Master of Frost

by Bolryder, Terry

  When he kissed her again, hands holding her softly and firmly, she had nowhere to run but straight into the feel of his lips on her mouth, pressing with sensual insistence. Wanting more, needing more, she opened her mouth to let him in, and he didn’t hesitate as his tongue lashed across hers and through her mouth, lighting up her entire body as he did.

  She strained against him, testing his strength. But he was immovable. Both in body and in mind in his absolute assertions.

  Somehow that just made her feel safer doing this. Knowing that he wasn’t playing with her feelings, even if Chelle knew she couldn’t meet him all the way.

  Every hair on her body stood at attention as she felt Dmitri’s tongue thrust again and again, making her wet with the promise of more. And he didn’t skip a single beat when he finally ended their contact, spreading his kisses over her neck, her ears.

  Finally, he let go of her hands, and Chelle helped as he pulled off her shirt and bra, followed by everything else left that covered her. When she lay back down, she was totally bare yet completely comfortable with herself, knowing that Dmitri wanted nothing and no one else but her in this moment.

  It didn’t hurt that his kisses on her breasts provided more than ample distraction from any potential self-consciousness.

  His tongue laved at her nipple, pressing the tip with firm wetness before his entire mouth suckled, pulling a groan from her.

  Thankfully, the house was completely empty. Nobody to worry about hearing what was going on in her room.

  “You’re so fucking hot, Chelle,” Dmitri said, lips so close to her chest she could feel his warm breath over her breasts, tickling and arousing her at the same time.

  “You’re the hot one.” The sight of the muscled, warrior-like man that had somehow ended up smack dab at the center of her life filled her view. Just watching him turned her on. Seeing his incredible erection even as he focused wholly on her pleasure.

  She reached her hands up to touch him, to feel his muscles again, but he firmly guided them back to their place above her on the bed.

  “This is my chance to show you just how badly I want you, Chelle. How much I need you.” He punctuated the end of his sentence with a particularly long kiss across her nipple, and she felt a whole-body shiver course down her like an electrical current.

  “Even if it doesn’t mean more. More than what we have now, I mean.” The thick muscles in his shoulders tensed for a moment as he paused.

  “Anything is enough with you, Chelle. Anything from you is everything I could possibly want.” His blue-green eyes caught the light of an errant moonbeam, flashing in the low light of her room. There was so much care in his gaze, so much kindness it could break her if she stopped.

  “So show me, then.” Her body, taut with arousal and nearing release already, couldn’t muster more than a whisper. So Dmitri unleashed himself on her once again, pressing kisses at her shoulders, her belly, her thighs. Like he was claiming her from head to toe, marking her as his alone.

  Which, oddly, she didn’t mind the feeling of at all.

  Chelle’s body responded to every touch, every lick. Watching him while he worked only made her hungrier, made her mind go wilder as pleasure seeped into her from every bit of contact.

  She could almost taste what it would be like to have him inside, again, like the other morning. But better this time.

  Dmitri, on the other hand, had other ideas, spreading her legs but lowering his head between them.

  “You don’t have to do that,” she blurted out. “Not if you don’t want to.”

  Dmitri literally scoffed at that. “I want to, Chelle. I want to make you come over and over. To taste you on my lips and just feel you. To enjoy every second I have with you.”

  “Oh…” She didn’t really have a proper response to him but an added nod at the end. And if she had intended to say something more in the moment, his tongue licking over her clit roughly prevented any response as her orgasm ripped through her with the force of a hurricane.

  Chelle tried to watch Dmitri, shorn head and intense gaze watching her from between her legs, but seeing him there only made her come harder. So she opted to just close her eyes as heavy pulses of pleasurable release rocked her from head to toe.

  One thing was for sure. When Dmitri took control, he really swung for the fences.

  But he didn’t stop at just one. Instead, he went back for more. Dmitri placed light kisses on her center, which then contrasted with the long, languid strokes of his slick tongue that he followed up with. Chelle’s entire body felt like it was on fire, her entire nervous system going haywire with each erotic touch.

  Her hands writhed into the sheets then, finding nothing to hold on to, then found her own hair, the pulling sensation on her scalp only the slightest of distractions from his relentless pleasuring. There was no room in her brain to think about anything other than what was going on with her body at that very moment.

  She felt like a magnet, poised directly in front of its polar opposite.

  Only, in this case, the other magnet was Dmitri. And the force of magnetism was the inexplicable, unimaginable force of her attraction to him.

  With another lick, then one more, this one extra slow, she came again. Chelle grabbed on to Dmitri, holding his shoulders for support as she was completely overcome, surrounded in pure release for several prolonged moments.

  But even when she’d finally relaxed, it took two more orgasms for Dmitri to finally deem his point well made.

  Chelle couldn’t imagine what sex was possibly going to be like after being with Dmitri like this.

  He licked his lips—actually licked them—and looked down at her, still not fully sated. A warm blush spread down her cheeks, which added to the already intense feeling of near exhaustion she felt after so many orgasms. But she still wasn’t done yet either.

  She wanted him inside her, joined with only her, right now.

  She reached up for him with both hands, inviting him forward, and Dmitri grinned as he propped himself above her. His pecs flexed as he positioned himself, and she marveled at how his entire body seemed to glow in the moonlight, only further accentuating the pure maleness of his form.

  Then, without making her wait any longer, he slowly thrust in. The motion was so long, so thick that Chelle felt her body tense like the moment right before an orgasm. She held her breath until he was finally sheathed entirely within her.

  Somehow, the shape and the sheer size of him fit just right, and she moaned in sheer pleasure.

  Dmitri looked like he couldn’t possibly have been any happier in that moment. She wanted to reach up and touch his face, feel the warmth of his skin on her palm even as her entire person ached with delightful tension.

  But she worried it might be too close, too real. A pinch that could wake her up from a dream into the harsh reality of who she really was and how this all was going to play out.

  So instead, she just gave herself over to the feeling of Dmitri joined with her, teasing her, testing her limits as he withdrew and then thrust back in again.

  No life was perfect. But moments like this one could be.

  Chelle moaned at the sensation of Dmitri filling her, now moving a little harder, a little faster. She begged for more, and he didn’t hold back anymore. He was in control, and knowing that meant she didn’t need to be careful, didn’t need to watch out or make sure they didn’t go too far.

  Because the only place he ever took her was heaven.

  “Dmitri—Dmitri—” His heavy pumps into her shook the bed, making it sway back and forth. Hell, the entire world seemed to shake from the rhythmic motions, her frayed senses far past comprehending the kinds of pleasures she’d experienced. Each time he came out, there was a split second of pure want before they met once more, and Chelle was so overcome that her fingers and toes tingled.

  And in spite of the cascade of feelings, both physical and emotional, waving over her, Chelle was completely aware of Dmitri’s slightly strained express
ion. The way his muscles were taut, tight, holding back. How his gaze flicked up and down her body, then back to her face, watching her every movement like a hawk.

  But it was all too much. Or, rather, it was all just the right amount of everything, as Chelle felt the world around her stop for a moment as the buildup of so much pleasure shifted into an internal avalanche of release. A moment later, she felt Dmitri jerk within her, a deep throbbing that signaled his own release as he buried his face in her shoulder.

  His orgasm only further pushed hers along, making the shocks and jolts of her own release go longer and harder than they had before. The most she could muster of her already spent muscles was to wrap her arms around Dmitri’s impossibly wide back, clutching him as they both came together for the moments that drew out like eternity.

  Then her apartment bedroom gradually shifted back into view, and the heady, leftover sensation from so much release took the place where pure arousal had been. But Dmitri didn’t move, staying a moment longer, keeping them joined.

  “I love you, Chelle,” Dmitri said, pale light from the window accentuating the masculine features of his face.

  Chapter 14

  She froze, heart pounding, just letting herself take in the words, the beauty of the moment.

  If only things had been different. If only…

  Dmitri watched her, waiting for her to say something, anything, but she couldn’t.

  Despite the way she felt about him, despite how safe she felt in his arms. Despite the way she never wanted anyone else to touch him, she just couldn’t shut out the past.

  “I… I know.”

  His face couldn’t help showing his disappointment, just for a flash of a second, before he covered it with a smile and pulled her in against him, holding her close. “I wish I could see what was hurting you. I wish I could heal your heart.”

  She could feel extra warmth flooding through her as they lay there. If she didn’t know better, she’d say it was a kind of magic. But she knew such things were impossible, even for a dragon.

  But when he held her like that and loved her, she could swear she hurt less over the past.

  Until she thought of saying she loved him.

  After a while, he sat up, propping himself against the headboard and letting her lean against him.

  “What are we going to do, Chelle? I already love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone, and you aren’t sure you can ever love me back.”

  “I—”

  “I know you want me. I know you care about me. But I’m starting to believe you when you say it can never be the same as what I feel for you.” He ran his hand over his hair. “And… I have something to tell you. Something I should have told you before. Since you’re going to be mad at me, I’d rather get it over with now.”

  She looked over at him nervously, pulling the sheets up around her naked body. “Tell me, then.” She’d just begun to really allow herself to be with him, and she didn’t know how ready she was to hear something that would make things hard.

  “I… We… The first time we did this, we mated. I didn’t know how it worked, but according to Luka, sex without protection…”

  She blinked. “We didn’t use it this time, either.”

  “It wouldn’t have matter,” Dmitri said. “We were already mated.”

  Her heart began pounding in her ears, making it hard to think straight. “What does that mean, though?”

  “It means we are locked together forever, and you share my life-span.”

  “Which is?”

  “Long, probably, unless something kills us, which I wouldn’t let happen.”

  She tried to swallow, but her throat was suddenly too dry. “So I don’t get a say in it?”

  “You do,” Dmitri said. “You can turn me down and still spend your life however you want. And if you hate the gift of immortality, then we can find a way to reverse that, too.” He wrung his hands together. “I truly didn’t know.”

  “You did it without asking me.”

  His eyebrows drew together. “You were the one who initiated it. I was caught off guard, caught in the moment with you. And I had no idea about the rest. I had no idea we would be doing anything together that soon. That’s why I didn’t think to look into it.”

  “That’s fair,” she said. While she was irritated by how it had all happened, she had to admit he wasn’t only to blame. Sometimes people just made mistakes together. And she should have known to use protection anyway, no matter how caught up in the moment she was.

  But she had wanted him then, and she wanted him now. She had a hunger for him that burned almost constantly and only abated when he was close.

  She looked over at his handsome face, stern features lit by moonlight, and thought about how dear he was to her. How special.

  Then she looked out at the window, her mind running over the events of long ago, the things that kept her from jumping for joy in this moment.

  She took a deep breath. “You know, sometimes we make decisions, and we have no idea how badly they will screw us over. Sometimes we would give anything to go back and change things, but we can’t. Sometimes life just sucks, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Sometimes one decision haunts you, follows you for the rest of your life…”

  She stared hard at the window. Phantom phones rang in her head; flashing lights lit up the neighborhood. Her heart pounded like it was about to explode.

  But anyone else watching would only have seen a still night, a bright moon, and snow falling softly outside the window, twinkling as it went.

  “Oh God, I’m sorry,” she said as a tear slipped down her cheekbone. “I can’t ever be what you want. I just don’t love you like that.”

  She reached out for a face she could only see in her mind. “I wish you could have been happy… with someone else.”

  She closed her eyes against sudden teardrops and leaned back against the headboard. She felt rough thumbs brush her tears away and opened her eyes to see Dmitri looking at her with care and love and concern.

  She’d almost forgotten he was there. The trauma of the night had taken over so fully.

  She moved to put a hand on his, but he pulled away abruptly, shaking his head.

  “I can’t tonight,” he said, and she was devastated to see tears glimmering in his eyes as well. “You don’t have to be sorry for not loving me. You don’t have to be sorry we don’t feel the same way. I’m sorry you feel our mating was a mistake. All I can do is give you space and let you decide how you feel about it. But I really am sorry I screwed up.”

  She panicked as he got up and began to pull his clothes on, the heaviness of the room smothering them both. A moment ago, there had been only joy, but now? Sadness.

  She wanted to pull him back to her, explain that he’d misunderstood. That she’d never been talking about that to him in the first place.

  That the last person to say that he loved her had gone on to shoot himself in the head, all because of her.

  But she hesitated because the words were stuck like daggers in her throat, and she didn’t want Dmitri to see her as she saw herself.

  Utterly broken.

  She steeled herself to at least explain something to him, but it was too late, and with a reluctant look at her, Dmitri was gone.

  * * *

  A few days later, things weren’t any better.

  Dmitri hadn’t been outright rude, but he’d been keeping his distance, and she didn’t blame him.

  Still, every time she tried to come up to him, tried to think of how to tell her all the things in her heart, she could hear the distant sound of sirens, and it always caused her to pull back.

  As she worked on grading papers in her bedroom, enjoying the peace and quiet, she was interrupted by the sound of a knock on the front door.

  She was about to get up and answer when she heard Dmitri’s heavy footsteps passing by.

  She put a hand on her door, knowing she should go out there, talk to him.

  But she
couldn’t just yet.

  How could she tell him? How could she tell him what she had done that had made her like this? How could she stand to see the look in his eyes?

  She opened the door to peek out as Dmitri undid the deadbolt and opened the door to address whoever was out there.

  When Chelle realized someone was coming in, she darted back into her room so no one could see her. Perhaps it was someone Dmitri knew.

  “So you’re one of us. What do you want?” Dmitri’s voice was matter-of-fact.

  “So there really are other ice dragons.” The man’s voice was pleasant and deep, but Chelle didn’t feel reassured by it. After all, this man shouldn’t know about dragons. Dmitri had said the guy was one of them. Did that mean he was a dragon as well?

  She thought about going out but knew she would only cause problems for Dmitri. If it was another dragon, he was more equipped to deal with it than she was.

  Even if, despite the awkwardness between them, she wanted to run right out there and push the other guy out and shut the door.

  She knew she’d hurt Dmitri, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to protect him.

  “Anyway, you’ll need to come with me,” the newcomer said. “We need to talk.”

  “What if I don’t want to?” Dmitri’s voice was lower now. “I don’t even know who you are.”

  “That’s not really an option right now,” the other man said. “Not after what happened.”

  There was prolonged silence, and Chelle wondered if she should go out. Was Dmitri going to go with this guy? Surely, if he wanted to, he could refuse.

  “Just me, then?” Dmitri asked. “My mate and friend are here. Will they be safe?”

  Her heart nearly stopped at hearing him call her his mate again. It was somehow a relief to know he still felt that way, that he always would.

  She was desperately trying to catch up to him but didn’t know how.

  “They should be safe,” the stranger said. “If you come with me.”

  “Where are we going?” Dmitri asked.

  “I can’t tell you that, either. All I can say is that I need to have a word with you, dragon to dragon, and it’s in your best interest to come.”