“Odin,” Tiernan said softly. “It had to have been him, aye?”
“Yes,” Soren said, wishing they knew more. That they had more definitive answers. He was tired of being in the dark and knew Ava felt the same way.
“We should settle here for the night.” Ava eyed the late-day sun. “It seems like every time Múspellsheimr draws us in, we lose more and more time.”
“That’s how it goes,” Tess confirmed. “Until the grand finale when your truths are finally revealed.”
“I will hunt this time,” Soren said, aware that he had not contributed since they set out on their adventure.
“No, I will go.” Rokar clearly sensed his concern. “You should spend time with your mate. Become better...acquainted.”
Tess snorted. “Well, aren’t you direct.” She winked at Ava and Soren. “He makes a good point, though. The sooner you two get to lovin’ the faster things will go. At least that’s how it’s been for the rest of us.” Her eyes went to Rokar. “I’ll go with you.”
His brow swept up. “You truly want to hunt?”
“Oh, sure.” She sauntered into the woods. “Eventually.”
“I will go as well.” Leviathan sighed and headed in another direction. “If we wait for those two to get around to hunting, we will be eating when the sun comes up in the morn.”
Ava welcomed a skin of mead when Magnus handed her one then gestured at a well-protected area nearby. “That looks like a good place to rest for the eve.”
In agreement, everyone settled in, and a fire was lit. Yet Soren knew Rokar was right. He and Ava needed time alone. Not only his human but dragon half needed to be with its mate without hindrance, whether in intimacy or not.
“Outside of the river changing, the lay of the land seems unchanged,” Halla mentioned, obviously catching his thoughts. “The last time I was here, I came across several small caves and private nooks in the woodland behind us.” She grinned. “Just watch out that you don’t run into Tess and Rokar.”
When Ava looked at Halla in question, likely wondering why she had said that out of the blue, his cousin chuckled and remained blunt as only she could. “You have wanted to lay with Soren since the moment you saw him.” She cocked her head. “So why wait another moment if it will lead to more answers?”
Chapter Twenty-One
“HALLA DOESN’T HOLD back, does she?” Ava muttered, her cheeks still burning along with everything else. Her cheeks from embarrassment. The rest of her because she knew what they were getting ready to do as she and Soren made their way through the darkening woodland.
“No, Halla has never held back.” He chuckled. “That is half her charm.”
“It’s half her something,” she said. “Not sure I’d call it charm.”
“My cousin has always been fond of sex, and much to her parent’s chagrin makes sure everyone knows it,” he said. “But she means no harm. To her, intimacy is one of the better parts of life and should be shared often.” He glanced at Ava. “I tend to agree.”
“I’m sure you do.” She shrugged. “I tend to think there are more important things to focus on in life. Sure, sex is okay, but it’s not that big a deal.”
“Then you have not been with the right partner,” he said, as blunt as his cousin.
“You don’t know that.” She shook her head, hardly believing she was having this conversation. “Besides, a person can have good sex then manage without it. It’s called self-control.”
He led her into a cozy nook beneath a pine with a moss covered trunk. The intimate area had a cave of sorts carved into a monstrous rock on one side. Pine branches hung to the ground on the other. Like all places in the Realm, soft verdant grass grew where it shouldn’t. Not that she was complaining as she sat and looked up.
“I used to enjoy sitting beneath the trees at my home in Lake Placid,” she mentioned, steering the conversation away from intimacy. “Then I went off to college and never got around to sitting under one again.”
He lit a fire and sat beside her. “It is peaceful, yes?”
“It really is,” she murmured. “Funny, maybe a small part of me was trying to bring that sense of peace to the rest of the world.”
“By the sounds of it, you did.”
“Here and there.” Not when it mattered most, though.
“I would like to see it someday,” he said softly. “Your life...what you accomplished.”
“You mean, look through my mind’s eye.” She tensed at the thought. It was one thing catching her thoughts, but to let him all the way in would mean him seeing first-hand the atrocities she had caused. “Maybe eventually.”
“When you are ready,” he agreed. “Though it might happen against your will as it has for some of our kin.”
“I know.” She met his eyes. “I guess I just want to put it off for as long as possible.” She shook her head, realizing it was for more reasons than one. “Not just for me but for you.”
“You are afraid of the way I will look at you. That it will damage the way my dragon looks at yours, the connection they are so desperate for.” He shook his head. “But it will not, Ava. It cannot.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do, though. As I said before, my dragon can only lend yours comfort and protect it,” he said softly. “Letting me and my dragon in will not push us away but pull us closer. It will allow us to soak up some of your pain...to help you find self-forgiveness.”
“How can you know that when you’ve never had a mate?”
“Because I have had a mate.” He brushed the back of his knuckles along her jaw. “You.” He searched her eyes. “Surely, you feel the growing connection. The intense bond.”
“You know I do,” she whispered because she couldn’t quite find her voice. “Only our growing connection isn’t giving me a sense of confidence. Instead, I feel like I’m drawing closer to unbearable pain.” While she meant to keep it to herself, her inner dragon prompted her tongue along. “I keep getting this nagging feeling I’m going to lose you now that I’ve found you.”
“You cannot let that stand in your way,” he said gently. “Instead, you have to trust it, allow the connection. In that, you will find peace.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I already feel it.” His fingers trailed down the side of her neck, causing a fresh spike of heat. “While yes, there is great risk, there is also certainty that this is eternal. That the connection we made on Múspellsheimr is ours for all time.” He tilted her chin until their eyes were aligned. “Our dragons will always find their way back to each other, Ava. So even if you lose me in this life, there will be another. I will return to you.”
He certainly had a way with words, didn’t he? But they were true words said from his heart. She could see it in his eyes. Sense it in his soul. More than that, she could feel it in his tender touch.
When his lips brushed hers, then he started to pull away, she stopped him.
“No.” She kissed him again, wanting intimacy.
Needing it.
She straddled his lap, cupped his cheeks, and kept kissing him. Maybe if she stayed in control physically, she could emotionally as well.
That, she realized the moment she felt his rock-hard dick between her thighs and her dragon roared to the surface, was definitely wishful thinking. It wasn’t just the contact down there but the passion of his kiss that had her emotions all over the place. That made her want to sob with pleasure.
In fact, a tear actually trickled down her cheek.
While she intended to brush it away, that became the last thing on her mind when he growled into her mouth, grabbed her ass and ground against her. Their kisses intensified, and fierce lust coursed through her.
She began trembling with overwhelming need.
She had never felt this way, even in heat. Never so blindingly desperate to have a man inside her. But then, it had been a long time. Yet this went beyond not getting laid. Her vision hazed red, and she clutched at his jer
kin, frustrated he still wore it.
This was something else entirely.
It was a frenzied craze of need that snapped any control she might have had left in half. She boldly chanted away their clothes, dug her nails into his broad shoulders, and rubbed her moisture along his blazing shaft. In all reality, though she had labored to keep herself in check, she’d never been so completely out of control.
This time she growled, her inner beast wild with anticipation.
As she dug her nails in deeper and bit by bit took him inside of her, she almost felt like another person altogether. But then she wasn’t the only one taking him, was she? Her dragon was right there with her, desperate to have her mate whether he was ready for her or not.
“How could I not be ready for you?” he growled, catching those thoughts. His dragon eyes blazed as he thrust deep and seated her fully. “I’ve been ready for you since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Her heart going a mile a minute, she half gasped half cried out at the pleasurable intrusion. Meanwhile, he groaned in what sounded like relief, his strong body trembling ever-so-slightly as he clearly tried to hold back and let her adjust.
Caught by the raw lust on his face and the feel of him finally inside her, she shifted her hips and nearly whimpered at the sharp, delicious sensations that shot through her. She had never felt anything like this...like him. While one part of her wanted to hold on tight and ride him hard until she spent herself, a larger part demanded the very intimacy she’d been trying to avoid.
Her dragon had to have it, and she could not deny her inner beast anymore. Not now. Not with her mate between her thighs, so deep inside her. She brushed her lips across his, braced her hands on his shoulders and met his eyes. She kept him with her in a way she could have avoided but didn’t. She gradually slid up and down, creating a slow burn that quickly turned to a raging inferno.
Yet still, she kept her gaze on his eyes.
His dragon with hers.
She pressed deep and rolled her hips, then rode him all the way to the tip then all the way down. Again and again. Over and over until they shook with near painful pleasure at being kept on the verge of peaking. Even so, except for clenching her ass, he never took back control.
Rather, he let her explore this the way she needed to.
Take him the way she wanted.
Nevertheless, every girl has her breaking point. Eventually, she couldn’t tolerate the slow torture anymore. She sped up, clutching his shoulders, digging her nails in again as sensations washed over her. She was on the verge of orgasm, but somehow it felt a hundred times stronger than a normal build-up.
A thousand times better.
She felt his internal struggle as he held back, and it only turned her on more. That he would try so hard to let this be all about her. That he would urge her to find her way to the sort of sex she’d most definitely never had. To taste what had been absent from her life most likely because she had repressed her dragon.
Or because she had not been with this man.
What a gorgeous man he was too with his chiseled body and random tats. She liked his virility, his strength, and sheer power. How he could overtake her if he chose to. How he could bend her to his will but instead allowed her this.
She recognized the animalistic inner beast in her primal thoughts. The push and pull between their dragons that was inherent to their natures. It was the first time she realized how much she would enjoy being dominated. For him to rip away her control and take her like her dragon wanted to be taken.
That, as it turned out, catapulted her right over the edge.
She flung her head back and cried out when an orgasm tore through her so harshly her belly muscles seized then fluttered with the power of it. Though she saw the internal struggle in his eyes to hold back and remain hard for her, his pleasure was too great. He clutched her ass tighter and released a strangled groan before he let go as well.
Something about knowing he had tried to hold back but couldn’t only intensified her own release. Her dragon liked that it forced him to follow suit. Though deep down it wanted him to control it, it liked having power over him too.
All the while, caught in his own release, Soren watched her with something akin to rapture. It was as if he were experiencing sex for the first time. As if he had never seen a woman climax, which was downright impossible. This man didn’t have sex with a woman without bringing her to completion.
“What is it,” she managed hoarsely. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you are beautiful,” he breathed. “And because I have never been taken like that. When I wish to maintain control for another’s pleasure, I do.” He ran his hands over the contours of her waist, his eyes trailing down her body. “Yet your dragon...no, you, gave me no choice.”
She wasn’t sure what to make of that other than she liked it.
“And what did you think of that?” she said softly. “What did your dragon think?”
“That it will never be able to get enough of you.” His eyes returned to hers. “I will never be able to get enough.”
The way he said it, with such possessive, blatant need, spiked fresh arousal through her yet again.
“What about you, Ava?” he murmured. “What do you think of sex now?”
“Let’s just say I understand the draw a bit better now.” More than understood. “I understand how this could get...addictive.”
He grinned. “What we just shared will be more than addictive, mate.”
Though startled at him calling her that in such an intimate position, her inner dragon reveled in it. In fact, it responded so strongly to the promise in his eyes that another mini-climax rolled through her.
That, it seemed, was just the invitation his dragon had been waiting for.
Because what happened next made her wonder how she had ever lived without this.
Chapter Twenty-Two
WHILE HE HAD intended to give Ava time to recover from his intrusion, the moment her dragon signaled that she craved the sexual addiction he promised, he had to have her again. Yanking back control, he flipped her beneath him, locked her arms above her head with one hand, and fondled her breast while nudging her thighs further apart.
Then he thrust deep, and she cried out in pleasure.
He had thought he understood intimacy, how very good it could be, but as foretold, nothing compared to being with his destined mate. Every sensation was heightened. Every touch more intense. Being inside her was like nothing else. He wanted to feel her tight, hot sheath around him all the time. To know that with every thrust, he might impregnate her.
Claim her.
Keep her.
Ava’s dragon eyes flared brighter in response to his primal thoughts, recognizing that they came directly from his inner beast. Not to say his human half felt much different. He pulled her pert nipple into his mouth, suckling while rolling his hips and dragged another cry of pleasure from her. Then he did it again with her other nipple, enjoying the way she writhed, urging him on, tempting him to claim her the way she truly wanted him to. How he wanted to.
“Please,” she whimpered, wrapping her legs around him.
Though hungry to taste between her thighs, when she begged, he had no choice but to give her what she wanted. What they both needed. So he thrust. Hard. Rough. The way he had wanted to take her since the moment he saw her.
She cried out nearly every thrust, urging him on, demanding more, her inner dragon forcing another side of her to the surface. A woman who wanted her control ripped away. Who wanted him to take her without mercy.
So he did, more violently than he had ever taken a woman, reveling in the freedom his dragon found in it. As he pinned her down more firmly, and thrust even harder, visions of what their former dragons had done near that lava pool flashed in his mind, driving his lust into a frenzy.
There with him, Ava’s mind brushed his, and the erotic, violent natures of their former incarnates became their own. Driven
, taking, ruthless, he slammed into her once, twice, three times more before blazing fire raced up his spine. He locked up and roared in release. Just like it was for him, she clearly had no choice but to follow.
She arched and cried out before she trembled.
He loved how her body gave itself over to her pleasure, visibly tensing and shuddering. He had seen it with other women but not to such an extent. Ava seemed to let go and give in with everything she possessed. Which naturally his dragon appreciated because it felt like she completely surrendered to him.
It felt like his mate was with him in a way he would never lose her.
His chest clenched when sudden blinding grief and untouchable pain washed over him.
Though in the midst of release, Ava’s eyes locked on his in concern, her words choppy as she struggled to see past her pleasure to whatever was hurting him. “What is it, Soren?”
“Nothing,” he assured softly, cupping her cheek, wanting her to bask in what she had found. “All is well.”
Her dragon eyes faded and her human eyes searched his, worried. “You’re lying. What just happened? Tell me. Please.”
He kept his eyes with hers for another moment, debating, only to realize he could only ever be honest with her. So he lay on the grass and pulled her into his arms because he wouldn’t have her anywhere else.
“I felt sudden grief,” he murmured. “As if my dragon had to let yours go. As though I would never see you again.”
“That’s what I’ve been feeling,” she exclaimed and met his eyes. “It’s a horrible sense of foreboding, isn’t it?”
“It is...very difficult,” he relented. In truth, it was far more than that. More like his heart was being ripped from his chest.
“What do you make of it?” She frowned. “It has to be from our previous life, right?”
“Yes,” he murmured, sure of it.
“You don’t think we made it to Midgard do you?” she said. “You think we died like everyone else.”
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