He bent and kissed me, and I opened to him as he slid his tongue into my mouth. The kiss was warm and sensual, and it made me forget everything but wanting him. When he finally pulled back, he looked down at me with such care and concern in his eyes, normal human eyes for the moment. I could trust him. I knew I could. I also knew my heat wasn’t going to relent until he’d come inside me.
“I need you inside me. I need your knot and your cum.”
He groaned. “I want to fill you, to put my seed inside you, to breed you.”
I gasped. “I… I’m on birth control. I can’t—”
He put a finger over my lips. “Shhh. It’s okay, pet. Just go with the fantasy.”
Why did the idea of having his baby suddenly seem just right? I wanted a baby eventually, but I couldn’t afford one now. Yet something inside me was saying yes to the idea of his seed taking root in me. “Please. I want that. Want you to breed me.”
He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “You’re so incredible like this, pet. So eager.” His voice sounded different. There was a hissing quality to it, and his eyes had changed again.
“Wh-What are you?”
“Your alpha. Your mate. The man who’s going to fuck you until you scream.”
Yes. That was what I wanted, what I needed.
“Turn over, my sweet. You’ll be able to take me more easily in that position.”
“You’re so big.”
“Are you impressed?” He stroked his cock again, and I was mesmerized by the sight of his hand moving up and down.
“Yes. I don’t know if I can take—”
“You can. You’ll take it all, and then you’ll take my knot.”
I repositioned myself, and Laszlo handed me a pillow. I wrapped my arms around it and rested there with my ass in the air, hoping he would hurry so I wouldn’t have to beg.
Laszlo took hold of my hips, and I felt the tip of his cock brush my hole. “Relax and let me fill you.”
I tried to keep still, but I was already desperate with need again. I could feel my slick wetting my inner thighs. At least that meant I was as ready for him as I could be. He pushed into me, and I sucked in my breath. This was going to hurt. It didn’t matter how slick I was or how needy. “Breathe, pet.”
I couldn’t. It was like my lungs wouldn’t open up. I was desperate for him, but he was too much.
He pushed in farther. I bit my lip trying to hold it in, but a cry escaped.
“Easy,” he ran his hand up and down my spine. “You can take it. It’s going to feel so good when I’m inside you, filling you up.”
It was. I wanted it. “Need you.”
He gave me a little more, and I whimpered and tensed. Why was my body fighting him when I needed him so badly? He reached under me and grasped my cock, stroking me until I forgot about the way my ass burned and began to thrust into his hand. “Yes, so good. Give me more.”
He pulled out, then drove back in. I cried out, but I needed more. I didn’t care that it hurt. I didn’t care if he tore me in two. I’d waited long enough. I had to be filled all the way, to be taken, to be bred.
“Give me all of it. Please.”
He gripped my hips again, and this time when he thrust, he gave me every inch. I whined and writhed as tears burned at the back of my eyes. I was too full. I couldn’t do this, but I had to.
“Shhh, it’s okay. Just relax.” He gave me tiny thrusts, barely moving in and out. The drag of his cock against my channel felt incredible. Pleasure mixed with the pain, and slowly I started to breathe again. I tried to push back so I could take more, but his grip on my hips held me in place.
He kept up his careful strokes until I thought I would cry. “Please. I can’t take this anymore. I need you. I need to be fucked. I need your knot.”
“That’s it. Now you’re ready, pet.”
He began fucking me for real then, long deep strokes, angling my hips so his cock rubbed over my prostate. Every stroke sent lightning through me, and I bit the pillow to keep from screaming. “Yes. Please. Knot me. Come in me.”
“I’m going to give you all my seed.”
“Yes. Fuck, yes.”
He drove deep, and his cock started to swell. Panic consumed me. I couldn’t take any more. I was already so full. “Too much. You’re too big.”
He growled. “Take it. Take my knot.”
My breath was coming so fast, my heart racing, but I was close. “Need to come. Need you.”
He wrapped his hand around my cock and started working me. I was so sensitized it almost hurt, but not nearly as bad as his knot had. None of that mattered, though. I’d do anything to have him. I needed his seed inside me.
“Come for me, pet. Come stretched on my knot. I need to feel your ass squeezing me.”
Another stroke of his hand was all it took. My whole body shook as I drove into his fist and let go, making a mess on the sheet as he gave me the biggest thrust his knot would allow. He gave a shout, and I felt his hot cum filling me.
Something scraped my hip. I turned to look at Laszlo and screamed. Shimmering scales covered his arm, reminding me of the swirling colors in his eyes. His hand now ended in talons that looked like they could slice me in two.
He grimaced. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. You’re my mate. I would never hurt you.”
I tried to scramble away, but he held onto me. “Stop. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
I’d forgotten we were locked together by his knot. I looked at him again and saw that the scales and talons were gone now. I wanted to convince myself they’d been a hallucination, but the scratch on my hip was still there. “Wh-when you said you had magic… I didn’t think you meant…”
“Dragon magic?”
“No. That’s not a real thing.”
“Dragons are very real. You can feel me inside you.”
I shook my head. “This is just a dream.”
“No dream could feel this good.”
“There are no such things as dragons, and even if there were, you’re… you’re a man. This has to be some kind of trick, a really good one, but still.”
The scales reappeared along his arms. “Feel them.”
Scared as I was, I couldn’t stop myself from touching him. Deep inside I knew the scales were real. No matter how insane it was, Laszlo being a dragon explained all the strange things he’d said or done.
The scales were softer than I expected. They felt like well-worked leather. I stroked my hand down his arm, and he groaned. “Does that feel good?”
“Everything you do to me feels good.”
Even as I watched myself touching him, I said, “This really can’t be happening.”
“I held off from revealing my true self as long as I could—well except for cheating a bit by using my dragon’s tongue on you—but my dragon had to come out. You’re too potent for him to resist.” The scales dissolved, and his arm became human again.
“Your tongue?”
He nodded.
“So when you were rimming me…”
“I am able to do things no human can.”
No wonder it had felt so… No. This was crazy. Laszlo couldn’t possibly be a dragon, could he? He was just really good with his tongue. “What do you mean your dragon had to come out?”
“Dragons are shapeshifters, like… well, let’s not get into that now.”
“Wait. You mean other kinds of shapeshifters actually exist?”
“Yes, but let’s focus on dragons for now.”
He kept talking rapidly, not letting me ask any more questions.
“Dragons have the ability to take human form, but whenever we feel strong emotions, anger, lust, fear, it can be hard to keep our appearance human.”
I tried to turn so I could look at him more fully, but he laid a hand against my shoulder to stop me. “You’re not going anywhere until my knot deflates.”
“I wasn’t trying to get away. I just wanted to see you better.” This was beyond crazy. I should
want to run, but that voice in my mind that had encouraged me to go home with Laszlo kept telling me I belonged here. I knew the desperation of my heat would come again soon. At that point, I wouldn’t care if he was a dragon, a sea monster, or a ravening wolf. “When you first brought me here, I got this crazy idea that you might turn into a monster and eat me. How did I know?”
I felt the vibrations from his laughter all through my body, and my cock began to harden impossibly fast.
“Dragons don’t actually eat people except in self-defense or very extenuating circumstances. The only way I want to eat you is in the ways I already have. In fact, I want to devour you again and again.”
I wanted that too, and soon I’d be desperate enough to demand it. “You said you wanted to make me part of your hoard. Do dragons really collect treasure?”
He smiled. “We do. Each of us are drawn to different things, but we all like shiny things like gold, silver, and precious jewels.”
“The glass ornaments. That’s why you wanted them all.”
“Yes. I almost offered to buy your entire store. Sometimes it’s hard to remember how to fit into human society, especially when things keep changing.”
“Changing? Wait. How old are you?”
“One thousand and forty-three, but really, you should never ask a dragon his age.”
I made a strangled sound. “Y-you’re over a thousand years old.”
“I know it’s not much, but—”
“Not much. You… you’ve seen an entire millennium of human progress.”
He snorted. “A lot of it isn’t progress, trust me. Things used to be so much simpler, especially for dragons. At least it’s still just as easy to amass treasure. You’re going to love being mine, pet. Dragons always spoil their mates.”
I was spending my heat with a dragon. A motherfucking thousand-year-old dragon. “What did you mean when you called me your mate?”
Exactly what the word implied. “You belong with me. We’re meant to be together.”
He was so seductive. I wanted to believe him. “I only agreed to share my heat with you. I have to leave when it’s over.”
“We’ll discuss that later. Right now, we need to eat so were ready when your heat rises again.”
Instead of protesting his change of subject, I simply agreed, in part because the idea of being Laszlo’s mate and living here and being spoiled by him actually sounded perfect. The sensible part of me knew that was all kinds of wrong. Either I was crazy, or he was crazy, or dragons existed, and I was being stalked by one. All those options should worry me far more than they did.
Laszlo’s cock knot had gone down, and he was finally able to slip from my body. “Come, pet. Let me feed you. It’s my job as your alpha to take care of you.”
That was exactly what I wanted, for my dragon to take care of me. I almost laughed out loud at how ridiculous that sounded. But for now, I was going to forget about the real world and just enjoy my heat with this man—this dragon—who knew exactly what I needed.
5
Roman
The next few days passed in a haze of orgasm after orgasm. I lost track of how many times Laszlo knotted me. The insistence of my heat gave us little time to rest, and we only stopped to eat or nap briefly. When the lust-crazed days finally came to an end, Laszlo tucked himself around me, and we slept deeply for the first time since he’d brought me to his home. The next time I came to consciousness, the sun was shining bright, and I heard the insistent buzz of my phone. I wondered what time it was and how long we’d been asleep. I tried to pull away from Laszlo, but he tightened his hold. “My phone. It’s ringing. I need to get it.”
“Stay here.”
He rose from the bed, crossed the room, and grabbed my phone from where it lay charging on a table. I realized one of his servants must have come in and neatened the room. Our clothes were no longer strewn across the floor, and the other things that had been in my pockets were on the table with my phone.
Laszlo handed the phone to me. It was Holden, the friend I’d texted. “Hello?”
“Roman? Thank God. I’ve been calling and calling. Why didn’t you answer? I’m at the address you gave me, but this guy who must be the butler or something won’t let me in. He keeps telling me you’re fine, but you can’t come to the door.”
I was trying to figure out why Holden had gotten so panicked. “I just woke up.”
“It’s almost noon.”
“Is it? I’m a little disoriented after my heat.”
“It’s been five days. You can’t tell me your heat lasted that long.”
I pulled my phone away from my face and checked the calendar. He was right. I realized I had no idea how many days my heat had lasted or when Laszlo and I had fallen asleep. “I think I was asleep for a long time.”
“At least you’re all right. Is the alpha still with you?”
“Yes. He’s right here.”
“He’s okay, right? He didn’t hurt you or anything?”
Everything that had happened with Laszlo came back to me in a rush. Some of it had to have been a dream or at least my heat-addled brain creating fantasies. But even if Laszlo was a… No. He wasn’t a dragon. That was absolutely ridiculous. No matter how strange he was, though, I was certain he hadn’t hurt me. “No. He was amazing.”
Holden giggled. “That good, huh?”
“Better.”
“I told you you’d enjoy heat a lot more if you spent it with an alpha.”
Being with Laszlo was so far beyond anything I’d experienced before, and I didn’t think that was just because I’d been in heat. “I just needed to find the right one.”
“Are you going to have trouble walking away?”
I glanced over at Laszlo. Was I ever. “Maybe.”
“Leave now. It’s easiest to make a clean break, and I’ll drive you home.”
He was probably right. “Hang on a minute.”
I muted my phone and looked at Laszlo again. “My friend is here. He was worried about me because it’s been so long, and I didn’t get his calls. He’s outside, but Richards won’t let him in.”
Laszlo frowned. “Now that he knows you’re safe, he can leave.”
“He offered me a ride, so I could just get dressed and—”
“No. You’re not going anywhere.” Laszlo’s eyes changed to rainbow colors. They looked so much like his scales. Shit. All of that was supposed to have been a dream.
“I can’t keep staying here. I work retail, and it’s Christmas. My boss had to give me days off for heat, but I have to get back now.”
“You’re my mate. I can provide everything you need.”
Okay, maybe it really hadn’t been a dream. “I thought I’d imagined you saying that.”
Laszlo frowned. “No, you’re… you belong here. With me. I know this is difficult for a human to understand.”
A human. “Are you really…?”
“A dragon? Yes. Do you require another demonstration?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t ready for that yet. “Can Holden please come in? I need to reassure him.” Not that I knew how to do that exactly. I wasn’t going to tell him I needed to stay a little longer to sort things out because Laszlo was a dragon, and he was convinced I was his mate. That would only lead to Holden dragging me away and possibly calling the police.
Laszlo sighed. “I’ll have Richards bring him into the drawing room while you shower and dress. After we’ve gotten rid of him, you can help me hang all the charming ornaments I found in your shop. We’ll spend the rest of the day decorating, making cookies, and watching Christmas movies or—” I stopped truly listening as he continued to list holiday-themed activities. His eyes were bright and shining, still human, but filled with excitement. How did he go from lust-crazed to kid-like holiday excitement so quickly? Why was it so charming? And why hadn’t I run screaming when he started in on the dragon stuff again?
Because you know he’s telling the truth?
Possibly, but a
lso, while my job at Tolliver’s was okay, I certainly didn’t love it. My apartment was horrible. I had leaky pipes, bugs, and I was starting to suspect I also had mice. Half of the appliances only worked on occasion, and the furnace had been on the fritz for the last few weeks. Holden was my only true friend. I had plenty of acquaintances, but no one else I was close to. My family’s vision of who I should be and my own didn’t match. When I’d left home, I’d known it was for good. Laszlo made me feel cherished. He made my world bright when it had been drab for a very long time. I usually made sensible choices, but Laszlo made me want to dive headfirst into something I didn’t even fully understand.
As I walked to the shower, I realized how sore I was from day after day of hard—and rather acrobatic—sex with Laszlo. My body didn’t seem to care about the need to recover, though. Even without the pressure of my heat, I already wanted him again. What was it about him that drew me so intensely?
He’s your mate.
No. That was… Just no.
I got cleaned up and dressed as quickly as I could, and Laszlo showed me to the room he charmingly called the drawing room as if we were in a Jane Austen novel. Of course, if he was telling the truth, he’d lived through Austen’s era. Holden was there, but rather than being seated on one of the velveteen chairs that surrounded a low table where one of Laszlo’s servants had placed a tea service and a tray of snacks, he was pacing by the tall windows. He whirled around when he heard the door close behind us. “Finally. I thought you were going to make me wait forever.”
Before I could respond, Laszlo said, “Roman needed time. We’ve had a very exhausting few days.”
Holden’s eyes widened as he took in Laszlo. “I would think you have. Roman, you didn’t tell me your alpha looked like this.”
Laszlo grinned at him. Normally, I would’ve found Holden’s comment amusing. While my experience with men was rather limited, he reveled in the hunt for hot alphas to service him. We often discussed Holden’s hookups when we met for our regular Sunday brunch date, but Laszlo was mine, and I didn’t want Holden looking at him.
“What’s wrong?” Holden asked.
The Christmas Dragon's Mate Page 4
