Quill blinked in shock, taken aback by this. “I didn’t know that.”
“Why do you think I go crazy when you’re gone? No one else could put up with me, Quill. No one,” he said. “I can’t think of a better partner, if you would just stop leaving.”
“I want to use my power,” Quill said in a broken voice. “I want to fulfill my purpose.”
Drake put up a hand, running his fingers lightly through Quill’s hair and tilting his face up to look at him. “You have a good heart, far better than mine. But maybe it’s time to accept you have to pull back and work with me, together. You can’t just keep running. There are wyverns involved now. Did you hear that part?”
Quill shook out of Drake’s grasp, looking slightly flushed by the contact. It had been oddly tender. The dragons seemed to communicate better through touch than they did with words sometimes.
“What are wyverns?” she asked curiously.
Drake let out a long sigh and sat in a chair across from her. “When a shifter mixes their blood with a dragon, a new kind of creature can be formed. Something like a dragon, but not a full dragon. Smaller than dragons, with no powers and a vicious, poisonous bite. If a human mates with a dragon and shares blood, this doesn’t happen. That’s because dragons were meant to mate with humans. There is a clean slate there for our blood. But when it mingles with shifters…”
“How do they get the blood?”
Drake sent Quill a look and then continued warily. “That’s why Quill was kidnapped recently. And why dragons work in pairs. Dragons are the enforcers of the shifter world. A lot of the rule breakers hate us, want to find any way to get leverage against us. The attempts to steal blood to create wyverns is part of that. But wyverns don’t live long, and they aren’t very strong. The main danger is wyverns may be able to pass over barriers only dragons are supposed to be able to pass through. But it hasn’t been tested.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Like our apartments,” Drake said, gesturing to the door. “There’s a spell on the entryway. Only us or someone with us, like you, can enter.”
She nodded in relief. “So my ex couldn’t get in. Wait, Gentry said my ex was involved with your enemies. Did he mean wyverns?”
“Or wolves,” Quill said. “Gentry is usually pretty cryptic about his visions. I’m not sure how clear they are, and obviously, he has to be careful about how it influences people to act.”
“It makes sense,” she said, feeling nervous. If this all came back to her ex, she’d have to talk about him. And she didn’t want to.
“I know you don’t want to talk about it,” Quill said, running a hand through his long hair and brushing it off his face. “But we need to know about your ex.”
She nodded and stood up to get her phone. She’d left it on the kitchen table this morning when the other dragons had taken her.
“I’m sorry for rushing out like that, by the way,” Quill said, looking guilty. “If I had known.”
“You should have known,” Drake said tersely. “Anything can happen when you go out like that.”
“I’m learning, okay?” Quill said. But he did seem slightly more relaxed in general, now that he knew Drake needed him. She saw Quill’s dilemma. It would suck to have such a wonderful power and not be able to use it.
“Well, excuse me for being durable,” Drake said.
“That’s the thing,” she said. “You’re not. You’re actually quite fragile, emotionally. Aren’t you?”
Drake took a step back. “What?”
Quill leaned in, listening intently.
“You freak out about the smallest things in regard to me or Quill, whether it’s eating, safety, etc. You’re high strung. That’s why you need Quill.”
Quill looked down at his hands, but she could see her words meant something to him.
“Fine,” Drake said, folding his hands. “Yes, I’m a mess inside. But if the people I cared for weren’t disappearing on me all the time, I think I’d be fine.”
“Drake,” Quill said sardonically. “You do care.”
Drake turned on him angrily. “Of course I care. I recruited the two dragons I hate most in the world to save you. I charged into a warehouse full of wolves for you. What do you think?”
Quill laughed and came over to stand behind his partner and hug him, and Drake ruffled irritably but let him do it.
“Sit down,” Drake said tersely. “We need to figure out the situation with Tara’s ex.”
Tara sighed. “You know, you’re a good person, but when you sound so angry all the time, it’s hard to confide in you.”
Quill nodded. “Maybe if you had better manners—”
“I don’t care!” Drake burst out. “Give me that phone.”
She sighed and handed it over. It was time to let someone else in on the situation she’d been facing alone for so long. If anyone could help her, it was her dragons.
Her phone was unlocked and open to the message, and Drake’s eyes went wide with fury before he dropped the phone to the ground like it had burned him. Then he was up and pacing, his knuckles cracking as his hands balled into tight fists.
“This man,” he growled angrily. “He thinks he can threaten us? Our mate?” He shook his head. “I’d like to see him try. I’ll kill him ten times over.”
“If he’s gotten in with the wyverns…” Quill said.
Drake slammed a fist into the wall, denting it, and Tara winced in concern.
Quill waved a hand. “Not the first time.”
Tara stood and walked to Drake. A part of her was apprehensive about approaching him when he looked this disturbed. But she also wanted to reassure him.
She wrapped her arms around his waist, and his breath caught for a moment before he reluctantly returned the embrace. He was warm and soft and reassuring, and even if he was angry, she knew it wasn’t at her.
“Thank you for saving me today,” she said. “You were awesome. Both of you.”
Quill and Drake were silent.
“We shouldn’t have let you get captured,” Drake finally said. “You’re everything to us.”
“How can I be?” she asked. “You barely know me.”
“Not true,” Drake said, stroking her hair. “I know your hair is really curly when you get out of the shower. I know you taste like heaven. I know you’re as tenderhearted as Quill. I know you’re loyal, and you resisted those other dragons because of us. I know you’re a hard worker who doesn’t let other people down. And I know you’re brave… for dealing with this man on your own for so long.”
She rested against him. “I didn’t have a choice. And I didn’t mean to alert him to my location. I’ve probably put you all in danger.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Quill said, standing abruptly. “He could have told them our location, and they could be planning to breach it.”
“What should we do?” she asked.
Drake just kept stroking her hair, calming her and himself at the same time it seemed. “Don’t worry. We won’t let anything happen. They still wouldn’t try an attack, I think. As long as two of us are here, they wouldn’t dare.”
“So we just have to stay in the apartment?” Quill asked.
“For now,” Drake said. “I can’t think of anywhere safer. And I really don’t think they’d try to take on dragons on their own turf. They’re probably counting on us to leave on a mission.”
“Well, we won’t,” Quill said, folding his arms. “I’m not putting Tara in jeopardy again.”
She swallowed. “Look, I appreciate that you two are trying harder to get along. But what if Gentry is right? What if I’m complicating things too much by being here? What if it’s not the right time?”
Drake let out a growl and pulled back to look at her. “Are you saying you want to consider other dragons?”
Quill closed in on her other side, and the sexual tension in the room flared to life, heating her up.
“No,” she said. “But the ex, the wy
verns, they’re my problem. And you two… Well, you’ve had hundreds of years to work this out… and… I’m not sure it’s going to stick just because you want to do it for me.”
Quill put a hand on her shoulder, turning her to him. “Tara, you have to let us try.”
“Why?” she asked. “You can find another dragon-heart. You don’t even know if I am one. With my ex, I was so tired. I wasn’t brave. I was exhausted. And heartsick. He found me when I was grieving for my mom. It was a bad relationship, but it was a distraction. Until it all went wrong. Then I tried to stay on the road to keep away from him, but he kept finding me. Now he’s found me again.”
“And we won’t let him get to you,” Quill said. “I can change. I can hold back. I know it’s still early, but I can already feel things changing with you in the house. Drake and I are getting along better than we ever have, and I think it’s that we both care about you more than our own egos. So please, just give us a chance.”
His lips were close to her ear now, and she felt a delicate shudder run down her back.
“I don’t know,” she said. “It still seems too good to be true.”
“Oh, trust me,” Drake said. “It’s not. I’m still a stubborn asshole and Quill’s still reckless. We still won’t make things easy on you. But… we’ll do our best.”
She leaned into Drake and let Quill wrap around behind her. She felt warm and safe, like she was in exactly the right place. She just hoped it would last.
When they all pulled back, she hid her flush by tucking her curls behind one ear and looking away.
“I’m going to need his name,” Drake said. “I have some resources we can use to find out more info. We have some informants in the wolf community, so we can see where he’s sneaking around, who he’s with.”
She nodded. “His name is Timothy Sunderland. He had dark hair, is tall, and is kind of disheveled usually. I just wonder how he got in with the wolves anyway.”
Drake eyed her carefully, but it was Quill who stepped forward and spoke. “Here’s the thing, Tara. This guy, the obsessed way he’s been stalking you? All signs point to him being some kind of shifter. Maybe a latent one, but maybe a full one. And we have to find out what we’re dealing with.”
“A shifter?” she asked. “Then why didn’t he mate me?”
“Did you have unprotected sex with him?”
She shook her head. “No. Never. He did want to, but… And then the one time he caught up to me, captured me and tied me up, I think that’s where it was headed. But I got away when he took a phone call. I had taken to carrying a knife on me, and I got away.”
Drake’s face tightened in possessive anger. “I could kill him for doing that to you. I promise not to ever tie you again.”
She nodded. “It’s okay. I’m starting to get over it. Slowly. Anyway, no, he never did that to me.”
“Wolf shifters mate by unprotected copulation. And if it’s with a human, then by telling them about their animal and getting acceptance. As I understand it.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Anyway, you get some rest. Quill will tuck you in while I sort this out.”
Then Drake strode out of the room, leaving her with Quill, who looked sort of apologetic.
“Hey,” he said, tilting up her chin. “Drake’s abrupt at times, but he gets things done, okay? We’ll get this sorted out for you. Now, I’m sure you’re starving. Let’s get you something to eat.”
“You dragons,” she grumbled. “Always trying to get me to eat.” But she was hungry, so she didn’t argue.
Quill just laughed. “It’s true,” he said, slipping a hand around her waist and squeezing her curves. “We like to maintain our mate’s figure.”
“Stop touching my fat,” she snapped, laughing.
“No,” Quill said, reaching around with both hands to give her an affectionate squeeze. “They’re called love handles for a reason, and I intend to love them.”
She threw back her head and laughed. It felt like things were back to normal. At least for the moment. And at least as normal as things ever were anymore.
But sometimes, weird was best.
* * *
Drake was working in his office until late that night, and by the time he came out, Tara and Quill were laughing and playing a game of Uno that was surprisingly fun with only two people.
Maybe it was Quill’s teasing and flirting. Maybe it was the beautiful view of the New York skyline, the feeling like they were on top of the world.
And maybe just the sexual chemistry of sitting across from a beautiful man and looking in his eyes.
She couldn’t get the thought of Quill and Drake loving her together out of her mind. And as the day had gone on and she’d calmed down from all the excitement, she’d been increasingly unable to stop thinking about doing things with them.
If Quill heard her thoughts, he was at least gentleman enough not to notice.
“Okay,” Drake said. “I’ve done what I can. They’ll let me know what they find out tomorrow.”
“So are you guys like detectives?” she asked, gesturing for him to come sit down.
“No,” he said. “Well, sometimes. Most of the time, it’s pretty straightforward. ‘Douchebags over there. Beat them up, Drake.’”
She laughed. “Want to join us?”
Drake raised a blond eyebrow. “No thanks. I’m going to eat.” He walked to the kitchen. “Have you both eaten?”
“Yes, I’ve been feeding the mate,” Quill said lazily.
“Good,” Drake said. He reheated something from the fridge and ate in silence as the tension in the room began to build.
Damn, they might not all be the most emotionally healthy individuals, but the sexual tension between the three of them was off the charts.
Drake broke the silence first, clearing his throat. “I think I’m going to head to bed.”
Quill stood, eyeing her reluctantly. “Me too. It’s been a long day for you, Tara. I imagine you want to rest.”
“Hm. I don’t know. I think I’m feeling okay,” she said, putting away the cards and glancing up at him.
Drake snorted. “You were kidnapped, nearly assaulted—”
“I wasn’t assaulted.”
“Nearly,” he said. “And you had to tell us all about your crazy ex, which must have been hard.”
“That wasn’t as hard as I thought,” she said. “So I’m not that tired.” She looked between them, biting her lip and hoping they got her meaning.
A small smile curved the corners of Quill’s lips. “Maybe a good time to show you once again what the red and blue dragons have to offer?”
Drake put his hands behind his head and walked forward. “I’ve been wanting to take you ever since I saw you with the other dragons. I can’t get it out of my mind. Not until I get to touch you again.”
“Me too,” Quill said. “Not until you’re screaming our names.”
She grinned, feeling less trepidation this time, though the butterflies were still there. She wanted to take the next step with her partners. Bond with them, heal from the day with them, and continue to get to know them. She took their hands and pulled the surprised dragons behind her into the bedroom.
8
Drake was amazed at this fiery little woman that was always full of surprises. First she came into their lives out of nowhere, literally drowning and needing them to save her. But ever since that day, she’d been the one saving them. Bringing them together, giving them new purpose. She’d shown more and more just how strong she was. Just how resilient she was.
And now, as she tugged them both into the bedroom and hopped onto the bed, eyes hungrily watching him and his partner, he knew this woman was the one.
Their mate.
Tara waited for them, kneeling on the bed, and Drake and Quill moved onto the mattress and surrounded her, letting her feel their hardened bodies with her hands as they slowly undressed for her.
There was no need to hurry. From everything Drake
had found out today, there was no immediate danger at all, though he intended to keep a close eye on things. For now, it was just them and their mate.
Once they were disrobed, Quill and Drake returned the favor for her, removing her clothes and watching her eyes light up with excitement as they took in the sight of their luscious mate and let their hands rove over her body, enjoying each and every curve.
Drake loved the feel of her hips, her breasts, her ass, everywhere. Her skin was so soft, so dark and beautiful. He turned her to face him and leaned down and placed a kiss on her luscious lips, drinking deeply of the feel of them on his own. She moaned softly as he ran his hands down her sides and Quill kissed her from behind, running a trail of kisses from her shoulder to the back of her neck and along the ridge of her hairline.
In this at least, Quill was a perfect partner. An extension of himself, and Drake an extension of him, working together in some mysterious tandem that defied words or even logic.
Every kiss Quill gave made her sigh a little more, and as she opened her mouth, Drake came inside, feeling and stroking to give her as much pleasure possible.
The sounds she made were ecstasy, and as Drake licked along the back of her mouth and over her tongue, he cupped her ass and squeezed, making her moan with pleasure. Quill felt along her hips, then up her belly, cupping her breasts and squeezing them as Drake pressed against her. The feel of her nipples against his hardened chest was amazing.
He would do anything for this woman. He knew it. And he knew Quill would too.
Drake left her mouth and turned her around to let Quill have a turn. Quill kissed her with more vigor, wrapping his hand behind her neck and another arm behind her back, pressing her into him. Drake let his hands slide down her back and hips as he listened to the muffled moans she made as Quill made out with her.
Unable to wait any longer, Drake brought his hands around her and his finger down to the apex of her thighs as Quill held her, watching Drake’s movement. Drake ran his finger along her clit, making her back arch against Quill’s hard body. Quill kissed the exposed flesh of her neck and nibbled her earlobe as Drake continued to stroke her over and over.
Desired by Dragons: BBW Paranormal Romance (Dragons of New York Book 2) Page 7