by Aja James
He was coming toward her. She couldn’t hear his footsteps, he was silent as a cat, but she felt the flare from his body heat. It was like a small sun approaching her orbit.
She held her ground, refusing to shrink back as he came closer. She might be small but she was no coward. He couldn’t intimidate her.
Even if he was twice the size and three times the weight.
Because that’s what she felt like. She could feel his body heat surrounding her, his shadow looming tall and threatening over her.
What nonsense, she told herself. He couldn’t be ten feet tall and five feet wide. He probably wasn’t three hundred pounds either, with the silent way he moved.
He was merely another living being.
A male one.
An extremely, indisputably, elementally male one.
She wasn’t cowed. She could hold her own.
Barely, she felt fingertips sift through the hair at the back of her head. He was untying the blindfold.
She surreptitiously sucked in a breath to fortify herself.
But no matter what she imagined, across all of her long existence, the male who stood before her defied every fantasy, every dream.
“Well, well. So you are to be my Pure Blood slave,” her captor murmured in that sinful voice, practically oozing sex and carnal—
Wait.
What?
His Pure Blood Slave?
Dragon: a mythical monster like a giant reptile. In European tradition the dragon is typically fire-breathing and tends to symbolize chaos or evil, whereas in East Asia it is usually a beneficent symbol of fertility, associated with water and the heavens.
—Modern human records
Chapter Twenty
“Time to unwrap my present!”
The moment they were able to politely leave their own Mating celebration, or impolitely, as the case might be—given that Aella had grabbed Cloud’s hand just as Sophia finished giving her blessings and dashed away with him—they made a beeline toward Aella’s chamber within the Shield, only because it was the closest.
She dragged him into her room as the door automatically shut and locked behind them, and immediately attacked his body with busy hands, almost too eager to know where to start first.
His bound hair, his shirts (because there was more than one layer), his belt, or his trousers.
She pushed him onto her gigantic double-California-King bed and tugged off his boots.
“Aella…”
Cloud raised himself on elbows and looked down at her, amused and somewhat shy.
It made no sense to feel this way. They were Mated, after all. Before Heaven and their friends and…
For all of eternity.
And it wasn’t as if they’d never fucked before, even though it was just the once in each of his earthly forms.
But, the first time he hadn’t known anything, had been a complete innocent in every way. She’d been his first kiss. His first touch. His first everything. He’d just followed her lead, followed his instincts.
The second time, he’d been so very angry, frustrated, and hurt. He’d wanted to punish her, exorcise her from his thoughts, but what he did ultimately was lose himself inside her all over again.
He’d believed every word he said to her that day in the cavern.
He hadn’t thought she loved him. But he knew, even then, that he loved her with everything he was.
Their joining had been rough and uncontrolled. His release in the end didn’t free him at all, only bound him even more irrevocably to her.
And now…
There was no going back for him. No recourse. No hiding.
He’d given up everything he was to be with her. She was his entire universe. He didn’t even know how to want anything else. He wanted to believe she could be a fraction as attached to him as he was to her.
But she was Aella.
She was a whirlwind. A beautiful siren. A warrior who conquered countless men.
How could she ever feel for him what he felt for her?
He believed she “loved” him. He’d seen the depth and stubbornness of that love in the images the Master had shown him. But…
Was it enough?
There had been other images too.
He didn’t understand how the two sides of Aella could coexist. The one that waited for him and the one that…bided her time with others.
She must have noticed the hesitation in his voice, because she paused and looked up at him as she knelt on the ground between his spread thighs as he sat on the edge of the bed.
“Baby, what is it?” she murmured, cupping his face.
“What’s wrong?”
He stared into her wide blue eyes for a long while, silent.
Finally he whispered, “Do you love me? Is this what we will do now? Make love?”
Aella’s lips parted on an inaudible gasp, her eyes pooling involuntarily with tears.
She could physically feel his heartache. Now that they were Mated, she felt vicariously everything he felt.
All this time, after everything they’d said and been through, he still couldn’t believe she truly loved him.
More than life.
More than anything else in the world.
In the entire universe.
She leaned in and pressed a barely there kiss upon his perfect lips.
“Yes, gorgeous, I want to make love to you all night and all day long. In fact, I might take the whole next week before we settle into the old Mated couple routine of, oh, about ten sexy times a day.”
He didn’t smile as she intended at her teasing (though she hadn’t been exaggerating at all. Ten times a day was a minimum if she had anything to say about it.)
He simply stared into her eyes with that naked innocence, trust, and vulnerability that she’d never known in another male.
There was passion there as well. Lust. And so much love.
How could any female deserve the magnitude of Cloud’s love?
Luckily for Aella, she didn’t care if she didn’t deserve it. She’d take it. She’d take him. And she was never letting him go.
“I love you, Cloud” she said simply.
She kissed him chastely on the mouth.
“I love you, Yun,” she said, and kissed him again.
“I love you, most awesome, magnificent, beautiful jade dragon,” she declared with relish this time and made her smacking kiss extra noisy and wet.
The edges of his lips curled in a slight smile.
“Only me?” he asked, then quickly lowered his eyes as if he hadn’t meant to let the words slip out.
She tipped his chin to look back at her and waited until he did.
“Baby,” she began huskily.
And then cleared her throat to start over.
“Cloud. I have only ever loved you my entire existence, both human and Pure. I will only ever love you until the end of time and beyond it. I will never, ever hurt you again, I promise. You will never have cause to doubt my love.”
She climbed onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close.
His arms tightened around her as well, as if he was afraid to let her go.
“I’m going to keep flirting though,” she said gently.
He stiffened against her.
“It’s just part of who I am, gorgeous. But all of my flirtation and teasing are for you,” she explained.
“If I taunt other men, it’s because I want your attention. If I tease you…well, that’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s an age old human dynamic, baby. I’ll tone it down until you get used to it, but trust me, eventually, you’re going to enjoy that side of me.”
She pulled back a little and looked into his eyes. He seemed doubtful of her words, but he was letting them sink in.
“It’s only you, Cloud,” she vowed solemnly. “You are the only one for me.”
He searched her gaze a moment longer, and then, finally, he smiled.
Wide and open. Breathtakingly beaut
iful.
“You better show me what you’ve got then,” he said in his growly thunder and lightning voice, the one that made Aella’s toes curl and all the fine hairs on her body stand up in attention.
“Make love to me, Amazon.”
And Aella forgot all about unwrapping her “present” in an organized manner to prolong the anticipation, layer by delectable layer. She attacked his mouth full on, pushing him back into the bed and straddling his waist.
The moment she thrust her tongue into his hot, sweet mouth, she ground down on his stone-hard shaft through their clothes.
Oh Goddess! She was already drenched in her core, her pussy pulsing around the emptiness that only he could fill.
“Naked,” she muttered incoherently into his mouth.
“I want you naked.”
Three years, and she’d never seen Cloud naked!
For the next week or two, or ten, she made a mental note to demand that he be naked in her presence all the time. But only when they were alone. She was too possessive to share any part of him with anyone else.
He began tearing at his clothes while keeping their mouths fused, tangling his tongue with hers, giving her back as good as he got.
“You too,” he commanded.
“Naked. Now.”
Ooohh, she loved it when he got bossy.
He was such an irresistible contrast—pure and innocent, almost childlike in the way that he looked at the world.
Yet, he was also primal and sexual, a full-blooded warrior male.
A freaking dragon!
Somehow, they managed to get undressed without breaking their devouring kiss. And finally, finally! she was naked on top of him, skin to skin.
Though she was practically delirious with need, Aella dug deep and found the last reservoir of her control.
She sat back on his thighs and looked her fill.
No longer shy, Cloud leaned against the headboard and stacked his arms behind his head in a mouth-wateringly unstudied masculine pose, as if to say—look all you want, sweetheart, I’m all yours.
Aella blinked.
In fact, he did say those words to her. Except he said them in her mind.
He was finally able to link their minds, as only true Mates could do.
“All mine, huh?” she mused, taking her full bottom lip between her teeth as she slowly took him in.
From his uniquely beautiful face, to his long, shiny black hair, spread around his shoulders like silk, to the long, strong column of his throat.
Mmmm… she was feeling thirsty. Her Pure female fangs elongated in her mouth, dripping with saliva.
She continued her meticulous perusal, however, staving off her hunger for now. After all, anticipation only whet her appetite to even more spectacular heights.
Broad shoulders and thick pecs, punctuated by small, flat copper nipples that were beaded with arousal. The deep groove that bisected his hairless chest made her want to lick it from the end of his sternum to his Adam’s apple.
So she did. Couldn’t resist doing that no matter how she tried.
His chest muscles jumped and flexed in response, his throat moving mesmerizingly as he swallowed.
It was by sheer force of an iron will that Aella managed to pull back and continue her relatively well-behaved appreciation of his body.
Even relaxed, the hard muscles of his abdominals stood out to be counted. His obliques were a thing of beauty, as was everything else about his body. But truly, Aella was hopelessly in lust with those serrated obliques.
Ripped.
Cloud was the definition of that word. He wasn’t bulky; he was lean, graceful, delineated male power.
Oh, and fortune be praised! He had a delicious happy trail!
Though it was rather hidden behind an enormous, dragon-sized erection that jutted past his belly button.
Casually (though she felt anything but!), she took his shaft in hand and pulled it back from his tight stomach.
His monstrous, gorgeous, satiny member pulsed in her grip as if it had a life of its own, and leaked a long, pearly clear string of pre-cum from its fat, ruddy head down the vein-wrapped column.
It practically begged her to lick it, to suckle that plump, tasty crown. But Aella ignored its hypnotic call. She had plans for it, but it would have to wait.
Cloud groaned huskily when she didn’t taste him, and shifted his hips restlessly.
“Patience,” she said softly, calmly, as if she wasn’t desperate to have him.
She was making love to him, after all. With her eyes, her touch, her mouth, her entire body.
She’d erase any doubt in his mind at the end of this. He’d know in his very bones that he was hers and she was his.
Still holding his erection away from his stomach, she put a finger to his shallow navel and traced the thin, baby fine line of hair that led from it down to his groin, where the hair was thicker, coarser, and musky with his essence.
She cupped his heavy scrotum with her other hand. The sac was so full. Her mouth watered, and her fangs quivered at the thought of all the Nourishment he had to give. Endless waves of cream down her throat, in her core.
And that was when she finally caved.
She was merely a woman, after all. Not a saint. There was only so much she could resist when faced with such tantalizing male bounty.
This was Cloud. And that made everything exponentially more irresistible.
“Gotta taste you, baby,” she rasped out, before holding him in both hands and taking the plump head of him inside her hot, hungry mouth.
He bucked his hips beneath her and hissed out a breath. One of his hands reached down to bury itself in her hair, cradling the back of her head.
“So good,” she hummed around him, making him feel every vibration in her throat.
“You taste so fucking good.”
“Aella…”
Cloud’s breathing deepened as he struggled for control.
She wanted to make him lose it. She loved it when he blew his lid.
Grinning inwardly, she decided to tease him with little nibbles and licks up and down his long, thick column.
Just when he growled in frustration at her play, she’d suck him down hard, as deep as he could go, all the way to the back of her throat. And she’d squeeze the rest of him that didn’t fit inside her mouth, squeeze him rhythmically in time with her sucks and swallows, driving him mad.
“Aella…”
His voice was pure thunderstorm now, dark and drenched with sex, rough and raspy.
He made her so, so wet.
His voice, his smell, his taste. The hard, hot, satiny feel of him.
She could lose herself for days worshipping his body, wringing endless groans of pleasure from his tortured vocal cords.
His hand in her hair fisted with urgency. He clenched his buttocks and flexed his hips, fucking her mouth in earnest.
He was so big, so hard, so unrelenting. He made her gag, he made her eyes water.
He watched her face with a concentrated, agonized expression. Watching his sex get swallowed inside her throat. Watching her lips strain around his thickness. Watching her saliva and his own fluids coating his most sensitive skin with shiny, slick moisture. Watching her groan around him with mindless pleasure.
She loved the way he used her. Loved the way he took and gave at the same time. Though he now controlled the pace, fucking her mouth as if he owned it (which he did), she saw the way she devastated him, how he made himself vulnerable and open for her, how he gave her everything she wanted exactly the way she needed it from him.
She wanted him to come.
She wanted to own all of him.
She gently rolled his scrotum in her palm and squeezed, sending a shockwave of acute pleasure through his entire body.
He clenched his teeth in a silent shout, his body tightening into corrugated steel, a moment before he let go.
Scalding waves of thick, smooth cream flooded her mouth and throat.
; She swallowed voraciously, holding him prisoner in her mouth, in her hands, made him release over and over again.
She’d never get enough of him. The more he gave, the more she craved. She was hopelessly addicted.
She fused his gaze with her own the entire time. She watched him too.
Watched him come undone. Watched his pupils dilate with undiluted euphoria. Watched him bite his lip hard enough to draw blood. Watched his body shudder, and his muscles quake.
She saw the unfathomable love in his eyes for her. The raw need. The primal passion.
He gave her everything. Held nothing back. He let her own every cell, every fiber, every drop of his seed.
And still she wanted more.
In that moment, holding his gaze captive, she bared her fangs until the sharp tips glinted in the soft glow of light in the chamber.
He knew what she wanted, heard her body’s call. With a slow blink, he conceded.
So she painstakingly, agonizingly sank her fangs into the dorsal vein of his undying erection.
His lips parted on a frozen gasp, as the exquisite pain of her penetration quickly blossomed into a heady pleasure he’d never known.
His seed and blood combined in a cocktail of ambrosia Aella gorged endlessly upon, drawing more and more of him into herself.
She’d never have enough.
All this while, she watched his expression carefully, attuned to his body’s needs as well.
He was exhausted and sore, she could tell. His eyes were glazed with both pleasure and pain.
His fist tightened against the back of her head, pulling on her hair.
He wanted more too. He wanted it on his terms this time.
Carefully, she pulled her fangs from him and licked the wounds closed. She couldn’t resist sucking greedily on his head for a few moments more. The most delicious plum she’d ever tasted, salty, sweet and tangy with his unique flavor.
He pulled her up his body by her hair, making her reluctantly relinquish her prize.
When they were chest to chest, he rolled on top of her, trapping her beneath him.
Good thing she had absolutely no desire to escape. She loved the weight of him above her.
“Is that what Mates do?” he asked huskily, pressing her purposely into the bed, grinding his groin against hers.
