Enter the Dragon

by Lexxie Couper

  Her croi was irrevocably bound to Kellan’s; had been since her existence began even if she hadn’t known it until this morning. She wasn’t old for a dragon shifter, but despite her youth, she wasn’t stupid. And for all her bluster and bravado, she wasn’t selfish.

  She never had been.

  “I will never hurt you, Reece.” Kellan’s deep voice rumbled through her confusion. “And if you never want to see me again after we’ve made it through the sexual rawness of the mating fire, I’ll disappear from your life. I won’t force you to do something your human side doesn’t want.”

  Closing her eyes, she let out another shuddering laugh. “Kellan, can I just say if you’re not a nice guy, then you’re doing a really good job of pretending you are.”

  He chuckled. “Trust me, acting is not my thing. I’m the face of the New South Wales Fire and Rescue because I look the way I do, and I give good interviews. If you’ve seen me in the TV commercials for the fire brigade, you know my actual acting ability is nonexistent.”

  A frisson of contented warmth stroked up her spine, rivaling the carnal lust trying to control her.

  Yeah, spending time with him—not fucking him, not kissing him, simply spending time with him—was nice. And yet, time was ticking down. If they didn’t surrender to the sexual demands of the mating fire soon…

  “So what happens now?” she whispered, lifting her head to look at him again.

  He gave her a wry smile. “Well, I guess that’s your call. Tyson’s given me the address of the closest safe house. He assures me it’ll suffice for whatever happens next.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

  He grunted out a laugh. “I asked the same thing. He said it’s equipped to cope with everything that might transpire during the mating fire.”

  She rolled her eyes, even as a smile pulled at her lips. “If we get there and there’s not a roomful of candles and a king-size bed with satin sheets and a saxophone-heavy playlist, I’m going to be utterly disappointed.”

  “See, now you’ve painted that picture, it’s all I want to find.”

  That tremor of comfortable happiness traced up her spine again. “Okay, so we get our butts to the safe house and…bow chika bow wow?”

  Throwing back his head, Kellan burst out laughing. “I know instant lust comes with the whole mating fire territory, but I think I’m already falling into instant love with you. Or at least your sense of humor.”

  A wave of searing heat erupted over her skin and she sucked in a slow breath, the urgent sexual hunger she barely controlled igniting again. “Watch it, fireman,” she muttered, forcing down the compulsion to climb onto his lap, tangle her hands in his hair and let the mating fire sweep over her completely. “It’s way too early to throw out the L word. I haven’t even decided yet if I like you.”

  He grinned. “You like me.”

  She did. Damn it.

  “So how do we get to the safe house?” She slid her hand from his exquisite arm and frowned. “I’m assuming Tyson’s not here?”

  “He’s not. Just as we were about to climb into his car, he got a call from his wife. His daughter has a fever and Sera needs to take her to the doctor. However, Tilda is part dragon shifter, part human, so she can’t just go see any doctor, and Tyson went into full-on protective-father mode the second Sera told him what was going on and abandoned me on the jetty.”

  Reece blinked, an image of Tyson and Sera’s adorable little baby girl filling her head. “Oh no. Is Tilda going to be okay?”

  Huh, so one way to temper the sexual lust of the mating fire—worry about sick babies.

  So not the way she’d choose to deal with it.

  “I think so. He sent me a text just before I got here. It said “the magazines in this doctor’s waiting room are older than us.” If he’s still got his woeful sense of humor, I suspect she’ll be fine. My deputy chief has a six-month-old and fevers seem to be a big thing with bubs. Of course, he’s 100-percent human, and so’s his bub, and I have no freaking clue about babies apart from they’re small and they smell.”

  Reece laughed.

  He grinned. “See? You do like me.”

  “Maybe.” She let out a sigh. “Maybe not. But whatever the answer is, we need to get to the safe house.”

  His jaw bunched. “We do. Whatever Tyson pumped into me has controlled my ability to shift for a while, but you don’t have that luxury. I gotta say, I don’t know whether to be impressed or insulted with your control over the mating fire.”

  She snorted. “Don’t be insulted. I want to strip those jeans from your body, straddle your naked hips and ride you like a—”

  “Let’s go.” He jolted to his feet, snagging her wrist on the way up and pulling her to his side.

  His shirt fell over her butt and thighs, loosening the grains of sand clinging to her bare arse, and she swiped at the back of her thighs with her palms.

  The faint caress of skin on skin stirred a wave of fresh want within her, and she shuddered, nipples beading. “We really need to hurry. How did you get here?”

  “I’ve got an Uber waiting.” Threading his fingers through hers, he strode toward the beach’s access path. “The same one who took me and Perkins to the studio. Young guy called Archie. Thankfully he was still in the area when Tyson got the call. Said his other ride had cancelled and he was available. When we got here, he said he’d wait around for a half hour or so.”

  “Archie needs five stars then.”

  “He does. Will you make it to the safe house?”

  “If you kiss me while we’re in the backseat of the Uber, I will.”

  He groaned out a chuckle. “Reckon that’ll impact my five-star rating?”

  “Probably.”

  He chuckled again, quickening his pace as they entered the tree-shaded access path. “Who wants a five-star rating anyway?” They burst out into the small carpark a few seconds later, almost at a run.

  A cool breeze flowed around Reece, playing with her hair and bare thighs. The soft sensation detonated new need in her and she bit back a groan. What would it be like, Kellan’s fingers trailing over her bare skin? More to the point, what would his lips feel like? His tongue?

  Liquid heat pooled in her core and she bit at the inside of her bottom lip. “Hurry,” she whispered, squeezing Kellan’s hand. “Hurry.”

  He flicked her a quick look, stopped, turned to her and, cupping her face in his palms, kissed her.

  A deep, slow, hungry kiss.

  Ah yes…

  She groaned into his mouth, pressing her hips to his, and growled as he pulled away. Sure, the kiss had taken the edge off a little—his intention, no doubt—but with every second denied his lips, her human frustration and impatience grew.

  Seriously, she wanted to fuck him senseless. No croi involved, no magic, no Fate; just a woman fucking the man she found utterly desirable.

  “This way,” he said, eyes more silver than gray. Fingers still threaded through hers, he hurried over to a parked SUV a few yards away and pulled open the back door.

  The driver watched her slide into the backseat in the rearview mirror, and then moved his attention to Kellan as he slid in beside her. “You found her?”

  Kellan chuckled, throwing her a smile. “I did. How fast do you reckon you can get us to that address I gave you earlier?”

  The young man grunted out his own laugh, turned over the engine, and looked at them both in the mirror again. “Time me.”

  Kellan laughed.

  Reece’s heartbeat quickened. She already loved the sound of his laugh—relaxed, warm, friendly. It was wonderful and infectious.

  God, she wanted to kiss him again. Now. Hard.

  “Hey,” she whispered, sliding her palm up his thigh. Higher. Higher. Until it reached the hard bulge of his groin.

  “Archie, mate?” Kellan leaned forward and tapped the back of the Uber driver’s seat. “Can you do us a favor and ignore what’s about to happen?”

  �
��Why? What’s about to—ahh.” Archie cleared his throat as Kellan twisted in his seat, fisted a hand in the back of Reece’s hair and captured her lips with his.

  4

  Hell, this was a bad idea.

  Kissing her in the back of an Uber…yeah, not a good idea at all.

  Kissing wasn’t enough.

  Not even close.

  He should slide his hand up under the shirt she wore and cup her breast and pinch her nipple and then rip the shirt off her and take her breast in his mouth and suck on her nipple until she screamed his name and then drag her onto his lap, unzip his fly and—

  A core-deep shudder racked him. A frustrated growl rumbled in his chest.

  Nope, kissing was their only option. For now.

  Fuck, what if he lost control of himself? Of his lust?

  Breaking the kiss, Kellan brushing his thumb over her bottom lip, reveling in the soft caress of her exhalation. “Tell me something about you,” he murmured.

  Yeah, he needed to regain some control, before things got completely out of hand.

  Her green eyes shimmered, iridescent with the magic of their species, and she let out a slight laugh. “Okay. Umm…I suck at math.”

  He snorted, her confession stirring something powerful in him. Was it possible to fall instantly in love with someone? He’d been joking earlier, when he’d told her he was falling in love with her sense of humor, and yet…

  “My second favorite subject at school,” he muttered, allowing his gaze to roam over her face. Had he ever seen eyebrows so straight? And her freckles…he wanted to mark every one with a soft kiss.

  “Freak,” she mocked, smiling. “What was your first?”

  For an answer, he kissed her again.

  She chuckled into his mouth and returned his savage lust with her own.

  His cock throbbed, hard and ready.

  An utterly human reaction. His dragon—still trapped by Tyson’s serum—gnarred deep from its imprisonment.

  He lashed her tongue with his, coaxing more from her. She gave it. One hand curled around the back of his neck, drawing his head harder to hers, her other hand slipping down over his bare chest, his abs, to the bulge of his erection again.

  He jerked out of the kiss, sucking in one quivering breath after another.

  I’ll lose control…

  She let out a hitching moan, as if aware of his strained thought, and nodded. A wave of frustration rolled from her, hot and potent.

  Kellan’s heart thumped faster, and he let out a laugh. “I can feel you again,” he whispered.

  Except for one fleeting moment when he first regained consciousness, he hadn’t been able to sense her mind, her existence, since Tyson had injected him.

  Did that mean the serum’s effect was almost gone?

  Shit, how much longer before they arrived at the safe house?

  “How old are you?” she asked, her voice husky.

  In dragon years and human…

  He smiled as her thoughts slipped into his. The serum may be wearing off, which left them with the danger of the ticking clock again, but at least it had allowed their nebulous mental connection to return. They had twelve hours from initial meeting to completely surrender to the mating fire in human form, otherwise things got weird. And scaly. How long had it been so far? He’d lost count.

  “I’m a spry two hundred and fifty,” he grinned, flicking their Uber driver a quick glance. If the young man was paying attention to their conversation, he’d likely think Kellan was deliberately being an idiot about his age. Hopefully.

  Reece’s eyes widened. “Two hundred and fifty?”

  “Hey hey hey.” He shot his eyebrows up with a chuckle. “Don’t sound so horrified.”

  She snorted. “Not horrified. Impressed. You look good for an old fart.”

  He pouted. “Ouch.”

  She grinned, and then leaned toward him and brushed her lips over his.

  He loved the feel of her mouth, her breath mingling with his.

  A wave of need rolled through him, and deep in his dual existence, his dragon stirred. Yeah, Tyson’s serum was definitely wearing off. They needed to get to the safe house soon.

  With how much he wanted Reece, it was all he could do not to haul her onto his lap and claim her now. Seriously, could his dick get any harder?

  Pulling out of the gentle kiss, she studied him, mischief in her green eyes. They were iridescent again, the magic of her croi smoldering in their depths. “Why a firefighter? For the irony?”

  He laughed and rolled his eyes. “I know, I know.”

  She chuckled. Waited.

  His chest tightened. Man, it had been a long time since he’d thought about why he’d become a firefighter.

  She’s your Fire Mate. If you keep a secret like this from her, what chance does your relationship have?

  Chest growing tighter still, he brushed a strand of her dark hair from her temple. “A very good friend of mine died in a house fire a decade ago.”

  No, it wasn’t so much he hadn’t thought about this, more he hadn’t allowed himself to think about it.

  Reece frowned, and her eyes lost their glow. “Oh, Kellan. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” It was. Now. Maybe. “Douglas was like a little brother to me. We used to surf together when I lived up in Maroochydore.”

  “Was he,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “one of us?”

  He shook his head. “Human,” he murmured back. “We met on the beach one day. Got to talking about surfing. Just…became friends after that. He was young, enthusiastic for life, and didn’t have any family in Australia. He was a teacher. Kindergarten. Came from London on a working visa—which is where I came from before we moved to Australia.”

  With another sigh, he let his mind float back in time for a heartbeat. The extended life of a dragon shifter meant a change of identity and/or location every few decades was a necessity. Ninety-four years ago, he’d decided the land Down Under was worth trying, and he hadn’t changed his mind since.

  “Douglas was writing a children’s book in his spare time,” he went on with a soft laugh. “An adventure story about kids who were born connected to dragons, of all things. He had no idea what I was, but bounced ideas of me. I’d convinced him I was a mythological creature nerd thanks to Dungeons and Dragons.”

  Reece raised her eyebrows.

  He shrugged. “It was the best I could come up with, and I enjoyed talking dragons. I didn’t know any of us when I first got here. Didn’t want to, to be honest. The possibility of the mating fire slamming into me just as I started my life here didn’t appeal…so I stayed away from any of us.”

  “Makes sense,” Reece said. “I moved to Sydney for the same reason. There’s no un-mated…us here at the moment. Apart from me. I was going to be safe. And then you came along…”

  He snorted, cupping her face in a tender hand. “Sorry about that.”

  Smile curling her lips, she gave his wrist a gentle squeeze. “I don’t know if it’s too soon to say ‘don’t worry about it,’ so can I let you know?”

  With a laugh, he dropped his hand and settled back against the seat. “Deal.”

  Silence stretched between them for a moment. Behind the wheel, Archie hummed along to the song playing on the radio, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.”

  “What happened?” Reece finally asked, her voice as gentle as her hand had been on his wrist. “To your friend?”

  An image filled Kellan’s head of Doug the last time he’d seen him; running back into the surf, board under his arm, waving at Kellan with not a care in the world.

  A cold weight pressed on Kellan’s chest. “He called me late one night, said he’d finished writing his book and asked if I’d like to come around. He wanted to give me a copy to read, but it’d been a while since I’d shifted, and it was a new moon, and I was itchy to fly, so I said I couldn’t come.”

  Reece’s eyebrows dipped.

  Closing his eyes, he rubbed at his face and p
inched the bridge of his nose. Yeah, it had been a while since he’d let himself think about this. A long while.

  He remembered returning from his midnight flight over the ocean. He remembered seeing the cop walking away from his front door.

  He remembered the cop stopping as he approached, asking him if he was Roger Blake, his identity at the time. He could still hear the cop telling him—

  “Kellan.” Reece’s fingers pressed to his arm. “I can feel how much this is hurting you. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”

  “I’m alright.” Opening his eyes, he let out a ragged breath and stared with a blank gaze at nothing. “I was his emergency contact number here in Australia, and when I got back from flying about there was a cop waiting for me. There’d been an electrical fire in the apartment below Doug’s. The building was old. Nowhere near up to code. The fire engulfed the whole building. Guttered it. Four people died. Including Doug.” His gut clenched. “He was just a young bloke, having an adventure. Living his short human life. And if I’d been there, he would probably still be living it now.”

  Kellan’s gut clenched at the memory. He wouldn’t have been able to shift into his dragon form as the fire took hold of the apartment complex, but he would have been able to withstand the flames even in his human form. Would have been able to get Doug out…and anyone else in the building.

  “So that’s why I’m a firefighter now,” he said. “And probably will be for as long as I can, regardless of who and where I am.” He shrugged. “Because fire is a cruel bastard of a thing sometimes, and if I can stop it taking a human life, I will.”

  Reece studied him, and then threaded her fingers through his. “Thank you.”

  “For?”

  “Sharing that. Letting me see a bit more of you than just the hot guy with incredible abs.”

  He snorted out a laugh.

  She smiled. Squeezed his hand.

  Contentment washed over him, and for a moment he didn’t know if it was his or hers.