by Abigail Owen
Even if it meant knocking that stubborn woman out.
Before he could search for her, a dragon so dark gold it almost appeared bronzed landed in front of him and blasted a torrent of fire at his head. Brand charged, running directly into the flames. When the fire stopped he was only feet away, but recognition slapped him in the face, and he hesitated.
“Geir?” He probed the other dragon’s mind.
The dragon blinked, then spun and flung his tail at Brand, catching him in the shoulder with a spike.
The need for retaliation—both for the blow and for a long-ago betrayal when Geir’s family watched, doing nothing as Uther murdered Brand’s family—burned into Brand, who let out a roar.
But Ladon’s voice sounded in his head. “Find Kasia and get her out of here.” A shadow passed overhead, and Brand caught the flash of an indigo wing as the king barreled into the bronze dragon in front of him.
Brand started after his friend; the only thought in his head was killing that bronze bastard, but Maul jumped in front of him, shaking his head. Then Kasia popped up between them. Maul growled then let up with a funny whine as he recognized her.
The cloud of fury swirling through Brand abated as the greater need of protecting this woman took over. “Kasia, we have to go,” he urged.
“But the people.” She glanced over her shoulder, concern pulling her away from him even as he willed her to listen.
“If Uther gets his hands on you, those people will have many worse things to worry about.”
She didn’t turn back, but she didn’t disappear, either. “I could help them.”
“Help them by staying safe.”
Maul suddenly flashed an image of a woman with long black curls and reddish-brown eyes. Kind eyes. Worried eyes. Kasia’s mother?
Must be, because Kasia sucked in a breath, and when she let it out she disappeared only to show up on Brand’s back, the weight of her slight but noticeable. “Go!” she shouted.
He took off, shooting out through the damaged door into the training chamber then out the second destroyed door that led from the training area to outside. They burst into clean air, blue skies startlingly brilliant after the black smoke inside.
Dragons of green and gold.
Brand caught her thought and looked up to find the skies swirling with them. “Then we go down.”
No black dragons, though. Had they been part of the ruse, or had the other clans used their visit as a convenient distraction?
Regardless, he dropped away under the cover of the smoke pouring from the gaping wound in the mountainside. Maul popped up on cliffs and rocks along the way, following them closely.
“We’ll never get out of there without them seeing.” Kasia gripped his spike tightly even as she watched over her shoulder, her shifted weight throwing him slightly off-kilter.
“I know a place in the mountains. Hold on.”
As soon as she righted herself and had a better grip, Brand tipped his wings, circling back and shooting through a gap into a smaller canyon. He hadn’t been this way since he was a boy, and smaller.
He just hoped the back door he’d made centuries ago hadn’t caved in over the years, and that he could fit.
XIV
“Where are we?” Kasia climbed down from Brand’s back and looked around the obviously dragon-made tunnels, now dark and cold with lack of use.
She’d hardly been able to tell, he’d flown so fast through that narrow canyon—one she’d never noticed the few times she’d been outside—followed by a sharp cut into a long, tight tunnel that had been pitch black.
“My home.”
That generic accent he’d been using slipped, the American tones coming through again. Who was she dealing with now? The rogue mercenary or the king’s trusted warrior? She had a feeling she knew.
She jumped a little as Maul suddenly appeared beside her. Following them in the dark had probably made his teleporting a bit tougher. She put a hand on his side, grateful to have him there.
Brand sucked in a breath, and his belly glowed, warm and golden, with the fire he was fueling inside. With a concentrated blast from his maw, he spewed a stream of gold-tinted flames into a hole in the wall she hadn’t even noticed. Immediately, the flames traversed a small channel built in behind the walls with rectangular cutouts every ten feet or so—fireplaces apparently, all interconnected. Immediately the room was awash in light cast by multiple fires burning in each pit.
She could see better now, making out different rooms beyond the main one in which they stood—a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom—built into the natural formations of the cavern, similar to the dragon city.
Brand took her momentary distraction to shift, and she turned to find him standing close, gaze intent and pissed as hell. At a guess, because she’d teleported herself into danger and ignored him when he’d tried to stop her. He was supposed to be her bodyguard, and she hadn’t exactly made that easy on him. Plus, he was a big, bad dragon shifter, a breed of male she realized took Neanderthal to a whole new level.
Damn. What was the best way to deal with a furious dragon shifter?
“Maul,” he said. “Any way we can get a little privacy?”
The hellhound glanced between them but must’ve decided Brand wasn’t a true threat to her, because he disappeared. Traitor.
Kasia swallowed but refused to show her nerves. “Your home?” she asked, proud of how steady her voice came out.
He didn’t take his gaze from her, not even a blink as he started to slowly stalk toward her. “I made this place when I was a young dragon.”
A young dragon? She had so many questions but suspected now wasn’t the time to ask them. Besides, how could she engage in casual conversation when he looked as though he were going to devour her any moment, only she couldn’t tell if he was only furious or massively turned on. It kind of looked the same to her.
Still, maybe a casual chat would give him time to defuse. So rather than hold her ground, or back up and trigger his predatory response, Kasia casually turned and walked toward the kitchen, sort of sideways from his trajectory. “You made this place all by yourself?”
“I had some help.”
Yeah, he wasn’t biting or budging.
She could feel him closing in as she kept her profile to him and pretended to wander. Or maybe you weren’t supposed to turn your back to a predator? You definitely weren’t supposed to run, but wasn’t there something with bears about facing them? What were you supposed to do? Get big and yell? Would that work with an angry dragon?
“Who else has been here?” He hadn’t pounced yet. Perhaps the banal conversation was working. Worth a shot to keep it up.
“Kasia.”
That one word came from beside her ear, a low growl, and goose bumps feathered down her arms. She jumped and spun at the same time. How the hell had he gotten that close without her knowing?
The second she faced him, he yanked her into his arms and kissed her—a fierce, claiming kiss that shot through her defenses in less than a heartbeat. As though some part of him called to some part of her, like their souls recognized each other on an instinctual level. The part that needed him. Pleasure arrowed straight to every erogenous zone in her body, heating her up from inside.
Weeks of denying every urge her heart and body had flung at her, and she was lost. With a small, needy sound she tried to get as close as she could, and he obliged, wrapping those big arms around her to plaster her against him from head to toe.
Even with her up on tiptoe, he had to lean down to reach her. With a grunt of frustration, he cupped her backside and hauled her up. She wrapped her legs around his hips, his hard length pressing exactly where she wanted it, but with too many layers of clothing in between.
He pulled back, but only barely, and only long enough to berate her. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again.”
She would’ve sniped back, only he sealed his mouth over hers and stole her breath and her mind.
He pulled back again, and she sucked in air and beat him to it. “I’ll do whatever I damn well think is—”
“Wrong answer.”
Hot, hard lips crashed back down on hers. Vaguely, she was aware he was walking them somewhere else, but she was too busy shoving her tongue down his throat and vice versa to pay much attention.
Frustration edged his touch as he kneaded her backside with his hands, grinding her into his erection in the most delicious way. She knew now where that frustration came from—a concern for her. He cared. Instead of making her want to run, it added an edge to her own need.
She grabbed a hank of his hair and pulled back. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Wrong again.”
With that he tumbled her back on the bed she hadn’t even realized he’d taken them to. He leaned over her, hands on either side of her face, golden eyes feverish, sparking with desire, his jaw working as though he were holding himself back. “This isn’t going to be slow and gentle.”
Almost an apology.
In response, she whipped her red dress over her head and reached back for the snap on her bra. “Who said anything about wanting gentle or slow?”
Brand’s neck muscles worked as he swallowed hard. Then he reared back and started stripping. Kasia shimmied out of her bra and panties. In short order, all that annoying clothing was no longer an issue, and Brand stood above her, unashamedly naked and proud.
And hers. Hers in a way that felt real.
Damn, he was magnificent—hard in all the right places, making her wet in all the right places.
She squealed as he whipped his hands out to snag her by the ankles and pull her ass to the edge of the bed. He wrapped her legs around his hips, then moaned as he inserted a finger into her, sliding deep and true.
She went stock-still, bombarded with a longing triggered by one simple touch, as though he’d finally staked a claim on her body, as though he wanted her for his own as much as she wanted him.
“Touch yourself,” he demanded.
Compelled to do as he bid, with eager hands, she smoothed over her breasts and belly to where his finger still remained embedded inside her. He slid out, and she bit her lips, waiting for him to take his hand away, but then he slid back in before she could take his place with her own hands.
She raised her confused gaze to his, and he cocked his head. Then slid out and back in. Realization dawned—he wanted them both to play together—and heat flooded her cheeks even as it arrowed straight to her clit, wet warmth seeping out over his fingers.
Brand watched her, his eyes molten gold.
Trapped in that sinful gaze, she moved her fingers to the nub of hidden nerves above where he pumped in and out of her, circling it with her fingertip. Then she began to move in time to his touch. In and out. Circle and press. Like a dance.
Beneath both their hands, her body turned electric, pulsing and throbbing with each stroke, each brush, until she was panting, her eyes half closed, but still on his, captured by his compelling stare. Driven higher by the desire tightening the skin over his cheekbones, his gaze drew her in. The connection almost tangible. Her nipples beaded under that gaze. Unable to help herself, Kasia brought her free hand up to tweak and twist those rosy peaks, shooting sparks to her clit.
“Fuck,” Brand muttered. Then his free hand went to his cock.
At the sight of the swollen purple head, thick and angry, in his strong hand, another gush of wet heat poured out of her, and a stuttering moan rose up her throat. Her breath punched out in panting bursts.
A build of pressure and pleasure started deep in her womb, pulling a wanton moan from her lips, and suddenly, Brand stopped, pulling his fingers out of her and grabbing her hand, pulling it away from her clit.
“Not yet,” he commanded.
Her body screamed for release.
“Brand.” She tried to come off the bed; the only idea in her head involved forcing him to finish what they’d started. “I need you.”
He pushed her back down, gently, but pinning her in such a way that she couldn’t move, eyes all wicked intent. “You have me.”
Those words sent a charge through her.
But he didn’t move, just stared at her, as though entranced.
She wriggled under him, trying to pull him closer by digging her heels into his butt.
“Please.” She was begging now. “I need you inside me.”
Something in her words, or the hitch in her voice maybe, released something within him. She saw the control snap in his eyes, felt it in the tension in his muscles.
He sucked in a deep breath. “You want me inside you?”
She nodded, perhaps a little too eagerly, but pride was no longer an element in this situation. She was almost frantic by now.
With a low rumble of sound deep in his chest that had her heart hammering, he loosed a stream of fire aiming downward, the hot flame licking that most intimate part of her, stoking her need to fever pitch.
Then he grabbed her by the hips, hitching her higher, angling her, and impaled her in one hard stroke. He must’ve used the fire on his own body, because heat seared her from the inside. Pleasure slammed through her, along with a feeling of deep-seated rightness.
“Is this what you wanted?” he asked.
But she wasn’t backing down from him. Not anymore. “Yes,” she cried. “I want you. All of you.”
With a roar of primal satisfaction, he pounded into her, but she was so wet, so ready, that all she knew was the ecstasy of his possession. He filled her to the point that she didn’t know where she ended and he began, their bodies linked by more than touch.
He set a driving rhythm, his face harshly beautiful as he watched his body move in and out of hers, almost as if his claiming of her body was driving him harder and faster. With each stroke, he pushed her closer and closer to the edge of bliss, building a pressure so incredible, she was sobbing his name. Living in a hazy place where only the two of them existed.
Somewhere down deep she had a vague notion that they shouldn’t be doing this. But she was too far gone, every corner of her mind and body focused on one thing only.
Another wave of pleasure crashed into her, and she moaned as an electric charge sizzled along her nerve endings. She was close. Gods, she was so close.
“Harder,” she whispered.
He did as she asked, moving harder, faster, grunting with each thrust.
She gasped as her skin suddenly lit up, golden flowers of fire that reminded her of Brand’s, but these were her flames. She tried to hold them back, terrified she’d kill him, but the inferno blazed off of her.
Fire during sex could kill him if he wasn’t her mate.
Oh, hell. She was going to kill him.
Only…the flames didn’t consume Brand.
Truth blazed through her, reflected back at her in his eyes.
Did he see it, too?
“Kasia?”
She tried to focus through the sting of pleasure still buffeting her system. Her fire rose around them, and his muscles tensed, his body shaking, his face tightened, agonizing pleasure and awe visible in a way she never would have believed possible. What was he asking her?
“Kasia, do you want this?”
She thrashed under him, moaning through crests of sensation. Then reconnected with his gaze, drawn in by a reflected need. More than that, by desperation in his eyes that she felt to her bones. This was right.
To hell with supposed-tos, and the world outside, and what logic should tell her was a bad idea. She didn’t want to stop this, to fight it any longer.
“Yes.” She frantically nodded. Yes, yes, yes. “I choose you.”
Relief filled his golden eyes, followed by bl
azing possession.
Her one final small worry whispered away. He wanted this, wanted her, as much as she did him.
Brand’s chest lit with an inner fire. Linking their hands, he lifted them above her head. Then he sucked in a deep breath and kissed her.
As soon as she opened to him, he pushed his fire into her. Kasia warmed from the inside out as she accepted her destiny, accepted her mate.
Heat spread through every part of her.
Need consuming her, she basked in the searing warmth and almost screamed at the pleasure. With the flames came sensation like she’d never experienced before. Like euphoria was just within her grasp. Her heart soared, and everything inside her strained toward him.
“That’s it, Kasia. Gods, you’re so gorgeous.”
The flames flowed out of her as sensation built inside her.
“Let go,” he said. “I want to see your face as you come.”
That beautiful pressure built and built. At his words, she allowed her body to relax into what was coming. The glow beneath her skin brought out the design of feathers over her shoulders and arms, and the surge of power that came with them flowed through her like sparks in her blood.
Brand continued to slam into her, also aglow as her flames surrounded them both. Fire consumed her both inside and out.
“Kasia.” Command laced the single word. “Come now.”
Flame and ecstasy exploded inside her and all around them. As she pulsed, Brand’s cock grew thick inside her, and he threw his head back, shouting as her pleasure tipped him into his own, more fire pouring from his body into hers in a new rush of joining, mixing with everything already swirling inside her.
“Mine.”
The word blasted through her mind so clearly, at first she’d thought he’d spoken aloud, or she had. She still couldn’t tell which of them it came from. She didn’t care, either, too swept up in the magic of what was happening.
With each crest of the most incredible pleasure came a different kind of vision—pristinely clear, with audible sounds and vivid colors. Vision after vision, all of them skirting through and out of her mind. She couldn’t bring herself to care or to drag her still-seeing gaze from Brand’s face and the sensations flowing through her body. The beautiful completion in his eyes as they shared the intense climax. Riding it to its end until they’d pulled every ounce of pleasure from it.
