out the kitchen floor.” I nibbled at his ear as he slowly lowered us both. When he would have taken the top once more, I twisted, forcing him back until I straddled him, still cradling his body within mine.

  “Damn, you look good up there.”

  I purred as his hands ran over my back and rested possessively on my hips. “I feel pretty good.” I rocked forward, relishing the feel of him under me and reveling in taking control. “We’ve had hard and fast twice now. I want this time to be slow.”

  Like a good minion, he complied willingly.

  Chapter Eleven

  When I came back to earth still wrapped in Ben’s arms, the sun was shining in my kitchen windows. And for it to hit at that angle I knew we had frolicked way past noon.

  Ben’s hard body lay between me and the cool kitchen floor tiles, and his hands stroked down my back. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Is there a cab company this far out or will I have to walk to the last city we flew over?”

  “No, there are no cabs out here, but I have a car parked in the garage on the inland side of the house. You can take it to Mazatlán.” A deranged part of me wondered if he would take my car when he fled or if his conscience would have him leaving the car in town for me to find.

  “Or maybe he will come back.”

  I ignored Amethyst. Sure he might return, but it was safer if I accepted the possibility that his brains would start working again and he’d bolt.