“Of course I do,” he says. “I’ve been watching you this whole time. Making sure you were okay. But we both know I’m just here for my dragon and that you deserve better than me.”
“So you were lying about me being in your chambers?” I ask.
“No,” he says. “You’ll need to stay with me at least until very late for him to believe I have a claim. I’ll take you back to your room with Seth when it’s safe.”
“Thank you,” I say. “For saving me.”
For a moment, when he said he wanted me to stay with him, I thought he meant we would spend the night together.
A part of me wants that, because despite him being a villain sometimes, I still love the man that he is.
The one I see beneath the scarring. The one I hope to someday see again.
He isn’t doing this to hurt anyone. He just wants his dragon. I truly believe if he thought innocent people would be hurt, he couldn’t do this.
“I couldn’t,” he says. “If Nerrenth gets through, I’ll do everything within the scope of my healing powers to help.”
“But the other dragons who could have helped—”
“They had their chance to help the world. They gave it up.”
“They could have another,” I say, cupping Lee’s cheek. “We all could.”
“It’s too late for that,” he says, pushing me toward the shower. “Look, for now, just get the chlorine off, and I’ll have the fae bring new clothes. They’ll be outside the door whenever you’re ready.”
“Okay,” I say softly as he leaves.
* * *
After showering, I get changed in another one of the robes the fae brought me and head downstairs to see where Lee is.
I find him in front of the TV, watching a movie in jeans and a tee shirt, looking very much like a relaxed, regular guy and not a blue dragon on the warpath.
I guess I still see him as a dragon, no matter if he can turn into one or not. He’s still big and beautiful and has some magic. At least he can heal Seth.
I take a seat next to him on the couch, and for a minute, things are awkward.
“Look,” he says. “I get that you’re trying to make up with me, but I’m not changing my mind about tomorrow.”
“I know,” I say. “And I can’t do anything about that. I just have to hope the dragons win. And that we find another way to help you.”
“They’ll lose, and we won’t,” he retorts, grabbing a handful of popcorn out of a nearby bowl and handing it to me.
“Well, I guess we’ll see.”
We watch a chick flick together, and it’s oddly easy to fall into conversation when we forget everything surrounding us.
I really think he’s someone I could have been friends with in the other world.
We could have actually talked instead of me just staring at him. Maybe I could have helped him feel better about his scars.
Or maybe we were meant to be here at this moment with all of our friends coming tomorrow.
I still don’t know what they’re all going to think when I tell them my idea.
“What idea?” Lee asks, glaring at me.
“Nothing.”
He throws a popcorn kernel at me, and I bat it away. Then he sets aside the popcorn and props himself over me. “I can read your mind, you know.”
I grin up at him. “I’m getting better at hiding my thoughts.”
It’s tense between us, and though it shouldn’t be, there’s still an odd chemistry pulling us together. Sparks snapping in the air.
His lips aren’t far from mine.
I look up at him, blinking softly, but he pulls back, groaning.
“I can’t,” he says. “I can’t do this, not even to those stupid dragons. Not to you, no matter how much I want to.”
“Do what?”
He eyes me suggestively. “You know. You’re the only woman I’ve ever been attracted to. I can’t help but be curious. But you have enough dragons after your attention.”
I bite my lower lip. “I mean, the dragons have all made it clear that I’m free to choose who I want to be with. They respect my decision, and they’ve been pretty open to me experimenting.”
“Really?” Lee asks. “And they didn’t kill each other?”
“No,” I say. “I guess they figured out fighting isn’t that much fun.”
“That would be a first,” Lee says.
I put a hand up, resting it on his shoulder. It feels right. As right as the first time I touched Griffin. As right as being with any of the dragons. Like a part of my soul belongs with Lee.
I want to be with him.
“It’s such a bad idea,” he says. “We barely know each other.”
“We’ve known each other the longest,” I say. “You’re the one who brought me to this world.”
“And you should hate me for it,” he says. “Because I’m telling you I’m going to ruin everything.”
“No,” I say. “Don’t tell me who to hate. I’m not good at hating. I try to just take life as it comes to me. I’m learning to follow my own heart because I’m realizing it’s strong and resilient. And right now, my heart wants to be with you. So it’s up to you, Lee. Do you want me?”
“With every last part of me,” Lee says, his expression pained.
“Then let’s do this,” I say because there’s just a feeling you get when everything is going right, and that’s how I feel now. More than ever. Despite everything.
“You break me down,” he utters, knotting his hand in my hair and bringing me down for a kiss. His lips are urgent, pressed to mine and not opening, but so warm and so full. I love his grip on my hair, the feel of his other hand snaking around my waist.
“I don’t want to break you. I want to help you.” I gasp against his lips when we break apart.
He lowers his forehead to mine, looking more torn than I’ve ever seen him. “Sometimes I think you’re going to do both.”
Then he kisses me again and pushes me down on the couch beneath him, so that my body sinks into the cushions.
Everything happens so quickly. Like we already know each other, the way we’re so comfortable with each other’s bodies.
The way he gently removes my shirt. The way I pull his shirt over his head and caress his scars.
The way he kisses me from head to toe as he sheds my clothing, calling me beautiful. Calling me precious.
When I’m naked beneath him, he seems to reconsider and shoves dark hair off his forehead before picking me up in his arms to take me upstairs.
“I’m sorry for rushing it,” he says. “Not any longer.”
He kicks the door shut behind him and throws me onto the bed. The covers are gray, the pillows too. The carpet and drapes are beige.
Everything’s so gray here; nothing is blue.
Except those eyes burning down on me as he crawls over me on the bed. He rolls me onto my side and comes up behind me so his hard length is pressed to my butt and his chest is against my back.
One of his hands wraps around my breasts from beneath while the other reaches between my legs so my body is trapped against him, totally warm and safe and controlled.
He lazily strokes my clit while his other hand keeps my breasts trapped. One of his legs wraps over me, and it’s a little like being caught in pleasurable vines.
“I can’t help it,” he says. “I only get you this once, so I have to touch all of you. Because I have to make it enough for a lifetime.”
“Why?” I gasp out as I see sparks every time he touches my clit.
“Because I guess I knew this already deep down, but when I’m touching you, when I’m watching you, I can’t deny that I love you. Though, I tried not to. I shouldn’t. And you’ll hate me after tomorrow.”
“I don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” I say, biting back a moan as his hand palms my sex softly, calming me down just as I was close to the edge. “But I don’t think I’ll hate you. I told you. I’m not one to hate.”
“You’re amazing,” he s
ays. “Maybe if I could have been like you…”
“You were like me,” I say. “You thought of other people before yourself.”
“I’m not thinking of other people now,” he says, smiling wickedly. Then he frowns. “Though, honestly, you should rethink putting other people first. It gets you in bad situations.”
“I’m not in a bad situation right now,” I say, writhing, hoping his hand starts moving again. “But then, I made this choice for me.” I arch my hips up against him, wet and aching. “You can feel that I want you. Give me what I want.”
His finger flicks out against my clit again, and I jerk, wondering when I became so bold.
“I guess it’s just part of being a dragon heart,” he says, removing his hand from my clit, making me pout. “Patience, Anna.”
He lets go of me completely and stands up before reaching down and picking me up again, this time with my legs around his waist and his hands under my thighs.
Oh God, yes, I think, pressing my sex against his hard abdomen.
He backs me up until we hit a wall and then holds me in the air there and slowly, achingly slides into me until we’re totally together with my back pressing into the wall.
I feel suspended, filled, elated, and like I’ve found the final piece of a puzzle I’ve been trying to put together.
It’s Lee.
I was supposed to love him too. I was supposed to be with him. I can feel that as we move, as he pulls back and thrusts into me. As I eagerly meet his thrusts, keeping my hands on his strong shoulders, looking into his eyes, which are as filled with wonder as mine.
It’s more than sex, being with him. It’s all the moments we’ve had together. All the times I watched him. All the times he watched me and I didn’t know it.
Being here with him, it feels like destiny. Like he’s giving me back a part of my soul.
I lower my head against his neck, biting lightly. The sensations from the wonderful friction, the sweaty glide of his muscular body, and the pleasure threatening to explode inside me is all too much.
“Lee,” I gasp out. “I’m close. I—”
“Come for me, baby,” he says, and my body erupts.
I cry out as pleasure rolls through my body, filling me from head to toe with absolute bliss. “Lee.”
“I’m here,” he says.
My heart is pounding so hard I’m almost worried, and it feels like the orgasm is going to last forever. But as Lee strokes my hair, I finally come down, only to see him watching my face intently.
“I had to see every second,” he says. “So beautiful.”
“I want to see every second of your happiness,” I say, stroking his hair back. It’s so soft in my hand. “Lee, you deserve happiness too. Has anyone even loved you?”
He looks at me then, his blue eyes almost stricken. “No. I don’t think so. I don’t think I made it an option.”
“Then can I?” I ask.
He snorts. “You love a lot of dragons.”
“But also you,” I say. “Is that okay?”
He thinks for a moment, and I squirm because I just came and he’s still buried deep inside me. It’s odd to talk right now, but I don’t know when we’ll have time later. “It’s okay,” he says. “I mean, I can’t stop you.”
His cheeks are so red against his smooth pale skin, and I smile as I lean forward to kiss him.
“I love you, Lee,” I say, and I mean it with all my heart. Because my heart isn’t limited.
He relaxes into the kiss and then begins to move against me, and I let out a pleased gasp and then wrap my arms around his neck, holding him even tighter.
He holds my thighs, my ass as we thrust together, my back to the wall, him bearing my weight. His delicious thickness filling me and hitting all the right spots.
I look into his eyes as we get close to the peak again, as both our bodies get tight and hot and damp from sweat.
We both begin to breathe harder, and it’s erotic to look into his eyes, knowing we are both about to come from this explosive thing between us.
Then he says my name and jerks forward, and the sight of his face lost to pleasure gives me that tiny push over the edge as well.
It’s almost hard to take. The sensations are so strong as my sex clenches around him. As he jerks inside me, hard and hot.
As those familiar blue eyes I have longed for watch me desperately, determined to see everything even as he weathers the storm of his own release.
We hold each other, thrusting through the shockwaves, until I finally slump forward, my head on his shoulder, my whole body relaxed.
He carries me to the bed and gently pulls out of me before setting me down.
Then he jumps in next to me and covers me with a blanket, wrapping me up in it and pulling me into his arms.
“I’ll take you back later because you have to stay in your room or Seth might go on the warpath. But for now, I just want to hold you.” He nuzzles his head over me, and I can’t help feeling particularly cared for when I’m with him. I guess that’s just the nature of the blue dragon. He cares deeply for those around him, though he can’t admit it.
“I can admit it,” he says softly. “I love you, Anna. And if you want to still mate a dragon, I want to offer myself to you. It may not be exactly what you want, but no matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll be here.”
I nod, curling in against him. I don’t know what to say because the only idea I have still sounds crazy. I don’t know if anyone will agree.
For all I know, we’ll all die tomorrow.
But I got to love each of my dragons. I got to share special moments with them and show each that I cared.
For now, that’s enough for me.
Chapter 23
“Anna, wake up.”
Seth’s words sound distant, as though I’m dreaming.
“Wake up.” His hand is on my shoulder, shaking me slightly, and I open my eyes.
Suddenly, there’s a loud, far-off crash, the sound of stone cracking, and it jolts me instantly awake. I sit upright, and Seth’s there on the bed, kneeling next to me.
What’s happening?
“I think they’re here,” he responds. His expression is grave, serious. His bright emeralds eyes glow in the ethereal light from the windows. “We should go,” he adds.
I remember coming back here after cuddling with Lee but only barely because I was tired.
I get up and out of bed with Seth’s help, quickly throwing on a robe and undergarments, and he takes my hand, keeping me close to him as we head for the door. He peeks outside, and we start to jog through the glittering halls as another deep rumble, like the sound of an earthquake, shakes the entire building.
“Probably Griffin,” Seth says to himself as we pass doors and halls that lead to who knows where. Ahead of us, a small throng of fae are headed in the same direction.
Seth ignores their glances, and they give us a wide berth as we approach a large doorway that looks like the exit. We make our way through the crowd that Seth looms over, pushing past until we’re at the top of a grand ivory staircase that must be at least fifty or sixty steps tall. Below us, the steps open out into a grand courtyard with colorful mosaics in silver, gold, and bronze. And along the perimeter, a dozen or so tall marble columns circle the center.
Griffin. Rainier. Byron. Van.
All of them are standing in a tight group in the center, fists clenched. My heart leaps for joy at the sight of them, and in tandem, all their attention shifts to me for a second, making me yearn to be down there with them.
But before I can take a single step, the murmuring of the fae surrounding us suddenly hushes and their gazes turn to the doors on the other side of the courtyard where a tall, dark figure is walking out.
The fae prince, Nerrenth.
With a flap of his wings, he descends until he’s landed beneath me, halfway up the gigantic staircase. He’s wearing the same armor he had the other day, leather and medieval-looking. But for the first time, he
also has an ornate-looking scabbard at his side, and I can see the handle of a sword sticking out of it.
“We’ve come to take back Anna,” Griffin says, stepping forward boldly, his eyes set firmly on Nerrenth.
“I anticipated you sooner, dragons.” He is slowly walking down the steps, taking them three at a time, as if his formidable height couldn’t allow less.
“Don’t expect us to go easy on you this time,” Byron says, folding his arms.
Nerrenth’s movements are eerily smooth, and he reaches a hand down to withdraw a long, elegant blade from the sheath at his side.
I gulp.
Seth’s arm holds my waist, making me feel protected in spite of my worry.
Seeing them again, all ready to fight despite the odds, only reaffirms just why I love each and every one of them so much.
And why I can’t lose them again.
Nerrenth suddenly leaps off the stairs, springing upward and crashing downward into the center of the dragons. The marble beneath him erupts under the impact, and the dragons dodge in four different directions to avoid the attack.
Around us, words of praise and excitement from the fae make my skin crawl.
“Hold on,” Seth whispers into my ear, and suddenly, black wings spring through a slit in his black coat. With a heavy beat, we’re pulled off the ground, and I can see from above as Griffin and Byron both leap at Nerrenth in unison, swinging their fists at him.
Nerrenth swings his blade widely, and both of them narrowly avoid the razor-sharp edge.
I can feel Seth’s heartbeat racing with mine as he carries us over the battle toward the back of the courtyard. Rainier looks up to see us, and he moves to catch me as Seth’s grip slackens close to the ground.
Thankfully, Seth holds on, setting us both down before he falls forward, barely catching himself with his elbow on the hard surface. Rainier rushes over to us as I can hear a shout nearby, though I’m not sure which dragon it came from.
“Are you all right?” Rainier asks hurriedly, glancing over his shoulder to watch the fight. “Seth?” he asks too.
“I’m fine. You have more important things to worry about right now.” Seth grunts, pushing himself up with no small effort.
Soul of the Dragons: Bad Dragons Page 15