by Cara Bristol
She planted her hands on her hips and tried to sort out her ambivalence and figure out how to react. If she wanted to share his space, did it matter if he’d gone ahead and done it without asking?
“Go on inside.” He motioned.
“I can’t open doors.”
“Yes, you can. The ship will respond to you now.”
She wiggled her pinkie like she’d seen him do. Open sesame. A portal appeared and peeled back. She blinked. “It worked!”
“Opening this door for the first time activated your permission. You can now access everything in our quarters and most areas of the ship,” he said.
Casting a dubious glance, she strolled into the cavernous flex chamber. To her surprise, instead of appearing as one solid, unbroken surface, sections of the walls wavered and shimmered. “That’s where the doors and windows are!” No wonder she hadn’t been able to get a lay of the ship—it had been programmed to confuse her. She hadn’t been seeing the same thing everyone else saw. Tricky.
“Yes. Since you have access now, you’ll be able to see them.” His voice deepened to a husky, vibrating growl. Glittering yellow eyes focused on her face as he stalked toward her.
Intense heat flashed as he hauled her against him, taking possession of her mouth with searing strokes of lips and tongue. His cinnamon essence flooded her senses, and she went up in flames.
She clutched at his shirt and kissed him back. His teeth were much sharper than hers, more akin to fangs, and his tongue was layered with papillae. He crushed her mouth, owing no gentleness, but she craved the roughness.
He dragged his mouth away to blaze a trail to her ear, his breath warming the rim and lobe. She fleetingly thought of the device tucked away in a shoe someplace and was glad she’d removed it before the trip to the planet’s surface. For sure she would have lost it. Maybe K’ev and his advanced technology could help her figure out how it worked.
He nipped the crook where neck met shoulder. Hot lust zinged straight to her drenched pussy. “Right here.” He brushed his lips over the spot and then nipped a little harder. Her pussy contracted. “This is where I’m going to bite you.”
Her head lolled to the side. Why did that sound so sexy? Normally, she’d be pissed if a boyfriend tried to give her a hickey. Now, she craved it. “Will it hurt?”
“You will find it pleasurable. But the mark won’t fade. It will always be there.”
A permanent hickey. That gave her a moment’s hesitation, but she realized she was all in. She wanted it all. No half measures.
He stepped away, walking backward, his gaze on hers. “Before we mate, my dragon needs to see you.”
She nodded.
Bones crunched and morphed, and then the dragon stood there, his head brushing the ceiling, his wingtips touching the walls. Those eyes. Those yellow eyes. In them, she saw K’ev, and, for a fleeting moment, a veil parted in her mind and the duality became intuitively clear. Two, yet one. The same, but different. Then the veil fluttered, and there was only the dragon.
Rhianna. My mate.
She ran to him. “K’ev ulu K’rah Qatin.”
He grasped her with his claws and brought her close then wrapped his wings around her. It was hard to embrace a behemoth, but she did her best to hug him back, closing her eyes, and relaxing against him. He purred.
She felt him move and opened her eyes as his massive head snaked down. Hot breath warmed her face. She frowned as she noticed dark furrows etched from the corners of his eyes down his scaled cheeks. They almost looked like scorch marks, like rivulets branded into his skin. She reached out and traced one of the channels. “What happened to you?” She was pretty darn sure they hadn’t been there before.
He whuffed, contracted his claws and wings as if hugging her tight then released her, and shifted back to K’ev.
Her stomach fluttered at the intensity of his gaze and his considerable erection, indicating he intended to pick up where they’d left off. Erogenous zones lit up like an Independence Day light show.
He stalked toward her, scooped her into his arms, and marched to a shimmering wall section. It admitted them to a bedroom of such opulence, Helena’s suite at the presidential mansion looked like a cheap motel in comparison. Dressed in silken fabrics, a massive gilded round bed rotated beneath a central skylight revealing star-studded space. As she blinked, a wall cleared to reveal the curve of Elementa and its two lunar satellites.
“You know how to stage a scene,” she said.
“Would you care for music?”
She recalled the noise blasting into her cabin. “No! I mean, I’d prefer quiet.”
“As you wish.” His eyes gleamed with humor and lust. “Your screams of pleasure will be all the music I need.” He set her on her feet beside the rotating bed.
“I’m not a screamer. I’m very quiet during sex.”
He smiled smugly.
“You’re rather sure of yourself, aren’t you?” she said.
“This won’t be sex,” he said. “We will mate. Our fyres will join as one.” He kissed her in his demanding way, his raspy tongue and heady taste reigniting a fever pitch of desire. His erection pressed against her stomach, impressive in its hardness and length. She wasn’t sure if she could accommodate all of him, but damn, she was game to try. When he released her, she licked her tingly lips, still tasting his cinnamon essence.
“You are wearing too many clothes.” His short claws lengthened and sharpened, and then he sliced her dress from neck to hem and flung it aside.
Despite her arousal, she gasped in protest. “Hey, I liked that dress!”
“The fabric will repair itself.”
“Maybe your fabrics do, but mine don’t.”
“Oh.” He shrugged, his expression imperious. “Then I’ll get you another. Whatever you desire, I will get for you.” He hooked a claw in the bridge between the cups of her lacy bra. “How would you prefer I remove this?”
She slipped off the straps and unhooked the bra. He tossed it atop her ruined dress. After retracting his claws, he palmed her breasts. Although unscaled, his hands were callused, rough, and the slight abrasion as he caressed her had her leaning forward for more.
He captured a nipple in his mouth, and when he drew his raspy tongue over the tip, a shaft of need shot to her core. Lightly he bit into the bud, and she felt an eruption of pure heat. Clutching at the ridges on his head, she arched and moaned with pleasure.
He smiled against her breast. A second later, he hooked the string of her bikinis. She gave a little squeal of alarm. “Don’t ruin—”
He chuckled and pulled them down her legs.
She felt herself falling and then landed on her back. He loomed over her, eyes blazing, face contorted with lust. Moisture pooled between her legs, her womb fluttered, her nipples ached—and they’d hardly gotten started. So intense her need, the room seemed to spin.
No, it was rotating, or rather the bed was, she thought bemusedly. And then she forgot to think, could only feel as his mouth came down on hers. His kissed her hard, deep, left her gasping as he went exploring. He nibbled her neck. His lips moved over the crook where he intended to mark her.
She held her breath. Would it be now?
He merely nuzzled, and moved on down to suckle her nipples. She slid her hands over his skin, memorizing his texture. His skin was smooth, but not soft, and her finger pads detected the raised pattern of scales. A thick ridge ran down his spine, widening and thickening into a tail at the base. On both sides of the ridge she detected two short parallel mini ridges. Remnants of wings? She ran her fingers over them, and he groaned and sucked hard on her nipples, causing her to gasp.
His cock pressed against her thighs. She stretched to take him in her hand but couldn’t reach. “Let me touch you,” she murmured and shoved at his shoulders.
“Let me touch you,” he growled, but rolled onto his side.
She trailed her fingers over his muscular chest, again feeling the fai
ntness of scales, down over his abdomen until she reached his groin. Of all the things about him, his cock came the closest to human. Close didn’t mean the same. Dual ridges, top and bottom, ran the length of his shaft from head to base. And he was big. Dragon big.
She grasped him in her fist and pumped. He jerked and uttered a harsh sound. She grinned. Now, that was a human reaction, even if the expletive was in Dragonish.
He intercepted her grin, and she found herself flat on her back again, his mouth plundering as his hand slipped between her legs. He stroked her vulva, gently scratching over the folds. Then he retracted his claws and slipped a digit into her passage. Her pussy tightened around his finger. A second knuckle joined the first, and he began a slow thrust, plunging deep then curling upward to catch her clit on the outbound stroke.
Her hips moved with the building tension, seeking release.
“Oh god. Oh god.” She grabbed the silken bedding in her fists and twisted, trying to keep from losing it so soon. She needed to make it last. Wanted him inside her when she came. “Stop, stop. I’m going to come.”
He bowed his head and sucked hard on her nipple.
Stars exploded behind her eyes as she climaxed. Her pussy contracted over and over as waves of pleasure coursed through her body.
When she went limp, he removed his hand, brought it to his nose and, with an inhalation she could hear, sniffed. “Intoxicating.” His nostrils flared, and flecks of orange glowed in his amber eyes.
Her face flamed.
“You are embarrassed that I savor your essence.” He licked his fingers. “Should I not enjoy my mate’s flavors?”
Squirming, she averted her eyes. “It’s, uh…rather…uh, blatant.”
“Oh, no, my dragoness, this is blatant.”
Dragoness? Before she could ponder that one, he shoved her thighs apart, wedged his shoulders between them, and buried his face in her pussy.
“K’ev!” She squealed and pushed at his head, but he refused to be deterred. He licked at her moisture, delving into her channel as if to capture every drop then, with his raspy tongue, teased her hypersensitive clit.
“Ah! Too much!” The intensity of the sensation had her arching to evade the contact, but he grasped her hips and held her fast.
“Not enough. You haven’t been pleasured enough,” he growled.
Hungrily, as if he couldn’t get enough of her, he sucked and licked her sex, curling his tongue into her channel but always continuing to flick at her clit. Intense pleasure flashed like a firestorm. Her pussy, her clit were burning, burning, and she could do nothing but hang on as she convulsed in another powerful orgasm.
“That’s my mate, my dragoness. Yes, Rhianna, yes.” His voice purred with satisfaction.
Her pussy was still contracting when he flipped her onto her stomach and then hauled her onto her knees. She needed the completion of having him inside her. She hadn’t given much thought to position, but if she had, she would have defaulted to face-to-face missionary instead of doggie style. Er, dragon style.
His cock nudged her entrance with a mere second of warning before he pushed inside.
She gasped at the suddenness but, despite his girth, there was no pain, only delicious pleasure at being filled. His cock throbbed, a repetitive expansion and contraction her pussy responded to, pulsing and tightening around him.
Quite the dominant, her man acted with thrilling mastery. He didn’t ask but presumed her acquiescence in a way that could have been a problem with anyone else. But how could she fault the results or his intent? He aimed to please her. Great fireballs, he did.
With a swivel of his hips, he thrust and, sweet mother of god, she discovered the function of the ridges on his cock. The man had a built-in sex toy, no batteries required. Between the throbbing and the ridges, his cock acted like a vibrator.
He gripped her hip, keeping her in position, and then curved his other hand over her mons to pull back the hood of her clit, to ensure every stroke hit that pleasure button just right. Rhianna’s eyes rolled back into her head. Flames of rapture licked at her; her blood had become molten.
“My mate. Mine,” K’ev growled, driving into her, claiming her with word and stroke. “Mine.”
Her body was his to command, his to pleasure. Combustion was a heartbeat away. Her head fell forward.
He grabbed her hair, yanked her head back, and kissed the vulnerable, exposed crook of her neck. She moaned in bliss. His tongue flicked over the area. His teeth grazed her skin.
Yes. Bite me. She didn’t question why she craved the stinging kiss, only knew she needed it desperately. She moaned and tried to arch her neck to encourage him, but with her hair wound around his fist, he had her immobilized.
He continued to brush with his lips, to suck, to nibble—then to pound fiercely, slamming his cock into her. The combination of gentle caresses and hard fucking shoved her over the edge.
Ohgodohgod. She was going to come again—
He bit down and pierced her flesh.
She didn’t combust. She exploded. Shattered into a million flaming pieces. She screamed and couldn’t stop, the ecstasy too intense. She screamed K’ev’s name, screamed for gods she didn’t believe in, screamed for mercy, screamed for more.
Yet, awareness remained. She could hear, feel, smell everything. His face was still buried in her neck, his teeth in her flesh. His cock, engorged beyond hard, convulsed, shooting jets of cum into her womb. And, everywhere, a wash of cinnamon and sweet charred wood. In the room, on her skin, in her pores, in her mouth. She could smell it, taste it. The scent emanated from him—but it emanated from her as well, originating from a flame in the center of her being. They were two halves seeking out and merging with the other. Two fyres becoming one.
Merging and separating, they danced. Two then one. A duality shared.
K’ev released her neck, and with a groan, gave one more powerful thrust and spilled the remainder of his essence. He released her hair, and she collapsed face-first onto the pillow, having no strength left. Bones and muscles had melted. Her pussy walls continued to flutter, still affected by the force of her climax. His cock, still inside her, pulsed, too. She turned her head to the side, and gasped, dragging air into her starved lungs.
He murmured in Dragonish, the guttural syllables no longer sounding harsh but soothing, and somehow right. “My mate. Mine. My dragoness,” he murmured, possessively stroking her flesh while aftershocks continued to ripple. He touched her back, her hips, her buttocks, and then slipped around the front to her breasts and abdomen and lower, teasing her clit with a fingertip.
Stirrings of desire kindled anew, but with a moan of protest, she jerked, too sensitive to bear the touch she craved. “No…”
He chuckled. “Do you think I don’t know what you’re feeling, my mate? That I can’t feel your pussy quiver around my cock, smell your arousal bloom anew?”
She hid her face in the pillow. She’d never had a lover talk so explicitly.
K’ev disengaged, and she felt bereft, empty. He stretched out on his side, facing her. She turned toward him, aching in every muscle. He’d fucked her rough and hard, but she wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“You made beautiful music for me,” he said, smirking.
He might hold the power over her body’s responses, but he needed to understand she intended to be his equal outside the bedroom. “Did I?” She strove for cool poise, but her voice came out hoarse. Her throat felt raw; she who was not a screamer had somehow shifted into a banshee.
She swept her gaze over his face, noting a faint scar running down from the corners of both eyes. It corresponded to the burns on his dragon. On K’ev, the scars were barely discernable, but she was certain they hadn’t been there before. Had he been injured in rescuing her from the colonists?
She lifted her gaze to find him focused on the bite mark on her neck. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. Although not overly sore, it felt achy an
d hot. She probed it gently. No blood.
“My saliva sealed it,” he explained. His lips curved with satisfaction. “My dragoness.”
He’d called her that before. She could appreciate the affection behind it. “It’s sweet of you to think of me that way.”
“Not sweet. Truth. We have mated. I have marked you. You’re mine for eternity.”
“K’ev…my lifespan is finite. Humans only live to be in their eighties.”
He shook his head. “No, because we’ve mated, and I have claimed you with my bite, you will live on, too. My essence is inside you. Your fyre and mine have joined.”
“How can that be? I’m not a dragon,” she said. A wispy memory of an aura inside her joining with K’ev during intercourse teased her consciousness then evaporated before she could grab it.
“I don’t understand that part, either,” he said. “But you have fyre.”
“So one bite will make me live forever?” She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She feared growing old and dying, but would living forever be better? To lose people she loved over and over? To have centuries flow by like days? Or would days seem like centuries if her lifespan had no end? What right did K’ev have to decide for her? He should have told her what biting would mean.
“The first bite marked you as my mate. No one else will touch you. I will continue to need to infuse you with my essence to ensure your longevity.”
“So, it’s not permanent? You have to bite me every time we have sex?”
“Not each time, but every now and then for renewal, so the effects of my essence don’t wear off.”
So, like a booster bite. She expelled a silent sigh of relief he hadn’t locked her into immortality. It was more like immortality on the installment plan.
His eyes glinted. “For the pleasure it brings? That’s another matter.”
Her pussy pulsed as she recalled the ecstasy at the moment he’d pierced her skin. She’d never experienced such a strong orgasm. She squeezed her thighs together as moisture pooled anew.
K’ev’s nostrils flared, and a grin quirked his lips.
Damn his senses—he knew she was getting aroused again, Well, let him smirk. She controlled her body, not him, not her libido. Before they progressed any further, they needed to establish a few ground rules.
