by Nina Croft
She’d been so sure there was a connection between them, that Mal felt something for her. Yet he was willing to sacrifice her for his goddamn duty.
In a way, he was right; she was trying to judge him as a man. But he wasn’t a man. She couldn’t seem to get it straight in her head. He was not a man. Then again, she wasn’t entirely human either.
Her mind went back to their kiss. All her life, she’d searched for somewhere she could belong. The closest she ever had come to that was in Mal’s arms. She hated the thought that he didn’t feel the same, that to him she was nothing but a means to an end. She jumped up.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I have to get away, to think.”
He rose to his feet and put a hand on her arm. She shivered at the contact.
“I’ve told you what happened and I’ve hidden nothing. I could have lied about my part, but it’s not our way. I don’t regret killing your father—but I do regret what happened to your mother.”
“Yet you’re still going to hand me over to that man?”
He turned away briefly. When he looked back, his expression was blank. “I don’t know.”
A flicker of hope ran through her. “Why?”
“You have to ask?” The flicker became a flame. Then he gave a wry smile. “Are you asking why I’m considering not handing you over, or why I still believe it needs to be done?”
“Both, I think.”
“Sit down, Lily. Don’t walk out on me now.”
She peered into his face, then without giving herself a chance to decide it was a really crap idea, she framed his face with her hands, rose up on tiptoes, and kissed him. When his lips remained closed, she nipped him with her teeth, then pushed her tongue inside, forcing a response. She had to know that she hadn’t imagined the link between them.
At first, he resisted, his muscles rigid with tension, but she sensed the moment he gave in and he was kissing her back. His tongue stroked along hers, filling her with the taste of hot spice, as his hands slid around her, dragging her tight against him so she could feel every hard line of his body.
A pulse throbbed between her thighs, insistent, needy and she melted against him.
It was real, this thing between them.
It wasn’t her imagination. And the thought gave her the strength to pull away. She sank down onto the sofa. “Tell me the rest.”
He loomed over her, hard and fierce, the bulge in his pants revealing just how much he wanted her. Then he took a deep breath and sank down beside her. “I want you to understand us—we dragons are a warlike race. The only way we maintain any peace at all is by adherence to a strict code of allegiance. Once our allegiance is given, we cannot take it back on pain of death. I gave my allegiance to Vortigen.”
“But why?” Lily said. “When you clearly despise what he is.”
“I told you to be wary of judging us as men, and in many ways Vortigen has been a strong king. He’s ruthless. The other dragons respect him even if they don’t like him.”
“Do you respect him?”
“I fucking hate him. I never liked him, and he lost my respect many, many years ago, but I had given my allegiance, and at least it allowed me to visit your world.” He pressed a finger between his eyes. “I watched your mother sink into despair and did nothing. I ask myself, had she come to me instead of the sorcerer and asked for my help, would I have broken my vows and stepped forward? I don’t know. Now, I have a chance to right the wrongs of the past.”
“You think you can do that?”
“Maybe. As to why I was so determined to hand you over, I believed the portal wouldn’t open for one who was not of pure blood. There are many of us stranded here on your world. Our powers are waning with the years, and we long to return home. I couldn’t deny my people their homeland forever. It was your life against all of theirs, and I believed your sorcerer’s blood meant you were tainted. At first, you were merely the means for us to return to Ankesh. Why shouldn’t I hand you over to the King?” He smiled. “And you did hit me over the head.”
“And now? What do you think now?”
“I know you’re tainted by nothing, and I wonder, is one life of less worth than many? Vortigen would say I’ve lived too long among men. That I’ve become weak, but I’m not so sure it’s weakness. Also, the old laws are changing—you’re nothing like the Dragon Princesses of old.”
“I’m not?”
“They were weak. They grieved for their lost children, but they would never have fought back. If they had, then maybe things wouldn’t have ended as they did.” He shrugged. “I told you, dragons like a good fight. Their mates were too submissive. They had no fire. Cara, for all her rebellion, would never have hit Vortigen over the head with anything. You’re full of fire and you have many of our powers. Together, we did what should have been impossible and opened the portal between the worlds. Ankesh was before us.”
“Why didn’t you go, then?”
“Jesus, I wanted to. We could have slipped through the portal and been safe from the sorcerers. The Dragon Princesses lived on Earth but they could have traveled to Ankesh. Their dragon blood would have sustained them. We would have been safe from Vortigen.”
“So why didn’t we?” He remained silent, and Lily thought back to the events of that evening. “It was Cole, wasn’t it? You went back for Detective Cole.”
“You could survive in Ankesh, but those with no trace of dragon blood would die. I was unsure of Cole, and I couldn’t risk it.”
Lily smiled. “You risked us both for a friend. I like that.”
“As I said—I’ve become weak.”
“That’s not weakness—it’s strength.”
He shrugged again. “It’s foolishness, but it’s in the past and can’t be changed. And there’s also the fact that while I hate and despise Vortigen, I don’t feel the same for many of my people, and I wouldn’t leave them exiled forever.”
“So you hand me over and your people get to go home.”
“In theory, though I doubt you’d be so pliable to Vortigen’s plans.”
“Too fucking right I wouldn’t,” she said. “Just how do you kill a dragon?”
He chuckled. “I don’t think I’ll tell you just yet.” He was deep in thought for a moment. “I also know that there’s something between us, however much we deny it.” He stroked the smooth line of her cheek with one long finger, and fire licked through her from his touch. “The thought of Vortigen lying with you and planting his seed within you makes me want to release my dragon and set the world aflame. I can’t give you to him because you’re already mine. As I am yours.”
A wave of rightness washed through her at his words. He leaned toward her. Lily made no move to evade his mouth. At first, it was a gentle assault on her senses, his lips moving slowly but surely against hers, so the embers that smoldered deep within flickered to life. His tongue pushed into her mouth and those embers burst into flame. She was melting inside and hot, wet heat welled up between her thighs.
Mal dragged her against him, deepening the kiss. The hard length of his body pressed against hers, the scorching heat of his erection nudged the soft flesh of her belly, and she surged up against it. He laid her against the cushions, his golden eyes gleaming with glints of ruby. Fires burned in their depths, and she longed to lose herself in the heat and flames. She reached up with an unsteady hand and stroked the line of his jaw, brushed the sensitive pad of her thumb against his lips, then pulled him down for her kiss. In all her life, she had never wanted a man. Now she craved this one. Man or dragon, it didn’t matter.
As he kissed her fiercely, his hands moved between them, tearing the buttons of her shirt. He spread it open, baring her breasts for the gentle assault of his hands, stroking the firm flesh, his fingers teasing her sensitized nipples until she moaned in frustration and reared up against him. His mouth left hers and his dark head lowered against her breasts. The lick of his tongue burned against her nipple, and then he took it in
his mouth and suckled. Lily whimpered—she was about to explode, and little flecks of fire sparked from her fingertips where she held the smooth satin skin of his powerful shoulders. He went still against her. Raising his head, he smiled ruefully. “Try not to set the place on fire. Wait until we’re in Ankesh, then we can let the whole world blaze around us and come out afterwards renewed. Here we’ll just burn the house down. We might survive, but think of poor Cole.”
“I don’t know how to stop it.” She almost sobbed the words.
“I can lend you control, but you’ll have to open yourself to me. I’ll see into your mind and you into mine.”
“How?”
“What do you see when you look into my eyes?”
“Fires,” Lily murmured.
The door of his mind swung open and she sensed him with all her being. Then his mind slipped into her own, and she welcomed him.
He bent down over her again, his mouth opening over her breast so she could feel his hot breath singe her. He took one nipple in his mouth and bit down, tugging on the sensitive peak until Lily writhed beneath him.
She stroked down the length of his back, pulling his shirt from his pants and running her hand beneath it, feeling the hot silky skin. She tried to reach the buttons and couldn’t.
“Take it off,” she muttered in frustration.
He paused then came up on his knees above her. He ripped open the shirt and shrugged out of it, tossing it on the floor. Lily stared at the dragon over his heart; the creature rose and fell as though with a life of its own. She let her gaze drop; he was lean, each rib clear beneath his skin. His chest was smooth, but his belly had a light covering of dark hair over hard ridges of muscle. She ran her fingers through the silky hair, scraping her nails over the taut skin, and he gasped. She lowered her gaze further to where she could see the line of his erection pushing against his fly. As she rubbed her hand against the steely hardness, his head went back, and he groaned. She worked the button open with trembling fingers, then started to slide down the zipper. He placed his hand over hers and stilled her downward motion.
“I thought I was in charge here?” he murmured.
“Where did you get that idea?”
He smiled and glanced down to where his hand covered hers. He released it. “Go ahead. I’m all yours.”
Lily’s heart leapt. He was hers, to do with as she liked. She finished lowering the zipper, then tugged at his pants, pulling them down over the lean jut of his hipbones. They caught briefly on his erection and she reached up with her other hand to free him. He sighed and closed his eyes, his head going back. She could feel him jerk under her hand and then he was free. She lowered her eyes and gasped, her gaze flashing back to his face.
“Mal,” she breathed, “it’s…”
He opened his eyes as she spoke and grinned. “Magnificent?”
“I was just going to say ‘huge,’ but if you prefer; it’s magnificent.”
It twitched and jerked under her eyes as though with a life of its own.
“For god sake, Lily, touch me.”
She circled him with her hand. He was red hot. She could feel his desire through the link between them, and it tightened things low down in her body. Her nostrils filled with the exotic mix of male musk and smoke rising from him, feeding her desire. She stroked the rock-hard length of his cock and he shuddered beneath her touch. She flicked her fingers over the flaring head, ran her nail over the eye…
“Enough,” he muttered, placing his hand over hers again.
He rose to his feet, pulled off his pants, and stood before her naked, aroused and definitely magnificent, his thick, powerful shaft reaching upward. He tore off the band holding his hair and stood before her, untamed and pagan with his long hair falling to his shoulders and the golden torc around his arm.
“Take off your clothes.”
A thrill of excitement ran through her at the order, and she shrugged out of the shirt, tossing it on top of Mal’s clothes, loving the feel of his eyes on her bare flesh. Then she reached down and unbuttoned the fly of her jeans. She was naked beneath, and soaking wet. His nostrils flared as though he could smell her desire, as she pulled the jeans over her hips and down her long legs to lie before him naked.
He dropped to his knees beside her and laid his head against her stomach. The heat of his breath against her skin whispered through the soft curls at the base of her belly. Lily threaded her fingers through his hair to hold him to her. After a moment, he kissed her stomach, and then raised his head.
“You are all I ever dreamed of. In all my life, I’ve never seen anything so perfect. This is why we left our homeland. This is what the dragons of long ago saw with our magic and wanted for ourselves.”
He traced her collarbone with a finger, caressed the smooth swell of her breasts, teasing her almost painfully distended nipple, down across the flat plain of her stomach and into the curls. Her thighs parted and she lay open to him. Lily held her breath as his finger moved lower, to slide across the damp sensitive flesh between her thighs. She arched up off the cushions as he touched her for the first time, tensing as his finger glided over her clitoris and then pushed inside her.
“Relax,” he crooned. His finger stilled and her eyes flicked open and stared straight into his, now more red than gold. He leaned over her and kissed one stiff, pink nipple, drawing it into his mouth and nipping with his sharp teeth. At the same time, he flexed the finger inside her and she writhed against his hand, moaning with delight.
“You’re so tight, but hot and wet. Next time we’ll take longer; now I have to be inside you. I need to mark you as mine.”
He withdrew his finger and stood up, then knelt between her open thighs. A brief flash of panic hit her as his shaft nudged at the opening of her body. Then, with one smooth lunge, he filled her. There was a stretching and a burning; an all-consuming desire that raged to life within her. He glanced into her face, holding her with his blood-red gaze.
“Okay?”
She nodded, it was far better than her dreams. Writhing beneath him, she wrapped her long legs around his waist, and pulled him closer as though they could become one. He started to move, withdrawing only to slide back into her. She was on fire. Each slow, sensuous grind of his hips rubbed against her sensitive flesh. The feeling of such restrained power over her, in her, was driving her wild, until she was sure the fires that burned so hot would consume her. She was losing control again beneath the steady strokes of his relentless body.
“Mal,” she gasped as she thought she could take no more.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
She opened her eyes and gazed into his, now so close to her own. His face was taut, savage, and his eyes were pools of fire. She lost herself in them and they drew her into the fires beyond. They were both flying; huge iridescent wings swept her up and up and then dived into a sea of flames. She exploded in a fireball of pure pleasure, feeling Mal’s release at the same moment, so they blazed together.
For a few seconds, she blacked out. When she came to, she was lying in his arms, his cock still sheathed inside her. She shuddered in the aftermath of pleasure. He peered down into her face, then leaned down and kissed her lips.
“Are you okay?” he asked again.
She opened her mouth, but couldn’t seem to form the words. A slow smile curved his lips as he pulled out of her and rolled off her in one fluid movement.
Shifting her so she lay across him, he ran his hand down the curve of her spine. His palm came to rest on the soft swell of her ass and he pulled her closer. Lily lay supine against him, loving the feel of his body beneath hers. She wanted to stay like that forever, to forget the past few days, and just revel in the physical. But after a moment, he dragged himself up so she sat in his lap. He cupped her face and kissed her, then stared into her eyes. “You will never belong to Vortigen.”
So much for not thinking. But there was such certitude in his voice and in his face that something tight and painful unwound within her.<
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“Never,” he reiterated. “I give my promise.”
“So what will you do? What will we do?”
“I don’t know. There must be a way and I’ll find it. You’re my mate and nothing can come between us. Vortigen must respect that. I’ll think on the best way to approach him. We have some time. I spoke to him earlier and told him we wouldn’t meet him until things have calmed down. He doesn’t know where we are. We’re safe for a while.”
“Could we not go back to the portal now that Cole is safe?”
“I can’t abandon the rest of my people.” He brushed her hair back from her forehead. “I swear to you, Lily, I’ll never give you to the King, but we have to confront him. In the meantime, we pray to the Goddess. Somewhere there’s a purpose in all this, a plan. There must be. And while we wait, we train you.”
“Train me?” Lily wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that.
“You have to learn control and we need to assess the extent of your powers, and you must learn to fight. There are still plenty of sorcerers out there and I don’t want you vulnerable. But before that, we have the rest of the night. Come on, let’s go find a bed.”
Rising to his feet, he scooped her up into his arms and strode out of the room, up the stairs. They passed Cole’s room, then the professor’s. Mal kicked open the next door.
***
Mal pulled back the sheet and laid her on the double bed. She was beautiful, her pale face flushed with passion, and already he wanted her again, his cock hard, his balls aching.
Sinking down beside her, he breathed into her ear, then licked along the line of her throat. She moved against him, and a tremor ran through her body as he kissed down her neck, his teeth biting and nipping at the soft flesh. For a second, he put his head against her chest, listening to the frantic race of her heartbeat. Her small breasts were rosy from his kisses, the nipples still swollen. He licked at one, heard her gasp, then drew it into his mouth, suckling her until she sobbed from the pleasure. Almost reluctantly, he left her breasts and moved on down over her flat, taut stomach. His tongue lazily dipped into her navel, then lower until his breath whispered through the soft hair between her legs and he breathed in the hot scent of her arousal. She smelled of Ankesh, of home, of wildly burning fires that blazed out of control. She writhed beneath him as he reached out and tasted her with his tongue. With a shudder, her hips lifted off the bed. He steadied her with his hands at her hips, and then gave himself up to the delights of pleasuring his mate.