Her face gave nothing away. She stared at the stream still, but she didn’t seem to really see it. He held his breath and waited. For what, he was not sure. In that moment, he knew that, although she was not a wizard, she had captured him under her spell. For several minutes, she remained silent, and he remained captivated by the mere sound of her breathing. Then she turned to him and gave him a small smile.
“I came out here to thank you for saving my life,” she said. “But I guess I should be thanking you for saving my memory. I’m not sure which would be worse to lose.”
Finn let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t lose either,” he said. “And, by the way, don’t worry about Izzy and Raven trying to do any weird magic on you. They’re young, and very progressive wizards. They don’t agree with the methods that a lot of the older wizards use. They respect Peter, because the old wizard has done a lot for their clan, but they know that sometimes he is too set in the old ways for his own good.”
Anya nodded, then turned her gaze back to the water. “I like them a lot,” she said. “And they stood up for me, which is saying something.”
Finn smiled. “They’ll continue to stand up for you. We all will. You’re part of our team now, and we’re a close group.”
Anya nodded again, and looked at Finn as if expecting him to say something else. She still held his hand, even though the moment of urgency that he had grabbed it in had long passed. They stared at each other, and Finn felt an overwhelming urge to kiss her once again. He pushed it away, but he could not tear his eyes away from Anya’s gaze. Was he imagining things, or were her eyes filling with heat just as his were? Hot blood flowed through his body, urging him to throw Anya down on the ground then and there, and show her what a dragon body was capable of doing. But he held back. This was madness. His life had no space for a woman, especially a human. He could not let himself fall for Anya, but he was afraid that if he didn’t tear his eyes away from hers, he would tumble over the edge. And yet, he continued to look at her.
Their eyes remained locked until Anya dipped hers to look between his legs. The moon had freed itself from the occasional clouds and shone brilliantly now. There was no denying his arousal. It was there, saluting her and beckoning to her. Finn never took his eyes off her eyes as she looked at his manhood, considering. He felt his breath coming faster and ragged, and the more he tried to slow it down the more he lost control. He could feel a deep primal urge overwhelming him. He knew he needed to look away, but he could not.
He was still captured under her spell.
She finally raised her eyes to his again, and the heat in her gaze was now unmistakable. She watched him as he held his breath, and then slowly, torturously, she slipped her tongue past the part in her lips and ran it across her lower lip. Finn’s thighs trembled, and he wanted to roar at the top of his lungs before ripping off her clothes and accepting the invitation she was offering him. Still, he managed to hold back.
“Anya,” he said, his voice ragged and hoarse. “I cannot fall in love. I cannot promise you a life with me. I’m a dragon, with a wandering dragon heart.”
Anya smiled at him then, a wicked sultry smile. “Who said anything about love?” she asked, licking her lips again.
“You’re not doing this just because I saved your memory, are you?” Finn asked. It was growing more difficult to speak, and the fire within him was growing higher, getting harder to hold back. “You don’t owe me anything, you know that. I did the right thing to do, with no expectations of repayment of any sort.”
Anya threw back her head and laughed then. The musical sound seemed to echo all around Finn, and the rod between his legs felt like it was made of throbbing steel. It begged to be allowed to take her, but still he restrained himself. He would not do this unless she really wanted it for her own pleasure. He could make no promises of a future to her, and he required no recompense for his speaking up for her.
“Oh shut up and kiss me,” she said when she finally stopped laughing. “I’m not doing this because I feel like I owe you anything. I’m doing it because I’ve never seen anything quite so impressive as what’s between your legs right now, and I’d be a fool to let this opportunity pass me by. Who knows when I’ll be alone with you in the woods again.”
That was all Finn needed to hear. He did roar, then, as he pushed himself over on top of Anya, flattening her underneath him on the cool forest floor. His erection pushed against his clothes and poked at her, seeking a release from the pressure building within it. Anya let out a squeal of delight as his body covered hers, but her squeal was quickly silenced by his kiss.
Her lips were soft beyond belief, and her mouth tasted faintly of orange, perhaps from the slight citrus notes of the beer they had been drinking around the fire. He slid his tongue against hers, attempting to taste every last millimeter of it. He kissed her deeply, running his tongue across the back of her mouth. She moaned, and lifted her legs up to wrap them around his hips.
The night no longer felt cold. In the heat of his passion, Finn was burning up inside as he never had before. He kissed Anya with an urgency, as though he were a man in the desert dying of thirst, and her kiss was water. He was so hot that he would not have been surprised to have opened his eyes and find that he was in a desert. He felt as though her were lying under the heat of a midday sun. It seemed impossible that he was actually under the moonlight of a cool forest night.
Anya seemed to feel the same urgency he did. She wrapped her arms around him, too, pulling him closer as he kissed her and thrusting her hips against his. She rubbed against his stiff erection, increasing the pressure and making him feel as though he was going to explode from the inside out. He growled, and nipped at her ear. She yelped in delighted pain, and sank her teeth into his neck, nibbling and sucking and claiming his body as hers. They were, in that moment, slaves to the carnal desire that rose within them.
It had been a long time since a woman had caused a stirring between Finn’s legs, and he had never felt an arousal this strong. He tried out of some sense of decency to slow things down. In the back of his mind, he reminded himself that women liked it when you warmed them up first. Wasn’t he supposed to be teasing her, and drawing the experience out? He couldn’t think clearly anymore, with all the blood in his body rushing to the rod between his legs.
“Oh, fuck it,” he said aloud. She was warm enough. In fact, if her skin was an indication of her internal temperature, she was burning up just as much as he was. He tore at her shirt hungrily, pulling it up and over her head. She reached for his shirt as well, returning the favor. They rolled across the ground, a tangle of arms and legs and fabric as garment after garment came off. They left a trail of clothes and pressed grass in their wake, kissing urgently even as their hands tore away at the cloth between them. Despite the cool temperature of the night, Finn was sweating. He could see that Anya was sweating, too. The moonlight glistened off the glow of sweat that covered her forehead, and he found himself turned on even more by the sight of it.
“Burn for me, baby. Burn!” he roared.
She responded by pulling him closer again, biting down on his lower lips and thrusting her hips against his. He roared again, the pressure nearly too much to take. The only piece of clothing between them now was her underwear. He could feel it as his dick pressed against it, obnoxiously blocking his way into Anya. The fabric was soaked through with her juices, and they began to coat his erection. It was not enough. He wanted more. he must have more.
He slid down to her hips, and tore at the panties with his teeth. She wriggled and squirmed to assist him, and in moments he’d managed to slide them down and off her legs—miraculously without tearing them in his frenzy.
He paused for a moment, just a moment. He wanted to take in her beauty. Just as he had memorized the feeling of her hand against his, he wanted to memorize the way her body looked in the moonlight right now, naked and glistening, her full breasts rising and falli
ng with her rapid breathing. Her hair was a mess, a beautiful mess. He saw her eyes, wild with hunger, and he knew they mirrored his own eyes. This was reckless. They should not be here together, making love under a full moon with no protection while so many other pressing matters waited for them back at the campsite. And yet, neither one of them could stop. They were on this reckless ride together, giving in to the strongest desire either of them had ever felt.
“I’m going to ravage you,” Finn said, his voice a low growl now. The response in Anya’s eyes told him very clearly that she wanted to be ravaged.
He did not delay any longer. He slid over her, his broad chest brushing against her alert nipples, his taut, muscular stomach just above the soft curves of her feminine abdomen. He swayed his hips, letting the top of his dick probe, gently searching until it found what it was looking for: the soft, wet spot where her body would open to him.
He took a deep breath, and then rammed into her. Her eyes flew open and she squealed in surprised delight as he filled her. He was large inside her, pushing against her inner muscles and stretching her to conform to his shape. His eyes slid shut from the sheer pleasure of the sensation. She was so silky wet, and so hot. God, she was so hot inside. Her heat enveloped his erection, setting fire to the most sensitive part of his body. He thrust deeper into her, pushing until she covered his entire shaft, and then he thrust his hips forward. At first, he never even pulled out of her as he thrust. He just rocked his hips, groaning as the impossible heat of her body spread across his entire being.
Then, he began to move with a greater urgency. He slid in and out, coming down hard with each thrust. He rammed into her, showing no mercy as he filled her again and again, stretching her and reaching so far inside that he thought he might actually be hitting bone.
Her arms were around him, and her hands were on his back. She held on tighter with each thrust of his body, panting for breath with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. She screamed out as she came, and dug her fingers into his bare back as her body began to shudder. It was the most wonderful scratching sensation he’d ever felt. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to have her nails permanently etched into his back.
Her insides were so slippery with desire, and yet she held his dick tightly, clenching down on it over and over as her inner walls grasped at him hungrily. He felt the pressure building within him, and he let out a low moan as he felt himself ready to burst. That moan turned into a roar as he exploded into her. Fire shot from his body into hers, and he shuddered as he felt his body giving itself to her. He thrust several more times, giving up every last bit of his energy to extend the incredible tidal wave that was washing over him.
When at last both of their bodies had stopped pulsing, he slid out of her and collapsed next to her on the cool grass, trying to catch his breath. He felt a strange, burning sensation in his core that he had never felt before, and his heart filled with wonder. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that he was experiencing the lifemate bond. It had always been explained to him as a warmth that occurred after making love with your destined lifemate.
But it wasn’t possible that this human he barely knew was meant to be his life partner, was it? Finn looked over to see her smiling at him. Her naked breasts still rose and fell from her rapid breathing, and her sweaty skin glistened in the moonlight. No, he thought, it was impossible that a creature so wonderful was his. He pushed away thoughts of love and lifemates, afraid to even consider the possibility for fear that he would be disappointed. Women like Anya didn’t fall in love with men like him—wild men with nothing holding them back from adventure and risk.
With a short sigh, he pulled Anya into his arms. He didn’t know what the future held, but he knew that he had this moment right here with Anya. And if that was all he ever had with her, he would still be the luckiest man alive.
She snuggled close against his chest, searching for his warmth. His dragon genes were kicking in as the heat of lovemaking mellowed out. His body was hot at its core, even in human form, and he pulled Anya even closer to warm her against the cool night. Behind him, he felt the cloth of his shirt. He reached for the discarded garment and draped it over Anya to warm her further.
“Finn?” she murmured sleepily.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Your ears. Are they elfish like Knox’s? I forgot to look.”
The question surprised Finn, and he smiled. “Yes. All dragons have a bit of an elfish look to their ears. Some more than others, but we all have it to some extent. A remnant of the days when dragons still had magic powers.”
“Mmm,” she said, her head still buried in his chest. “I thought so.”
A few minutes later, he felt her breathing slowly mellow out into the gentle rhythm of sleep, and, despite his own attempts to remain alert, he soon followed her into dreamland. He no longer needed to count stars to remain calm. He was more at peace now than perhaps any other time in his life, despite the knowledge that Saul’s war still raged around him.
Chapter Ten
Anya woke with a start as Finn sat up suddenly, his eyes wide and alert. Clouds once again covered the moon, filling the forest with darkness and spooky shadows.
“What is it?” she whispered, her heart beginning to pound.
Finn put a finger to his lips, indicating that she should be quiet. She nodded, but it took a great deal of self-control to keep herself from asking more nervous questions. He was peering into the forest with green eyes that almost seemed to glow, and she instinctively knew that he had heard something. Perhaps it was just a wild animal. In that case, Anya was not worried. She knew Finn could easily shift into dragon form and take down any wild animal that might be roaming through this forest.
But what if Saul’s soldiers had tracked them down once again? Anya knew enough by now to realize that she and Finn would be pretty vulnerable out here on their own, away from the protective shield that surrounded their campsite. She began to feel foolish for venturing out here on her own.
She did not regret sleeping with Finn—not even a little bit. The moments of passion that they had shared had been some of the most intense, wonderful moments of Anya’s life. But perhaps they should have gone back to the others afterward instead of so foolishly falling asleep out in the open. Not only were they unprotected, but there was no fire to warm them out here. Anya was realizing more with each passing second just how cold she was. Her toes and fingers felt like ice, and now that she was not pressed against Finn’s body, the rest of her own body was quickly freezing over as well.
Finn breathed in deeply, smelling the air. His brow furrowed further at whatever it was he seemed to smell, but before Anya had much time to worry about it, a twig snapped to her left, then another and another. Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked desperately into the dark forest, sure she was about to come face to face with Saul’s army.
Finn was jumping to his feet, too, and she thought he was about to shift, although she wasn’t sure how much good one dragon could do on his own against Saul’s army. But Finn didn’t shift after he stood. Instead, he walked quickly over to where Anya’s clothes were still strewn across the ground, and grabbed them up. He tossed them to her with a look of exasperation on his face and said, “You’re going to want to put these on.”
Anya wasn’t sure why it mattered whether or not she was naked if she was about to get killed, but she shrugged and started pulling on her shirt. At least it gave her something to do, which helped calm her nerves slightly. The snapping of twigs was growing louder, and Anya suddenly heard a familiar voice shouting out.
“I think they’re over here. Their trail goes this way!”
It was Owen. Anya’s heart leapt with hope. If he was out here then perhaps the others were, too. They could help fight.
But Finn still wasn’t shifting. Instead, with an annoyed grunt, he was pulling on his pants. Anya’s frown deepened. Why would he be putting clothes on if there was a threat at hand? The pants would only be ruined
when he shifted.
A few seconds later, she had her answer. Owen, Peter, and Raven came bursting through the trees. Raven had some sort of flashlight beam coming out of her magic ring, and she swept it across the clearing until it landed directly on Anya, who was suddenly extremely grateful that Finn had told her to put on her clothes.
“What the…” Anya said, at the same time as Raven. Finn didn’t seem confused at all, though. He pulled Anya close by his side, and she noticed as he did that he still was not wearing a shirt.
“They’re searching for us,” he said in a low voice. “We’ve been asleep out here for who knows how long, and we left no word of where we were going. They’ve probably been worried sick. And now they’re going to be annoyed as hell that we were just out here having fun.”
Raven’s flashlight was still trained on Anya and Finn, the bright light making it impossible for Anya to see Raven’s face. She could see Owen’s and Peter’s faces, though, and their looks of concern were slowly changing to expressions of bemusement.
Raven realized what was going on a split second before Owen did, and hurriedly lowered her light. Owen, however, had no such sense of propriety, and he burst out laughing. Anya felt her cheeks turning red as everything slowly made sense to her. She and Finn had been caught together in the woods hurriedly throwing clothes on. There was no denying what they had been doing out here. She looked up at Finn, who was letting out a long sigh of exasperation and glaring at Owen. But Owen was not about to stop laughing, he was doubled over now, poking Raven in the arm and pointing over at them as if catching two grown adults making love together in the woods was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.
Raven continued to avert her eyes, looking embarrassed. At least, she looked embarrassed as far as Anya could tell from the dim, shadowed light of her flashlight, which now faced downward toward the ground. Peter did not laugh, and he did not look embarrassed. He did seem mildly amused though.
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