Shadow Whispers

by Lexxie Couper

  Besides, he couldn’t wait that long. He couldn’t. As much as he’d like to believe the whole human-as-Fire-Mate thing was some preternatural fuck-up he could ignore, he couldn’t. His croi, his inhuman source of existence, had found hers—whoever she was—and now he had to claim her.

  Claim her, fuck her, brand her and join with her on every level imaginable.

  Within the next twelve hours. Or all his worries about being detected would mean sweet fuck-all.

  Which means you’re not only going to have to climb the cliff buck-naked, but also do a runner through the streets until you can find something to wear.

  Tyson let out another growl, this one a little less human and a whole lot exasperated. He wasn’t a small man. No dragon shifter ever was. At six-five and ripped with muscle, he was pretty damn intimidating to look at. He knew that. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see himself pulling a Schwarzenegger à la Terminator and just walking up to a guy his size, demanding said guy hand over his clothes. While Tyson wasn’t worried about being beaten to a pulp—he was damn near invincible in a physical punch-up, after all—there was that constant social media threat. And the threat of being arrested. That was a situation he could really do without.

  As far as the human world was concerned, Tyson Conley of Sydney, Australia, was thirty-five years old. At least, that’s what Tyson’s driver’s license said. If cops started digging however, they’d discover that identity only went back five years. If they really knew he was over two hundred…

  No. He had to make it to his home without police attention, or if not his home, at least a phone to call his brother. Ryan had stood him up for lunch. In Tyson’s mind, that meant his brother bloody well owed him.

  Okay. So what’s the plan, Stan? Get home, get dressed and get hunting?

  He pushed himself to his feet, wiped off the sand clinging to his naked butt, shook more from his balls and swiped a few grains from the end of his cock. His cock which, he was more than a little dismayed to see, was already growing stiff and fat at the idea of finding his mysterious human Fire Mate.

  Lord love a duck, he’d never had much trouble getting it up, but this was borderline ridiculous. Getting a hard-on just thinking about finding her? What the hell was his dick going to do when he was actually near her again?

  What was it going to do when he was inside her?

  The thought was too much for him. Too enticing and too inescapable. He groaned, his gut clenching, his groin tightening. Her taste filled his mouth, his mind having already stored every possible detail it could from their short, explosive kiss.

  Fire swept over him, again, scalding his senses. His cock jerked, now as hard as it had ever been, the head wet with pre-come. His balls didn’t just ache, they throbbed with exquisite agony. Needing her touch, her tongue, her mouth…

  His knees gave out.

  He stumbled back a step, the mating fire rendering his legs weak. God, he could barely stand. Pain lashed through him, the pain of absolute lust and desire. He fell to his knees, gut roiling, breath caught in his throat. Scary need lanced through him. Consumed him. His cock jerked again, a pulsing spasm that sent wicked pleasure deep into his core. He threw back his head and squeezed his eyes shut. Fuck, he was going to shift. Again.

  He was going to shift unless he did something to stop it. Something to—

  He grabbed his dick. Wrapped his fingers around its thick, rigid length and pumped.

  Raw pleasure burst through him. Raw and concentrated and absolute. It speared into his groin, into his very center. He gritted his teeth, blinding showers of red and orange and white erupting behind his closed eyelids. Ancient hunger and primordial need turned his blood to rivers of molten lust. He pumped his cock, head back, mouth open. The image of his mysterious Fire Mate filled his head. They were her fingers on his cock, not his own. They had to be. If he was to stop the shift, it had to be her fucking him with her hand. It had to be her fingers jerking him off, bringing him to release.

  He thrust into her tight grip, his cock stretching her fingers wide, his pre-come wetting them, making them slick so he could fuck her hand faster. Harder. And he did, moaning as she snared his balls with her other hands and kneaded them with violent force. A blistering summer gust blew up the beach, like a blast from a sand furnace, and Ty cried out, his skin so hot the wind caused an impossible chill to ripple over him.

  His mysterious Fire Mate worked his cock, stroked it, squeezed it. Punished its bulbous head with brutal urgency before pumping again. Her fingers choked the root of his shaft even as she tugged and massaged his swollen balls. He shuddered, the rising excitement in his core licking at his control, running through his veins. The fire simmering beneath his flesh turned hotter, so hot. He cried out again, the sound inhuman. It reverberated around the inlet, bounced off the rocky cliff walls and assaulted him—the mating cry of a creature beyond rational thought.

  God help him, he was close. Close to shifting. Close to coming. Close…so close.

  Fuck her hand. Fuck her hand and believe it’s her mouth. Before you shift and all is—

  He slammed his hand up and down his cock and pictured her mouth sucking it. Pictured her lips stretched. Lips that tasted so sweet, that felt so soft under his. He saw her sucking his dick. Felt her lash its length with the tongue he’d had in his mouth less than an hour ago.

  His skin rippled, the shift so close now his bones began to burn as well. A raging inferno consumed him, a pyre of rebirth he knew couldn’t be tempered or controlled. It was a race. A race to release. Either his climax or his dragon would win, and if the shift claimed him first…

  Fuck, gonna come, gotta come, gonna…gotta…oh fuck.

  A shudder rocked through him. Painful. Violent. He thrust into his Fire Mate’s mouth, fucked it. It was so good. So fucking good. And still the shift loomed closer. His mind, his god-cursed human mind, knew it his hand, not her mouth. His hand, not her cunt. And he needed that mouth and that cunt. Needed them so much. Her sweet pussy that was his and his a—

  He came.

  At the thought of his cock slamming into her sex, Tyson came hard. Ropes of thick seed erupted from his dick, arcing through the air to splash the pristine white sand.

  His release poured through him like liquid energy, and as it left him in powerful jets, the fantasy it was her causing this pleasure overwhelmed him. Overwhelmed the shift and, with one final cry, with one final shudder, he collapsed completely. Naked and covered in sweat and come and sand.

  But human. Thank fucking Christ, still human. At least on the outside.

  But for how much longer?

  He stared out at the calm, cerulean Pacific and saw his Fire Mate running past him. Her flaming ponytail flipping behind her, her sublime body moving for him, only for him, and the dragon he truly was deep in his soul growled with rising, insatiable need.

  He had to find her.

  Now. If not sooner.

  * * * *

  Sera stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her torso. Well, that was a big freaking waste of time and water. Fifteen minutes fucking herself with her own fingers in a desperate attempt to get the memory of her psychotic kisser out of her mind, and who did she see when she finally closed her eyes and came? In hunky, sexy, smoldering vividness?

  Him. Her stranger. It was like he was in the shower with her. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear she could smell him, a spicy smokiness on her every panted, gasping breath. If she didn’t know better, she would have laid money she’d heard him roar with mutual release when she came.

  Of course, what he sounded like when he climaxed was something she totally knew. Not. So what the hell was the whole point of her shower? She was still horny, still thinking of her stranger and now, it seemed, she was insane.

  She shoved the corner of her towel under her armpit in ferocious frustration and stormed across her bathroom. “Brilliant. Freaking brilliant. I’m a skanky ho losing her mind. Just what Mum always want
ed me to be.”

  At the thought of her mother, dead now for close to fifteen years, she pulled a face. Yeah, her mum had been all about maternal guidance and high hopes for her precious little one. As long as the high hopes and maternal guidance didn’t interfere with Mum’s daily poker-machine playing, her nightly bed hopping with whoever offered to pay her rent and her hourly drinking.

  Perhaps Sera really was a chip off the old block, in the end. She did, after all, gladly and willingly play tonsil hockey with a complete stranger today.

  “Stop it, Sera.” She shook her head, willing the thought of her less-than-perfect childhood away. The damp kiss of her hair on her shoulder blades sent a shiver rippling through her, a delightful sensation that made her nipples pinch hard beneath the towel. So what if she’d kissed a guy? It wasn’t like she was now married to him. It didn’t mean she was going to screw him senseless if she ever saw him again. And seriously, what were the odds of that happening? Sydney was a massive place. A person could be lonely in a crowd here.

  And you’re not lonely at all, are you, Sera?

  “Damn, woman.” She rolled her eyes. “What is it with you and the melodramatics today?”

  Sera hurried from the bathroom into her bedroom. She wasn’t lonely. The fact she didn’t really connect with anyone made little difference. She had her cousin. Sure, he was a bit of an oddball, but at least he didn’t give her a hard time about always feeling cold no matter how hot the day, or teasing her for wanting to constantly be in the sun. At least he didn’t call her “lizard” like her work colleagues did.

  She liked her life the way it was, thank you very much. She was doing exactly what she wanted to do—looking after reptiles. One big reptile, in fact. Despite what her fellow animal keepers called her behind her back, how many people in the world could say they cared for a Komodo dragon?

  And how many could say they’d been kissed senseless by a stranger in the street? A tall, dreamy, gorgeous stranger who didn’t faze her cousin’s dog and scared the crap out of a cop? A mysterious man who would bring her to climax after climax after climax if given the—

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake.” The exasperated groan fell in the silence of her room and she dropped onto the edge of her bed. “Now you’re freaking hornier than you already were.”

  This was ridiculous. She wasn’t normally like this. What was going on? Anyone would think the guy had worked some freaky voodoo magic mojo on her to make her so obsessed.

  Letting out a sigh, she slumped back on the bed. Her pussy throbbed with the fading echo of her recent orgasm. Her clit still felt tender. Swollen. What she really wanted now, right now, was her stranger between her thighs, sucking on it, licking it. Nibbling on it with not-so-gentle bites before lapping at her—

  Sera’s belly flipped-flopped and she caught her bottom lip with her teeth. She truly was a skanky ho, it seemed. An insane, skanky ho with an obsession for a guy she didn’t even know.

  “Again, I say brilliant. Freaking brilliant.”

  She lay motionless for a long while, refusing to touch herself no matter how much her body demanded she do so. Her body was a slut. As it had proven today. Once she got herself under control, she’d pull on some clothes and head over to work. It was almost dark. She didn’t normally take the long cross-city commute to the zoo come nightfall and the zoo’s sole Komodo dragon, a cantankerous reptile by the wholly silly name of Puff, certainly wasn’t expecting her. But she felt the need to go see him anyway. See him and take comfort in his ancient presence.

  Okay, now you really do sound insane, Sera. You need to—

  Her doorbell rang.

  She snapped upright, bending her body into an abrupt right angle. The towel dug into her armpits and she let out a little yelp, and another—the latter from ridiculous nerves when the doorbell rang again.

  So are you going to go answer it?

  It rang again. And a fist pounded on the door. An insistent fist.

  Sera pushed herself to her feet and ran for the door. It made no sense, of course, especially when wrapped only in a damp towel, but she had to answer the door. She had to. A warm tension in the pit of her belly demanded it. Told her to run to the door, fling it open and throw herself into the arms of the man every fiber in her being, every molecule in her body, told her was standing on the other side. Throw herself into his arms, wrap her leg around his hip and kiss him until—

  She stopped herself from yanking open the door half a heartbeat after her fingers wrapped around the knob. What the hell was she doing?

  Pulse pounding, mouth dry, pussy aching, she looked down at herself.

  The towel had fallen from her body somewhere between her bedroom and the front door. Her breasts were swollen and heaving, her nipples hard and puckered. Her belly was doing some bizarre, hitching dance, as if it knew what was about to happen and couldn’t wait.

  She sucked in a sharp breath, dismayed and, quite frankly, more than a touch worried, and let out a soft groan. The air smelled of her pleasure. She was so ripe, so ready to be fucked she could smell her own need.

  And even with that horrifying realization, even at the sight of her naked body, at the feel of her juices on the tops of her inner thighs, she was still about to pull the door open. Because on the other side was her stranger, her psychotic kisser. She was sure of it. Completely sure. And she so wanted to be kissed by him again. Kissed and fucked and claimed.

  Holy moly, woman, what is wrong with you?

  She jerked her hand from the doorknob as if it was a snake. An angry snake. Took a step back from the door.

  Stared at it.

  Heard her blood roaring in her ears, like the hungry call of a creature from her dreams.

  The doorbell rang again and she gasped.

  “I can hear your want,” a man called from the other side of the door, his deep voice muffled by two inches of steel-cored wood. “Just as powerfully as I can smell it.”

  Sera gasped again. She scurried back, stare locked on the closed door. He was here. Holy fuck, how could he be here?

  Doesn’t matter. Open the door and let him in.

  She shook her head. “Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin,” she whispered.

  “I’m not a wolf,” he called from the other side.

  Sera didn’t just yelp this time, she squealed. She stumbled back several more steps, mouth open, ready to tell whoever her stranger was to go the fuck away, when her heel came down on the towel so conveniently on the floor behind her. Soft Egyptian cotton slid over polished wood, and before she could save herself, the world slipped under her and she landed on her arse. With a thud. And another yelp.

  “Fuck, that hurt!”

  The door slammed open before the exclamation could finish bursting past her lips, the sound of splintering wood drowning out her cry a second before her mysterious stranger stormed into the house and scooped her from the floor.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Her question squeaked from her. There wasn’t really any other way to describe the way the words came out of her mouth. She squeaked them, like a trapped mouse. Except no mouse had ever been held naked against a chest so broad and hard, by arms so strong and perfect. Oh God, were they strong. And perfect.

  Reality hit her.

  “Put me down!”

  She thrashed in his arms, far too turned-on for her sanity. She writhed and bucked until, with another shout, she tumbled from his strong, perfect arms to her feet. God, she was all about making stupid noises today, wasn’t she?

  She hit the floor with a solid thud, bounced on her feet, stumbled sideways and scooped up her towel as she went. For a surreal moment she saw herself in all her naked glory—damp hair lashing around her face like red strands of rope, boobs jiggling, arms and legs waving about. For another surreal moment she thought thank freaking God I waxed yesterday, and then she was backing up against floor-to-ceiling mirror, knotting her wet towel around her chest and glaring at the man currently standing in her house.r />
  “Who the hell do you think you are?” she spat out between ragged breaths.

  Eyes the color of midnight studied her. He didn’t take a step. He just stood motionless, his tall, imposing, dominating body decked out in snug, faded Levis and a black polo, his gaze trained on her through an artfully messy tumble of glossy raven-black hair. “I—”

  She didn’t let him finish. “How did you find me…are you a stalker? Are you stalking me?”

  He shook his head, a pained expression flashing across features that were way too gorgeous not to be unnerving. “No,” he said, and Sera ground her teeth at the hungry way her body reacted to the deep timbre of his voice. “But I need to—”

  “Fuck off,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes. “That’s what you need to do. Why the hell did you just break in my door if—”

  “I heard you fall and hurt your—”

  “That doesn’t mean you can—”

  “Listen, you need—”

  “Get lost, creep! And to think I just masturba—” She slapped her hand to her mouth. Oh Jesus, had she really almost said what she’d been about to say?

  Her stranger—stop it! He’s not your anything!—cocked his head to the side and took a step toward her. “What did you just do?”

  Sera smooshed herself closer to the mirror and cursed her idiocy—one, for backing her bare butt against a solid surface, limiting her escape options, and two, for opening her big, idiotic mouth. “Take another step,” she snarled, fighting to keep her anger, “and you’re in for a world of pain.” She should have been furious and petrified and panicked. Instead, the closer her stranger came, the more she wanted him, as if she were a cat to his funky-arsed catnip.

  Cat, mouse…what other kind of animal do you purport to be this afternoon, Sera? Goat? Monkey? Lizard?

  Her stranger’s eyes seemed to shimmer with a burnished heat. “I like the sound of that last one.”

  Sera’s mouth fell open. He didn’t just read her mind. No way. “Okay, seriously, take one more step and I’m kicking your balls in!”