Patrima: A Dragon for Christmas (Return of the Dragons Book 5)

by Rinelle Grey

  He half fell back onto the bed, pulling her with him. Hailey didn’t mind in the least.

  She stared into his eyes as he placed her hand on his chest, then put his on hers. “Feel my breathing,” he said, his voice low.

  Hailey tried to concentrate on the rise and fall of his chest under her hand, but all she could think of was the fact that it was shallower than it should be. She could feel her own breath growing shallower as though in response, and she tried to stop it.

  Then it hit her. This was just what it was supposed to do. So she let it go, relaxing into the connection she could feel humming between them.

  His heart thumped under her hand, and she found herself concentrating on that instead. She was getting distracted.

  “No, that’s good,” Patrima said, his voice almost a purr. “Perfect.”

  She could feel it then, her heart beating in time with his, her breathing synced with his.

  She’d never felt this close to anyone before. Sure, she’d had a few boyfriends, even a couple of adult relationships, but in none of them had she felt the connection she felt to Patrima just from a simple hand on his chest.

  “This has been… easier than I expected,” he said, his voice low. “Perhaps it is because you’re a human, perhaps it’s because…” he stared into her eyes, and Hailey found herself almost holding her breath. “Perhaps it is because we already share a deep connection.”

  “Whatever it is, it’s amazing,” Hailey breathed, and he smiled.

  “All that is left now is for us to fall asleep, and our brain waves will sync, allowing me to enter the Mesmer sleep. I’ll remain asleep until I am healed, and then a simple touch will wake me.”

  Hailey nodded. “I’ll be right here. Whatever you need.”

  He smiled over at her, his face open and trusting. “I don’t doubt it, Hailey.”

  Chapter 12

  Hailey woke feeling more rested than she had in a long time. In fact, she wouldn’t have been surprised to find she’d been asleep for several days. But when she looked at the clock, only a little over an hour had passed.

  Patrima lay beside her, sleeping soundly, his face the most relaxed she’d seen it.

  She took a few moments to allow herself to study it. His lashes were long and unbelievably pale. His chest rose and fell in a normal rhythm now, and Hailey surprised to find her own breathing was still in time with his.

  This Mesmer thing the dragons had was hard to believe. She’d never felt so close to anyone before, and they hadn’t even made love yet.

  She gave a small shiver of anticipation.

  She couldn’t wait. Her body already swelled with desire and strained with impatience.

  Was this the Mesmer bond Patrima had talked about?

  Hesitantly, she reached out and touched his arm lightly. He’d said a touch would wake him, when he was done healing. Was he done yet?

  Heat flashed through her as soon as she touched him, first warming her hand, then travelling down her arm, on a direct path to her heart.

  What she’d felt before, the need and want that seemed too strong, was like a candle flame to a raging fire. A zap of static to a thunderstorm.

  Desire rolled and crashed through her, and for a moment, Hailey felt like she might drown in its intensity.

  Patrima’s eyes flicked open, fixed on her, and suddenly, it all came into focus. This feeling, this overwhelming need, could be sated.

  She reached for him just as he reached for her, and they pulled each other in close. Patrima stared down at her, his eyes full of emotion.

  “Thank you, Hailey, for doing this for me,” he said solemnly.

  She laughed softly. “We’re not done yet, are we?” The thought caused a delicious swirl in her stomach, and almost involuntarily she bumped her body up a little closer to his.

  He gave a soft, helpless groan, but still he didn’t kiss her.

  Why wouldn’t he kiss her already?

  “Are you sure you want to go further?” he asked softly. “We don’t have to you know. This will pass. I will heal either way.”

  Was he really serious? Hailey searched his face, but though his eyes were dark and heavy, his expression was serious.

  He really would pull back if she wanted him to.

  That knowledge made her feel safe and secure. And trusting enough to lean forwards and plant a kiss on his lips. His breathing deepened, but he still waited.

  “I’m sure,” Hailey said firmly. “I want…” she hesitated, and looked deep into his eyes. “I want this. Now, and hopefully in the future too.”

  He smiled then, and kissed the tip of her nose. “I’d like that too.”

  *****

  Patrima found it hard to believe Hailey seemed so determined to be with him. It wasn’t like he’d shown her his best side. Sure, he’d rescued that kid, and helped her with the man with the lights, but those weren’t any big deal. Anyone would have done the same thing, wouldn’t they?

  And yet here she was, trusting him completely.

  And wanting him too. He could see the depth of her need in her eyes.

  A depth of need reflected in his heart.

  He was already convinced he wanted her for his lifemate, though he didn’t quite feel ready to say that yet. Just the fact that she had eased him into the Mesmer within moments, without any effort at all, said that she was someone special.

  They had a connection that surpassed anything he’d ever experienced before.

  She was different to anyone he’d ever known before. He could listen to her wise, caring words all day, and stare into her eyes all night.

  And… well, do other things too, as her body, impatiently pressing up against his suggested.

  He should have been consumed by the Mesmer bond. Unable to think of anything but the feel of her body against his, the urge to mate with her.

  And that was strong. But something else was stronger.

  He bent and kissed her, revelling in the feel of her lips on his, her body lying against his. And not just because of the primal urge not mate. Not just because he was weak and needed to regain his strength as quickly as possible.

  Because it was her.

  Unlike the other times Patrima had been in the Mesmer and mated under the Mesmer bond, this time he felt no reluctance. No pressing concern that indulging in this practice was weak.

  He had no fear of showing weakness to Hailey. She would never take advantage of it.

  Just the opposite. She’d care and comfort him, as she was doing now.

  She tugged at his shirt, undoing the buttons, and Patrima paused to help her. Her fingers scratched across the bandage there.

  “Is it safe to take it off?” she asked breathlessly, looking up at him.

  He gave a throaty laugh. “Perfectly safe,” he said, ripping it off to show her.

  Underneath his skin was smooth and scar free.

  Hailey ran her hands over it, marvelling at the change. And she hadn’t even seen what it had looked like before.

  “It’s as if you’d never been wounded,” she said in disbelief. She looked up at him, and her eyes widened. “Your scar, the one on your eye. It’s gone.”

  Patrima put his hand up to feel for himself. It was true. He hadn’t stopped to consider that the Mesmer could repair already healed scars. Not many dragons had them to begin with. “Look at that. How am I going to look like a big, tough dragon now?”

  She laughed at that, pulling him down to kiss him. “I can think of a few ways…”

  And he was more than happy to show her.

  *****

  Hailey gasped as Patrima ran his hands over her skin, every place he touched burning with the strongest pleasure she’d ever experienced.

  She needed more. So much more.

  She tugged impatiently at Patrima’s jeans. Why was he still wearing all these clothes? Didn’t he know they couldn’t mate with them on?

  He gave a laugh and pulled back, trying to slip out of his jeans. They got a little stuck
on another bandage on his buttocks, making Hailey giggle. “So you weren’t making that up. How on earth did you get injured on your butt?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Patrima growled, and moved in to kiss her.

  Hailey held him off. “Wait,” she said.

  Patrima growled again, until she said teasingly, “I just need to check that your injury has healed properly.”

  He stared at her for a moment, then he laughed too. “By all means,” he said huskily, pulling his jeans and rolling over to show her.

  He looked stunning, and Hailey managed to tamp down the rampant desire for long enough to take a good, long look. “I think you’re fit for duty,” she told him.

  “Good. But you still have too many clothes on.”

  Patrima helped her pull off her uniform. One or two buttons may have popped off, but Hailey didn’t care. She’d fix those later.

  She pulled him back down onto the bed, and his lips found hers, kissing her hungrily.

  His knee pressed insistently against her thigh, and Hailey parted her legs, wrapping them around him and pulling him close.

  His breath was heavy in her ear.

  Her own breathing was just as rough. “I want you,” she told him breathlessly.

  It was all the encouragement he needed. Patrima slid into her, groaning as he clung to her.

  She could feel his heartbeat through his body, pressed up against her, and knew it was in perfect sync with hers.

  And it wasn’t the only thing. Desire and tension mounted throughout her body as Patrima thrust into her. Hailey’s body rose to meet him, urging him on.

  Orgasmic spasms rocked her body, even as he gave a guttural groan and buried himself deeply in her. She could feel his own orgasm almost as strongly as her own.

  Patrima murmured her name as he thrust a few more times, less urgently now, then pulled her close, burrowing his head in her shoulder.

  “That was amazing,” Hailey said, aware of a slight feeling of disappointment that the experience was over.

  “You were amazing,” Patrima said softly, then he ran his tongue over her ear, nibbling at the lobe, sending delicious swirls of desire through her, even if she didn’t have the energy to follow through with them.

  Maybe not so over.

  She giggled, exhausted.

  “So is it always like that?” she asked him breathlessly.

  Patrima raised himself on one elbow and twirled a lock of her hair around his finger as he said, “Is what always like that?”

  She wasn’t really sure how to put it into words. “The Mesmer? Sleeping with a dragon? I don’t know.”

  Patrima laughed huskily. “The Mesmer is… it’s always very intense. That’s how it works.” His eyes rested on her face, their silver pupils slitted, sending a shiver of excitement through her. “But that was, to me, more intense than usual.”

  Hailey heaved a sigh of relief. It wasn’t just her then.

  She wasn’t quite sure what that meant, or where they were going to go with it.

  It was enough just to know.

  Chapter 13

  Patrima sat at the kitchen bench wearing only his jeans, watching Hailey walk back and forth from the fridge to the bench, humming to herself. She had insisted they needed food after their exertion, and Patrima’s stomach was growling enough that he wasn’t going to object.

  Even though he would have far rather taken her back to bed.

  He wasn’t quite sure where this was going yet though. She had certainly seemed eager enough, above and beyond his previous experiences with the Mesmer bond.

  Maybe that meant something.

  Maybe it didn’t.

  But he hoped it did.

  Trouble was, he had no idea where they went from here.

  If she were a dragon, he would spend some time with her in the lair, getting to know each other, perhaps even mating a second time, to see if the intensity of his desire remained. Both of them knowing that if it didn’t, no hard feelings.

  But he wasn’t in the lair.

  He was in Hailey’s house. If this went sour, he had nowhere else to go.

  He didn’t want that issue hanging over their potential relationship like a dark cloud.

  Trouble was, he didn’t know what else to do.

  Hailey gave him a smile, then went to the fridge and poured herself a glass of juice.

  “Are you hungry? Do you want some breakfast?”

  It all seemed so normal. So ordinary. The habits of humans came back to him almost as though he’d never left. Some of them were pretty good. He’d missed them.

  He helped himself to some breakfast, enjoying the toast and jam, one of his favourites as a child. Hailey sat down opposite him on a high stool at the bench, and shared his toast.

  He could remember his mother and father doing that when his father had visited them.

  How had it felt for his father, visiting his lifemate and child, thinking he could never bring them home to his clan? It couldn’t have been easy for him. For the first time, as he considered the situation his parents had been in, Patrima felt sympathy for them.

  Things in Trima clan had been different then. Ultrima had still held onto the idea that dragons needed to stay away from humans.

  And yet, he hadn’t thrown Patrima’s father out because he’d mated with a human. He just hadn’t allowed him to bring his family to the lair.

  Until his sister, Latrima, was born.

  Then everything had changed.

  His expression must have too, because Hailey was staring at him, and Patrima realised he was holding his toast, but hadn’t taken a bite.

  Suddenly, he didn’t feel like eating. He put the toast back on the plate, and rubbed his hands on his jeans.

  “Is everything okay?” Hailey asked softly.

  “Of course,” Patrima said automatically.

  She looked away, but not before Patrima saw the hurt on her face. He was shutting her out, and she knew it.

  He took a deep breath. If he was serious about this, if he really thought she might be the one for him, then he needed to let her in.

  If she didn’t like what she found, well, then it wasn't meant to be.

  “I was just thinking about my family,” he said softly.

  She turned back to face him, her expression sympathetic. She reached out and put a hand over his on the bench. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  He did, and he didn’t. But he probably needed to explain. “I was thinking about my parents. That they must have had breakfast together like this, before Ultrima agreed to let my mother come to the lair. She was the first human ever granted that privilege.”

  “Was that what the arguments were about?” Hailey asked gently.

  Patrima shrugged. “I guess so. I don’t remember. I was only five when my sister was born. That was when we moved to the lair.”

  Hailey’s forehead furrowed. “Did something change then?”

  He hesitated. How to even begin to explain it to a human who knew nothing about dragons?

  “Yeah. My sister was… special. She had dragon powers that no dragon has been born with in several centuries. Because of that Ultrima revised his stance on dragons mating with humans.” His mouth twisted, and he knew that was reflected in the bitter tone to his words. “And my mother and I were allowed to move to the lair.”

  Hailey squeezed his hand. “Were you happy about the move?”

  Patrima hesitated. “Yes and no. Obviously I was excited to learn I was a dragon. But… everything was so different there. I coped pretty badly with the change.”

  That was an understatement.

  “You were five years old, that seems pretty understandable,” Hailey pointed out.

  “Maybe. But Ultrima didn’t think so.”

  “What happened?” Hailey asked quietly.

  Patrima shrugged uncomfortably. “I may have made a bit of a fuss over not having a Christmas tree. We’d just set one up at home before we left, and I didn’t underst
and why we couldn’t bring it with us to the lair.”

  He winced, remembering. “Ultrima told me to grow up. That tough dragons didn’t sit around crying over Christmas trees. He was right too.”

  Hailey didn’t look so convinced. “So you haven’t celebrated Christmas since then?”

  Patrima hesitated. This was the point where he needed to admit what he’d done. But just the thought made him want to shrivel up in embarrassment. It seemed so stupid, in retrospect. He’d made a huge fuss about nothing.

  He couldn’t possibly expect Hailey to understand, when he didn’t even really understand it himself.

  But she was looking at him expectantly, so Patrima took a deep breath. “They did this year. We’ve had a lot of humans move to the lair since then. I guess Ultrima changed his mind. There was a tree and decorations and everything.”

  Hailey looked confused. “But… I don’t get it. That’s a good thing, right? I mean, Ultrima had finally accepted you and your family, and even Christmas. What went wrong?”

  Patrima stared at her, his mind scrambling to take in what she’d said.

  Ultrima had accepted him? His family? Christmas? That’s what it had been about?

  As that realisation hit him, he realised what a fool he’d been.

  The Trima dragons had finally shown him that they were willing to accept humans, and him, in a way he’d never imagined might happen.

  And he’d taken that moment to reject them.

  A bitter bile rose in his throat.

  How had he not seen it? How had he made such a mess of it?

  His voice echoed distantly in his head as he said, “I didn’t get it. Instead, I ranted at all of them, toppled the tree, then when Ultrima called me on it, I told him he was growing soft. He took it as a challenge, and… well… you know the rest.”

  He couldn’t look at her. The story sounded painfully lame to his ears, how could it sound anything less to her?

  “It must have been very hard for you,” Hailey said softly, putting her arms around him and pulling him close. “Ultrima made a mistake. He should have realised earlier that there was no harm in Christmas, and that to deny a celebration like Christmas to a confused little boy who’d been torn away from everything he’d known to become a dragon was bound to lead to resentment.”