“Dear God,” she gasped once that thick cock was halfway inside her and her pussy felt as if it was stretched to its limits, her fingers now digging into his scalp. “I’m not sure I can take any more.”
“You can,” he assured confidently. “You were made for me, Billie. Only for me.” He buried his face in her shoulder, his teeth biting the softness of her flesh at the same time his cock filled her to the hilt with one strong thrust forward. He stilled once he was seated fully inside her. “Perfection,” he groaned against her neck. “Fucking perfect.”
Billie felt completely full, claimed in a way she had never experienced before and instinctively knew she never would again.
Garrett was right. She had been made for him.
Then why didn’t she agree to mate with him?
She was refusing for his sake, not her own.
She really was all the things she had told Garrett she was. Had nothing to offer when he was offering her everything. His protection. His devotion. The amazing Pendragon family as her own. Their own children, eventually.
Garrett had known her for only two days, and she’d brought the threat of the Fescaru Mafia and Markovic bratva into his life and that of his family. Gayle had too, of course, but Billie had initially instigated the situation.
She—
Billie raised startled eyes as one of Garrett’s hands grasped and lifted her chin, gray eyes glittering.
“You will think of nothing but the two of us when you are with me,” he rasped.
She swallowed. “I was only—”
Garrett released her chin to roll onto his side, his arms around Billie as he took her with him, before one of his palms landed hard against her left bottom cheek. “Do as I say,” he ground out as another even harder smack landed on her right cheek.
Each of those smacks sent a jolt of heat to Billie’s core.
“Nor will you denigrate yourself again, in my presence or otherwise.” Another smack to her left bottom cheek to underline his words. “You are brave and honorable, and a fitting mate for both me and my dragon. Do you understand?” He smacked her again.
Billie buried her face against his throat, breathing in his pine and musk. “I was only—” She broke off with a gasp as another, much harder smack, landed on both cheeks. “I’m going to have handprints on my ass if you keep doing that!” she accused.
“And, as you’re going to be naked whenever you’re alone with me, I shall enjoy seeing them there,” he noted with satisfaction.
“Barbarian.”
“Brat.”
“You— Oh God…” Billie groaned as Garrett’s hips flexed, driving his cock even deeper inside her when she’d been sure there was nowhere else for him to go. “You—” She gasped as his hips drew back, his cock dragging over sensitive nerve endings before his hips thrust forcefully forward again, filling her completely and the base of his cock rubbing against her sensitive clit. It was followed by another smack landing on her already throbbing bottom, sending more of that heat straight to her core.
It became a pattern.
Withdraw.
Thrust.
Smack.
Driving Billie to an uncontrollable frenzy of arousal and need within seconds.
Her fingers dug into his muscular shoulders as the heat intensified to a painful degree. She was sure that her teeth biting into Garrett’s shoulder was the only thing still anchoring her to the bed, and his cock buried deep inside her anchoring her to him.
“Come with me,” Garrett bit out between gritted teeth.
Billie’s body responded instantly, the pleasure rising higher and higher until it crashed down on her like a tidal wave. She cried out as Garrett’s cock seemed to become longer and thicker before she felt the heat of his release pumping inside her, prolonging and intensifying her own climax.
Chapter 11
Afterward, Billie lay replete and naked in a tangle of bedsheets, listening to the sound of water running in the adjoining bathroom as Garrett took a shower. He had invited her to join him, but she was too comfortable where she was to want to move just yet.
So she was more than a little annoyed when a knock sounded on the outer door of the suite, knowing even Garrett’s preternatural hearing probably hadn’t allowed him to hear that knock over the sound of the power shower. Which meant she would have to get out of bed and answer it.
She wrapped the sheet about herself as she slid out of bed, wincing slightly as her stretched pussy protested at the movement. No doubt she smelled of sex, her hair was standing on end, and her bare shoulders showed signs of where Garrett’s stubble had rubbed against her skin too. A second knock on the door told her she didn’t have time to do more than pull her hair up into a band secured on her crown before going into the other room. Besides which, the whole of the Pendragon family probably knew exactly what she and Garrett had been doing in here for the past hour.
Even so, she was a little disconcerted to open the door and find the dark-haired and too-handsome-for-his-own-good Dylan standing outside in the hallway, carrying what looked like a medical bag.
Dark brows rose at her disheveled appearance. “Is this an awkward time?”
Billie turned and walked back into the sitting room. “Is there ever a time that isn’t awkward when you Pendragon brothers go into me-dragon-you-mate mode?” She threw the words over her shoulder.
Dylan grinned as he followed her. “I think I like you.”
Billie turned fully to face him. “I’m not sure the feeling is reciprocated if you’re here to take blood from me.” She’d tried giving blood once and decided never again when she woke from her faint to find a lump the size of an egg on her forehead.
Dylan sobered. “I am, I’m afraid.” He placed the bag on the coffee table before opening it. “It’s helped my research tremendously to be able to take blood samples through the process of mating.”
“Despite appearances, Garrett and I aren’t mated yet,” she corrected sharply.
“Oh, I know that.” Dylan took a syringe, a band to put round the top of her arm, and several vials from inside the bag.
She eyed him curiously. “How can you tell?”
Deep blue eyes danced with laughter as he glanced up at her. “Well, for one thing, Garrett would have been in here by now attempting to rip my throat out for even speaking to his mate only a day or two into mating. For another, your scent would have changed.”
Billie’s cheeks blazed with color, her thighs clenching. “My scent?” She tucked the sheet more securely around her as she dropped down into an armchair. If she was going to collapse again at the sight of blood, she would rather be comfortable when she did it.
Dylan nodded. “It becomes more of a melding of the two of you after mating.”
“What is it now?”
“Sex, mainly.” He chuckled as her color deepened. “Also, you don’t have the mating bite yet.” He gave the smooth and unbitten skin of her nape a pointed glance.
“Right.” Billie frowned as she took in the size of the vials. “How much blood are you going to take from me?”
“Just enough to fill these three vials for now. But I’ll need to take the same every day until you mate or—” He broke off with a wince.
“Or?”
He shrugged. “Or you both sicken and die.”
“What?” Billie shot to her feet, tripping and almost losing the sheet in the process. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Dylan straightened, eyes wide. “Shit.” There was no vehemence behind the word. “Garrett didn’t tell you yet, did he?”
“Tell me what?” she demanded.
Dylan gave a grimace as he glanced behind her. “Sorry, bro, I thought you’d have explained the situation to Billie by now.”
Billie spun on her heel to face a fully clothed Garrett standing in the bedroom doorway.
His eyes glittered silver as he glared at his brother. “There’s hardly been time,” he growled as he stepped farther into the room.
“I think you just guaranteed I don’t have any other choice,” Garrett snapped.
Dylan packed his equipment back into the bag before moving to the door. “I’m sorry, Billie. I really didn’t mean to speak out of turn. I’ll come back later. If it’s convenient,” he added after a glance at Garrett’s stormy expression.
“Well?” Billie demanded once she and Garrett were alone, twin spots of color in her cheeks, her eyes gleaming darkly.
This was not the way Garrett had intended telling Billie they had only approximately three weeks to complete their mating or they’d both died.
Mainly because, even though he’d attempted to do it once before but had been sidetracked, he had absolutely no clue how to even go about telling her such a thing. Complete the mating with me or you’re going to die didn’t quite sound right. Nor did any of the other ways Garrett had thought of to broach the subject.
Dylan’s big mouth meant he now didn’t need to.
“It’s true.” Garrett nodded. “Once the mating has begun, which it did when I first kissed you, we’ll both die if we don’t complete the mating within three weeks.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” she accused.
“I tried when we were in Iceland—”
“Obviously not hard enough!”
“No.”
“Why haven’t you explained since then?”
“Because I didn’t want to put any added pressure on you to agree to the mating.”
Billie gaped at him. “Mate with me or die isn’t added pressure, Garrett, it’s a death sentence for both of us. And you didn’t even bother to tell me about it!”
“I thought we had time for me to—”
“To what?” she challenged. “Seduce me into believing you actually want to mate with me rather than the alternative of dying in three weeks’ time? I trusted you, damn it!”
His gaze narrowed. “Be very careful what you say to me, Billie.”
Her chin rose. “Or what?”
“I believe we both know what happens next if you don’t heed the warning.”
She gave a scornful snort. “You’re going to spank my ass. Well, I have news for you, you spank my ass again and the first opportunity I get, I’m going to stab you with a knife I’ll borrow from the kitchen.”
Garrett grimaced. “If your intention is to kill me, then you’ll need to do it with my sword. There are only two ways to kill a Pendragon dragon shifter,” he supplied as her eyes narrowed. “Refusing to mate with me or chopping my head off with my own sword.”
She looked around the room before turning back to him. “Where do you keep it?”
His mouth twisted humorlessly at her vehemence. “We recently had reason to lock them all away where no one else can find them.”
Her nostrils flared. “One of the other mates felt the same murderous intent I do?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what exactly?”
“Believe it or not, there are dragon hunters in the world. One of them recently almost killed one of the Russian dragons.”
“What Russian— Never mind.” She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “If I have to search this castle from roof to basement, I’m going to find your sword!”
Garrett flinched. “You’re that determined to kill me?”
“I might not go that far,” Billie snapped. “But chopping off a finger or two certainly has its appeal.”
“Bloodthirsty little vixen, aren’t you,” he appreciated.
She glared. “Before I met you, I was pretty much a pacifist!”
Garrett’s mouth quirked. “Is that why you have the Romanian Mafia and the Markovic bratva chasing after you?”
“Fuck off.”
He stilled. “What did you say?”
“Fuck. Off,” she enunciated clearly. “And don’t think your threat to spank me again is going to work this time,” she warned as he took a step toward her. “As my mate, I believe it’s your duty to protect me. From yourself, if necessary.” Her chin rose in challenge.
Unfortunately, to Garrett’s increasing frustration, she was right. “My dragon needs to fly.” He strode across the room to fling open the door of the suite. “If— When you need me again,” he corrected in a hard voice, “just think it, and I’ll be here.”
“You really don’t want to read any of my thoughts for the next couple of hours,” she warned.
“I told you, I can’t read your thoughts, only your emotions.”
“Then you must know that right now, my emotions are totally violent ones. Toward you.”
He sighed. “I’ll be back when you need me.” He stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.
Billie’s scream of rage from behind that door cut through him like the sword she’d threatened to use on him.
“Dylan is so sorry for what he did earlier.”
Billie looked up at Holly Wilson, Dylan’s mate and a human doctor, as the other woman took the blood samples Dylan hadn’t gotten around to earlier. Holly had been the only Pendragon Billie could find when she came downstairs earlier, and she had decided not to object when the other woman invited her down to the infirmary and lab.
“It isn’t his fault.” Billie shook her head. “Garrett should have been the one to tell me.”
Holly finished filling the third vial before removing the needle and belt from Billie’s arm and applying a Band-Aid. She was slightly plumper and shorter than her sister Gayle, Grigor’s mate, but just as beautiful with her rich auburn hair and green eyes. The warmth and happiness in those eyes added to her beauty.
“How long have you and Dylan been mated?” Billie prompted curiously as she rolled down the sleeve of the denim shirt she was wearing over black jeans.
Holly grinned. “Almost two weeks. The best two weeks of my life so far,” she confided. “I’m even happier now that Gayle is mated to Grigor.”
Billie winced. “Don’t you think Grigor is a little scary?”
Holly laughed. “I think he’s a lot scary, but I only have to look at the two of them together to see how happy Gayle is with him and Grigor is with her.” She gave a shrug. “He’s nothing like the man I would have chosen for my little sister, and yet at the same time, he’s perfect for her. Strong. Arrogant. Protective. Just as Gayle’s independence and lack of reverence is good for him. Grigor is totally understanding of Gayle’s need to be her own person. As all the Pendragon brothers are of their chosen mates.”
“They didn’t choose us—”
“Of course they did,” Holly chided. “None of them are saints, and sixteen hundred years is a long time, but they all waited that length of time for their one perfect mate.”
“One…?” Billie repeated softly.
The other woman nodded. “There’s only you for Garrett.”
“But… I… What happens to him when I die?”
“He dies too.”
Billie stood up restlessly. “Why didn’t Garrett tell me about this only-having-one-mate and the mate-in-three-weeks-or-we-die thing?”
“Maybe because he didn’t want you to feel you have to mate with him,” the other woman suggested softly.
She frowned. “The way he was given no choice but to mate with me.”
Holly leaned back against one of the steel tables along the wall. “He could have decided to reject fate’s choice.”
Billie’s frown deepened. “What would happen if he did?”
“Only he would die.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s… It’s barbaric.”
Holly shrugged. “It’s the way their goddess mothers arranged it.”
“Then someone seriously needs to talk to those goddesses about their maternal instincts!”
The other woman gave a rueful smile. “I’ve heard that said before.”
“I’m not surprised.”
Holly shrugged. “So far, those choices of a mate have been absolutely spot-on.
”
Billie huffed. “I think they might have slipped up by giving Garrett me as his choice.”
Holly chuckled. “They don’t make those sort of mistakes.”
She sighed. “I wish I had your blind faith. Unfortunately, my recent past has shown me it isn’t wise to trust anyone or anything.” Least of all Garrett, it seemed.
The other woman sobered. “You can trust that Gregori Markovic and Nikolai Volkov will deal with Fescaru.”
Billie drew in a shuddering breath. “Kill him, you mean.”
“If necessary, yes.”
Her eyes widened. “How can you just accept that? You’re a doctor, trained to preserve life, not take it.”
“I’m also a dragon shifter’s mate and now part of the Pendragon family.” Holly’s voice was steely. “My loyalty is now totally to my mate and our new family.”
Billie felt that aching in her chest to know that same certainty of purpose and family. The certainty of knowing Garrett wanted to be her mate. “The truth is, I’m scared,” she admitted softly.
“I would worry about you if you weren’t.” Holly gave her arm an understanding squeeze. “We were born into and grew up in the human world, and dragon shifters don’t exist in that world. Or fated mates. There’re some good men out there, but they are few and far between. Mainly we have assholes to choose from in the human world, ones who give as little as possible and expect everything back in return. At least, that’s been my experience.”
Billie’s too, if she was honest.
But that didn’t mean she could ever accept becoming Garrett’s fated mate.
If she didn’t, they were both going to die.
Tears burned her eyes. “Garrett didn’t trust me enough to believe I would choose to mate with him, to let him live, rather than walk away and allow him to die unmated.”
Holly breathed in deeply. “I don’t believe that.”
“Why not?”
“Because all the Pendragon brothers live by the same code of honor. They fought for their brother Arthur, and then for any army with a just cause during the centuries after his death. They still fight for truth and justice. They’re all honorable, good men, and fierce and protective dragons. And it’s only been in the past year that any of them have found their fated mates. Did Garrett make a mistake in starting the mating process without telling you the whole truth? Possibly. But these eight good men have been alive for centuries, and during that time, they have always put others’ safety and happiness before their own. For sixteen hundred years,” Holly reminded, tears glistening in her eyes. “Is it any wonder that when they finally meet their one fated mate they’ve been waiting all those centuries for that their desire to claim that mate drives them and their dragon a little insane?”
Garrett (Dragon Hearts 6) Page 9