Andy pulled back with a gasp, and he could hear the rushing of her heart as she observed what was happening to him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
He nodded. "Better than ever."
It wasn't as if this was the first time his scales had come out when he was trying to make love to her, so he was curious about the question until her hands touched some of the deeper scars sliced into his chest. Even the scales couldn't hide those marks, and they marred an otherwise smooth diamond pattern in his red scales.
Her hand came up to his cheek, also touching the scars there.
She opened her mouth, but he took her hand quickly. "Whatever you're about to say, don't say it."
Andy blinked wide, and she nodded.
"I don't want your pity or apologies. Just your body."
And a few minutes to pretend this was something other than what it really was.
A fuck. Moments of pleasure that could not lead into anything else.
Andy's throat worked in a hard swallow, and in that moment, he could swear he saw a dragon fire in her eyes as she curled her arms around his neck and jumped up.
Xander caught her with his hands under her ass as she curled her legs around his waist.
Moving quickly, desperate to feel the grip of her silky heat around his cock, he blindly brought them into his room. He left the lights off. There were only the neon lights from the outside, other hotels and resorts in the distance along the beach.
Xander fell down onto the bed with her hard. The mattress was large enough to fit five couples on it, but somehow their bodies still bounced slightly. And the laugh that Andy let out when that happened before she kissed him again, eagerly, as if she didn't see the scars on his face of feel them on his lips, was Goddamned magical.
He didn't have to do much with that flimsy top she wore other than push it above her breasts. Her nipples peaked, tightening even more at the touch of cool air on her skin, and Xander couldn't resist. His mouth was called to them, and he leaned down.
Andy gasped when he pressed his mouth to her right nipple, teasing it with his tongue, but working it with his lips. Her manicured fingernails scratched beautifully through his hair and scalp. Her sigh was a siren song in the darkness of his room. He had to touch her some more. His fingers reached out for her other nipple, tweaking it while he flicked his tongue over the first.
Her spine arched beneath him, almost enough that he was nearly forced to pull his mouth away. Luckily it didn't come to that, and he was able to hold contact as Andy flopped back down onto the bed.
He pulled back reluctantly from her breast, his fingers still working as he looked up at her. "You must have known it would come to this. I did." He pinched that rosy bud just enough to make her mouth fall open. They'd kissed and bitten all the gloss from her lips, and now any rosiness that was on her plump lips was just from their kissing, from her biting.
"I knew from the second I saw you on the beach that I had to have you again. Even if it was just this one time."
Andy shook her head, clenching her eyes shut before snapping them back open, as if she was trying to force her body to cooperate with her. "No, no," she said. "Don't talk. No talking right now. D-don't want to think about it."
Xander nodded, his hands moving down to her tight, hip-hugging jeans and the belt, button, and zipper.
"Fair enough."
He didn't know how she managed to get her jeans on sometimes. They were so damned tight they could have been painted on, but she did have a wonderful pair of legs, worthy of being shown off.
The fact that she'd dressed this way, for him, meant something.
Maybe she wanted more than just one night, something for old time’s sake.
If only he could give that to her.
Because of how tight her jeans were, he needed her help just to get them off. Xander laughed at the ridiculousness of it as Andy was forced to sit up and shove the denim down her legs. The material actually rolled down her calves as she pushed them off her ankles one leg at a time.
Panties, shoes, and all came off.
"You should have left the panties for me. I would have bitten them off."
Her answering smile was a lazy one, and he fucking adored it. "You always were good at that."
"I was," he agreed, climbing over her body.
His jeans were easier to get off his legs and kick away, leaving them completely naked, his cock pointing up at him, desperate to get a move on.
His fingers found the wet curls of her sex. She was always well groomed, but she did leave a little hair down there. Xander moaned as he hooked two fingers into her wet heat. A wave of goosebumps rushed across his skin at how warm she was, wet, and tight.
"I fucking missed you," he said.
She smiled at him, the pink blooming across her cheeks in the darkness making her so much more beautiful than she already was.
"Do the Hollywood girls still bug you?"
He growled, knowing what she meant.
"Can't have sex with any of them without grossing myself out."
Andy laughed. "They still get the Brazilian waxes out there, right?"
It had been a complaint he'd made, and a joke shared between them. Before Xander had met and started to date Andy, one thing that had consistently bothered him was how the women in his industry seemed to wax or shave themselves until their bodies were completely bald.
He didn't like that. A woman had to have at least a little hair on her pussy, otherwise he felt too weird about it. As if he was fucking someone who hadn't gone through puberty yet.
Which was just another reason in a long list as to why Andy had been his island in the middle of an ocean of starstruck fans, actresses, and sometimes even agents who threw themselves at him, hoping that any connection to Xander Grey would either jumpstart their careers or just plain start it.
Meanwhile, the first time they'd had sex, before they'd gotten naked, Andy had warned him that she kept a small tuft of hair down there, and had told him in no uncertain terms would she ever wax it off. Because, "That shit hurts like hell."
Her exact words, if he recalled correctly.
"I'm glad you haven't changed," he said, and then leaned down, replacing his fingers with his mouth and tongue.
Andy gasped at the touch, her fingers returning to his hair, gripping it tight as her knees lifted, and her spine arched once more as she gave him just the angle he needed.
He held tightly to her waist, his eyes closing as he let himself bask in the pleasure of sliding his tongue deep inside her pussy, tasting her, flicking his tongue and feeling every quiver of pleasure on his mouth.
"Oh God," Andy sighed. Then her hands fisted into her own hair, her back flopping down onto the bed before arching again as he flicked his tongue over her clit. He could barely contain his smile. He knew her weak points. He knew how much she loved it when he did this to her, when he made her body tremble, when he took command of her and gave her this sort of pleasure.
His tongue inside her, the soft, kittenish moans, and the heavy scent of her lust felt exactly like coming home.
He felt the swelling of her sex on his tongue, and her hard gasp, the tension in Andy’s legs and thighs as she cried out, reaching out and grabbing his hair one more time as she came onto his tongue. It happened so much faster than he would have thought.
The pain as she gripped his hair was almost too much to handle, but he worked through it, the taste of her overshadowing any discomfort he would have felt.
And his inner dragon growled with approval when that tight build up of pleasure suddenly released and she collapsed onto the bed, a gasping mess, helpless, and his.
He couldn’t stop himself. The animal side of his brain had taken over and it was entirely instinct at work now as he spread her legs and pushed his cock between her wet thighs.
He was halfway inside her when those blue-gray eyes suddenly flew wide. “Wait, do you have a condom on you?"
Xander stopped short, blinking d
own at her. He needed a few seconds to come out of the trance he’d fallen into, and when he understood what she wanted, some terrified piece of himself cried out. “No, I don’t.”
Andy’s breasts heaved as she continued to catch her breath, staring up at him, clearing thinking. “Fuck it,” she gasped, reaching out, grabbing him by the back of the neck ,and pulling him down, kissing him desperately as he pushed deep inside her.
CHAPTER 5
Having him inside her...it was like coming home.
Being filled with him, the scent of him all around her, his weight on her body a comfort, Andrea thought she'd gotten over him, that she'd moved on.
She hadn't.
The others she'd been with since him hadn't compared. She'd assumed it was just because she hadn't found the right person to settle down with. Now she knew better. This was something she couldn't live without.
She needed him. Not just his body, but everything about him.
"I missed you," he said again, gritting his teeth and grunting between thrusts. "So fucking much."
Andrea nodded, then brought his mouth down to kiss him again. She wasn't finished biting on his lower lip. Even with the scars on his body, he was still the same person. He still felt the same inside and out. She thought he would be jaded, that he would grow to hate her after she left.
She felt no hatred from him now, no resentment.
Just the love she'd missed so much.
"Come inside me," she gasped. "I want to feel it."
He nodded, more scales appearing on his face. His hands became rougher as she felt his claws coming in.
It excited her all the more.
"Show him to me. Let him come."
His dragon side. Xander had always said they were one and the same, that it was just another form he took, but Andrea could always see something wild and primal in his eyes whenever he let that side of himself come forward.
She especially didn't mind it when she saw hints of his inner dragon while he made love to her. It made her feel wanted.
There was just something about knowing she could have that effect on him, on his body, that made a small possessive side of her come out swinging.
Xander was her man, and it didn't matter what happened, the threats, the attack in the alley when he'd been too drunk to defend himself properly, she never should have left him behind.
She would never leave him alone again.
There was tension in his shoulders, in the rest of his body, as he pumped his hips faster. She felt the change in his body as she held on tight. The way his hips jerked harder, she knew he was close.
"Do it, come on," she begged. "I need it."
Like she needed nothing else in her entire life.
His eyes changed. The black irises turned into diamond-shaped slits as he groaned, pumping hard and fast inside her, their flesh making lewd slapping noises as they struck again and again.
And then he was there. Xander groaned, his body becoming taught and tight, as though an invisible hand gripped him and squeezed hard.
The warmth that filled her, spurting inside, pulled a sigh from Andrea's lips. Her sensitive sex took it all in, and the rush of warmth from Xander's orgasm had the wonderful side effect of bringing about a second orgasm from her.
It was a softer orgasm than the first, but she sighed, letting the buzz whisk her away as she held onto him, feeling him finish inside her.
Xander gasped hard, as if all the air in his lungs chose that moment to leave his body in one hard whoosh. He collapsed on top of her chest, barely managing to keep his weight somewhat off her body so she could keep breathing.
Andrea didn't mind. She laughed. She thought it was kind of funny. "I always liked you as a human blanket."
"Sorry," he mumbled, not sounding sorry in the least.
He pretty much just sounded as if he wasn't making any plans on moving.
She was fine with that.
"No, I'm serious. I missed the way you used to just plop on top of me when you finished. Big, bad superstar Xander Grey who loves to snuggle and loses all strength after sex."
"Don't let my secret out," he groaned, managing to push himself up onto his hands, looking down at her.
As if she was the best thing he'd ever laid eyes on.
And that feeling was back. The feeling of being where she belonged, as if she'd gone away from home for a very long time and had only just now returned.
She put her hand to his scarred cheek. "I'm so sorry I left."
He leaned into her hand, and it was peaceful, perfect, until something in his eyes changed and he pulled away from her.
From her hand, her body, all of it.
He sat on the edge of the bed, the two of them still alone in the dark, but now the silence between them seemed almost like a third person in the room, and it was awkward.
"You remember what happened, right?" He looked back at her. "I can't protect you."
Andrea scrambled to her knees. She came up behind him, looping her arms around Xander's shoulders and holding on tight. "It wasn't your fault. They cheated."
"It doesn't matter."
"They ganged up on you when you and I were both drunk and coming out of a club. It was amazing you managed to hold them off at all."
Xander rubbed his hands over his face. Was he trying to ward off a headache? Or was he forcing himself to feel the scars those men had put on him?
Scars she would have, too, if he hadn't managed to stop them.
His supposed family.
"I never cared...I mean, if they ever tried to do something to me, it was one thing, but they came after you, and I almost let it happen."
"No you didn't," Andrea said. Her voice choked. It hurt to speak. A rock started to settle in her throat and every word she said hurt more and more. "You saved me, and I left you."
"You were right to." He looked back at her. "I'm not ashamed of my face, and I never cared what the world thought when they looked at me, just what you thought."
Andrea shook her head quickly, horrified that he could have been thinking such a thing for all this time. "I didn't leave because of your face, Xander."
He smiled and looked away. "That wasn't what I meant, and I know you didn't. Besides, it's not like it stopped anything anyway. I still got offered roles in movies even after my looks were gone. People like the idea of a heroic dragon."
"Your looks aren't gone." Andrea stroked his cheek. "Anyone with a pair of working eyes can see you in there."
He put his hand over the top of hers, just to feel the added touch of warmth against his skin. Something he desperately needed, something he’d been struggling to live without.
“I need to tell you something,” Andy said, briefly biting down on her lower lip. “And it’s important, and I don’t know how you’re going to take it.”
The sudden change in her voice, the way her eyes started to swim, it was enough to make all the suspicious instincts rise to the surface within him.
His protective instincts, too.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s your family, Xander. I was sent here for a story, but I had to use my old connections to you to get my editor to let me do this. They wanted me to come to you.”
There was no doubt in his mind who they were.
His scales started to form over his skin once more, and this time it had absolutely nothing to do with lust.
“Where were they when they spoke with you? What did they say? When did it happen?” He had to know absolutely everything. Nothing could be left out. Not if they were threatening her. Worse, threatening her when he wasn’t there to protect her. When those motherfuckers knew he wouldn’t be there to do anything about it.
“It was a couple of weeks ago. I’m so sorry. I should have said something.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just tell me everything. Are they on the island right now?”
“I haven’t seen them, but they’ve been sending me texts that make me think they’re here.”
“Where’s your phone?” He didn’t wait for her to give him permission to look through her things. He spotted her clutch purse on the floor and he went for it.
She didn’t demand he stop when he yanked out her phone, though he needed her to unlock it.
He handed her the phone, unapologetic. “Open it.”
She took it, slid her fingers across the screen to unlock it, and then handed it back to him so he could read the texts.
“I assume the numbers with no names are the ones you’re suspicious of?” he asked, glancing down at her.
She nodded. “Yeah.” Then she bit her lips tightly together, shaking her head. “I should have called the police, but they just showed up in my apartment one night. The lights were out. I swear they unscrewed all the lightbulbs before I got home so I wouldn’t see them.”
“That’s the way they do things,” Xander growled. There weren’t many texts from the number given. The ones that were there were simply asking if she had made contact or not. It didn’t matter. They were threatening enough, considering these were the men who had snuck into Andy’s apartment in the night and had already threatened her.
The threat didn’t need to be repeated for Xander to know it was there.
“What did they want?”
Andy still wouldn’t look at him, as if she was ashamed of this entire thing.
“Andy, look at me. What did they want?”
She opened her mouth, seemingly having trouble getting the words out that she wanted. “I don’t really know. They just wanted to know if the rumors were true and you were really getting back to work. I guess the answer is yes.”
Xander nodded. “Makes sense.”
She finally looked at him. Maybe she’d already known deep down where this was going and was only just now putting it together, but a light flicked off in her eyes. Understanding.
“They’re not going to let this go if I go back and say you’re going back to work.”
Xander shook his head. “No, and they’ll probably try to use you to get to me.” His skin itched as his scales came out full force, as if a body of armor was growing in just so he could rush in to a fight.
Tropical Tryst: 25 All New and Exclusive Sexy Reads Page 49