by Chloe Cole
Probably, she should feel shy. Probably, she should at least make an attempt at modesty and cross her arms over her chest. Instead, she found herself letting her eyes drift open to meet Drake’s hungry gaze.
Look at me. Drink me in.
His muscles flexed as she took the first step into the pool. The water was warmer than the air around her and she gasped in pleasure as it enveloped her to mid-calf. She’d barely made it to the second step when Drake dove beneath the glass wall again and came at her.
He stopped five feet in front of her and stood, water sluicing down his face and chest.
“You should go.”
There was an edge to his voice she’d never heard before. Something that made her shiver with a heady mix of nerves and anticipation.
She took another step down.
“Look, I know your game. We’ve played it before, and I’m telling you…” His green gaze raked down her neck and over her breasts before flicking back to meet hers. “Not tonight. I can’t do it.”
She swallowed hard and gripped the handrail as she took the last step, submerging herself in the water up to her waist. Then, she waded toward him until he was close enough to touch.
She reached out a hand and laid it on his chest before drawing back with a gasp.
“Why is your skin so hot? And your eyes…they’re so glassy.” A sizzle of fear snaked through her. “Drake, are you sick? What’s happening to you?” Shifters blood ran hot, but this was something else.
“You,” he bit out finally. “Being near me. I guess you haven’t gotten that far into the books yet,” he muttered with a bitter bark of laughter.
“What do you mean?”
“Dragons.” He blew out an unsteady breath and clenched his hands at his side. “We’re not like other creatures. Sexual desire…need affects us in a much deeper way. To covet and have it right in front of you like this and not have is like a sickness. A fever.”
“Oh my god.” She held a hand to her mouth as her stomach clenched with guilt. “Drake, I didn’t know.”
“It’s not your problem. I made a promise to you and I am going to keep it, but just for tonight, I need you to give me a break. I’m hanging by a thread right now and I can’t be held responsible for what I might do if you push me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” she demanded in a horrified whisper.
“It’s for me to handle and I’m handling it.”
“By suffering?”
“It wasn’t this bad at first. I was able to take the edge off myself, but it’s getting harder every day. I just need some space.”
“No,” she said softly, stepping in close enough to feel the heat radiating from him.
He winced and pinched his eyes closed. “Jesus Christ, Willa, please, don’t.”
“No. Because I’m through playing games, Drake. I want this.” Her voice grew stronger as she spoke. “I don’t know where we go from here, but I want you. I want to see what it can be like between us.”
His eyes shot open and he stared at her, his gaze searching. “Are you sure? I won’t ask again.” His words were half warning, half plea.
Was she sure? Maybe not about the future, but she was sure about this.
She reached out and laid a hand over his pounding heart. “Yes.”
He let out a low growl and dove at her, crushing his hard chest against her soft breasts dropping searing kisses from the column of her throat down to her belly button before licking his way back up to her mouth. Even though she herself was on fire, his tongue was hot against her skin, scorching her flesh and making her squirm.
“Night after night, little wolf. I lie awake, staring at the ceiling thinking about this,” he growled between sharp nips and sucking kisses. “Even when I close my eyes, the visions are tattooed on the back of my eyelids. You sitting astride me, riding my cock. Me with my face between your thighs, licking until you scream. You on your knees, sucking me off.”
His words made her thighs clench with a need so keen, it took her breath away, but he wasn’t done yet.
He slid a hand below the surface of the water and cupped her core, squeezing hard enough to make her gasp. “I can’t get the feel of you out of my head. So tight and slick. It’s haunted me since that first night. Sharing your bed and not touching you is heaven and hell all at once. Like the gods blessing me and Satan testing me all at once.”
He groaned and dropped his head to capture one nipple between his lips, sucking hard before releasing it with a pop and moving to the other and taking it between his teeth. A moan was ripped from her lips, like she'd been holding in the sound for years without knowing.
"God, yes," she ground out the words, barely managing to squeeze them past her sandpaper throat. She speared a hand into his hair and held him there as he ground the heel of his palm against her clit, sending wave after wave of ecstasy coursing through her. "I want to feel you inside me." Raw desperation coated every syllable, and he sucked deep on her nipple, as if rewarding her honesty. “Please, Drake.”
When he thumbed her sex, she nearly exploded, rocking into the touch, hoping he would go on. To tease her clit. To push his fingers inside her and relieve the rising ache before it consumed her.
“Next time, we make it last,” he vowed with a growl. “But right now? I can’t wait.” He backed her against the side of the pool, and pushed her legs apart roughly with his knee, spreading her wide to him. “You’re mine, little wolf.”
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on his words through the blood pounding in her ears but then he was there, his swollen cock pressed against her. His hand snaked around her neck in a commanding grip as he forced her to meet his gaze.
“Mine,” he growled as he arched forward, plunging his huge, hard, length into her.
She gasped at the invasion and gripped the edge of the pool behind her, trying to hold on to something earthly so that she didn't slide from the face of the world. There was pain, but it was a pain like she’d never felt before. Pain laced with revelation.
She opened and closed her mouth wordlessly as Drake’s fingers clenched around her throat and he bared his teeth.
"Fuck," he ground out, and though she tried to respond, she couldn't find the words. She was panting too hard. Her mouth was too dry. She was too racked with lust, and want, and need. Too tied up in him to focus on anything else but the sensations rocketing through her.
And then he was moving. Not slowly. Not gently. A steady, pounding rhythm that made stars explode in front of her eyes. So full. So right.
His expression grew more fierce, and he leaned in to press his forehead against hers.
“Ah, when you bit me the other night, love.” He punctuated each word with a thrust. “I was nearly undone.”
She tried to answer, but a building scream was locked in her throat. She was so close and the feel of his thick shaft dragging along her flesh with every movement was near torture now, it felt like the whole world was coming down around her.
He slipped a hand between them and pressed his thumb to her clit. Her pussy clenched even more tightly around him in response, pushing her ever closer to the brink of orgasm.
"So good. So fucking perfect." He flicked the little bundle of nerves and she cried out, giving voice to the need. He grunted in response, diving in to take her mouth, teasing her lips apart until his tongue swept out to meet hers in a swirling frenzy even as he pushed into her harder, faster.
The lapping of the water against her ass, the sound skin slapping against skin. It all faded away until there was only his hard cock, driving into her, working her until she shuddered.
The orgasm hit her so hard, her knees buckled, but he held fast, murmuring against her mouth as he rode it out, making it last. Waves of pleasure crashed over her, wrecking her, saving her, making her whole. The spasms shook her from head to toe as her pulse careened out of control.
Again, she tasted blood, but this time it was her own as his teeth clamped down over her lip in a
sharp nip before he pulled back to stare down at her, the heat in his eyes reaching a fever pitch. She still hadn’t gotten her breath back when he murmured, “Once more, little wolf.”
She was everything.
Strength and softness. Give and take. Innocence and sex incarnate.
He couldn’t get enough. But the pressure building in his balls wasn’t going to be denied much longer and his inner dragon clawed at him, desperate for long-awaited satisfaction.
Once more, he wanted to watch the apples of her cheeks turn from pink to rose and finally to scarlet. Wanted to watch her bite down on her lip or close her eyes as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her. Wanted to watch her mouth become a perfect “o” when she dove over the cliff and came, so hard that her pussy clenched him like an unseen fist.
He worked her clit with his thumb, circling her slowly, and then faster and faster still. Already, he could feel the tension returning to her as her stiff nipples branded his chest.
He pinched his eyes closed and listened to the pounding of his blood in his own ears, felt the throb of his cock inside her.
"Again, little wolf. Come for me again."
He lifted her until her legs were wrapped around his hips and she arched into him. Head tossing restlessly, heels digging into his back, pulling him so deep that the world swam in front of him and there was nothing but pure, raw need.
He took her hips in a punishing grip and worked her faster over his cock, claiming her as his own with long, hard strokes that made her breasts bounce. Her pussy spasmed around him and she cried out his name as she climaxed. Hot liquid pooled in his balls, locked and loaded for launch as her channel squeezed him rhythmically, dragging him over the edge.
And then he was coming. Spurting into her as his muscles quaked and every nerve-ending fired at once. A roar of satisfaction built in his chest and he let it rip, thrusting into her with every ounce of need, every bit of want that had built over their nights together as he exploded.
By the time the blood returned to his head and his vision went clear, her legs had slipped from around him to lie limply in the water.
He realized dimly that his fingers were still digging into her hips hard enough to bruise and he released his grip with a muttered curse.
As good as it was, as languid as his body felt after so much pent up frustration had been released, his gut churned with concern.
“Did I hurt you, love?”
Her thick lashes swept open and she met his gaze with a soft smile. “God, no. I mean, yes, some. But it was…exactly right. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Relief shuddered through him and he leaned in to press a hard kiss to her swollen mouth.
“I’m glad.”
He bent low and scooped her into his arms, relishing the feel of her soft, damp flesh against his. She snuggled in close with a sigh and looped her arms loosely around his neck, making his heart swell with satisfaction.
Wordlessly, he carried her to the stones surrounding the pool and dried her off gently with his towel before attending to himself.
The silence that reigned was a comfortable one, and he didn’t feel the need to fill it. For his part, he was still in awe. When he’d been offered her hand, he’d hoped for a sexually compatible companion. Someone to share his bed and, someday, bear his child. He’d never hoped for this. To find someone who felt so right in his arms. Someone who he admired and whose company he was coming to crave more than breath itself.
They climbed into bed, and she instantly curled into him, pressing her sweet body to his, burrowing her head into his shoulder.
It wasn’t until her breathing had gone slow and even, the last of the tension leaving her in sleep, that the guilt crept in.
If he admired her so deeply, how could he justify keeping her here if she wanted to go? Had tonight moved her enough to make her want to stay, willingly? Or, if he gave her the choice, would she leave him?
Did she even belong here, stuck on a mountain, just the two of them? While she’d spent time researching dragon lore, he’d done his homework as well. She was a wolf. A pack animal. She needed her kinsmen and space to run. Was he selfish enough to keep her locked away in his cold, dreary life?
He glanced down at her and smoothed away a strand of hair that had fallen over her face. And suddenly, all that was muddled became clear.
He couldn’t force her to stay. Not anymore. Not…
If he loved her.
Chapter Fourteen
Was this what love felt like?
Drake’s arm clenched even more tightly over her waist and he tugged her in closer, his warm breath ruffling her hair as he slept.
It was silly, to be sure. How could she possibly be in love after only a week’s time? Half of which had been spent fighting tooth and nail to escape. It was ludicrous.
But as she traced the veins in his muscular forearm with the tip of her finger, felt the rise and fall of his chest against her back, she couldn’t deny that she felt something.
Something exciting, and instinctual and fragile. Something she’d never experienced before. Something she wasn’t ready to let go of.
Her inner feminist railed at the thought. In what world did a woman get treated like a commodity to be bought and sold, only to fall for her captor?
To be fair, though, initially, Drake didn’t know she wasn’t aware of the arrangement. And, while he’d forced her to stay, he hadn’t forced anything else. In fact, every time things had gotten intimate, it had been by her hand. That didn’t make him a saint by any stretch, but the more time she spent in his company, the surer she was that, if a time came where he was certain she would never truly come around and want to be there?
He would let her go.
Forget the macho speeches about dragons keeping what belonged to them. Drake was a good man. And, if she was right in her thinking, he actually cared about her.
The truth of that thought resonated through her whole body and seeped into her bones, warming her from the inside out.
He murmured something softly in his sleep, which she was pretty sure sounded like “omelet”, and she found herself grinning like a fool.
She kind of wanted to cook for him. To see his appreciation as he dug into something she made to please him. Dear god, was that what sex did to a person’s head?
She stared out the glass wall into the starry night, replaying every second, every touch, over in her mind. His hands were magic. Even now, her flesh tingled in remembrance.
Could it be that she was still euphoric from all the orgasms? That she was romanticizing what she had with Drake because he’d been her first?
Whatever the case, she clearly had some thinking to do. What harm would there be in staying for a while? Seeing if what was blossoming between them was real?
Part of captaining her own ship was the willingness to take the route straight in front of her, even if it was the one she’d been set on by someone else. Continuing her attempts at escape now, just to assert herself and thwart her parents would be like cutting of her own nose to spite her face.
Because she wanted to stay.
In this moment, with his arms around her, she couldn’t think of anywhere she’d rather be.
The rightness of it washed over her like a reassuring hug and she let out a soft sigh. Who knew what tomorrow might bring? But for now, she was going to trust her instincts.
She lifted Drake’s arm off her and wriggled as carefully as possible away from him, to the edge of the bed. With one last look at his relaxed, handsome face in the moonlight, she swung her legs over the side of the mattress to stand.
Midnight snack in bed, coming up.
She padded across the room to the bathroom. Her muscles felt fluid and loose, but there was a subtle soreness between her thighs. Not pain, exactly. She just felt taken.
And taken well.
She pursed her lips to keep from grinning like an idiot and plucked one of Drake’s black robes from the hook on the back of the d
oor. She slid her arms into the soft material and belted it loosely around her waist.
It had been a while since she’d cooked for anyone. When she was with her pack, they typically ate their dinner meals at the main house and they were prepared by one of her packmates who was a far better chef than she could ever hope to be. But breakfast, she could do. She made a mean plate of eggs and bacon, and couldn’t wait to show off her skills to Drake.
When she reached the main floor, the hair on the back of her neck rose. It was chilly without the fire to be sure, but that damned ominous skull-throne, lit by the light of the moonbeams pouring in through the back window made her throat tighten with revulsion. If she was going to stay, that thing was going to have to go. Even if it was a joke, it was creepy as hell.
She averted her gaze and bustled through the great room with her head down.
She pushed open the kitchen door and was instantly soothed by the relative warmth of the room. Copper pots and pans gleamed, and her gaze was instantly drawn to the double ovens. Hell, maybe she’d even try to whip up some biscuits. After all, how hard could it be?
Thwap.
Willa whipped her head to the left at the sound still reverberating through the room.
What the hell was that?
Thwap!
Her heart raced as she narrowed her eyes and clutched the robe more tightly around her waist. Either something was seriously wrong with the pipes behind the far wall or someone was trying to get into the house.
Etienne?
Her mind reeled wildly, recalling an image of the charming Frenchman before rewinding even further to a memory of his much larger, much more terrifying incarnation.
Etienne’s dragon? Would he really challenge Drake by breaking into his home to get to her?
A flash through the window caught her eye and a pair of incandescent eyes gleamed in the darkness. Her throat closed as she took a slow step backward and then another, creeping toward the kitchen door. Had he—it?—seen her yet? If not, it was best to keep her movements at a minimum. But if so? She should be running like hell.