He saw her give him a bittersweet smile in their reflection, and then she looked up with a gasp. “Damian…all those people my brother has in cages…they’re in there for nothing! It’s never going to work!” She paused and her eyes went wide. “And they’re skinning my brother for nothing, too,” she whispered, horror at the thought of it racing across her face.
“You don’t owe those Hunters or your brother anything, Andi,” he said, squeezing her protectively. “They made their choices, and so be it.”
“That’s heartless,” she complained with a frown.
“Guess you’re still more human than dragon, it seems,” he said, nuzzling against her. “And thank goodness for that. Someone has to be the beautiful one without scales.” He gently kissed her forehead again, then pulled back. “It’s really not safe for me to be here, Andi. If I were a Hunter with any kind of sense, I’d be watching this building with heat vision right now, and as we both know, I am very hot,” he teased, and she punched him lightly as she groaned. He chuckled, stroking her arms with both hands, happy to feel her against him once more. How had he ever gotten so lucky as to win her love? “Really, princess, are you going to be all right?” he asked. Her eyes were still puffy from crying, and he could scent her past tears in the air.
She took a shuddering inhale. “I don’t know. I mean, technically, I guess I have to be, seeing as I still have a date with destiny.”
“Just as long as no one else cuts in line,” he said, with mock ferocity.
She boggled at him then laughed, shaking her head as her fears finally melted. “I just got so scared, Damian. You know how I am. I keep waiting for things to break. It’s hard enough to trust in other people when magic isn’t involved. And…I want to be my own person. Always.” She leaned even closer to him and held on. “So being with you, like this, it’s like standing on the edge of a cliff and knowing I’m going to jump. Oh, hell, I’ve already jumped, and now I’m just scared of the landing.”
“Princess, you don’t ever have to land when I have wings for us,” he told her, and meant it, holding her tightly back. “I would fly with you anywhere, and never let you fall.”
She gave a soft gasp and looked up at him, the dark brown of her eyes soft and inviting, like the richest fur. He couldn’t help but kiss her—nor she him, he knew, as he felt her leaning up.
Their lips met, tentatively at first, and it was such a bad idea, but when she pulled back to whisper, “Quickly?” how could he not respond? His hands went for her waist in answer, as her mouth came back for his. She kissed him deeply as he furiously worked the buttons and zippers of her jeans down, his hands chasing her hips, already rocking in invitation. He wrapped an arm around her and slowly lowered them both to the floor, holding himself above her, as her hands wound in his hair and against his scalp to hold him there, finally kissing her back, pressing his tongue into her mouth like it belonged there. One of his hands sank just below the denim of her jeans to stroke the soft cotton of her underwear against her and feel her wetness already soaking through.
“I want to taste you,” he moaned.
She curled up and grabbed his shirt, peeling it up his back and off. “There’s no time,” she said, as her hands chased down his naked chest to land on the waistband of his own jeans. “Hurry,” she pleaded. “I just need you in me. Now.”
He growled without thinking. Her words provoked a reaction in him—like he was a fuse, and she’d just lit a match. “Yes,” he agreed quickly, his voice rough, raising himself up to help push his own jeans down, as she shifted gears to wriggle out of her shirt beneath him, squirming her way out of her pants. His hard-on swung out just over the level of his jeans for her.
“I want to lick you and suck you and do all sorts of things, but….” she began.
“That’s my line, princess,” he said with a laugh, leaning over her, sliding his fingers underneath her underwear this time to push in. “But I think you can take me now,” he said appreciatively, then grinned. “I’ve trained you well,” he added, clearly teasing.
Andi laughed below him, trailing a hand down his chest. “Don’t get used to it.”
“I promise I never will,” he said, pulling his fingers out. He used her juices to slick his cock and then held himself over her, arching his hips to bring himself into position as she rose up on her own to take him in. The thick head of his cock pushed against her and he started stroking forward. “Andi,” he hissed, her heat enveloping him. She was his mate—now and always—and fucking her would always feel this good.
“Go faster, Damian,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and breathing in his ear as he landed. “I don’t need to come; I just need you to finish this time. I want to feel you so deep in me I know no one else could ever pull us apart.” Her hips moved in his time like proof of her words, and she moaned as he thrust again. “Fuck destiny, Damian…and fuck me.”
He made an inhumane sound and took her at her word. He needed her. He was her mate, and she needed him. He was risking everything right down to his life right now to fuck her, and if that wasn’t love—an insane and perverted kind of love, but love nonetheless—he didn’t know what it could possibly be.
“Oh, God, yes,” she whispered. Her breath was hot against his neck when he wasn’t devouring her with kisses. His hands cradled her head from the floor so that he could maul her shoulder and jaw, licking up her neck in broad stripes that made her shiver and her nipples ache. He knew because she reached between them to grab and pull them and everything was speeding up, and he was taking her faster still. He felt like a ticking bomb and he knew if he didn’t come in time he might explode. “Come for me,” she panted.
“Is that what you want?” he growled in her ear.
His mate nodded helplessly. He knew why she liked it, because feeling him lose himself, coming for her—those were the only times she knew she was in control. That somehow, she—a human girl still, who didn’t want to be anything else—had somehow tamed his beast.
“All right,” he agreed, pulling himself out of her, moving up her body to kneel on his heels above her hips. He’d touched himself in front of her before, but he’d never used her solely for his pleasure quite like this. He crouched forward and wound his hand in her hair, bending her neck to make her look. “Watch me, princess,” he said, and started to stroke himself fast in front of her. “See just what you do to me.”
She flushed red beneath him, undoubtedly knowing what was coming. He knew it probably felt dirty, which was half the fun, but he wasn’t going to disrespect her without acknowledging it. “I wouldn’t do this if you hadn’t asked, princess.”
She was breathing hard between his thighs, her breasts rising and falling, and her jaw was dropped as her eyes flashed up at him in challenge. “But I did.”
He growled and leaned forward, so fucking close. No one else in his life had ever made him this hard.
Did she control him? Yes.
Was he hers?
Utterly.
He felt his orgasm surge up as his balls tightened. “Princess, I’m going to,” he warned her with a grunt, and then he was coming, lacing her neck and breasts with hot silvery ropes, again and again until he finished, stroking himself through the final twitches and dragging the head of his cock through the cum he’d spattered on her cleavage, before dismounting to her side with a groan.
She swallowed and looked up at him as he let go of her hair, her brown eyes wide, innocently horrified now. Yes, well, he was still a monster, he supposed, and then he watched her draw a finger through the mess he’d made and push it between her perfect pillowy lips. Fresh heat sank in him and he knew he could’ve taken her again in a moment, if only they had time.
“Goddamnit, princess,” he whispered. “Every fucking thing about you turns me on.”
“It should,” she said with a pretend pout. “Being that it’s destiny and all.”
“Now you believe?” he said with a snort, before pulling his jeans up, then he paus
ed to look down at her disarray. “I feel like an asshole, leaving you like this, without making you come.”
“You can make it up to me later, as long as you stay alive.” Andi rolled up onto her knees and kissed his jaw. “Besides, someone got me all sorts of playthings to spend time with while they’re away.”
“Hmmm, yes, as long as you use some of them in front of your mirror.” He reached behind her for his shirt.
“No, leave it here.” She grabbed it on her side and tugged. “I want something that smells like you.”
He beamed at her then. It didn’t matter what kind of filthy things he did with her, her heart was always pure. “Andi…I—” he started, but then they both heard it, the sound of someone rushing up the stairs outside.
“Go!” she shouted, shoving him in the direction of her bathroom. He hesitated, wanting to protect her. She knew it too. “I’ll be fine—as long as you are,” she said, shoving him again.
He placed his hands beneath her chin and brought her up on her tiptoes to him, kissing her one more time, before releasing her and running backward, diving through her bathroom’s mirror glass.
Damian came through his mirror—shirtless and still high from the contact with Andi—and into his bedroom, where Mills, Jamison, and Ryana were waiting.
Mills took a quick step up and slapped him across the face. “Are you done being an idiot who works on his own?”
Damian cupped his cheek as Jamison gawked at the witch. Ryana looked between the two of them, vaguely horrified that someone had had the gall to put a hand on Realms royalty, and then her eyes narrowed and she asked Mills, “Should I hit him too?”
“Is everyone against me?” he asked, running a hand through his hair. He still smelled like Andi. He should’ve taken something of hers in return. Or just her, entirely, bringing her over here against her will.
“No,” Mills snapped. “We’re all with you. We’ve been with you this entire time. But you keep running over all our very reasonable boundaries, and for what?”
“I need her, Mills. You wouldn’t understand.”
Mills rose up to her full height in front of him and her braids began to ominously unwind. “You were there when Jamison and I got together. When I had to stand up against my entire coven. So, try me.”
“All right, maybe you do, stand down.” Damian glowered at her. The illicit thrill of being with Andi was fading under the witch’s judgment. “I feel like all I do these days is apologize,” he complained.
“Well, maybe if you acted in a more team-oriented fashion, you wouldn’t have to apologize so frequently,” Mills said, and Jamison wisely coughed instead of laughing.
Damian attempted to stare her down, but she didn’t retreat. As he was still in a good mood, he had to smile. “Fine. Is there a reason all three of you are standing in my bedroom?”
“Yeah, we needed Ryana to operate the mirrors, because we were fairly sure you were walking into a trap,” Jamison said.
“Well, I didn’t.” He gave all of them a cocky grin. “Once again, I was successful. As I am at everything I do, by and large.”
“I can hit him just for fun, you know,” Ryana offered.
He rolled his eyes at her, still pleased. “What kind of trap?”
“Hunter activity has increased at the ports. They’ve gotten in more shipments of nets and harpoons,” Mills said and started pacing.
Damian groaned. “When will they give up?”
“Never, it seems,” Jamison said. “And all their weapons caches have become increasingly well-guarded, past that early night.”
“I assume we’re tracking helicopter flight paths now?”
“Of course. There’s been no movement on that front, though.”
Damian looked around his bedroom, now too small to pace in what with all the others present. “Everything’s going to have to come to a head eventually.” His current situation chafed intolerably. He didn’t just want to scent Andi when he was lucky enough to get the chance. He wanted her permanently by his side. “What if I lured them out? Exposing myself and then we handle them, once and for all?”
Mills shook her head. “I’m tracking two hundred separate Hunters right now, Damian. That’s a lot. Even for you.”
He suddenly understood why she’d been so stressed. “Time to call in reinforcements? Other wardens owe us favors.”
“This is true. I just hesitate…because what if the Conjunction happens while they’re here, and they’ve left their home territories undefended?” Mills chewed on the inside of her cheek in thought. “They’d never forgive us; most of them have strong local ties.” She stopped suddenly, deciding. “In any case, it’s not a problem we need to solve tonight. Now that you’re safe, we can see what paths the Hunters take and work on reasonable plans that aren’t you taking on two hundred of them all at once.”
He laughed. “All right.”
“But in the meantime, no more risking yourself, Damian.” The witch glared at him. “We are a team.”
Damian put a hand on both her shoulders. “I know.”
Damian watched them leave his bedroom, his sister turning back to give him a pretend uppercut with a snicker. As she was part dragon, it might actually hurt if she punched him—whereas Mills’s slap had just been a surprise. He’d been self-absorbed lately, yes, but after everything he’d been through with Andi, who could blame him? And she’d needed him tonight, even if she wanted to pretend she didn’t.
He sprawled out on his bed, thinking about Andi’s letter from her mother. It changed nothing about his feelings, of course. But Andi’s pain had been written all over her body when he’d gotten there. He supposed all his life he’d assumed he had a magical destiny. When you were royalty, almost everything felt preordained. But it must have been quite a surprise for her to find out that she had had one, too. One of her own, no less, not contingent on anything Damian or Danny could offer.
Is it true? his dragon asked him.
It’d been quiet when he’d been with her, surging forward only at the end when he was mounting her, then receding right after he’d come, but he knew it’d been paying attention the whole time.
Is there really a dragon trapped inside her? it pressed.
I don’t think her mother would lie to her. She knew she was dying and felt that Danny’s “experiment” had been successful, so…yes. He felt the creature grow pensive inside him, as if it were having a dream. What do you think about that?
It pleases me more than words can say, and Damian felt it, the deep rush of its pleasure, like there were a million extra nerves inside him and all of them were happy to be alive. But, it went on, if she were as we are…they would hound her as they hound us, would they not?
Damian exhaled. They would.
Then…I do not think that she should change. Damian felt the beast steeling itself, and all of the joy and feeling of expansion he’d been suffused with disappeared, like a full sail suddenly gone slack. Some skies are too dark for safe flight. Let the beast inside her slumber.
Damian agreed, of course, but he’d been given all his dreams with Andi. He realized his dragon’s decision came at a much higher cost. Thank you.
His dragon didn’t respond. He felt it disappear inside himself, to mourn its loss in silence, as his phone vibrated and he pulled it out, finding a text from Andi.
It was just Sammy, you know. Which means you could’ve stayed. Or…you could come back.
I can’t, princess. It’s not safe, and I’ve been informed that if I risk myself thoughtlessly again, Mills will kill me herself to save the Hunters the trouble.
Don’t let her! Andi texted back with a laughing emoji.
I won’t. But I do need to be more considerate. Apparently, the world is still an awful place.
Damian watched the dots on his phone twirl as she kept revising what she was sending, and then words flooded the screen. When will all of this be over, Damian? I don’t want you to do anything foolish, but I don’t know how much more I ca
n take.
He stared at the screen, unsure how much more he could take, either, so he answered her truthfully. Soon, princess. Soon.
Chapter 14
After being thoroughly teased when she ran half-dressed out into the hall to find Sammy coming inside—“You’re not supposed to use all the toys at once, Andi,” Sammy had snarked—Andi retreated back to her bedroom to do a better job of cleaning herself up, setting Damian’s shirt aside in particular to wear after her shower, when she’d texted him.
Was “soon” good enough? What if something she told him egged him on into danger? Then she realized she could spend the rest of her life being nervous about playing into the hands of some fucking puppeteer—or she could just live, giving up. (Which was maybe what she was meant to do? Oh, fuck it, did it matter?)
Andi pulled Damian’s shirt on to sleep in. It was soft and it still smelled like him and she crawled beneath her covers. She hadn’t even been using her Ambien lately because she’d been feeling like she had things to look forward to—like talking to Damian—and that helped her to go to sleep on her own. And now, with his shirt on, it was even easier for her to pretend that he was here. She pulled her blindfold down, closed her eyes, and drifted off into a mostly dreamless slumber….
Except for the one dream.
It was her, Danny, and her mom and dad and they were all out at the zoo. It was the day their father had taken that photo of them, all together, the one he wasn’t in. She remembered the day vividly, how her face had been smeared with pink from cotton candy and how Danny had gotten a bag full of the wax mold creatures you could buy outside each area for quarters, a yellow wax alligator outside the reptile house, a purple gorilla in front of the apes. She could feel how hot the day had been and taste how delicious the sugar was, but it wasn’t as sweet as the way their father had looked at their mother, nor the way she in return had doted on him. For one crisp moment, everything had been perfect.
Dragon Mated: Sexy Urban Fantasy Romance (Prince of the Other Worlds Book 4) Page 23
