Bryn smiled. “Thank you.”
She straightened, a mischievous glow in her eyes. “Last one in the shower has to wait to use the soap!” She slid the glass door back and stepped inside before Bryn had a chance to move.
Not that he had any complaints when it quickly became obvious what Tegan intended doing with that soap.
First, she lathered it up in her wet hands, and then she began to wash him. His chest. His back. Before moving down onto her knees and going lower.
Bryn’s breath caught and held as her soapy hands moved along the length of his straining cock, taking the bulbous tip briefly into her mouth before she turned her attention to the fullness of the sac beneath. Once she seemed sure he was thoroughly clean there, she soaped down the long length of his legs before slowly turning him.
“What—” Bryn’s question became redundant as he felt those soapy hands caressing and squeezing the cheeks of his ass.
Sixteen hundred years ago, sex with a woman had been something snatched between battles, when only the minimum of clothing was removed. There certainly hadn’t been any water to wash with. Women had obviously become more daring through the centuries, but even so, Bryn still didn’t recall ever having his body washed and examined so intimately by any of them during his sporadic sexual encounters.
“Tegan?” Bryn flinched as he felt her lips against his ass cheek.
“Just checking to see if those muscles really are as taut as they look. They are,” she admired, giving him a playful slap on one of those tight orbs as she rose to her feet and moved to stand in front of him. She looked as smooth and silky as a seal with her wet hair slicked back and the water cascading down her body. The deepening of the glow in her eyes also said she was enjoying herself.
“My turn,” Bryn murmured with satisfaction as he lathered the soap in his hands. He had every intention of exploring Tegan’s body as thoroughly, under the pretext of applying soap and washing her.
He followed the same pattern, hands gliding over her breasts and waist before moving to wash her back. Once he was thoroughly satisfied, he turned her round to face him before dropping to his knees on the tiled floor. Which was harder than he expected but well worth the discomfort as he washed the silky curls covering her mound and then lower. He took his time as his hands soaped her slick channel and the soft pout of her nether lips.
Tegan’s hands moved to tightly grip his shoulders as his caressing fingers moved to the sensitive and swollen nubbin above.
Bryn didn’t relent in the slightest but continued to stroke and caress her clit. He heard Tegan’s breath catch and hold in her throat and felt that erect nubbin begin to pulse beneath his fingers, a sign of her imminent climax. He thrust two fingers inside her spasming channel. The soft pad of his thumb continued to stroke her throbbing clit while his mouth latched on and suckled one pouting nipple, prolonging and deepening her release.
“I haven’t finished yet,” he murmured when she finally leaned weakly against him.
“I think I have,” she breathed huskily.
Bryn grasped her hips to turn her so that he could massage and squeeze the cheeks of her bottom with his soapy hands, making sure to clean every centimeter of her soft, silky flesh before standing up to press the front of his body along the back of hers. “Part your legs, bend forward slightly, and place your hands on the wall in front of you.” He waited until she’d done as he asked. “Whatever you do, don’t bare your neck or nape to my dragon,” he added gruffly as he took a firm grasp of her hips.
Tegan turned to look over her shoulder at him. “Do you have control of him?”
“Barely,” Bryn rasped. “But as long as you keep your head bent forward and your nape safely out of biting range, you’ll be safe.”
Tegan knew exactly how the mating was completed from reading Chloe’s books. If Bryn bit her on the back of her neck, taking some of her blood into his system at the same time an excess of the mating saliva entered hers, then they would be mated for life.
Did she want that?
As Tegan felt the full head of Bryn’s cock breach and then enter her channel, she realized it was becoming more and more difficult to say no.
Chapter 12
As Bryn began to slide his cock inch by pleasurable inch inside her slick and eager pussy, all Tegan could feel and think about was him.
How perfectly Bryn’s cock fit inside her channel while he used both hands on her hips to hold her in place as he began to slowly withdraw his silky length, before thrusting forcefully back inside her contracting sheath.
How perfectly her breasts fit into those large hands as they now moved around and up to cup and massage those aching mounds, fingers pulling on her engorged nipples until she groaned with pleasure.
How excited she was by the sound of the ragged and husky breaths Bryn drew into his starved lungs while his own sexual excitement grew.
How much she enjoyed feeling the slap of his balls against the cheeks of her bottom when he began to thrust hard and long inside her greedy pussy.
How pushing back against him as he thrust forward ensured he hit that spot inside her that caused her channel to convulse and spasm in warning of another rapidly approaching climax.
Tegan reached back, her fingers grasping one of Bryn’s ass cheeks as she pulled him into her harder, and then faster, as she met each and every one of this thrusts. She wanted them to climax together this time.
“Fuck!” Bryn gasped roughly, his thrusts becoming erratic.
Tegan’s meeting of that fierceness ensured he entered her deeply. She felt the climax building inside her and was more determined than ever to take Bryn with her. “Come for me,” she urged. “Bryn, come inside me!”
Bryn wanted nothing more than to do exactly that. His dragon was frantically urging him to do it too. To give in to the pleasure and allow his seed to pump inside Tegan. Claiming her. Impregnating her.
But Tegan was his mate, and her welfare always came first with him. Especially when she hadn’t yet decided whether or not she wanted him as her mate.
He gritted his teeth and kept thrusting until she climaxed, before quickly withdrawing, his hands tightly gripping her hips. He watched as his seed pulsed hotly from the slit of his cock and over the cheeks of her exposed bottom.
Tegan’s pupils were wide when she straightened and once again turned to look at him over her shoulder. Nor did she speak when Bryn gently washed the evidence of his release from her body before turning off the shower. Afterward, he swung her wet body up into his arms, pausing only to grab a towel from the warming rack on his way past, before carrying her through to the bedroom. Tegan stood unmoving in front of him while he gently toweled her dry before placing her beneath the bedcovers.
She reached out to grasp his wrist as he would have straightened. “Do you hate me?”
Bryn’s eyes widened. “Why on earth would you even ask me such a question after what we just did together?”
Tears glistened in her eyes. “You need your mate to complete you. To live.”
Bryn sat on the side of the bed. “I need you,” he corrected softly, fingers brushing gently against the pallor of her cheek. “Only you,” he assured her. “Whether that’s only for a matter of weeks or an immortal lifetime doesn’t matter to me. I found you. That’s all that matters. I found you,” he repeated huskily. “When I had long given up all hope that I ever would.”
“It’s only…” Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. “My mother and father are divorced,” she said evenly.
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded. “It was a horrible and bitter divorce, after which my Irish mother kept custody of me and my brothers,” she continued. “But for about ten years before they separated, it was hell for my brothers and me to live in the same house with them.” She shuddered. “My father returned to England after the separation, and we rarely saw him after that.”
Bryn gave a pained wince. “And you think our mating might end like that?”
“
I don’t know!” she cried. “How can I? All I know about a dragon mating is from reading Chloe’s books and watching Nathaniel and Deryk with Chloe and Izzy.”
“And I’m more dour and taciturn than either of my brothers,” Bryn accepted heavily as he caressed several strands of wet hair from her forehead. “I am less either of those things since meeting you, and hopefully will become even less so with your further influence. Tegan, I will care for and protect you as my brothers do their mates. Nor will I ever be unfaithful or leave you. Any offspring we have would be born into a family of love and nurturing.”
Tegan wanted to shout but what about your love? Your loving me? Will you do that too?
She’d sworn to herself, as she and her brothers watched her parents’ marriage deteriorate into a battlefield, that she would never settle for anything less than love and a promise of forever from the man she fell in love with. A marriage where she and the man she loved promised to always put each other and their family first and to stay together and love each other for a lifetime. That whatever problems they had they would work them out, talk them out, and ensure their love survived.
It all came down to that one word. Love.
The sort of love Tegan realized she now felt toward Bryn.
He was exactly the sort of man she’d always dreamed of falling in love with. Strong. Steadfast. Protective. Gentle. Faithful. So handsome it made her toes curl just to look at him. As for his smiles and laughter—they were all the more precious to her because she knew how long it had been since he’d had that in his life. And his lovemaking… Tegan had never dared to hope for such a full and exciting physical connection with any man.
Except Bryn wasn’t only a man; he was also a dragon shifter.
And dragon shifters didn’t choose their mates; they were chosen for them.
As fate had chosen her to be Bryn’s mate.
That choosing did not include him falling in love with her.
Tegan wouldn’t, couldn’t settle for anything less than Bryn being in love with her. “I want to see your dragon.”
Bryn blinked at this sudden change of subject, wondering at the reason for it, but also willing to indulge his mate in whatever she asked of him. “Now?”
Tegan nodded. “Right now.”
“Go up onto the roof,” Grigor called from the adjoining room. “It’s private up there, and there’s a helipad.”
Tegan glared her frustration at the closed door. “His eavesdropping could get old very quickly.”
Bryn bit back a laugh. “It’s the reason we went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.” He still felt a warmth inside thinking of their lovemaking.
She continued to frown. “I thought he would be asleep by now.”
“How can I possibly sleep with all the noise the two of you are making?” Grigor taunted.
“Pervert,” Tegan accused.
“I prefer the word voyeur,” Grigor drawled.
“Wrap it up in whatever pretty package makes you feel good, but it still amounts to—”
Bryn’s hand placed gently over Tegan’s mouth prevented her from completing that sentence. “Get dressed,” he encouraged softly, removing his hand as he rose to his feet. “And dress warm. It could be cold up on the roof this time of night.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re really going to show me your dragon now?”
He frowned his puzzlement. “It’s what you asked for.”
Tegan threw back the covers and climbed out of bed, no longer seeming self-conscious about her nakedness. “You don’t have to give me everything I want or ask for.” But she quickly pulled on clean underwear, jeans, and a sweater before grabbing a jacket from the wardrobe.
“I will only allow the things I am sure will not bring harm to you,” Bryn assured her as he also dressed.
Her mouth firmed at his use of the word allow, but she obviously decided it wasn’t worth arguing about right now.
Grigor watched the two of them from between narrowed lids as they stepped out of the bedroom. He lay fully dressed on the sofa, needing no other covering for his dragon heat.
Bryn held back a smile as, after one glance at Tegan’s challenging expression, his brother wisely kept any further comments to himself.
Tegan repressed a shiver as they stepped out into the hallway. “Grigor really is overwhelmingly imposing.”
Bryn quirked dark brows. “More so than me?”
She gave the idea some thought before answering. “Probably not,” she finally answered with a grimace. “But you’re my dragon. He’s just plain scary.”
“I will grow on you,” Grigor assured her again.
“Like hell he will,” Tegan muttered, giving an impatient shake of her head as she preceded Bryn out into the emergency stairwell leading up to the roof and down to the other floors.
Bryn followed her up the stairs, a smile curving his lips as he wondered if Tegan realized she’d called him her dragon.
Because he was her dragon. Heart and soul.
He wanted to live with and for Tegan for centuries. To love and cherish her for all those years too. But if she decided otherwise, then he would happily die with her, without question or persuasion to do otherwise.
“Whoa, it’s really windy up here.” Tegan folded her jacket tightly about her as she stepped out onto the roof.
“We are forty floors high.”
She winced. “Don’t tell me that!”
“Afraid of heights?”
“Only when I’m forty floors up on a roof with no visible barriers to stop me from falling over the side.”
Bryn chuckled. “I’d catch you before you hit the ground.”
“Why is it I don’t find that in the least comforting?”
He grinned at her as he walked over to stand in the center of the helipad. “Stand over near the door if it makes you feel safer.”
Tegan did exactly that, no longer sure this was a good idea.
She immediately changed her mind and watched in awe as Bryn’s image shimmered in front of her from man to a dragon at least twenty feet tall.
His clothes evaporated as his body took on a scaly, bronze appearance. Huge wings sprouted from where Bryn’s shoulder blades had been. His four legs were huge, the back legs more muscular than the front ones, and all tipped with the long and lethal black talons she’d once glimpsed at the end of Bryn’s fingers. There were two huge rows of sharp and deadly teeth gleaming in the huge mouth, and while she still recognized Bryn’s intelligence in the bronze eyes in the long-snouted face, Tegan was otherwise looking at the huge and fearsome dragon of myth and legend.
Except Tegan didn’t feel in the least frightened as she walked toward him to raise her hand and touch him on one of those muscular shoulders—withers? What the hell did they call a dragon’s front legs?
Whatever it was… “You’re beautiful,” she admired breathlessly.
“Thank you.”
Tegan stepped back slightly as the sound of that deep voice that was still somehow Bryn and yet came from the dragon standing regally in front of her. She hadn’t realized he could speak in his dragon form. But she should have; Nathaniel and Deryk had done so in Chloe’s books.
Which reminded her, she needed to have a few words with her best friend when next they met. Chloe couldn’t have known Tegan would be Bryn’s fated mate, but she could have at least told Tegan dragons really existed.
“Don’t be afraid.” Bryn lowered his face, his breath warm as he pressed his nose against her shoulder.
“I’m not afraid. I’m just… Seeing you like this is overwhelming. But beautiful.” She felt completely awestruck by the magnificent dragon standing in front of her.
“Would you like to fly with me?”
Her eyes widened. “As in sit on your back and hope I don’t fall off?”
He snorted down his long snout. “As in I’ll carry you in my arms and keep you safe.”
“Won’t someone see us? No, of course they won’t,” she answered her own
question. “No doubt you can cloak my appearance along with your own.”
He nodded his powerful head. “As long as I am holding you, yes.”
Tegan glanced out across the high skyline of New York City. How amazing would it be to fly among those tall buildings while being held securely in her dragon’s arms?
The thought was as terrifying as it was awesome.
“Yes, please,” she accepted huskily.
“Good mate,” Bryn approved.
Tegan didn’t correct the statement, nor did she want to when seconds later she was held in Bryn’s strong front legs as his wings fanned out and they took off effortlessly into the starry sky.
It was as scary as she’d thought it might be at first, but within minutes, Tegan had completely forgotten she was only being prevented from plummeting to the ground by the grip of those strong front dragon legs. Bryn had said he would keep her safe, and she believed in him. Totally.
The amazing view she had of New York as Bryn flew among the tall buildings was probably much like that of a being in a helicopter, but without the annoying noise and bucking of the machine. The unhurried flapping of Bryn’s wings was almost soundless and totally majestic, ensuring a smooth flight. Nor did Tegan feel in the least cold when she was being cradled so closely to the warmth of Bryn’s powerful dragon body.
Nothing, Tegan realized as they swooped and soared undetected, would ever be the same again after this.
She would never be the same.
Chapter 13
“Time to wake up, sleepyhead.”
Tegan struggled through the multiple layers of sleep until she was able to open her eyes and look at Bryn as he sat fully dressed on the side of the bed. Although how he managed to look quite so fresh and alert when they hadn’t fallen into bed until the early hours of the morning, too tired to do any more than fall asleep in each other’s arms—for which, no doubt, Grigor felt grateful—she had no idea. This morning, Tegan felt as if she’d been pulled through a couple of hedges, backwards, and then pushed through them again.
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