by Donna Grant
“The mortals retaliated quickly and began to slaughter dragons left and right. There was no end in sight, and nothing any of us could do could stop Ulrik on his quest to rid this realm of humans.”
Grace frowned at his words.
“Some of the Kings, myself included, joined Ulrik for a time. Con eventually brought all of us back together. All except for Ulrik. By this time, the mortals were intent on wiping out the dragons.”
“But the Kings couldn’t die by a human’s hand,” she said.
Arian nodded. “True. But they were killing dragons. We had no choice but to send all the dragons away. Then, once more the Kings gathered, except this time it wasn’t to help Ulrik. It was to bind his magic and prevent him from shifting. We cursed him to walk this world for eternity in human form.”
Grace grimaced. “Ouch.”
“The war had to end. We hoped with Ulrik taken care of it would cease, but it didna. Even without dragons, the mortals hunted us.”
“You could’ve wiped us out, right?”
Arian gave a single nod.
“Why didn’t you?” she asked.
“We made a vow to protect the mortals. We take such promises seriously.”
Grace shook her head, not understanding. “But you lost your dragons in the process. That’s not right.”
“It’s what was decided. We returned to Dreagan and safeguarded it with magic to keep everyone off our land as we slept away centuries waiting for mortals to forget.”
“Dreagan?” Why did she know that name? Then she realized it was the famous Scotch whisky.
Arian paused for a moment. “Dreagan is our home. It’s the one place we can be our true selves. We hide here. Ulrik, however, has no’ given up on his vengeance. He’s teamed up with the Dark Fae, another old enemy, to expose us to the world.”
She thought back to the questions Arian had asked her. “You thought I was working with Ulrik or the Dark Fae?”
“Aye. They’ve been known to use mortals to aid them.”
“I’m not helping them,” she said.
Arian’s smile was slow. “Aye. I ken that, lass.”
Chapter Seven
Arian tried several times to look away from Grace, but he was drawn back to her dark blue eyes again and again. The fear he had seen earlier wasn’t gone completely. But it was tempered, calmed.
She sat casually, listening as he spoke. Her muscles weren’t tense, and she was engaged in the story. Even asking him questions. He hadn’t been sure how she would react, truth be told.
“How is Ulrik’s attempting to show the world there are dragons helping him?” she asked.
Arian saw her gaze lower to his chest and her pulse quicken. His own body reacted viscerally. It was a primal, instinctive desire that flared hungrily through him. His cock hardened instantly, and it was everything he could do to remain on the opposite side of the fire from her.
He vaguely recalled that she had asked a question. Arian searched his mind and tried to get himself under control. “Ulrik wants to defeat Con and take over the Dragon Kings.”
“Which means what for all of you?” Her navy eyes rose to his face.
“He could kill us.”
Her brow furrowed deeply with concern. “Would he?”
“I doona know. It’s a possibility. What I know he’ll do is wipe the world of any human, and he’ll begin by waking his Silvers and unleashing them.”
Grace visibly swallowed. “Oh. Wait. What? There are dragons here? I thought you said they were sent away?”
“Four of his largest Silvers remained with him. We trapped them and keep them sleeping in one of the mountains.”
“I see.”
“It’s no’ just ourselves we’re trying to save. It’s your race as well.”
Her gaze moved to the fire as she sat silent for a long moment. She took a deep breath and asked, “Why didn’t Con kill him in the beginning, when Ulrik’s magic was stripped?”
“Con and Ulrik were as close as brothers. They were opposite sides of the same coin. Con was steadfast and reserved while Ulrik was outgoing and a bit of a jokester. Despite their different personalities, they would’ve died for the other. Until Con became King of Kings.”
Grace shifted, her head tilting to the side as she looked at him. “What happened?”
“That’s between Con and Ulrik, but Con doesna talk about it. Or he didna when I was awake.”
“Awake?” she repeated.
Arian briefly looked at his hands. “I’ve been sleeping in my mountain for six centuries.”
“Your...” she began, her voice trailing off. Grace looked around the cavern before her gaze returned to him. “This is your mountain?”
“Aye. Each Dragon King has his own.”
“I...wow.”
He bit back a smile at her surprised reaction. “Many of us take to our mountains for long periods. Some get tired of hiding who we truly are, some have pasts they need to escape from for a while, and others must disappear from the world for a generation or so before reappearing.”
“Which one are you?”
“A bit of all of them.”
“Six hundred years is a long time though.”
Arian lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I had no intention of waking any time soon. The war with Ulrik and the Dark, however, changed that. Con had all the Kings who slept woken.”
“Why were you going to remain asleep?”
“There was no reason for me to be awake. I know mortals have advanced considerably, but that doesna make our lives easier. In fact, it makes keeping our secret hidden even harder. Sleeping through the centuries makes things easier to deal with, like missing my dragons.”
“I understand now.”
He waited as she took it all in, digesting it bit by bit.
“Back to Con and Ulrik,” Grace said. “Did no one think Ulrik wouldn’t one day want revenge?”
Arian clasped his hands together as he rested his arms on his knees. “He was never supposed to unbind his magic.”
“Um, what?” she asked with wide eyes.
“We bound his magic. Dragon magic is the strongest magic on the realm. No’ even the Fae can beat dragon magic.”
She nodded slowly, her face frozen in shock. “Yeah, ok. But you just said his magic was never meant to be unbound, which means that he somehow managed to do just that.”
“Aye, lass, he did.”
“And he says it so calmly,” Grace mumbled to herself with a little shake of her head.
Arian found her completely fascinating. He was enthralled with every facet of emotion that crossed her face—and there were dozens. She hid nothing, whether on purpose or not, her emotions were there for all to see.
Grace dropped her head in her hands and blew out a loud breath. “You just said dragon magic was the strongest. What could possibly have beaten that?”
“An anomaly in the form of a Druid.”
At this, her head snapped up. “Did you just say a Druid?”
“Aye.”
She scratched her eyebrow and looked at the ground. “If there are dragons and Fae, why not Druids?”
Arian was hiding another smile.
When she returned her eyes to him, she shot him a flat look. “You can stop laughing, because yes, I’m wigging out to the Nth degree here.”
“You doona appear to be...wigging out,” he said, trying the word.
She moved her hands in a vertical circle in front of her chest. “It’s all inside.”
Arian’s smile grew. If she only knew the truth about how he was falling for her. His smile faded as he thought of her leaving, because she would—eventually. He wasn’t ready for that yet.
Without a doubt he had been alone in his mountain for a considerable time, and his body yearned to be near Grace again. He longed to touch her skin and feel her lips moving beneath his.
His emotions were so volatile that lightning streaked across the sky, followed immediately by a clap of thunder before the skies opened u
p once more.
Grace let out a shriek and jumped to her feet, getting as far from the entrance as she could. She faced the rain, backing up as she did.
Arian got to his feet and moved in her path. He used his body to block her from running into a boulder. As soon as he laid his arms on her shoulders, he felt her shaking.
“It’s just a storm, lass,” he whispered near her ear.
“It’s never just a storm.”
There was something in her words that caught his attention. Not too much the words themselves, but the depth of emotion in them.
Arian turned her to face him and looked into her deep blue eyes. He needed to take her mind off the storm, because he had no intention of stopping it. As long as it rained she would remain with him.
Once he had his fill of listening to her sweet voice and watching her feelings cross her face, then he would stop the rain.
“Bad things happen in weather like this,” she said.
Arian smoothed back her hair from her face. “No’ all bad, surely.”
“My mother left us in a storm. My father died while a storm howled. I walked into a mountain with a Dragon King who is in the middle of a war with Dark Fae.”
He was going to reassure her that all would be fine, but he couldn’t find the words. The knowledge that so much pain was associated with storms made him question using his power to keep her with him.
But perhaps there was a way he could help her.
“Rain waters the earth, giving life to plants and flowers that are food for animals. The thunder and lightning are displays of the beauty and fierceness of nature,” he said, hoping he could get her to accept his words and erase her fear.
Her body was pressed so enticingly against him. The feel of her breasts made his cock twitch. He looked down at her lips to find them parted slightly. Damn, but he wanted to taste them.
He couldn’t breathe. The weight of the need, of the overwhelming desire felt like he was being pulled under. As if he were drowning, and Grace was the only thing that could save him.
The beat of her pulse at her throat was erratic and her chest rose and fell rapidly.
She felt it too.
Arian lifted his gaze to her face to find her eyes heavy-lidded as she watched him. He searched those amazing eyes of hers as he sank, tumbled into the navy depths.
He leaned his head forward until their breaths mingled. Her fingers tightened on his arms. Arian could stand it no more. He put his lips against hers.
She sucked in a quick breath. Arian moved his lips over hers, learning the feel of them before he touched his tongue to them, tracing them.
Grace leaned against him. He wound his arms around her, holding her firmly. A low moan filled him when her tongue touched his.
He was about to explode. Inside was a hunger he could never remember having before, a yearning to claim her right then that shocked and excited him.
The kiss deepened, their tongues intertwining seductively, sensually. Her lips were soft, her taste decadent. He slid a hand into her hair and held her head as their passion grew rapidly.
The soft kiss was turning as untamed as the craving inside him, and the more she responded, the more the flames grew. Her soft moans were driving him wild, but it was the way she breathed that made him burn.
He kissed down the side of her jaw, listening to her short breaths filling the air as she clung to him. His tongue licked her neck, and he felt a shiver race through her.
Then her hands grabbed his face and brought him back up so they could kiss once more. He couldn’t get enough of her kisses or the way her hands roamed over his shoulders, arms, and chest.
He had to have her. There was no going back for him now, not after having her kisses.
Not after tasting her desire.
He lifted his head and looked down at her swollen lips. They were still parted, still wet from their kisses.
“Don’t you dare stop,” she said and rose up on her toes.
Arian felt a nudge in his mind. He could hear Con’s voice, but he didn’t open the link. Nothing was going to come between him and Grace right now. There would be time enough later to hear what Con had to say.
Grace’s finger dipped in the waist of his jeans, and Arian groaned. He jerked when her hand cupped his arousal on the outside of his jeans and gave him a squeeze.
He continued to kiss her as his hand lifted the hem of her sweater and undershirt to feel her skin. He caressed upward until he cupped her breast and massaged the mound.
It was Grace who broke off the kiss this time. She moaned loudly when his finger circled her nipple, causing it to harden. It took but a second to unhook the bra at her back and shove it aside so his palm could feel her breast.
When he held it once more, he tweaked the nipple, causing her to give a cry of pleasure. Their gazes were locked together, their desire palpable.
Arian teased her nipple, enjoying how desire darkened her gaze even more. It was Grace who grabbed her sweater and shirt and pulled them over her head. Her bra followed a moment later.
Now they stood toe-to-toe, hip-to-hip. Arian put his free hand on her neck and nudged her head to the side with his thumb. Then he kissed her neck below her ear, licking and sucking the sensitive area. Her moans spurred him on, urging him to continue.
All the while she unfastened his jeans and spread the opening so she could find his cock.
Arian hissed in a breath when her fingers touched the head of his arousal. Then she began to touch him, tempting and teasing him until he was breathing as heavily as she.
He was rough as he unfastened her jeans and shoved them down her hips. Then he lifted her in his arms and laid her atop her sweater before the fire. With one jerk, he had her boot off. The second followed a heartbeat later. And then her jeans followed. He hesitated when he spotted the red lace panties that he found unbelievably sensual.
After running his fingers along the lace, he removed them so that she was fully bared to him.
Arian was kneeling beside her, looking at Grace’s beautiful body, from her pink-tipped breasts to her waist and flared hips, down to her sex. He blinked as he saw she was completely shaven.
“Fuck,” he murmured before he leaned down for another kiss.
Chapter Eight
Grace’s stomach clutched, her breathing came faster. She didn’t know what it was about Arian that made her burn, made her...yearn.
From the moment he’d spoken with that amazing accent, she’d been taken with him. His conversation had by turns irritated and intrigued her, pushing her to believe the impossible after witnessing him in his true form. With his astute thinking and sharp mind, he was more than a match for her intelligently. Seeing that glorious body and to-die-for face only made her crave him more.
Then he had kissed her.
And what a kiss!
It was a kiss like none other. There was fire and a hunger that was both savage as well as tender.
At first.
Then the fire had come. The kiss had charred her, searing her from the inside out. Each touch of his tongue, each time those lips of his moved over hers, had been the most incredible feeling in the world.
Until he lightly bit her bottom lip.
Grace had clutched him as she squeezed her legs together from the intense desire that made her sex throb.
She’d needed to touch him. His skin was warm and the sinew firm beneath her palm. But it hadn’t been enough. She wanted to feel him.
His thick arousal was pressed against her stomach. It had taken her forever before she got his pants undone, and then she was touching him. She could feel his member pulse in her hand as she stroked him.
Her attention was soon divided when he teased her nipple. All Grace knew was that she wanted him inside her. Now! She burned for him as she had never burned for another.
Then she was on her back, naked. And his voice, husky with emotion and desire murmured, “Fuck.”
She had never liked words like that during sex,
but from Arian it made her heart race and her stomach flip with excitement. And need.
Grace couldn’t find any words, which was a first for her. The feelings of desire, pleasure, and longing swarmed her, but she didn’t feel like she was drowning.
No, she felt just the opposite. Like she was just now living.
She swallowed, watching as Arian stood and roughly yanked off his jeans. Grace eyed his tattoo again. She couldn’t wait to touch it, but first, she wanted Arian.
He put his hands on either side of her face and leaned over her, kissing her. It wasn’t the fiery kisses of earlier. These were more sedate, languid, but still just as sensual and erotic.
She loved the way he could stir her with just a simple kiss. It brought chills to her skin.
He stretched out atop her, his large body covering hers as she opened her legs. Instinctively, her legs wrapped around him, holding him as close as her arms now did.
A moan rumbled in his chest, and Grace held him tighter. What was it about Arian that made her respond so passionately? There was a wildness about her in his arms, and it had never been there before.
She was eager, madly impatient to have him deep inside her. To feel him moving within her.
A sigh escaped when he bent and placed his lips around a nipple. He sucked hard before laving the turgid peak with his tongue until she was writhing beneath him.
But he didn’t stop there. He moved to her other breast and teased that nipple just as mercilessly. Grace’s body fairly hummed with desire that coiled tighter and tighter.
Arian scooted down her body, kissing his way as he went. He paused at the scar on her right side where she’d had her appendix removed fifteen years earlier. Then he continued downward until his warm breath fanned her sex.
Grace stared at the stalactites above her without seeing them. She held her breath while he kissed the inside of each thigh softly, slowly.
Then he gently licked her sex. Grace’s mouth opened at the wondrous feeling that spread through her. It was quickly replaced by a bright blaze of desire when Arian flicked his tongue over her clit.
The breath rushed from her lungs as her mouth opened on a silent cry of pleasure. He teased, he licked, he laved. Taking her higher and higher each time.