Put like that, she could see that Garrett had exercised great restraint.
Holly gave her a searching glance. “I’m guessing Garrett hasn’t told you what their fate is if they don’t manage to find their fated mate?”
“No.”
“They turn feral. Shift into dragon and stay that way,” Holly explained as Billie frowned. “Their brothers would then have to eliminate them before they could hurt or reveal their existence to humans. From Garrett’s behavior now, I’m taking a guess that you’ve seen a different side to him than the easygoing charmer he’d chosen to be before he met you.”
Billie’s eyes widened. “How did you know that?”
“Because he’s successfully hidden from his brothers how close he was to that breaking point. Taking that into account, with the fact all the mated Pendragon brothers are arrogant and territorial, and it isn’t difficult to guess that Garrett loses some of that control when he’s alone with you.”
“The private Garrett is very…intense.” Billie blushed just thinking about the way he commanded and she obeyed, of the pleasure when Garrett spanked her, most especially so when he had that huge cock of his buried inside her.
Holly snorted. “I would be too if I’d had to wait sixteen hundred years to meet Dylan. You’ll work this out between you, Billie,” she said with certainty.
“Because the alternative is death for both of us.”
“No.” The other woman sobered. “Because you’re already halfway in love with him. Think about it before you deny it,” the other woman continued as Billie would have done exactly that. “It’s okay to be stubborn. To be angered by the arrogance. But don’t deny yourself happiness because of that stubbornness or because you don’t feel worthy.”
Was that really at the root of her holding out against mating with Garrett, Billie questioned after Holly had left.
Not Garrett having taken the choice away from her.
Not his arrogance.
The intensity and possessiveness of his lovemaking.
But because she, Billie Rider, didn’t feel worthy of all the devotion and respect she had seen existed between the other mated Pendragon brothers and their mates.
And because she was more than halfway in love with Garrett.
Chapter 12
“Here. I thought I would save you the trouble of turning the castle upside down looking for it.”
Billie stared at the sword Garrett held out to her as if it were a viper about to strike.
Because to her, it was. Or, at least, one of the only two ways she knew Garrett could be killed.
By presenting her the sword, he was now giving her complete power over whether he lived or died.
By the sword.
By choosing not to mate with him.
Yes, she would die too, but that didn’t change the fact Garrett was giving his future, the choice of whether he lived to died, over to her.
Billie’d had plenty of time to think during the three hours she waited in Garrett’s suite for him to return. To consider the things Holly had said to her.
Garrett and his brothers were honorable men.
They were equally as honorable as dragons.
They’d each lived the whole of their existence protecting others.
All they’d ever asked for themselves in return was to find their one fated mate.
So far, six of them had waited sixteen hundred years for those mates to appear, and Garrett was one of them.
Billie knew herself well enough to accept she wasn’t the most patient of people. She couldn’t have waited sixteen years to meet Garrett, let alone sixteen centuries.
How often, during that time, had Garrett felt alone and lonely?
How often had that bone-deep loneliness driven him almost to the depths of a black despair that would have made it so easy to shift into his dragon and remain that way, forcing his brothers to kill him?
How long had Garrett been hiding his true self behind a mask of easygoing charm, afraid to reveal that much darker side of his nature even to his brothers?
Billie could only imagine the relief and intense joy Garrett must have felt when he realized he had at last found his fated mate.
And not once, since the moment Garrett rescued her from the crashed SUV, had he ever blamed her for the choices she’d made that had brought Markovic, Volkov, and Fescaru into her life. Into his life and those of his family.
Instead, Garrett had protected her and challenged anyone, including his brother Grigor, who dared to accuse or threaten her.
Garrett didn’t deserve to now be punished, especially by her, for the loyalty and devotion he’d shown his fated mate from the moment he met her.
Her chin rose, and she looked him straight in the eye. “I’ve decided to mate with you.”
The sword slipped from Garrett’s hand to land with a heavy thud on the carpeted floor at his feet. “What?” He was sure his hearing must be playing tricks on him.
Billie nodded. “I think we should take a little more time to get to know each other first, but my answer is yes to our mating.”
After their last conversation, and hearing Billie’s enraged roar when he left, this was the last thing Garrett had expected to hear when he returned.
His gaze roamed over her face. “What changed your mind? Or should I say who?” he prompted shrewdly.
She blinked. “Mainly you.”
“Me?”
Billie nodded. “I’ll admit I’ve spoken with Holly since you left, but ultimately, it was the person you are that made me reconsider the situation.”
Garret could feel a nerve pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw. “I’m the one who took the decision away from you when I kissed you.”
“Yes, you did.” She took a step toward him. “But if I had been you, I know I would have done the same.” Her expression softened. “How on earth did you manage to wait sixteen hundred years for your one fated mate?”
“It wasn’t a conscious choice.”
“That isn’t true. Holly told me of how you could give in to your dragon and let your brothers destroy you,” she explained. “But you didn’t. You waited, no matter what that wait was costing you emotionally.”
Garrett’s mouth thinned. “I don’t need a pity mate.”
Her eyes narrowed to indigo slits, her cheeks flushed with temper. “You aren’t getting one. You’re getting me, and bloody grateful you should be for it too.”
Garrett continued to glower at her for several seconds before he felt his lips twitch, and finally, he smiled. Billie has said she would mate with me! “How are you feeling?”
Billie’s lips gave a reciprocal twitch. “Horny. Again. Aroused. Ditto. You?” She repeated the same words she’d said to him earlier.
In the hope they would have the same outcome?
Goddess knows Garrett wanted to make love to Billie again. The ache to do so consumed him. “You didn’t relay your need to me in your emotions.”
“I was rather busy in your absence,” she defended. “Giving blood, talking to Holly, and trying to decide what to do about us.”
Us.
Garrett liked the sound of that word on her lips almost as much as her admission of arousal and need. “Does ‘getting to know each other first’ exclude sex?”
She raised mocking eyebrows. “What do you think?”
He folded his arms. “I think I need to hear the words from your lips. Just so there can be no further misunderstanding between us.”
The color in her cheeks turned to an adorable blush. “Get your naked ass on the bed. Now. Clear enough for you?”
“Make me,” he invited huskily.
Her eyes glittered at the challenge. “Now you decide to play hard to get?”
Garrett bared all his teeth in a grin. “I’m part dragon, and dragons like to play with their food before they eat it.”
“Really?” Billie taunted. “I think I’d like to play with you a little first too.”
She stepped closer, her
gaze meeting the challenge in Garrett’s as she unfastened his denims before pulling them and his boxers down to mid-thigh. She licked her lips at the sight of Garrett’s cock bursting free of its confinement. It jutted up long and thick from a nest of golden curls, skin fully back from the deep red bulbous top, slick with leaking pre-cum. She fell to her knees in front of him, hands on his lean hips as her lips parted and she began to lean forward.
“Billie, I warned you about— Oh fuck!” Garrett broke off with what sounded like a pained groan as she licked the pre-cum from the fully exposed cockhead.
His taste was delicious, addictive, Billie’s tongue immediately searching for more of that nectar in the slitted top. She was rewarded with another pulse of pre-cum, and then another, swallowing both down greedily as she continued to thrust her tongue into the sensitive slit.
Billie felt the familiar thrum of the aphrodisiac as it coursed hotly through her body, her nipples plumping in anticipation, her nether lips becoming slick with her juices. The throbbing of her clit matched the throb of Garrett’s cock as he delivered pulse after pulse of pre-cum into her waiting mouth.
One of her hands moved to cup his balls, gently squeezing and rolling the weight of them in her palm as her index finger moved to stroke the sensitive flesh behind his sac.
“Billie…” Garrett’s hands moved to grasp hold of her shoulders. “Don’t stop. For goddess’s sake, don’t stop.”
She glanced up at him. His head was thrown back, neck stretched taut, his jaw tight, teeth bared, as he obviously fought to maintain control.
She didn’t want him to be controlled, had a feeling that was something Garrett’d had to be for the whole of his long life, both as man and dragon. He didn’t need to be that way with her. She was his mate. She wanted all of him. The dark as well as the light.
She parted her lips wider to allow that thick cock to slide farther into her mouth, feeling the jolt of his cock as she relaxed the muscles at the back of her throat to take him deeper still. His fingers tightened on her shoulders as he gave a low sound that sounded like a half groan and half growl.
Garrett had never felt anything like the pleasure of the heat and silk of Billie’s mouth and lips about and surrounding his cock. It was like having his cock bathed in hot molasses.
The wickedness of Billie’s tongue was a further torture as it stroked the sensitivity below his glans when her lips glided up his cock length. Followed by that bulbous top stroking against the back of and then farther down her throat as Billie’s head bobbed down again.
He felt that familiar tingling in his balls and the base of his spine as a precursor to what he knew was going to be an explosive release. “You have to stop now— Fuck!” He groaned, his hands fisting in Billie’s hair as the hum of refusal in her throat sent the pleasure coursing down the length of his cock straight to his balls, and he lost control along with it.
Garrett’s hips pistoned harder and faster as he thrust his throbbing cock into the hot tightness of Billie’s welcoming mouth.
He cried out as cum shot like molten lava down the length of his cock buried deep in Billie’s throat, each hot pulse of release swallowed down greedily by his mate.
My mate.
Garrett’s cock throbbed and released another torrent of cum at the knowledge Billie had agreed to be his mate.
Not yet.
But soon.
“Mm, I really don’t think I need any dinner after that,” Billie purred, the two of them lying on the bed wrapped in each other’s arms. She could hear the steady beat of Garrett’s heart as her head rested on his chest.
Garrett stretched lazily beside her. “Brat.”
“Barbarian.”
Garrett turned, his expression serious as he looked down at her. “I promise you I’ll do everything within my power to ensure you never regret agreeing to be my mate.”
Billie lifted her hand to run her fingers down the hard contours of his face. “I promise to do everything in my power to ensure you never regret it either.”
“I— What the fuck…!” Garrett growled as a knock sounded on the outer door of the suite. “What is wrong with my brothers?” he muttered as he rolled to the side of the bed, rising impatiently to his feet to fasten and adjust his jeans before striding into the other room to answer the door.
Billie could hear the murmur of male voices but not what was being said. She smiled at the thought Garrett probably had plenty to say in regard to this further interruption to their mating.
She almost laughed at the displeased scowl on his face when he returned. Then frowned her own concern as he began to pace the bedroom rather than rejoin her on the bed. “What is it?” she prompted sharply.
Garrett was having a difficult time containing his rage. His hands were clenched at his sides. His dragon wasn’t happy either, demanding he shift so that it could lash out. Destroy.
“Garrett?” Billie rose to her feet, her expression anxious. “Has something happened to my father?” The panic could be heard in her voice.
Garrett felt his tension ease slightly at Billie’s concern being for her father rather than herself. “No, Aeran has successfully changed the documentation for his move to another prison. Your father will be in the infirmary for the rest of today and tonight, and then tomorrow, he’s being transferred to a less…stringent facility.”
“Thank God.” Billie’s shoulders slumped in her relief, but the frown still remained on her brow. “Something’s wrong, though, isn’t it?”
“It was Nathaniel at the door.” He made a dismissive gesture in the direction of the other room.
“Tell me,” she demanded.
He sighed. “Nikolai rang. Apparently, he and a dozen of his men went to see Fescaru as soon as Nikolai got back to London, so that he could…question the Romanian— I’m not going to pretty up this life, Billie.” He grimaced as she paled. “You’re going to be my mate, and sometimes, as a family, we’re forced to do things that might seem alien to your human moral ethics.”
“I know and accept that.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“In that case, the Romanian stronghold in London no longer exists,” he reported flatly.
Her eyes widened. “Nikolai killed then all?”
“Not all, no. He took Fescaru to a safe house so he could question him.”
Billie felt her face pale as she easily guessed what form this questioning had taken.
“During the course of the conversation, Nikolai learned that the other man had already sent four more of his men here to Wales,” Garrett added grimly.
She gave him a searching glance. His eyes were an icy gray. His jaw tense. His body was too, his hands clenched at his sides. “They’re coming for me,” she guessed.
He nodded. “They have instructions not to return to London or contact Fescaru until the job is done. Not that they’re going to get anywhere near you,” he added confidently. “Aeran will stay here to protect our mates and Amelia, the rest of us are going out to look for them now—”
“I don’t want you to go,” Billie protested. “Why can’t you stay here with Aeran—”
“You’re my mate. I have to go.”
Bloody arrogant dragon! “I only just found you. I don’t want to lose you again!”
His expression eased into a reassuring smile. “You won’t lose me. We’ll be in dragon form, and no human man is capable of defeating even one of us, let alone six very pissed dragons.”
She drew in a sharp breath. “Your sword is in the other room.”
Garrett moved to take her in his arms. “Keep it safe for me until I get back.”
Billie’s arms clung tightly about his waist. “I really don’t want you to go.” She had a bad feeling about this, her stomach churning, as if she was going to be sick at any moment.
Garrett rested a cheek against the top of her head. “This is the last threat to you. Once that’s gone, we can get on with the rest of our lives.”
Bill
ie liked the sound of that.
She more than liked it. She loved it.
But her feeling of unease and nausea persisted even after Garrett had gone to join his brothers in their hunt for the four Romanian thugs sent here by Cezar Fescaru.
The relief of finally being free of the control the Romanian had over her father’s and her own life in no way compared to the possibility she could lose Garrett. He’d become the focal point of her life in such a short time, and even the idea of losing him made it hard for her to breathe.
She hadn’t even had chance to tell him she loved him!
Because she did love him.
She loved his absolute loyalty, to her and his family.
His code of honor, as man and dragon.
His leashed strength.
His dark and seductive passion.
That gloriously muscular body that gave her unimagined pleasure.
She loved Garrett.
All of him.
Even that darker side of him. It excited as well as aroused her, in the full knowledge Garrett would never go too far. Never willingly hurt her.
If she lost him now, then those three weeks before she died too, unmated, and could join him, would be the longest of her life.
She ran into the sitting room to pick up his sword. Well, she attempted to pick it up, and then realized it was so heavy, she had to hold it with both hands as she dragged the four-foot-long honed metal across the floor to one of the chairs. She sat down and pulled it up beside her before wrapping her arms about it. Not only was it something of Garrett’s to hold on to in his absence, but while she kept it safely with her, no harm could come to him.
Garrett (Dragon Hearts 6) Page 10