He shoved away from the wall and went to the phone beside the bed. He really needed to call Dar and find out if there was any news about his brothers, but then again, maybe he should contact the council. He needed to let them know about their flight and see about getting some men to the airport to help protect his mate. He would not take chances with Alvena’s life.
He dialed the number he knew so well and waited. It rang several times, before a familiar voice picked up.
“Hello, Marcus, this is Kai.” He waited for the man to stop babbling at him, before continuing. “Aye. I know. I hope Dar has kept you filled in.”
“Yes he has, but Kai, you should have contacted us sooner. We feared the worst. Dar said that three of you have found your mates. Is that true?” Marcus responded in his calm but authoritative voice. As an Enforcer on the current Council, Marcus had an innate need and ability to get the answers he felt he needed to protect his people.
“Yes. Myself, Charlie, and Malkum. However, what with the attacks and us running to keep ahead of them, we haven’t been able to really get any farther than telling the women about the Dásreach and that they are our mates. Truthfully, I have no idea what is going on with Charlie or Malkum. The last I talked to Dar, Charlie had reported in, but had refused to really tell him anything.” Kai explained to the man that he knew from his many meetings with the Council.
“What’s your plan? Where are you?” The Council Enforcer wanted to know.
“Well, that’s why I’m calling. Alvena and I are going to be taking a flight from Shreveport to Denver tomorrow morning. We’ll be coming in on United Airlines flight number 6099. It should get in around 12:30 p.m. I would like to have some men waiting on us. I don’t want to take a chance of my mate getting hurt. However, there is a traitor in the Dásreach and he is telling these arses where to find us. We had to escape just yesterday again.” Kai’s anger was simmering too close to the surface.
He took several deep breaths and found a bit of calm. Thinking of Alvena helped, of her warm skin and moans from the night before. His skin began to burn for a completely different reason and his mind wandered. Kai prayed that he hadn’t messed things up with his stupidity from earlier. He hadn’t stopped to think how his actions would affect her. He had only thought of getting the flight they needed to get her to safety. His blood ran cold at the thought of losing her just as he had found her. To never touch that skin, look into those eyes, smell that mix of flowers and cinnamon that was uniquely her would devastate him. She might not believe it, but it would. She was the only one for him and he had to get her to see that.
“Kai. Kai, answer me.” Marcus must have been talking to him for some time based on the irritation in his voice.
“Sorry, Marcus, it’s just… well… she’s my mate.” Kai replied lamely. The man on the other end chuckled.
“Oh, yes, I had forgotten about the troubles of first finding a mate. I don’t envy you that. But, I will help you keep her safe. Men will be waiting on you in Denver. I will try to be with them or if not, hopefully, Jenson.” He replied.
“I appreciate it.” He heard the hair dryer stop in the bathroom. “I better go. I still have to call Dar and Alvena is almost done with her bath. Until tomorrow.”
“Until tomorrow, Kai.” Kai could hear Marcus still chuckling as he hung up the phone.
He sat for a minute, listening to the sounds of his mate in the bathroom. He could get used to listening to those noises each and every night as she got ready for bed or every morning as she got ready for the day. Even the small things about her intrigued him. Maybe he could call Dar tomorrow he thought as he heard the door creak open. Alvena stepped out in a rush of heat and moisture. She stood by the door looking uncertain in the t-shirt and shorts he had bought her in the nightwear section. They looked like something that could be worn out, but he could tell she was uncomfortable in them as she tugged at the shorts to make them come down longer on her shapely legs. Damn. The sleep outfit might be just a tad small on her. Kai grinned and his breath hitched as he followed those glorious legs to her toes.
“Did you say you wanted to take a shower?” Alvena asked.
“Oh. Yeah.” Kai responded a bit suggestively, before realizing how he had said it and grinning as Alvena’s cheeks reddened.
Her blush deepened as he jumped to his feet and walked to her.
“I’ll just get that out of the way before I eat then shall I?” Kai winked at Alvena, “The food is on the desk if you want to go ahead without me.” He offered.
“Oh, that’s okay. I can wait for you.” She answered as she looked up into his eyes.
He tucked her hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek.
“It won’t take me but a couple of minutes.” He slid his fingers down her jaw line, letting them reluctantly trail off of her silky skin, before turning to grab his bag of clothes.
He hurried into the bathroom and closed the door before he could change his mind and before Alvena could even respond. Sometimes it was good to be Dásreach. The extra speed would keep him on track to make up for his earlier mistake. As he adjusted himself, Kai realized that if they were going to eat, a cold shower was on his agenda. Might as well get it done, he thought as he stripped and stepped into the shower. He flipped the lever all the way to cold and tried to calm his thoughts and blood.
***
Al sat and waited for Kai in the orange chair. She had thought about getting into the bed and curling into the blankets, since the t-shirt and shorts didn’t cover much and after the bath her heated skin was chilled by the cooler air in the room. However, she was nervous about Kai coming out of the bathroom to find her there. He said he would only be a few minutes. So, it wouldn’t kill her to wait for them to discuss the room arrangements and what the expectation was.
Who was she kidding? She knew what the expectation was. The hard on Kai had sported as he rushed into the bathroom made it completely clear what his body wanted. She only hoped that his mind wanted the same thing.
Al was cold sitting in this uncomfortable square chair, so she stood up and went to the dresser. Pulling out the drawers she found them all empty. Don’t they usually have an extra blanket in these rooms? She stood and looked around to find Kai watching her. Heat burned in his eyes.
“You know, I love your arse.” His voice sounded full of gravel.
“Um…” Al could feel herself blushing. What do you say to something like that? “I love yours too.” She responded without thinking. Her hand slapped to her mouth.
“Good. Because it’s the only arses that either of us are ever going to look at again.” Kai stalked towards her.
He had no shirt on and his jeans hung unbuttoned and low on his hips. She couldn’t help but allow her eyes to graze over his skin. He was golden, as if the radiance of the sun reflected from within, not dark toned like she was but sun kissed. Kissing. Yes. I want to kiss every inch…oh, his lips. She thought as her eyes clung to his face. He took a step towards her. Just one. Slow. Step.
Al’s flight or fight reflexes were firing and she started to hedge around the bed away from the man, no, dragon that stalked her. Kai’s face had that now familiar sharpness to it that she saw when he partially shifted to his dragon. His blue eyes glowed with an inner fire. And, she could swear she just saw smoke drift from his left nostril. Shit. The man’s lost it. Al’s back hit the wall beside the bed and Kai stood at the other end of the walkway made by the bed and the wall beside it. He looked at her and grinned.
“Nowhere to run, lass.” His nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath and licked his lips. “I can smell you, Alvena. Are you going to be a good lass? I’ll give you what you want.”
Al gulped. Every muscle in her clenching and unclenching, screaming for what only Kai could give her. But, he was definitely not acting like the Kai she usually saw. This Kai was full of lethal grace. His muscles flexed and bulged as he stood there breathing hard in front of her. She couldn’t help but let her eyes travel his whole body. I
t was a body that she wanted against hers; she couldn’t deny that, as her eyes landed on the bulge in his unbuttoned jeans. He obviously wanted her too.
Alvena looked to her right at the wall and her left at the bed. She could go over the bed to the bathroom and lock herself in until Kai calmed down. She wanted him, but she wasn’t sure she could handle this side of him. Her decision made, she looked back to the right and started moving to left. She was over the bed and jumping off the other side when she felt hot hands grab her around the waist and pull her back against a hard body. He kept their forward motion and soon had her pinned between him and the wall. She should have known that his speed would be greater than hers. Maybe she had. Maybe what she wanted was him to chase and catch her. Fire raced from where his hands rested on her waist. From their movements her shirt had slightly lifted and his pinkies were now branding themselves on her skin. Al wanted to have his hand prints burned all over her body. She pushed back against him, trying to get closer. Hoping he would do something, anything, just as long as he touched her and relieved the ache deep in her soul, in the core of her where something unfurled just for this man.
“Ah, Ah.” Kai gripped her waist tighter. “You were a bad lass, you don’t get to call the shots my Valkyrie.”
Al whimpered. Kai’s voice had a weird quality to it. If she was to describe it, she would describe it as smoky. It was smooth and gravelly. It slithered through her insides and fired all of her cells into overdrive.
“Kai?”
“Aye, lass?”
“It hurts, Kai.” She whimpered.
“Oh, lass. We can’t have you in pain.” A tongue stroked up her neck.
Kai turned her in his arms. She rested with her back to the wall. Grabbing her hands in his own, he guided their joined hands up her sides, past her neck and over her head. She looked up into burning eyes. Something other than Kai was in their depths. She watched as his pupils flashed from human shaped to slitted. Back and forth. Al could see his dragon looking back at her. But, she could also see the man. She gazed at him for long moments and was comforted by the presence that resided within Kai. She wasn’t sure how, but she knew that he cared for her as much as Kai did. Maybe for the first time she could actually say someone, no, two someones cared for her and she could trust in her feelings, trust herself to know the feelings of this man, this dragon, in front of her. Al relaxed into Kai’s hands.
Flames flashed through her as she submitted to his desires. He pulled her hands around his neck and grabbed her by her ass and lifted her up and into his groin. A very hard and long ridge met her from under the denim of his jeans.
As soon as her lips were in range, his came down on hers. Possession. That was the only way to describe the contact. His tongue probed and she opened to him, allowing him everything she could give. There was a time when Al hadn’t appreciated the art of a kiss. She had thought the people she spent time with were crazy when they bragged about how great of a kisser their boyfriend or the guy they were with was. She now knew that none of them had someone like her Kai. His kisses were pure fire. Molten lava. They burned his sweet and smoky taste on to her taste buds.
Kai lowered her feet back to the floor, bending along with her, never once letting his lips leave hers. He nibbled, sucked, and swiped at her and she prayed he never stopped.
Her whole world was sensation. Her mind was seizing. Each contraction of passion was like a strobe light in her consciousness. One minute he was kissing her lips. The next he had her arms above her head. Flash. He was nibbling and licking her neck. Flash. His hands were pulling the hem of her shirt up. The hot trail of his fingers etching designs on her skin. Flash. Her shirt was pulled over her head. Flash. Her bra was gone and his large hands covered her breasts. He held them, weighed them. Flash. His lips were on her lips again. His fingers tugged at nipples now hard from desire and longing. Fire connected his touch on her breasts to her core. She rubbed her legs together.
“Please.” She moaned as he allowed her a breath. “Please.”
“Aye, lass. Me too.” He mumbled against her skin.
His lips traveled down her throat and hovered between her breasts. His hot breath puffed against the sides of the soft mounds. Kai rubbed his nose over her skin, taking in a deep, lingering sniff.
“You smell so good. Cinnamon. So sweet, so good to eat.”
A hot, wet tongue circled her nipple. Just out of reach of actually touching it. Al arched towards him, her body begging for what it wanted. He chuckled and then sucked the needy peak into his mouth. He suckled on her. One of his hands was braced against the wall and the other was traveling over her body. It landed on the spot that wanted him desperately. He rubbed the heel of his palm against her, pressing into her with just enough pressure to tease her. The material of the sleep shorts rubbed against her clit causing it to swell.
“Alvena. I need you. Now.” He growled against her breast.
She barely got out the “Yes” before he had her pushed forward onto the bed. She felt like a rag doll as he adjusted her how he wanted her. Pulling her shorts off, he pushed pillows under her pelvis. He braced her knees on the edge of the bed. Her head was pushed down on to the mattress. Her hands placed next to her face.
“Stay.” A demand.
She could feel him behind her, staring at her. She felt so exposed. Before she could become self-conscious, she felt his jean clad legs against the back of her own as his hands smoothed down her back. He rubbed each cheek of her ass, kneading and caressing. His fingers slid down the crack from the base of her spine until he landed at the center of her. His fingers smoothed against her lips, tweaked at her clit. Al couldn’t hold in the moan that left her mouth. She pushed back against his hands. He smacked her ass and pressed down on her back, telling her those simple gestures to keep still.
“You are so wet for me, aren’t you lass?” His fingers played in the dampness his desire had created in her. “Answer me, lass.”
She whimpered, but pushed out the “Yes” when he started to pull away.
“Yes, Kai. Only for you. You’re the only one that can make me this way.” She screamed out as one of his fingers pressed into her. He moved it in and out and soon added a second.
Al fought to hold still. She wanted to please Kai more than anything she had ever wanted.
“No.” She yelled as he pulled away from her.
“Don’t worry, lass. I’ve got you. I’ve got what you need.” She heard him inhale a deep breath. “You smell so damn good.”
The only sounds in the room were of denim hitting the floor and the wrapper of a condom being ripped open. In the next moment, Al’s world narrowed onto the man behind her as he pressed his hard as steel length into her. Her walls clenched against him and he groaned.
“So tight.”
Once Kai was seated completely inside of her, his large body came down around her. His smell and heat seeped into her senses and her pores. He began to move and as his thrusts became stronger, Al felt herself building to the crescendo of promised ecstasy. He moved off of her while grasping her hips and pulling her back down on his thick shaft. She could hear the sound of their bodies meeting, skin to skin, as his strong strokes hit deeper. Kai couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of her. She felt his left hand skimming up her spine, spreading out flat with his fingers splayed. When he reached her neck his fingers became woven into her hair and gripping the strands, he pulled her up off the bed. She gasped at the sensations – the bite from the hair pulling against her scalp, the pressure of his right hand caressing up her arm, and the pleasure as the tip of his manhood hit her womb with each thrust. Al gasped out with each forward movement of Kai’s hips. He seemed to constantly be searching for just the right movement, just the right angle, as his hand spread out over her neck and slid up the column of her throat to pull her back to his chest. His hand left her hair and grasped her breast. He pulled at her nipple. All of the sensations were too much for Al. Her whole body tightened to an unbearable degree and her mo
ans lengthened to sobs.
“Aye. Aye, my bonny mate.” He mumbled in her left ear. “Take what you need from me. It’s yours, I’m yours.”
With one more plunge that felt even deeper and more intense, Al screamed as she shattered and her release took her. Her muscles locked against him and she felt Kai’s lips at the base of her neck as he pressed into her body and held. She felt a rumble build in him, a vibration of sound. A slight pinch of pain and Alvena felt the waves of her orgasm begin again. Wave after wave of pleasure tore through her until she shook with the weakness of her muscles. She felt Kai lick her shoulder where his mouth was pressed to the base of her neck. He then lifted her against him. He cradled her there, while he threw the pillows to the head of the bead and pulled the blankets back. Kai tucked her into the bed and then came up behind her while pulling the blankets over them both. Al’s eyes were so heavy. She felt more sated than she had her whole life. This man was what she had searched her whole life to find.
“Alvena.” Kai mumbled into her shoulder. “I’m sorry about the girl at the airport. I wasn’t thinking. It was just a ploy to get her to help.” He lightly kissed her shoulder. “I’m sorry. Don’t leave me. You are it for me. You are everything.”
She sighed in contentment and settled into his embrace, the comfort of his warm body against her back and his strong arms wrapped around her, cradling her against his chest. Her thoughts of his strength the last thing she remembered as she drifted to sleep.
Chapter 26
Warmth. Skin. Muscles. Al smiled as she came awake to Kai caressing her arm. His fingers skimmed back and forth and she turned on her back to see him levered up on his arm and looking at her. She looked into his face at features now etched onto the memory of her heart – this man who did so much to care for, protect, and pleasure her. She watched as several emotions moved through his eyes. Did he regret what they had done? He had asked her that same question after their first experience, she hadn’t and never would, but was he having second thoughts?
Finding the Dragon (Dásreach Council Book 1) Page 27