by T. S. Joyce
Kane ran his fingers down her wet folds, teased her entrance with a shallow touch. With his other hand, he grabbed her ass hard, squeezed and pushed her forward against the side of the Bronco. Oh he liked this—the control. He was going to take her from behind.
Rowan caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window. Hooded eyes blazing gold, lips parted, cheeks flushed. Kane’s eyes glowed in the reflection as he gave her a slow, hungry smile that showed his white teeth. Monster. Our monster.
The sound of her button being undone made her close her eyes against the night, just to savor the seductive promise of that tiny snap. It had been so long since she’d felt adored like this. Eternity maybe. The slow riiiip of her zipper filled her head, and then the cool breeze was licking her skin as Kane shoved her shorts down to her ankles. She was wearing a black thong today, but Kane didn’t just rip it off like she thought he would. Instead, he grazed his teeth over her hip as he bit the band. Hooking his fingers at the sides, he slowly pulled the panties down her curves, down her legs, his facial scruff scratching her skin the entire length.
A delicious shiver traveled from her ankles up her legs, up her spine, and landed in her shoulders. Her breath shuddered as she stepped out of the last stitch of her clothing. Kane’s pants were next, but he gave his lips to the back of her neck as he moved, as he pushed his clothes down, unsheathing himself. God, how was he this smooth? This graceful? It was like his leg didn’t hurt him at all right now. She hoped it didn’t. She hoped she was the balm to his pain, as he was the cure to her fear.
His body warmth left her for a moment, and then Kane’s jeans were in the pile with her discarded clothes. He told her so much with that. A smile stretched her lips, and she dared a look behind her. She wasn’t just some fuck in an ally with his pants around his hips. She was something more—something special.
His eyes tightened in the corners, and he lifted his chin. Slowly, he dug his fingers into her hips and pulled her toward him, arched her lower back, gave himself access. And then he was there, poised at her entrance, in by an inch, teasing as his lips touched her again on the back of the neck. Teeth, teeth, teeth. He wants to bite you, too.
Rowan arched harder, instinctively, chasing him as he rocked gently away. Big, powerful man, his muscles rippling against her back as he rocked them both forward. He dragged his touch down her arm, intertwined their fingers and lifted her hand to the Bronco, braced her there. With his other, he took her hand and slid it down her stomach until she cupped herself. Until she could feel the swollen head of his cock right there, ready to plunge into her. Oh, he was going to make her feel this.
Teeth. He bit her shoulder almost hard enough to pierce her skin. With a gasp, she arched for him again.
“Do it,” she begged. Do what? Bite her? Fuck her? Both felt right.
Kane plunged into her, stretching her with his width. He was almost too much. Almost too long, too thick, but she tried to relax. She could feel his graceful movement inside of her. Her fingertips brushed his shaft as he buried himself into her center.
Kane’s breath came faster, and his body tensed against hers. “Fuuuck,” he said in a shaky growl. And then he eased back and rammed into her again, harder. He pressed on her hand, made her touch herself as he went to work, filling her, depleting her, in and out until she was crying out with every stroke. Her legs didn’t want to hold her anymore, but he kept her pinned against his Bronco, supporting her, holding her up as he bucked into her, his abs flexing against her back with the motion.
Something was happening. Something amazing that heated her middle like fire but didn’t hurt. And there were his biting kisses again, but he wasn’t teasing anymore. He clamped onto the back of her neck as he drove them to release. So vulnerable, having the Blackwing’s teeth on the most sensitive part of her body, right on her spine. He could kill her with a bite, but he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. Kane cared about her. He would take care of her and keep her safe.
But as he pumped into her harder and faster, as his body tensed and strained against her back, there was an instant she thought she’d made a dire mistake. With the first explosive pulse of her orgasm, Kane sank his teeth into her skin so deep, she gasped at the pleasure and pain. She thought he would end her. For a terrifying moment, she thought he would cut through her neck, but he didn’t. Instead, he released her torn skin and yanked her against him, bucked into her, and gritted out her name. Warmth trickled down her neck, and it should’ve hurt. It should’ve ruined the moment, but instead, her release came even harder, blinding her with ecstasy. Kane swelled inside of her and shot warmth into her center. He was heavy, and so strong, and it was all she could do to keep herself braced against his car to give herself space to breathe.
“Kane, Kane,” she said mindlessly as her orgasm pounded through her.
He was emptying himself completely into her, and it was too much. It was trickling out of her, trickling down her legs to her knees. So fucking sexy. Kane grunted and bucked into her hard one last time.
And as Kane began licking the back of her neck, cleaning the blood, Rowan’s body turned boneless. Her muscles twitched with the effort to remain standing. The bite mark stung, and his tongue against her torn skin burned, but she loved this. Loved his attention. Loved that he had claimed her just like a shifter. “You know what you just did, don’t you?”
“I’m not sorry,” he said in a gravelly voice she barely recognized.
Rowan gave a private smile. Maybe The Darkness was as enamored with her dragon as Dragon was with him. Dangerous, terrifying Blackwing Dragon had chosen his mate, and it was her. She stood there stunned as he cleaned her until the bleeding stopped and her accelerated healing sealed up the ripped skin. She hoped he’d done it deep so the scar would rise and be obvious.
She’d betrayed her people, betrayed her lineage, betrayed Damon, but in this moment, she couldn’t gather the energy to care. She was happy. Not just happy, but for the first time in her life, she felt whole and brave. She felt ready for whatever came next.
As Kane pulled out of her, turned her slowly in his arms, and as he held her closer, she fell even harder. Why? Because that sexy rumble in his throat had softened to the hum that dragon shifters only let off when they were truly content. It matched hers.
Kane looked down at her, his dark eyebrows furrowed as if the sound unsettled him. As if he didn’t understand it. But she did.
Their dragons were talking.
Chapter Thirteen
Kane stared at the red, angry wound he’d made on the back of Rowan’s neck. He’d hurt her. What the hell had possessed him to do that? He hadn’t been able to stop himself in the moment, and even now, he was having a damn hard time feeling anything but excitement.
Oh, he knew what claiming marks were. He just never in his life thought he would want to give one to a woman.
He dragged a washrag up her back where streams of warm water raced down her spine. He rested his arm on the edge of his bathtub, settled his chin on his forearm, and traced her smooth skin, drawing shapes as he connected water drops.
Rowan was sitting in deep water, resting her chin on her drawn up knees and staring off to the side with a dreamy look in her blue eyes.
“Are you angry?” he asked softly.
She inhaled suddenly. “Will you get in with me?”
Kane laughed, but Rowan cast him a serious glance over her shoulder. The amusement died in his throat. “My leg,” he said through a frown.
“Take it off.”
Kane swallowed his immediate instinct to deny her. He wanted to make Rowan happy, not take things away from her. With a sigh, he removed the prosthetic and eased into the steaming tub behind her. He was big and took up a lot of space, and the water rose to a couple inches below the rim. The warm water did feel good on his sore leg, and slowly, Rowan rested back against his chest, draped her hair over his shoulder languidly, and sighed out a contented sound. She seemed to need his touch as much as he needed hers.
God, this feeling in his chest. The hot one that eased when he was close to her like this. Kane rested his forehead against the back of her hair and nuzzled her gently. “That’s not how I imagined it for our first time.”
Rowan lifted her feet out of the tub and rested her crossed ankles on the rim, reached back and linked her fingers behind his neck, stretching out like a happy cat. “You picked me.”
Kane kissed the claiming mark. “Yeah. I should’ve asked first though. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Do you regret it?”
“No.” That was the easiest answer in the world. As of thirty minutes ago, he no longer felt alone in the world. It was a big deal. Consequences be damned, Rowan was his.
“Roe?”
“Hmmm?”
Kane cupped her full breasts gently and kissed her neck, then rested his chin on her shoulder. “Someday I’m gonna be good enough for you to claim me back.”
“Kane,” she said in a disapproving tone.
“No, just listen. I have a lot of work to do. You have this optimism I don’t want to take from you. I’ll work harder to spend time with the Bloodrunners for you. I’ll hide less, okay? And someday when you think I’m ready, you can bite me back, and I’ll be honored to have your mark.”
“And what about when Harper has her baby and I go back to the Gray Backs?”
Kane’s heart drummed with disappointment against his sternum. “When Damon finds out about you and I, he won’t tolerate me in his territory. I can visit my mom and brothers, but taking up permanent residence? I can’t pledge to the Gray Backs with you, Rowan.”
“What do we do?”
“You stay, Roe. You stay here with me, with the Bloodrunners.”
Rowan shook her head and hugged his hands to her chest. “When Harper gets her dragon back, I’ll want to fight. It’s too small a territory. My dragon will go to battle with hers. I can’t be under another dominant dragon, Kane. I work best in the Gray Backs.”
“What about your own mountains?”
“I’m listed as a problem shifter, remember? I can’t get the land grants. Even if I could save up the money for a down payment, I can’t get a loan. No one wants a problem shifter claiming land in their territory.”
Kane closed his eyes and rested his lips right next to her ear. “What about my mountains?”
Rowan froze in his arms. “What do you mean?”
“This house is a mess, and I’ve been slowly working on fixing it up for three years. But I didn’t buy this place for the house.”
Rowan twisted in his arms, a frown marring her delicate blond eyebrows. “What are you saying?”
“I bought it for the land. I own this mountain and the next. Or I will when I pay the loan off. I can’t get land grants either, so I bought what I could. It’s nothing grand. It’s not like Harper’s territory, but maybe someday you could be happy here. With me.”
Rowan parted her pretty lips in a shocked smile. “You love me,” she accused, curling up her knees and turning all the way around to face him.
She damn near kicked him in the ball sack, so Kane cupped himself protectively. “Dammit, princess, watch the goods.”
She tucked her knees to her chest and scooted closer. “You lo-ho-ho-ho-ooove me.”
“I didn’t say that.” His cheeks were burning so he hid his gaze and his smile from her ridiculous accusations. “I love nothing.”
“You just offered me your mountains. Amore. Oh, my God!” Her baby blues went round. “We have one of those epic love stories. I have to call Willa. We should get someone to write about us. Or like, make a poem. Bards can sing about us in castles for eternity. The Blackwing line finally fuses with the Bloodrunner line, ending a millennia-long war with love. Romeo and Juliet, but without the death part. With extra sex and more tattoos.”
Kane laughed and splashed her. “I was being serious, you know. Now I take it all back. You can’t share my mountains anymore.”
“You wanna have my baaaaabies,” she sang.
“Stop it,” he said, blocking her tickling fingers while trying to keep his dick covered and protected from her kicking feet.
“You don’t feel empty,” she whispered suddenly, her eyes so round.
“What?”
“I was scared you would feel empty like with the other girls, but you gave me bites and mountains! Kane, do you know what this means?”
“That I enjoy sex with you?”
“Exactly, that we are meant to be!”
She was barely in control of her giggles and just being ridiculous now, so Kane splashed her.
Looking like a drowned rat, Rowen gasped. “Kane Metamucil Thunderdong.”
“That’s not even close to my name.”
Rowan went crazy splashing, and for a moment, he just turned his head away and waited for her to tire herself out, but her giggles were infectious. So with a growl, he turned and went to town splashing her until they were both drenched and breathless from laughing. There was water all over the bathroom floor, and he was gonna have a hell of a time cleaning everything, but the beautiful smile on Rowan’s face made everything worth it.
She moved onto his lap, straddling him, and pressed her breasts against his chest. Kane bit his bottom lip and slid his arms around her, pulled her right over his dick. It was hardening by the second. God, she was sexy. Playful and beautiful, her hair all plastered to her shoulders, make-up smudged, making the blue in her eyes look like ocean water. Her freckles on her nose were stark against her fair skin, and giggles were still bubbling up her throat. Fucking in a bathtub wasn’t like the movies. It was raw. It was smeared make-up, confined space, and a sense of humor. It was working with the water waves to get off. It was fucking amazing. Rowan slid over him, and he rolled his eyes closed at how good she felt—how tight she was around his dick.
Kane gripped her hair and tasted her neck. Fuck, she smelled so good. Her neck was his favorite part about her. And yeah, he knew that messed with his man-card. He did love her tits and ass, but if he paid attention to her neck first, she got really wet and made these gaspy, little noises as if he could make her come with kisses. She was noisy with her pleasure, and so was her dragon. Rowan was close now. He could tell because she made this deep humming sound that he found so damn sexy he was gonna blow his load early if he wasn’t careful.
He wanted a hard fuck. He wanted her fast, but Rowan was apparently in the mood for torture. She rocked her hips slowly, teasing him, barely lifting off his dick with each stroke, keeping him deep in her middle. He dug his fingers into her back and rammed her down harder on his lap, and she moaned like the little vixen she was. She drove him mad. All of his beating off to the thought of her didn’t touch the real thing. His imagination sucked compared to how it really felt buried inside of her. Fuck, he needed more. Needed her bent over under him, or on all fours on the bathroom floor. He needed her on her back, driving into her, pounding her. Rowan clawed his back as she made little helpless noises deep in her throat. She liked it tight and deep then.
Rowan’s orgasm came out of nowhere, pulsing hard around him, gripping him, pushing his own release. His balls clenched, and he shot into her, over and over with each hard stroke, until there was nothing left in him.
Going twice in a row like that, two hard fucks, had drained him. He sat in the tub twitching against her, clinging to her, face buried between her breasts because it was fucking paradise here. Lost in Roe. That’s what this was. He could get lost in her arms and forget the pain, forget the darkness, forget everything but the blinding light she bathed him in.
And for a moment, as that strange humming vibrated from his chest, matching the sound that came from hers, he thought he could touch her dragon. And that was fucking magic. That was the closest he could get to the way he used to be. Rowan was a bridge to the life he wanted. A life he didn’t deserve, but one he wanted to work toward.
Yeah, he wanted to give her his mountains. And yeah, he fucking loved his bite mark on her neck. Damon would
kill him when he found out what he’d done, but this right here—this feeling of flying again—made it all worth it.
“You can have all of me.” It was as close to I love you as he could get. He’d never uttered that before, not to anyone, but he hoped she understood the meaning that lay between his words.
And then she was crying. He wasn’t sure at first, but she buried her face against his neck and went all soft, arms tucked between them, shoulders shaking, warm tears streaking down his arm. He didn’t remember the last time he’d cried, so he worried he’d hurt her.
Cupping her neck, he eased her back so he could see her face. Her nose was red to match her cheeks, and her eyes were full of some deep well of emotion he couldn’t identify. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said thickly.
“What’s wrong?”
She smiled, but her lips trembled, and tears ran down her rosy cheeks.
Soft Roe, with the heart of a lamb.
Sweet Roe, who chose her people and held on.
Fierce Roe, who braved the lair of the Blackwing Dragon and didn’t even smell scared at the deep rumbling in his chest.
Tender Roe, who shattered his glass heart when she whispered, “It’s just that I love you, too.”
Chapter Fourteen
Rowan rinsed the minty froth from her mouth and set the toothbrush Kane had given her beside his in the cup by the sink. He’d had one extra toothbrush. Color: black. Surprise, surprise.
“What’s your favorite color?” she asked, snuggling back under the covers to watch him put on his prosthetic leg.
“Black like my soul,” he quipped.
Rowan snorted. “I knew it. Are you sure you can’t call in?”
“Princess, don’t tempt me.” Kane settled his jeans over the metal limb, and fastened them into place, then rolled over on the bed. With a grin, he bit her toe through the covers. “Martin needs the help.”