Property of the Fae

by Laxmi Hariharan

  His eyes darken, then he pins his ears. His lips contort in a snarl, and his canines drop, reminding me just who I am teasing. Just what kind of a predator he is. One who doesn’t hesitate to take, and I have…just offered him everything. My heart squeezes, and for a second, I want to pull away and run out of here.

  One edge of that beautiful mouth curls. “You running scared, Fire? Can’t face the consequence of what you started?”

  His fingers still. His body goes quiet. That is the only way to describe it, for it’s as if every muscle of his massive body freezes as he stalks me. Waiting. Waiting for me to give him the final go-ahead, for what I had unthinkingly started. I had misjudged him all along. I’d thought I could stand up to him. Challenge him and win? My stomach flip-flops. Foolish woman. So I am a dragon shifter, the strongest among the shifter species, but nothing, nothing compares to the power of a fully aroused, prime Fae alpha who’s caught the musk of his mate in heat. And I know I am. I don’t need to spell it out. He’s caught a whiff of the changes my body is going through.

  “Actually, you started it.”

  He inclines his face.

  “When you knotted me, you set off a reaction. You triggered my heat cycle. In less than a day, I’ll be fully in the throes of it. Before it kicks in, I need to get away from here.”

  His eyebrows knit together. “You are not fully recovered from the hit you took earlier. There’s no way I am letting you go anywhere.”

  “You? You cannot stop me from doing anything.”

  His features darken.

  My breath catches in my throat. Anger thrums from him, and the fine hair on my forearms rises.

  Just as suddenly, the emotions on his face fade away, leaving behind a placid expression. And I trust that less than his full-out dominance.

  “I thought you were dead, Fire. If anything had happened to you, I’d never have forgiven myself.”

  His voice turns coaxing, almost gentle, and I want to believe him. I do, but two can play a game at this, he’s not below using underhand tactics to keep me here, and I? Huh, I am good at hitting below the belt, too. That pun is all intentional, by the way.

  I bob my head, and my teeth graze the sensitive skin of his shaft. “I need you.” My voice comes out hoarse, and damn it, but the sentiment is genuine. The need in me coils, insidious, seductive. Hell! My chest hurts, and my heart hammers.

  Color flushes his cheeks, a vein beats at his throat, and his dick pulses in tandem against my lips. More moisture flows out from between my legs. And I don’t get it. I need to leave and get to my kids, without Boris catching a whiff of my mate… My mate. My heart stutters with fear, with yearning.

  There can be no future for us.

  I should have seen this coming the very first time I saw him and had pranced up to him and distracted him when he’d been fighting with Dante. But it had all been just fun and games then. I’d simply put it down to an insane attraction, something that would blow itself out, something that I could use to further my own goals. I was wrong. This…what is between us is more lethal, deeper and more intense than anything I have faced before. All the more reason I need to leave.

  “Let me go, Chef, please.”

  His eyes burn as if flames are tearing him apart from the inside. “I shouldn’t be thinking of making love to you without letting you heal fully.” The tendons of his throat move as he swallows. “Then again, I can’t let you leave me either.” He squares his shoulders. “I never claimed to be a good man. I don’t have a conscience, not when it comes to you. If this is the only way to keep you from leaving, so be it.”

  He drags his dick over my mouth, and his piercing nudges my lips.

  Sparks of heat flare in my belly.

  His gaze slams into me with the force of a tsunami. Heat flushes my skin, and my pores pop in anticipation.

  “You are going to remember this, Fire, remember how it was to have your mouth fucked and worshipped at the same time.” His ears draw back, his lips curve up, and his canines seem to elongate further.

  The hair on the nape of my neck rises, and all my instincts snap to attention. The energy of my dragon flutters against my rib cage.

  My beast senses it’s met its master.

  My dragon squirms, wanting to reach out to him and yet also needing to get away from him. Is it possible to want two things at the same time? Indecision meet me. The queen of always being in two minds. Only this time everything is clear. I need to distract him, comply with what he wants, then try to make a run for it.

  Liar. You can’t let him go, can you? You want one last sip of his taste, a lick of his skin, rolling in his essence, for once you leave, you’ll never see him again.

  He grabs my hair and tugs, so my head falls back. He circles the base of his shaft with his other hand. “Open your mouth.”

  His voice is rough. His blue eyes burn with an inner fire. Turquoise sparks ebb and flow in them as if he’s reached the end of his tether.

  I swallow, then do as instructed. I widen my jaws until I feel them snap.

  “Good girl.”

  My breath catches. A flush of warmth pools in my chest. How can his approval mean so much to me? It’s a strange feeling. So wrong…it feels so wrong, and yet it’s right. For me.

  He jerks his hips forward, and then his dick fills my mouth, the head bumping against the back of my throat. I almost gag then swallow.

  His shaft pulses and hardens further, “You are so damn tight, so hot, so perfect. I can’t stop myself, Fire.” He groans, then yanks my hair, pulling back my head until only my lips are curved around the tip of his dick. Then he draws my head forward until I take all of him in. Until he’s filling me, choking me. Tears leak from my eyes. I hollow my cheeks and swallow again, my gaze fixed on his face. His eyes are half-closed, the blue gleaming in the crack between his eyelids. His nostrils flare; his lips part.

  “Fire.” He breathes out my name as if it’s a prayer.

  And it’s so hot and so sexy, it turns me on, and my thigh muscles spasm. Moisture pools in my pussy. The sugary scent of my arousal seeps into the air, mixing with the salty tinge of his precum. It’s our scent, unique, beautiful. My belly quivers, and pressure builds low in my belly.

  My breasts shudder, and I raise my hands to grip his flanks. He seems to understand my unspoken needs for he increases his pace. He proceeds to fuck my mouth, using me as his pleasure machine, and I…I fall apart around him.

  It’s the sureness of his gesture, the feel of his dominance pounding down on my shoulders, my chest, as he drags my head back-forward-back.

  The vein of his shaft throbs, pulsates, and his groin tenses.

  A part of me warns he’s about to come, and I dig my fingers into his hips.

  “Not yet. You don’t come until I tell you to, understand?’

  His voice rips through the noise in my head.

  “Do. You. Understand?”

  His voice is harsh, dominant, and it demands an answer. I nod, breathing heavily. My heart pounds as if I have been running for miles. And I have been, trying to keep pace with him.

  He bares his lips in the semblance of a smile. Only it’s much crueler. This beast who will never hurt me, he lets go of his shaft to grip my shoulder. Then he tugs on my head, with just enough pressure that I raise my chin. He hauls his dick out, his butt tense under my hand, then a deep growl rumbles up his chest, and he comes all over my breasts, my shoulders. His cum streams down my waist, and there’s so much of it. I am bathed in his essence. His heat thrums over my skin, and my belly clenches. The pressure zings out from my belly, streaming toward my extremities, and yet I wait. Wait. Hold his gaze.

  “Come for me, Fire.”

  I exhale, and my climax leaps forward, pumping through my blood, battering down every single barrier I have ever put up against the world, then it fades away just as fast. The world spins, and I slump against him.

  I sense him catch me and lower me to the bed.

  His fingers flutter over
my breasts, rolling in circles around my distended nipples, then dragging down toward my waist. He’s rubbing his cum into my skin, marking me. As if there has ever been any doubt that I am his? His to break. His to do with as he pleases. I am his property and I’ll never be able to live without him. Goosebumps flare over my skin.

  He inches closer. I know, for the heat from his body strengthens. It rolls around me, wrapping me tightly in a cocoon in which there is only him and me…and the girls, I need to get to the girls. A shudder rolls down my spine, and I force my eyelids open to meet his blue gaze. There is a furrow between his eyes. He traces my features as if searching for something. As if he knows I am hiding something from him…no, now I am getting fanciful. Just because I am naked and broken in his arms, doesn’t mean he can see what’s in my mind, my heart, can he? His features soften. I blink. Something almost sweet bleeds into his eyes. He lowers his head and kisses my forehead. My nose. My lips. He presses little kisses down to my breasts. On my left nipple. Then my right. He licks his way toward the flesh between my legs. He blows lightly on my pussy, and I shiver. Then he kisses my clit. So sweet. So gentle. So unexpected that my stomach flip-flops.

  He’d killed me with his fierceness, now he’s destroying me with his gentleness.

  He’s ruining me with his ministrations.

  His attention to my skin, to my cunt…to me. He nips at the folds of my pussy, and liquid need claws at my belly.

  I try to bring my thighs together, but he drags his hands below my hips and positions me so he can sink his tongue into my channel and suck and thrust until the pressure builds all over again. This time from the very edge of my toes. It’s as if he knows that this madness between us is coming to an end and he won't stop not until he’s rubbed his mark into every cell of my body. Etches his name, his scent, his essence into every pore.

  “You’re mine,” he whispers against my core, and blood thuds at my temples.

  My dragon quivers and leaps forward. I slam down a final psychic barrier on the beast, praying that it will hold. Knowing I don’t have much time. I need to leave; I must before it’s too late. It’s already too late, for my dragon is all but mated to him. My dragon had known it was him right from the beginning. I’d resisted and now I can’t, not anymore. I push my body into the mattress, try to put distance between us, and he tenses. He raises his head, his lips and chin glinting with moisture. My moisture. I have no doubt those are my juices that coat his mouth. His tongue.

  Blood rushes to my cheeks.

  He grins then, that very self-satisfied smirk. My insides stutter, and warmth pools my chest. I can’t tear my gaze away from his face. He crawls up my body to plank over me. His big shoulders block out the sight of everything else. His breath raises the hair on my forehead.

  “I love you, Fire.”

  The breath hiccoughs in my throat. I know I am staring, my gaze wide, my mouth half-open, but I can’t stop myself.

  One side of his lips curls in an almost tender smile.

  He drags his hand up the underside of my thigh, wrapping it around his waist, then he slips into me.

  30

  Tristan

  I am losing her. Oh, she is here with me in body, but her spirit, her mind is straining to leave. I am not the kind to heed these fine nuances in body language, but with Fire, I’ve always been so on the same wavelength, so tuned in to her every move, her every desire, that I know she is having doubts…that she’s come to some conclusion in her head. The fact that I don’t know what it is, the fact that she won’t tell me, and I will not ask her…the damn ego of mine that will not permit me to get on my knees and grovel before her and ask her to stay with me…all of it makes me want to please her.

  Makes me lean close and brush my lips over hers, and again. Gentle. Tender. Everything I’ve always wanted to be and never managed to show her, that part of me which I have kept hidden away from her. For only with her do I feel safe revealing who I truly am. Someone who wants to take care of her.

  “Will you let me love you, Fire?”

  I nibble at the edge of her lips, and her breath stutters. I kiss my way to her eyelids, brushing first one closed, then the other.

  A trembling grips her.

  Her eyelids flicker, and I know she is not sure what is happening. It’s just me falling apart around her, having a quiet meltdown at the thought that I am going to lose her, and clearly, I have lost my balls to her. My dick pulses as if in retribution. My muscle memory reminds me that I am still inside her. I can still pleasure her until there’s no other thought in her head but me.

  I can love her until she feels only me, my passion. Until she is mine. Completely. I stay sunk in her heat.

  Her thighs quiver.

  I drag my fingers down to the crack between her ass cheeks and slide my digit into her puckered opening. Her eyelids crack open.

  I smooth my finger up her slit and toward her pussy, feeling the junction of where my hard flesh is embedded inside her.

  Her pupils dilate.

  I pull my hand back, retracing my steps until I feel the curve of her hips. So soft. So beautiful.

  I massage her butt, and her hips twitch.

  Bending down, I lick at her mouth, then swipe my tongue over her lower lip. A moan wheezes out of her, and I swallow it.

  I raise my head and hold her gaze, making sure most of my weight is still held off her. I curve my fingers over her thigh until the heel of my hand brushes her clit.

  Her back arches off the bed, and her breasts thrust into my chest.

  “Tristan.” Her chin wobbles.

  “So responsive, Fire.” My voice rasps out, and I hear the pain in it. And I can’t understand it.

  My dick throbs inside this woman, ready to possess her, pulsing with need and yearning to knot her, and still I wait.

  I want her to feel every part of me, want her to remember how it is to be with me. My groin hardens. My chest hurts. Is it possible to feel so much for one person in such a short space of time?

  I know then I will die for this woman…and I should stop her from whatever she is going to do, only I can’t. I open my mouth to speak, and nothing comes out. Instead, I pull out of her, slowly, so slowly that the walls of her channel weep with need. Her pussy clamps around my dick, trying to hold me in. Every ridge of my dick expands and throbs. A groan rumbles up my chest.

  “Say my name again.”

  She pants and sweat beads her forehead. Her eyes are glazed. She’s high on me, on the pleasure only I can give her, and yet that isn’t enough. I press a kiss to her temple, then nibble my way to her ear. “My name, say it.” I swirl my tongue over the delicate contours.

  Her shoulders draw down, and the tendons of her throat move. “Tristan,” she breathes out.

  I slide into her.

  She gasps, and her breasts quiver.

  I grit my teeth, trying to hold back the force of my need. Trying to restrain myself. This time…it is about her. Only her. Her pleasure. Her wants. “Remember me.”

  My words are redundant, for I am not going to let her leave me. The time to play nice is gone. I will bind her to me and damn the consequences. I pull out of her until I am poised at the tip of her dripping channel, then slide in again, all the way until the head of my dick bumps against her cervix.

  Her muscles coil under her skin, she wraps her arms around my neck, and her head falls back. I drag my mouth to where the pulse beats at the base of her neck and suck on it. Another moan bleeds out of her.

  “Tristan, please…”

  “What do you want? Tell me…” Inside her, my dick throbs heavy. Blood rushes to my groin. The pressure builds in my belly, unfurling, pushing out, forcing me to dig my toes into the bed, to press my elbow into the mattress for purchase. Not yet, I will not come, not until I have pleasured her completely.

  I press my thumb into the bud of her clit, and she shatters.

  “You, only you.” She sobs; the teardrops glitter at the edges of her eyelashes.

&nbs
p; One rolls down her cheek, and I lick it up.

  “So damn sweet.” I groan. The honey of her essence explodes on my tongue. “I’ll never get used to how your tears taste, Fire.”

  Another jolt pulses through her, and her entire body stiffens.

  “Come for me, Fire.”

  I plunge into her until the hard flesh of my balls slaps against her sensitive inside thigh. I raise my head and hold her gaze. “With me,” I whisper.

  A shudder rips through her, her pupils flash vertical, and something inside me snaps. My balls draw up, my thighs spasm, the pressure in my groin explodes out, and I come inside her, shooting hot streams of cum into her channel. Warmth fills me, and sweat breaks out over my brow, my skin, sliding down my back.

  The tips of her hair catch fire; her eyelashes spark with gold. I look up to see a flame of fire shoot into the air, then another. When I lower my head, it is to find flames covering me and encompassing her.

  Writhing stands of amber and blue fire enfold us both. They switch off abruptly.

  I raise my gaze to her wide-eyed one. “When were you going to tell me?”

  She blinks, then clears her throat. “What?”

  “That your dragon has accepted me as your mate?”

  31

  Jess

  “It’s why your fire cannot hurt me, why your tears taste sweet to me.”

  I hear his voice as if from far away.

  The aftershocks of the climax still pulse down my body. My head spins. I take in a breath to try to clear my mind…mistake. The scent of him, dark, tangy, and laced with the sweetness of my arousal fills me.

  His gaze bores into me. His body surrounds me, and his heat pulses over me, in me. He’s possessing me, making sure there is nowhere for me to hide. It’s too late.