“All right all right.” Perkins threw up a hand, face twisting with disgust. “I don’t want to know.”
“Sorry.” Tyson let out a loud laugh. “We’re a bit of a weird lot. You should see us at Christmas. Our poor mum doesn’t know what she did to deserve us.”
Kellan bit at the inside of his mouth. He had to give it to the Sydney alpha…the guy knew how to misdirect someone.
“Anyway,” Tyson tipped the brim of an invisible hat, “I’ve got to get going, and I promised the Novocastrian here a lift to the airport.” He slid his pointed smile at Kellan. “Ready, Kel?”
Kellan grunted. Okay, so Tyson had dealt with the Perkins problem after all. At least it meant he didn’t have to lie to the guy. They did have to interact for NSWFR commitments after all.
“But our Uber’s arrived,” Perkins said, looking at Kellan again. “The one that brought us here to the studio. He was still in the area.”
“You take it, Ian.” Kellan offered his right hand. His dragon pressed at the invisible restraint oppressing it. Snarled. Flexed. “I’ll get going with Conley. I’ve got a killer headache anyway. I’d be useless company. Don’t want to bring your star rating down.”
Perkins didn’t engaged in the handshake. Instead, he frowned once more at Kellan. “Weird. This is weird. How do you two know each other?”
“Gotta go, Donovan,” Tyson called. “It’s getting hot, and I’d hate for you to get burned.”
“He’s my…” Kellan dropped his hand. Fuck, if Perkins didn’t stop talking soon… “Boyfriend.”
Perkins’ eyebrows shot up.
Kellan cocked an eyebrow and threw his arms wide. “Surprise.”
Christ, what on earth was he doing?
“You’re gay?” Perkins took a step back. “Since when?”
Chest tight, skin beginning to prickle, he hiccupped out a laugh. “Ah, y’know, since…awhile. I gotta go. Get back to Newcastle. See you next…thing, okay?”
He turned and strode across the jetty to Tyson, snagged a handful of the other dragon shifter’s hair, planted a quick, tight-lipped kiss on his mouth, and let him go with a flourish. “Let’s go,” he damn near shouted, throwing the words back over his shoulder toward Perkins.
Tyson looked at him for a heartbeat, and then slapped his arse. “My wife is going to want to have a word with you,” he murmured out the side of his mouth.
“Your wife loves me and I’m the godfather to your daughter,” Kellan muttered back. He hurried away—from Perkins, from the jetty’s edge, from the studio—with long strides, weirdly glad for the fact Tyson not only fell into place beside him, but took his hand as well. Keeping up the boyfriend charade would help a little with Perkins’ obvious suspicion. “I’m not worried about Sera. I am worried about Reece. Where did she—”
“Reece knows all the secluded beaches dotting the harbor and the safe houses in the surrounding suburbs.” With a quick check behind him, Tyson dropped his hand. “She’ll get herself to one or the other, and we’ll go find her. I suspect you’ll be able to start sensing her again, what with how fiercely the mating fire is burning through you both.”
“You have safe houses? For your dragons?”
“Don’t you?” Tyson sounded surprised. “Up your way?”
“Never needed them. There’s only a few of us, and apart from me, we were all mated.”
Tyson snorted. “Good thing it hit you here then, isn’t it? Okay, let’s get you…”
“…I think…might be two…”
Kellan stopped, the faint scratch of Perkins’ distant voice pricking his ears.
He turned and regarded the media liaison manager still standing on the edge of the jetty studying the water, a smartphone now pressed to his ear.
Two…might be two…
Two what?
What was Perkins talking about? And to whom?
Two…might be two…
A knot tightened in his gut. Worked its way up into his throat.
Two…might be two…
“What’s up?” Tyson asked, coming to a halt beside Kellan.
Rubbing at the back of his neck, Kellan shook his head. “I don’t know. Something feels…not right.”
“Probably the shit I pumped into you.” A sheepish grimace pulled at Tyson’s lips. “Sorry. It’s going to mess you up for a while, I suspect.”
“Yeah, about that.” Kellan turned and started walking again, his dry chuckle sounding more like a growl. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Absolutely. Once I’ve gotten you to a safe house.”
“First I find Reece.”
His body reacted to her name on his lips. His mind relived their kiss, the velvety friction of her tongue, the warmth of her breath mingling with his, the perfection of her mouth moving over his as she kissed him…
“My city, my say, Donovan.” Steel laced Tyson’s voice. “Sorry, but that’s the way it is. I don’t need you losing control of your dragon in public if the serum wears off before we find—”
With a throat-deep growl, Kellan stepped in front of Tyson, stare locking on his. He was taller than the other dragon shifter by at least half a head. When it came to apex alphas, Kellan knew if he wanted, he could probably defeat Tyson in a challenge. He himself would walk or fly away bloody and severely broken, but he’d win. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want Sydney, and he didn’t want to hurt his friend, but if Tyson tried to stop him from going after Reece…
A wave of heat and worry rolled through him, and he drew himself straighter, holding Tyson’s gaze. All he wanted was to find Reece. To see her, talk to her. Touch her…and let the mating fire consume them both.
No one was going to stop that, not even Tyson.
“Reece first,” he growled. “I need to know she’s okay. Imagine if it was Sera.”
The muscles in Tyson’s jaw bunched. His eyes flickered.
“There’s something not right going on,” Kellan grumbled, shaking his head. “I feel it in my gut. Not about Reece taking off. Just…something…”
Tyson’s phone started ringing.
Holding up a finger, he pulled it from his hip pocket, studied the screen for a split second, a frown pulling at his eyebrows, and then connected the call. “You’ve got Tyson Conley. Who’s this?”
“Tyson…”
Kellan’s body erupted as his heightened senses heard Reece’s voice on the other end.
“I’m on Obelisk Beach, I’m naked, and I’ve just begged a complete stranger to use his phone. Tell my Fire Mate he’s got half an hour to get his arse here or our possible future together is going to start off on the wrong foot. If it starts at all. Oh, and Tyson? Tell him to bring clothes.”
Well, this is frustrating.
Reece hugged her knees to her chest, forcing her attention to the grains of sand biting into her bare butt. It was the only way to keep her mind off the sexual hunger building within her again.
The small, secluded nude beach—located inside the northeast part of the harbor and surrounded by dense natural bushland—helped.
Not to mention the nudity. The sight of almost fifty naked people of varying shapes and sizes and ages helped temper the mating fire. Maybe all the naked people relaxing and swimming in the gentle surf confused it somehow? By now, the average dragon-shifter pairing caught in the throes of the mating fire’s force would be hot and sweaty and naked with each other.
And she was definitely under the throes of the annoying phenomenon, whether she liked it or not.
Even a freaking six-kilometer swim across Sydney Harbor—the first half completed fully submerged and in dragon form—hadn’t stopped it.
Cooled it down somewhat, yes. But stopped it? Nope, no way, not even close.
Thank God, she’d actually studied the maps Tyson had given her when she’d first moved to Sydney, branding into her mind the little nude beach in case she ever found herself post-shift and without clothes.
Easy to go undetected on a beach where every
one was naked.
Also easy to wade out of the water that way, even if she had swam to the beach from next to the Harbor Bridge.
None of her fellow beachgoers knew that, of course. Nor did any of them seem to care she was buck naked. When in Rome, as the saying went.
Not having a towel, though, or a phone…yeah, that was a tad inconvenient.
She readjusted her position on the sand, turning her attention away from a middle-aged couple walking hand-in-hand into the surf, and studied the narrow tree-shrouded access path opening out onto the beach.
How long since she’d called Tyson?
How much longer before Kellan arrived?
Where was he?
At this rate, she was in risk of needing to go back into the water. And if she shifted into her dragon form again, it was unlikely she’d have the control to return to her human one.
Damn, she was horny. Burning up.
So hungry for her Fire Mate, she could shift right now and soar through the sky, seeking him out wherever he was and—
Stop it! Look at the waves. Meditate. You’re on a freaking beach, for Pete’s sake. Make the most of it.
She jerked her eyes to the gentle waves, watched them sliding back and forth over the sand for a few heartbeats, and then closed her eyes.
Drew in a deep breath and held it for ten seconds.
Exhaled.
Drew in another. Held it longer. Counted her heartbeat fifteen times.
Exhaled.
Drew in once again—
A distinct, familiar scent filled her nose. Flowed into her being.
Reece…
Her own name whispered through her head, accompanied by a wave of desire—Kellan’s desire. For her.
She snapped open her eyes and a jolt of urgent, feverish lust sank into her core as her gaze locked on her Fire Mate, sitting on the sand beside her.
Smiling at her.
She sat motionless. “Hi.”
A part of her brain registered the fact he was shirtless. That part of her brain didn’t give a rat’s arse where his shirt was, or why he wasn’t wearing it, because that part also registered the fact he had the most impressive upper body she’d ever seen on a man. Broad shouldered and broad chested. His pecs were lightly dusted with fine dark hair, and his abs were defined and utterly touchable even in his sitting position. His skin was a healthy bronze, either from the sun or genes, and the urge to trail her fingertips—no, her lips—up the strong column of his neck to his stubble-darkened jaw almost choked her.
“Hi,” he said. His voice played with her senses, sending a ripple of lust and aching need through her.
She drew in another deep breath, desperate to win the battle with the mating fire even as she knew it was a lost freaking cause.
Her body craved his. Her skin cried out for his. Her core clenched and grew tight and wet with a necessity she couldn’t deny.
The fact she wasn’t climbing onto his lap, straddling his hips, and kissing him senseless was unfathomable.
Soon…
His thought whispered through her mind.
After all the reading she’d done about the wispy mental connection between Fire Mates, she’d been sure she’d hate it, that she would find it intrusive and invasive.
But for some reason, it wasn’t.
He held out something to her, another smile pulling at his lips. “I thought you might like this. Thought it might come in handy.”
Dragging her stare from his face, she studied what he’d offered her.
His shirt. Folded loosely.
“I suspect it’ll be big enough you can wear it as a dress if you like,” he continued, a gentle laugh in his voice.
She returned her attention to his face.
His lips twitched. “Or, I could just strip my jeans off, and we could give everyone here a damn good show.”
An image flared through her head: both of them naked, her straddling his hips, impaling herself on his engorged length as he massaged and kneaded her breasts with his hands before taking one nipple into his mouth and—
She snatched his shirt from his hand and yanked it over her head.
He chuckled, although it sounded as shaky as her breath.
“So was that your thought or mine?” she asked, when her head popped through the large neck hole. God, the shirt smelled like him. And it was still warm. He must have only just taken it off. “That…almost pornographic mini-movie in my head?”
“No idea.” A husky timbre filled his voice. “But I’m liking it.”
She snorted out a laugh, adjusted his shirt farther down her torso, and tucked her knees back to her breasts. “We’d get arrested.”
“We would.” Mischief filled his face. “But imagine how everyone would react when we spontaneously and simultaneously erupted in blue fire.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You’re assuming you would give me a soul-deep, bone-melting orgasm?”
He grinned.
Her dragon almost purred with rapture at the playful expression.
“I guarantee I will.”
Her dragon definitely purred.
“And if you didn’t?” she asked, heart racing.
The blue fire that engulfed Fire Mates completely when—or more accurately, if—they shared a soul-deep mutual orgasm was hotter than any natural flame. It didn’t happen for every Fire Mate pairing or coupling, but when it did, it was beyond powerful. Of everything she’d learned about the mating fire, it was the one thing she’d been fascinated by. The blue flames would lick over their bodies without hurting or burning them, heightening the pleasure of their orgasms and joining their existences on a level beyond emotional.
It sounded scary and beautiful and insane and incomprehensible and absurd and dangerous.
And here was Kellan, promising she would experience it with him.
Which was hilarious, given she didn’t orgasm easily. Not a single one of her previous sexual partners—not even the incubus she’d dated for a few months back in Perth—had ever given her one. They’d come close, but none had hit a home run, as it were. Thankfully, she had a vibrator that took care of things nicely for her.
She was half tempted to demand Kellan live up to his confident claim right here on the beach.
If it weren’t for the fact she still fought to control the mating fire.
You’re kidding, right? Look at him. He’s gorgeous. And so far, he’s made you laugh and smile and come to your rescue and he fights fires for a living. A dragon shifter who fights fires. How could you not find that amazing?
“If it helps, I am a nice guy.”
She blinked at Kellan’s low, calm proclamation, her heart thumping into overdrive. Meeting his gaze, she swallowed. “I’ve only got your word on that.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgment of the factual statement, his smile small but warm. “I could give you references? Some people to call, human and shifter alike.”
Rolling her eyes, she let out a wry laugh. “Hmm, let me think…”
He grinned.
A heavy lump filled her throat. Despite everything going on, she felt relaxed with him. Horny, but relaxed. Comfortable. Which confused the hell out of her. She’d been determined to not experience any kind of connection with her Fire Mate, but here she was, feeling…well, happy.
“I’m not the only dragon shifter to try to deny the mating fire,” she said, studying his eyes. Gray with flecks of steel blue. She’d never seen eyes like them before.
“I know,” he answered. “And trust me, until the burn ignited within me when I first saw you, I was adamant I was never going to be ruled by something beyond my control. Screw that for a joke.”
She chuckled, recognizing almost word for word one of her own internal arguments about the mating fire.
The lump in her throat grew tighter. Okay, so she may not be the only dragon shifter to want to fight against Fate and magic, but was she going to be one of the alarmingly high number who went insane because they did fight
it? One of the dragon shifters who, after going insane, were killed by a fellow shifter to keep the world safe?
Was her stubbornness going to be her undoing?
Catching her bottom lip with her teeth, she stared blankly at the sand between his feet.
If she capitulated now, merely because he made her relaxed and happy, didn’t that make her weak? Would they end up like her parents, hating each other but incapable of staying away from each other when the shine wore off? Wasn’t that the very thing she wanted to avoid?
Kellan sighed beside her. “This whole Fire Mate thing is weird, isn’t it?”
She let out another wry chuckle. “You can say that again.”
“When I saw you in the studio…” His voice grew deeper, husky. “When I first saw you, apart from suddenly becoming insanely horny and distracted as all hell, it was as if everything that I was and ever have been made sense.”
His words tugged at her soul, and she lifted her head to meet his gaze again.
“Does that make sense?” he asked, a slight frown creasing his forehead. “I’m a firefighter, not a wordsmith, so I’m probably sounding like an idiot. But when I first saw you, when I saw you smile and heard your voice, the world suddenly had meaning. Purpose. And all the uncertainty I’d ever experienced seemed to fade away and all I wanted was to make you happy and for you to like me.” His frown deepened and he let out a wobbly laugh. “Hell, I really hope you’ll like me. But I understand if you’d rather not—”
She kissed him. Couldn’t help herself. And it had nothing to do with the mating fire, and everything to do with how wonderful and contented she felt simply sitting beside him. How he felt so safe and comfortable and right.
So she kissed him; a soft, gentle brushing of her lips on his.
Which was dangerous.
The second their lips touched, the mating fire ignited into an inferno, blazing a prickling heat over her skin, sinking it deep into her core.
Sexual hunger flooded her. Demanded more. Insisted.
Instead, she pulled away, sucking in a steadying breath and resting her forehead against the curve of his shoulder.
He sat motionless, his own breath choppy.
She was putting them both through hell. She knew that. And why? Because she was stubborn enough to want to deny an undeniable trait of their kind? An element connected with the magic of their species?
Enter the Dragon Page 5