Declan put him on hold and Colin drummed his fingers on the desk. Where the fuck was she? And why wasn’t she letting his thoughts in?
Declan came back on the line. “The parking attendant said she left. Where have you looked for her?”
“My house, Sean’s. She’s not answering her phone or her head,” Colin said roughly.
Corey snickered at his words and Colin shot him a dirty look.
Declan sighed. “Look, Colin. Women do this shit. They go shopping. They forget about their phones. They tune us out. Eden’s not stupid. I doubt she did anything dangerous, despite Sean’s idea that she’s a bad girl always falling into trouble. He says that shit because she’s like him and he can’t control her. If you haven’t heard from her in a couple more hours call me back and we’ll all go looking for her.”
Colin bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from yelling at his brother in law. “Was she okay after she saw Sean? Her mood?” he asked stiffly.
“Why?” Declan’s smooth voice turned suspicious.
“Because… because…” he broke off and ran a hand around the back of his neck. This was crazy, he thought. He shouldn’t be freaking out thinking that she left him. He loved her. He should have faith in her… the way her brother Sean never had.
“You know, Colin, I’m not sure I like the hesitancy in your voice.” Declan’s tone and words came out harshly, and Colin didn’t blame him one bit. He didn’t like himself much at the moment. “I have never seen Eden so happy as when she left this office, babbling about your house and having us over for dinner. Does that sound like a woman who’s about to run out on you?”
Colin rubbed his free hand over his face. God damn his brother-in-law for being so fucking smart. “No. And I’m clearly an asshole for letting my brother get to me and making me question my own gut instinct. I’m sorry, Declan.”
His brother in law chuckled. “Don’t apologize to me. This is between you and my sister. I’m not even gonna mention it to her. Relax, Colin. She probably went to buy you a present. She’s like that, you know. Little spur of the moment gifts and goodies. At least, she used to be before she and Sean had their falling out over the company.”
Declan said goodbye and hung up. Colin looked up at Corey who stared at him thoughtfully. “What?” he burst out after a minute went by.
“Me thinks you shouldn’t listen to older brothers, yours or hers,” he pronounced. “Your love affair is between you and her. Leave it that way and things will be just fine.”
“How old are you?” Colin asked the fae man.
Corey looked down his nose at his boss. “Older than you, although I look much younger thanks to my wildling genes,” he said. “Well, that and my happy lifestyle.”
Colin’s lips twitched. “Don’t you mean gay lifestyle?”
Corey walked to the door. “If I meant gay I would have said gay. I mean happy. I prefer to be happy. You should prefer to be that way too.”
After Corey left, Colin looked at the closed door thoughtfully. Happiness was a choice. It didn’t just happen to you. Despite the people around you who might try to keep you from it. Ultimately, everyone had to choose whether or not to be happy. Giving his brother and Sean a mental fuck you, Colin decided the time had come for him to live his life on his own terms. His… and Eden’s.
Turning his thoughts back to the question of where she could be, he jumped when his cell phone rang. He snatched it up, thinking it might be Eden, and looked at the caller ID. His excitement ebbed when he saw his neighbor’s number.
“Hey, Jon. What’s up?”
“Colin, I think you better come home,” his next-door neighbor said in a voice that shook slightly.
Colin’s stomach clenched. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Uhhh… there’s a dragon in your yard.”
Chapter Nine
Of course, her brilliant idea had turned to shit the moment she had gotten to Colin’s house. She didn’t have a key. She didn’t have clothes. If she shifted back to human form, she’d be sitting outside naked, waiting for Colin. Unless she let him in her head. With a stubborn grunt, she stretched out on the flagstone patio and put her huge fanged head down. She was not about to admit that on the first day of her new life, she’d screwed everything up royally. Well… except for the part where she’d slugged Sean. Hitting her brother had filled her with a sense of triumph. Her hand had stung like crazy, but the moment she shifted to dragon form the pain left.
A quarter hour passed, and waiting for Colin began to make her antsy. Then she heard hushed voices. Her head swiveled a little. On the other side of the privacy fence, Colin’s neighbor stood talking on a cell phone. Every few minutes he’d peek around the edge of the fence at her. She put her head down with a sigh that sent steam rolling toward the sky.
Rubberneckers.
Another twenty minutes went by and Eden became sleepy lying in the sun in her dragon form. She loved the freedom of her fangs, claws, scales, and wings, but she preferred being in human form. She figured the whole opposable thumbs thing made the choice easy for most shifters. In a technology-based world, giving up manual dexterity for sheer brute force seemed like sheer lunacy.
The garage door squealed. Eden’s big black head turned toward the sound. She couldn’t see the garage from where she lay on the patio, her tail trailing down toward the beach, but her acute hearing told her it was Colin’s garage door, and Colin’s car racing up the drive. She lifted her head, her lips curling in a smile that looked like a snarl to someone unfamiliar with dragons.
The car door slammed and the garage door squeaked as it closed. Eden watched the side of the house, waiting eagerly for Colin. He came running from the front of the house as if in a panic. He skidded to a stop when he saw her. Unable to speak in this form, Eden finally let him in her head.
I’m sorry. Do I scare you?
Colin walked up to her, his expression enigmatic. I was scared shitless when I couldn’t find you, Eden.
Vampirelike, he kept to the shadows cast by the house, his face turned up to her. Your dragon form does not scare me. It’s pretty cool actually. But it’s not every day my neighbor calls to tell me I have a dragon in my yard.
Eden sighed and another big cloud of smoke emerged from her nostrils. Yeah, well, my planning apparently sucks. I forgot that I didn’t have a key.
Which left you out here either in dragon form or naked, right?
She bobbed her head. Colin grinned.
You realize that all the neighbors are either scared or excited. Jon next door wants to have a barbeque to welcome you to the neighborhood. He wanted to know if you gave dragon rides.
Eden stood up, her black scales glittering with a faint gold sheen in the setting sun. I’m too old for dragon rides, but there is something really dragonish I want to do.
Colin’s mouth quirked into that wry amused smile he’d turned on her the night she’d met him at Carpe Noctem.
“Does it involve sex and fire?” he asked out loud.
I can’t surprise you at all, can I? Do you think mating is vanilla? Cause I’m all about the vanilla sex now.
I think mating is the most exotic and erotic thing any couple could ever do sexually.
Well, in that case… can you unlock the door so I can make a mad naked dash for it?
Colin unlocked the door and Eden concentrated on the shift. She knew that he could see her dragon form shimmering like golden confetti in the air. The instant her human form completed the shift, she darted past Colin into the kitchen. She heard his amused thoughts as he focused with lewd interest on how her naked ass filled his field of vision.
Ignoring the sexual innuendo of his thoughts, she headed straight for her suitcase. She had things to do before they mated tonight.
“You’re not going to get dressed, are you?” he complained, as she dug in her suitcase.
“I gotta get my car,” she muttered as the top of the suitcase came down on her head. “Ow!”
“No worri
es, love. I saw the car on my way here. I had my assistant Corey call a tow truck. They’ll pick it up and drop it on the drive.”
Eden turned to find a naked Colin, his cock fully erect. She blinked at him. “You do that really fast, you know.”
“What? Get hard?” he laughed. “All I gotta do is look at you. It only takes a few seconds. You turn me on more than any woman ever has.”
“You hit my brother.”
Her abrupt change of subject had him shaking his head dazedly at her. “Uh, yeah.”
Eden walked over to him and took his cock in her hand. “You did it for me.”
He nodded, his face turning into a mask of lust as she stroked him. “I told him that if he ever lies about you again, I’d break every bone in his body.”
She grinned. No man had ever stood up to Sean for her. “I punched him in the eye. I told him you were my family now, not him.”
Colin’s eyes went wide with shock. “You didn’t.”
She nodded, still grinning. “I did. And I meant it. The words more than the punch.” She slid her arms around his waist, pressing her naked body to his. “I want to mate you in the pool tonight. I want to make the water boil when I tie myself to you forever.”
“Cooked vampire?” Colin said, cocking up one eyebrow.
She shook her head. “The heat will never bother you again once you’ve been bathed in my dragonfire. And my clan mark…” She slipped her hand between their bodies to touch it. “It will become two entwined dragons instead of one. You will bear the same mark in the same place on your body.”
He nodded. “Like my sister does for Declan. It’s a physical sign that I am mated to a dragon.”
“Yes.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “We need to eat. Mating is serious business and I want you in the pool the instant the sun goes down.”
He smiled slyly. “Not gonna let me get away are you?”
“No, never. You will be a part of me. If I get in hot water, you will too.”
“Promise?” he murmured, his head lowering to hers.
She rubbed the clan mark, her hand pressing against his skin as he licked at her lips. “Dragon swear.”
~ * * * ~
The instant the sun dipped below the horizon, Eden dragged him out to the pool. They swam naked, pushing and pulling at each other, snatching kisses and stroking flesh made silky by the water. Colin was beyond eager to be inside her. The day had been a rollercoaster of emotion and he knew in his gut that he needed to belong to her.
When Eden dragged him to the side of the pool and wrapped her legs around his hips, Colin rocked against her, letting his cock glide along her swollen female flesh. The Alpha in him screamed to take her, but he wanted this time to be special. He licked her neck and when she shivered, he let his fangs tease her sensitive skin. The hot spicy Sangria scent of her made him mindless with lust, but he hung on to his sanity by his fangs, letting his mouth and his hands tease her.
He held her in the water, her long dark hair floating free as he kissed and licked his way along her throat. Her golden skin prickled with goosebumps, but he knew she wasn’t cold. He heard the rushing of her blood in her veins and as his bloodmate, he knew every beat of her heart even if she wasn’t nearby.
When Eden rubbed her pussy against his cock again, he bent to her throat, his fangs dragging along her wet skin to the vein that throbbed near her collarbone. With a swiftness known only to vampires, he bit her, his fangs sinking deep. As he pulled, her warm blood splashed on his tongue, tasting of Sangria and heady spices. He grew lightheaded and pulled away, licking the wounds so that they healed instantly, fading from sight in a matter of seconds.
Eden moaned, her fingers digging into his flesh. He pressed her toward the shallow end of the pool, onto the low steps. She kissed him, but he broke the kiss right away so that he could turn her and position her on her knees. Colin kissed his way up her spine and her body undulated like a serpent’s, reminding him briefly of the ancient link between dragons and serpents. Rubbing his cock along the crease between her firm buttocks, she pushed back against it, lowering her head and raising her ass in the air, begging him to take it.
Colin could have fucked her in the ass, except that he wanted something else from her this night. He wanted to belong to her, and that meant sinking himself balls deep into her pussy and fucking her until she turned her dragonfire loose. He pressed his cock down, the thick head rubbing her swollen labia. She panted loudly, her body rocking back against his. His hips flexed, sending his cock deep into her.
She cried out, tossing her head. “Oh, gods, Colin! More, more!”
He fucked her hard, the water around them churning and slapping the sides of the pool. Focused solely on making her come again and again, his long fingers teased her clit. Nibbling at her shoulders, he pounded into her from behind. She shook and writhed beneath him in a way that told him her orgasm was close. He tweaked her stiff nipples, pinching and pulling them. She moaned and thrust back against him.
And then it happened. She jerked and Colin trailed his fingers over her clan mark. Oddly, the tribal mark had the texture of hot metal despite being in water. She screamed his name over and over and Colin just fucked her harder and harder, feeling his balls tighten to the point of pain. He rubbed her clan mark again, twisting her head to one side so he could lock his mouth onto hers as he came, his hot seed bathing her tight passage. As her tongue twined around his, his body began to heat until he thought he would burst into flame. His eyes popped open to find the water of the infinity pool boiling, steam rising in a huge cloud and little flames dancing along the rocks. His skin was stretched so tight with pleasure and heat, he imagined himself splitting open like melon, literally exploding.
The next conscious moment Colin had, his eyes opened and he found himself lying half on Eden, half on the steps of the pool, sucking in great gulps of air, while steam and the smell of sulfur tickled his nose. The skin of his lower abdomen itched and he rolled off Eden, his cock sliding free of her pussy. He looked down and found the beginnings of a mate mark on the skin of his lower belly just inside his hipbone.
Eden slid over to him and curled into his arms, nuzzling him. “I love you, Colin. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Colin looked at the still simmering water of the pool. “In hot water, you mean?” he teased, lifting her chin with his fingers so he could kiss her swollen lips. “I love you too, Eden. You’re my whole world.”
She grinned at him. “Good, because I have a few assignments coming that I can’t get out of. You’ll see more of the world than you ever wanted to see.”
He hugged her tightly. “It doesn’t matter to me if I do or I don’t see the world. All I care to see is right here in my arms. My Queen of Kink.”
“My Sugar Cookie man,” she purred, her amber eyes glowing with happiness.
Colin smiled at her. “I have a couple of ground rules to ensure we stay this happy.”
“Oh, yeah?” She raised her dark brows at him.
He nodded. “Rule number one, no listening to older brothers.”
“Oh, that’s a given!” she agreed snarkily.
“Number two, when in doubt, remember rule number one.”
Eden started to laugh, but he kissed her hard. “Rule number three…” His fingers slipped between her thighs. “Everything else that’s questionable can be easily answered by me putting my cock in your pretty pink pussy.”
Her fingers wrapped around his thickening penis. “Remember you once said I could handcuff you?”
Suddenly wary, he nodded. She grinned. “Let’s go upstairs. I’ll cuff you to the bed, then I’ll put your cock in my pretty pink pussy.”
Colin eyed her thoughtfully. “Okay. I can live with those rules.”
Eden laughed out loud, kissing him soundly on the mouth, her expression filled with love and lust. “I never thought I’d be able to follow the rules and fit in, but with you, it’s easy.”
“Shut up and cuff me,�
� Colin growled.
And she did.
Epilogue
The party was a huge success. The entire Antaeus and Granville families attended, including Eden’s sister Diandra and her husband. Other guests included their neighbors, who still angled for dragon rides, and Alfred Stone who looked really pleased with himself for some reason.
Everyone oohed and ahhhed over the house and over Eden’s engagement ring. During the buffet dinner, Eden slipped away, needing to catch her breath and not play hostess for a few minutes. The last six weeks had been a lot of work, with the result worth every drop of sweat. Everything she and Colin had envisioned that first week had come to fruition, for themselves and their home. She started up the stairs, but a heavy hand fell on her arm. She looked up into the serious eyes of her brother Sean.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
She almost told him that there was nothing to say, but an indefinable emotion lurked in the back of his eyes and she couldn’t ignore it… a pain that she could only just make out. She shrugged. “Sure.”
They climbed the stairs and she opened the door to the master bedroom. Sean stepped in behind her, looking around the room at the deep blue walls, the pale champagne trim, the huge bed in blues and golds and darkest reds. Eden sat down in the alcove on a champagne colored chaise. Sean sat down on a matching chair.
“You’ve done a great job here, Eden. It’s a beautiful house,” he said coolly.
She gave him a half smile. “Thanks, but I know that’s not why you asked to speak with me, Sean. Decorating is so not your thing.”
“I know enough to know that you did a better than excellent job here. Must be those creative forces in you,” he grunted.
Eden stared at him, wondering just what the hell he’d worked himself up to say.
“I’m so sorry.”
Her mouth fell open in shock. She sat there in stunned silence. No way had her brother just apologized. Sean Antaeus? The ruthless head of Antaeus International? Fiendish businessman and cold hearted sibling? Apologizing? The concept seemed too much to grasp.
“I must need to clean out my ears,” she muttered, shaking her head.
Tales of the Darkworld 2: Hot Water Page 10