by Eve Langlais
“Calm down, stud muffin.” Her small hands pressed against his chest. “I guess I should have warned you to expect her. Babette and I do almost everything together.”
“Except guys.” Babette shuddered. “I prefer something a little more feminine myself.”
“How did you find my fortress?” Because if this dragoness had found it, then how long before others did?
“Through the hidden door.”
“What hidden door?”
Babette rolled her eyes. “If I tell you, it won’t be hidden anymore.”
“How did you even know we were coming?
“Would you like me to count the ways? One, the tracker in her ass reactivated.” Babette ticked a finger. “Two. Cell phone signal.” Deka waved the phone in question. “Which reminds me, text your mother. She’s been a rampaging bitch these past few weeks. And three, who do you think sold you the solar technology, for a fortune that enriched our own coffers, I might add?” Babette uttered a loud ka-ching for emphasis.
He glared. “The Silver Sept is spying on me.”
“Well, duh. It is our job to know everything that needs to be known to help out the king.”
At Babette’s words, he stiffened. “Does that mean Remiel knows I’m here?” Because he wasn’t quite ready to deal with his brother. Give him a decade, or two, maybe even three.
“Not yet. But I wouldn’t expect that to last long. The Aunts V are Zahra’s puppets. Seeing how easily I found you, chances are they know, too, and they’ll probably tattle before long.”
“Does this mean Mother will be showing up, as well?” Deka asked.
Her mother? Oh, fuck, he wasn’t ready to deal with a pissed parent. Oh, hey there, I’ve been banging your daughter. Hope you don’t mind.
His entrails would probably make a mess on the floor.
Babette waved a hand. “Don’t worry about your mom. She’ll be a while still. I might have told her your tracker was spotted in Australia.”
“Um, we are in Australia,” he muttered.
“Yeah, but she thought I was lying, so she’s combing Europe.”
“Maybe she wouldn’t have to go searching if she’d stuck around and waited for me,” Deka said darkly. The nerve of not having a committee to welcome still rankled his princess.
“We kind of had other shit to deal with. Like, you know, the apocalypse and all.”
“What has the suzerain done?”
“Who?” Babette blinked at him.
“Freaky, red-eyed chick, sometimes a dude, wants to rule the world?” Deka explained.
“Oh, her. She’s going by the name Voa, Boa, something or other. And she’s been popping up all over the place with her minions of annoyance.”
“Has she stated what she wants?”
“World domination.” The duh tone said it all.
“How big is her army?”
Babette shrugged. “Hard to tell because they often attack in small groups in multiple places at once. And it’s not just dragons she’s subverted fighting for her. She’s got humans, and even some of the other cryptos battling under her banner. Which, oddly enough, is a dragon with squiggles coming out of it.”
“Because she’s a dragon,” Samael admitted, more than a little grimly.
“Bullshit!” Babette exclaimed. “But she doesn’t look like a dragon. And I hear she doesn’t smell like one either.”
“Suzie’s got all kinds of talents, including eating souls to get stronger.”
“Okay, that’s just wrong.”
“Exactly, and we have to stop her,” Deka declared.
“We?” Samael shot her a look.
“Yes, we. Team…” Deka paused. “We need a cool name.”
“No,” he stated. “We don’t—”
As if they’d let him finish that thought.
“How about Team Sausage and Buns?”
“No, that’s too foody. We need something elegant but dangerous.” Deka tapped her chin. “The Rampaging Duo.”
Babette scrunched up her face. “But then that implies I can’t come along sometimes for fun.”
“Trio?”
Again, Babette shook her head. “Then people will think we’re in a ménage. My girlfriend wouldn’t like that.”
“You’re dating?” Deka squealed. “Who is it?”
“You don’t know her. I met her in Paris,” Babette confided, a pink blush to her cheeks.
“That is amazing, cuz. I want to hear all the details.”
“Can we get back to the end of the world?” he barked.
“No.” It came in stereo, and he scowled.
“I’m going to have a shower.” He turned around and began stalking through his castle, only to have a body launch itself at his back and hold on.
“Mind if I join you? Who are we both kidding? We both know you’d love it if I came along.”
“Your friend invaded my castle.” He still hadn’t quite gotten over that fact, that and the threat that more might be coming.
“Get used to being barged in on. My family has few boundaries.”
“I like my privacy.”
“No one says you can’t still like it, but you will have less of it now that you have me. I think I might be a slight bit possessive.”
He reached over and dragged her off his back into his arms. “I am, too, which is why the idea of sharing you with a bunch of people is annoying.”
“But you’ll put up with it for me.”
“Yes.” Grudgingly said. “For now. However, don’t get used to it. I intend to tighten security.”
“Good luck with that. My aunts are the best in the biz. They’ll think it’s fun to crack it.”
“I can’t even believe we’re discussing this. Shouldn’t we be more worried about the fact that Suzie is trying to take over the world?”
“Oh, please. Like that will ever happen. The dragons might be slow-moving when it comes to some things, but once the decision is made, we’ll fight back. I think.”
“What do you mean, think? Wasn’t that why we returned?”
“Well, yeah, we’ll definitely go and tackle her ass, but I can’t talk for the Septs.”
“Not even the Silver one?”
She shook her head. “They will follow the ruling of the king.”
“And if my brother decides to not get involved?”
She shrugged. “Then Suzie might be able to do some damage, and he won’t have much left to rule. But it won’t come to that because we won’t let her ruin our world. Right?”
Her confidence was misplaced. What did one half-breed Golden have that was so special?
He looked down at the silver head nestled against his chest.
I have a reason to not lose.
His bedroom was in the topmost tower or, as Deka declared with a clap of her hands, “Penthouse suite. Nice, muffin.”
Nicer was the giant-size bed with a real mattress and clean sheets. Nicest of all? The bathroom with all the hot water and shower jets a person could ask for.
“Last one in is a rotten wyvern egg.”
“Wyverns don’t have eggs,” he retorted. But he had to smile as she ditched her clothes, revealing that perfect body of hers, which looked much better wrapped around his.
She dove into the shower and squealed as she turned the knob and cold water initially shot out. She laughed, the crystal-clear sound the most precious thing he’d ever heard.
So many things about her were precious.
And mine.
Mustn’t forget that. He didn’t know if it was because she kept insisting or if he was finally ready to admit it, but they belonged together.
He needed her.
Needed her right now.
The face she turned up to him as he towered over her held a smile and a hint of erotic promise.
“Hey, stud muffin. Is that for me?” She would have grabbed his erection, but he caught her first, gripping her hands in his fists, dragging them down to her sides. It drew her tight against him
, so tight, they were skin-to-skin, naked flesh that trembled at the contact.
A languorous look shuttered her eyes as she stared at him. Unlike other women, she wasn’t intimidated at all. Nor did he see the avarice that often tainted the gazes of those who knew who and what he was. Nothing but desire shone in her depths.
A desire reciprocated.
The longer he stared, the more her lids drooped, and her gaze dropped to his mouth.
Kiss me.
She demanded, and he was more than happy to comply. He dipped his head that he might claim her lips. Arousal coursed through him, fierce and fast. The taste of her boiled his blood.
His hands skimmed over her frame, stroking her flesh, reacquainting himself and, at the same time, reclaiming what was his.
Because you are mine.
She heard him and laughed against his lips. All yours, stud. I am never leaving.
Where once he might have seen those words as a threat, he now recognized them for a promise, a bond that only grew stronger between them.
I should claim you. Here. Now.
Except she thought, No.
He pulled back. “What do you mean, no?”
Despite their lips having parted, she clutched at his shoulders, fingers digging into his flesh, attempting to draw him back.
“Not no as in we’ll never do it. No as in not right now. I want you. Don’t doubt that. But when I put my mark on you, it will be in front of an audience because I don’t want any doubt that I chose you, and I want everyone to know.”
His nostrils flared as his emotions tumbled, so many of them at once, but the most prevalent?
Satisfaction. You are mine. And she was right. When he claimed her, and that was no longer even a question, he would do so in a way that left no doubt as to that fact.
Deft fingers stroked her bare skin, reveling in the silky smoothness, finding her ticklish spots just because he liked to hear her giggle.
Her soft laughter tickled his mouth, and he swallowed it, swallowed every sweet sound she made in his arms. She also stroked him, but she wasn’t gentle about her touch, gripping him, digging her nails in, passion giving her strength. The urgency of her need caressed him as surely as her skin did rubbing against his, the water of the shower making them slick.
His eager cock found itself trapped between their bodies, pulsing against her lower belly. The bed sat only a few yards away, too far and too drafty for their wet bodies.
Why leave the hot, steamy shower when it was large enough for what he had planned? Cupping her ass, his hands filled with her full cheeks, he raised her, and she didn’t need to be told to wrap her legs around his waist. The heat of her core pressed against his skin. Pulsed.
He shifted her enough that his cock sprang free and bounced under her butt. He then lowered her enough to seesaw it against her wet slit. A most glorious moan slipped from her, the kind that shivered through the body.
Sexiest fucking thing ever.
He aimed the swollen tip of his shaft at her sex, pressing it lightly against her damp lips. It took only the slightest pressure to penetrate, the walls of her cunt squeezing him.
Yes.
The mental voice, him or her, it didn’t matter. He hissed as her head tilted.
He slid balls-deep into her and sat there, slightly grinding himself into her, a swirl and push of his hips that drove him deep.
She stuttered. “Oh, damn. Damn.” Her fingers dug into his back, sharp and strong. As strong as the grip she had on him.
“That’s it, princess.” My queen.
Damned straight.
The intimate connection of their minds kept blowing him away. There was no mistaking who she was in his head. She existed as part of him and somehow enhanced every experience.
I can feel your enjoyment, he thought, feel how complicated her emotions were about him, but in a good way.
She truly does want me.
Of course, I do, stud.
Because they belonged together. He thrust into her, keeping her back pressed against the shower wall, his hips pistoning.
“Harder,” she panted.
He couldn’t. He’d hurt her.
Give it to me. The words growled into his mind.
She commanded, and he couldn’t help but obey.
He thrust harder, in and out, the friction slick. But it wasn’t enough for her.
She needed something more.
He manhandled her, pulling her down, ignoring her mewl of protest that he might stand her facing the wall. A hand curled around her thigh and pulled her ass back toward him.
His other hand stroked the round cheek. “Spread your legs.”
She kicked them apart and thrust her ass out a little bit more. The perfect height for him to slam his cock back in.
She cried out as he pumped in and out, but he got her to come hard when he slipped a hand under and began to finger her clit.
She rippled around him, her channel pulsing in time to her orgasm. It was incredible, especially when you added in the fact that he felt her come, like felt it.
No wonder she liked it so much.
He came, possibly twice, because she said, I love you.
Chapter Nineteen
Oh, shit. I said it first. Deka slammed a door on her mind and tried to shut off any hint of what she’d just said.
Maybe he didn’t hear me.
Was it a bad thing if he had?
Well, yeah, it’s bad. I said it first!
It smacked of desperation. Deka didn’t do desperate.
He kissed the top of her head as he leaned against her, his cock still sheathed.
Fuck, that was good sex.
Like really good sex. The kind that had her hungry pussy begging for round two.
But first more soap, then food.
Then sex.
Lots of sex. She opened her mind to let him catch a glimpse of her plan.
She got her second orgasm before the food, in bed.
And a third with dessert.
At this point, she was half dead. Her pussy literally purring worse than any cat and happier than she’d ever been where she lay sprawled atop him.
Her fingers lazily circled his nipple. A nice nipple. She’d claimed it with a nibble a few times. Licked it, too.
It now belonged to her, along with his cock.
That nice dick is so mine. Best dick ever.
Like, seriously, there should be an award because he’d so win it.
As for his nipple, it would achieve perfection once it had a nipple ring. Just one to give him a pirate look.
What about a cock ring… She peeked down at his shaft.
The chest under her cheek rumbled. “I am not getting any piercings.”
He read her mind with an ease that pleased her. The bond between them grew, even if part of him still hesitated.
Or maybe he doesn’t feel it. After all, he’d not said anything after her accidental “I love you.”
“Think of the fun I’d have with a piercing down there.” She nipped his chin.
“I think we already have plenty of fun without it.”
“True. I like the fun.” And she liked Samael. A lot. And not just because he was a Golden prize or a good lay or cute.
She liked him, even his strange quirks.
“I am not strange.”
“Yeah, you are, but so am I, so that makes it cool.”
She blew hotly against his chest and listened to the steady thump of his heart speed up. And the faint echo of a second heart. How fascinating.
“What’s fascinating?”
“The way you’re changing.”
He froze. “It’s not exactly easy to admit.”
“Let me help. Yes, I have two heartbeats, and some horns, but I’m still a very hot stud.” Even if he was the only dragon to ever have horns. Well, except for old paintings, but those were surely exaggerated.
“Horns?” He sounded startled. “I don’t have fucking horns.”
“If
you say so.”
“What are you saying?”
Since he seemed a little perturbed, she tucked her hands behind her back and said a very convincingly long, “Nu-u-h-thing.”
“Deka!”
“Forget I said it. Totally wrong person and thing to say. What did you mean when you admitted you were changing?”
“I was talking about the fact you’re turning me into some oddly possessive and mushy pathetic worm who wants to worship you and kill anyone who looks your way.”
“That’s not change, muffin, that’s fate. And I have no problem with you having a jealous fit.” Kind of sexy, actually.
“You’re not helping. I want to go back to the horns. Did you seriously see some?” He copped a feel of his forehead, which appeared smooth—for the moment.
She tugged his hands away from his head. “Forget the horns.”
“I can’t. You obviously saw some. What the fuck does it mean? Am I a freak?”
“You’re not a freak, and since you insist on knowing, they’re devilishly attractive and only visible when you’re a dragon. And I’m sure they won’t get much larger.”
He cringed. “How big are they?”
“Hard to tell since they began spiraling.”
“Princess!” The warning tone made her roll her eyes.
“Stop the whining already. So what if you’re not the same as other dragons? Instead of freaking out about it, celebrate it.”
“Celebrate the fact that I’m a mutant?”
“Think of it more as transitioning to a new state.”
“But why is this happening? Why now?”
She shrugged. “Dunno, but if I had to guess, I’d say the time we spent in that hell zone drew out that other side of you.”
“What side, though? Do you think this has to do with my father?”
“Probably. We never did figure out what he was.”
“It might be important.”
“How? It won’t change anything. You are who you are.”
“What if he’s alive?”
“What if he just donated sperm and never could be bothered to find out if it took root? Maybe he’s an asshole who goes around making babies and abandoning them and deserves a kick in the head for not being there when you were growing up.”