Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5

by Emilia Hartley

  Wyatt pulled her shirt over her head. She wanted to shrink, to hide her distinct lack of breasts, but his head dipped low before she could pull back. When his mouth closed around a nipple, drawing her breast into his mouth, she cried out.

  Unable to stop herself, she began rocking back and forth. The length of his cock, hard and expectant, rubbed against the sensitive part of herself. Each stroke sent a small ripple through her. It snapped and crackled with flames. Kennedy didn’t worry that she would lose herself to the flames, consumed by the heat.

  Fire wasn’t always a dangerous predator. It was a catalyst. The pressure inside her was growing and growing. She could barely handle it anymore.

  Wyatt broke away from her. His voice was hoarse with need when he spoke. “I can’t get enough of you.”

  She smiled, self-satisfied. The feeling was mutual, but she didn’t have the voice to tell him. All she could do was rip at his shirt, at his pants. She wanted skin to skin. She wanted all of him.

  It was not the first time she’d seen Wyatt naked, but it was the first time she’d allowed herself to take him in. There was a dragon tattoo on his chest. She traced it with her fingertip, making him shudder under her touch. He licked his lips and looked up at her before his gaze raked lower. She watched his nostrils flare, most likely taking in the musk of their lust, and her core tightened.

  Suddenly, Wyatt was rolling her over. She thought he would fill her with his cock, but he scrambled back instead. Cold air washed over her, nearly dousing the pleasure that had built.

  Nearly.

  Before she could ask what was wrong, his tongue traced over her folds. She cried out, hands fisting in the blankets beneath her. That was not what she’d expected. Not at all. Sensation rippled over her. She cried out, releasing it.

  When she looked down, Wyatt was grinning. He gripped her hips and pulled her tighter to his mouth. His tongue slid inside her. He gently rolled it in circles. She could barely hold on, her body drifting away in the sea of pleasure he was creating inside her.

  No interaction had ever been like this before. Her body seemed specially made for him. Each touch, each brush of his skin against hers created a spark that grew into a flame. He was flint and she was tinder. She would gladly let the flames consume her if this is what it meant to be consumed.

  One. Two. Three strokes of his tongue had an orgasm billowing out from her core. She moaned, unable to suppress it.

  “Say my name,” he growled as he crawled over her. “I want to hear it on your lips.”

  The tip of his erection dragged along her skin. It was incredibly hot, nearly singeing. She thought she would combust all over again. While her orgasm faded, sending aftershocks through her body, she watched him raise himself over her. She watched his cock slide into her.

  “I want you to scream my name. I want to hear it come from you.”

  Kennedy bit her lip. She couldn’t find her voice. The way he filled her was so utterly complete that she barely had space to think. He touched places inside her she was sure had never been reached before. Every small movement, from thrust to shudder, sent ripples through her. Kennedy thought she might shatter beneath him.

  His lips touched the mark on her neck. A whole new kind of sensation erupted. It was hot and golden, flooding her neck, her chest, and slamming into her core. She pulsed around Wyatt’s cock.

  He groaned and hung his head for a long moment. She couldn’t help herself. She threaded her fingers through his hair and tugged. In one simple gesture, she owned him. Pliant in her hands, he let her force his head up. His eyes were bronze, the metal so dark she could lose herself in them.

  When his lips spread in a smile, his canines were sharp. She shuddered, remembering how it felt when he left his mark on her shoulder. She wanted to do it again. And again.

  While she held him and drowned in his eyes, he started thrusting. At first, he was slow and measured. His control began to slip. She watched it happen, watched the soft expression slip into something beastly. Her heart thundered with excitement, in time to the thrusting.

  Her grip on him loosened, her arms weak while she sank into the pleasure inside her. Wyatt used the moment to lower his head. Once more, his lips touched the mark on her neck. A chill echoed out from the spot. His tongue lapped over it and she convulsed, so sure her orgasm would break any moment.

  It held, still growing. No matter how she tried to say his name, she couldn’t draw in the air. She couldn’t get it out.

  Then, his teeth sank into her skin. She groaned and tightened her legs around him. His thrusts became wild, bucking. She could barely hold on, to him and to reality. The bed groaned beneath them. It slapped the wall like rambunctious thunder.

  She hoped no one was on the other side. She didn’t want to have to explain herself to strangers. Perhaps they wouldn’t hear. The hall was still filled with people around the elevator.

  No one would hear them.

  Not until her orgasm shattered her into a million pieces. His teeth were still inside her, his cock buried hilt deep. She tightened around him, trying to keep herself together. It was an impossible task. The pieces of her flew in every direction until her lips parted and his name escaped her lips.

  She screamed it so loud, she was sure the people in the hall heard. They heard her claim him, all of him. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders, possessive. It was as if her own beast had appeared and made home inside her. The beast stated that Wyatt belonged to them. Nothing could tell her otherwise.

  He hung his head as he slipped out of her, letting his lips trail down her front. She Leaned forward with him, eager to claim his mouth one last time before he retreated. He let himself be drawn back in. They kissed like two drunkards sipping one another until finally he pulled back.

  His smile was sheepish, his hair falling over his eyes as they slipped back into brown. “It seems I’ve made a mess.”

  Kennedy didn’t look down, but she could feel the warmth sliding out of her. Wyatt told her to sit still.

  She felt remade. When she fell back onto the pillows, her body was still thrumming with what they’d done. Together, they’d made love like she’d never felt before. It was more than just two bodies coming together.

  Kennedy watched Wyatt move about, watched him roll off the bed and walk to the bathroom. He walked backwards, his eyes on her, like he would never tire of the vision before him. She blushed. She knew it was ridiculous to be embarrassed after what they’d just done, but she couldn’t help it.

  There, on the bed wearing nothing at all, she felt vulnerable.

  ***

  He walked on clouds. Never before had he felt so invincible. The beast stood proudly but didn’t once try to break for the surface. It was pleased with the course of Wyatt’s life. He paused in the bathroom doorway and looked back at the woman on the bed. She let her head fall to the side. It revealed the fresh mark on her neck.

  It was no longer a ploy to keep lesser dragons from bothering her. It was now a real mark, one that conjured a number of feelings inside him. The first was pride. He held onto the sound of his name on her voice, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time he heard it. He wanted to hear it said every way possible, from a whisper to a shout of anger.

  The hopes swirling inside him spanned wide, granting him a vision of the future he could see with Kennedy. It involved quiet dates and lazy mornings. Maybe, when all was settled with Jasper, it would involve travel once more. He’d love to see the world from her perspective.

  Home was wherever she was.

  He waited for the water in the sink to warm before wetting a towel. Kennedy was right where he left her when he returned. Surprise hit him, as if he’d been expecting her to disappear like a dream, to evaporate between his fingers into nothing more than a foggy cloud of memories.

  But, no, she was still there. He gently spread her legs and helped clean the mess he’d left behind. A question rose to his lips.

  “I, ah, didn�
��t think while we were doing this. Are you…” Wyatt struggled to give voice to his concerns. He furrowed his brows and fought his tongue.

  “You mean the mess inside me?”

  In an instant, he envisioned another life. In this one, they carried a toddler between them, a young dragon who would be loved by both parents, who would live in a house of love. But he shook his head because it was too early to dream of things like that. They would talk about it when the time came, but this was not that time.

  “Yeah,” he said, scratching his head. “We should have used protection. I’m so sorry I wasn’t thinking.”

  Kennedy shrugged. “I have the implant. This little thing in my arm keeps me from getting pregnant. I don’t have to worry about possibly forgetting it, either.”

  He let out a breath. “Good. That’s good.”

  Wyatt tossed the towel aside and crawled toward Kennedy. She let herself be enveloped in his arms. With her head resting on his arm and her neck bared, the scent of blood and musk mingled in his nose. He couldn’t avoid looking at the mark on her shoulder.

  The marks of claiming were old fashioned, a way to signal courting to other dragons. So few bothered in this day and age. But Wyatt couldn’t stop marking her. He reveled in the feeling and the way she reacted to him.

  “Tell me,” Kennedy began. “Tell me what it means to mate. To dragons, I mean. I get the sense that it doesn’t mean what we just did.”

  The subject skewered him through the heart. He’d been thinking about the claiming marks when she brought up the subject of mates. Wyatt felt like he was falling down a hole and wondered if he would ever land, let alone on his own two feet.

  All his life, he dreamed of having a mate. The vision in his head had been simple, but what he had with Kennedy was anything but simple. She confused him. He never expected to come back to Grove and fall so completely for anyone. His head had been a mess, reeling from what happened with his ex. But he’d scarcely thought about her in the days he’d been with Kennedy.

  This woman swept into his life, rearranged it, and he thanked her for it.

  It wasn’t her job to sort out his thoughts. It wasn’t her job to make him a better person. When he was around her, he wanted to do all those things, though. She made him want it and that was more than enough.

  “This was what you almost asked me in the car earlier. Isn’t it?”

  That moment felt years away, even though it had only been earlier that day. He couldn’t help but wonder at the time he spent with her and how much it already meant to him.

  Kennedy hesitated in his arms, perfectly still before she nodded. It was an almost imperceptible motion. If he hadn’t been looking, he wouldn’t have seen her reservations. She was just as scared of the word as he was, it seemed. Though he didn’t know why she would fear it the way he did.

  He steadied himself and tried to find the right way to finally explain it to her. “Every shifter, regardless of their beast, is said to have a mate. I think it’s nature’s way of keeping us in check. It makes sure there’s always at least one person unafraid of us. I remember Jasper’s mother dragging his father home by his ear once. It was a brilliant sight to behold.”

  Kennedy let out an incredulous laugh. He would tell her the story later, of a king and his knight so deep in argument that neither realized Jasper’s mother had marched in between them both until she held a gold dragon by his nostril. Then, by his ear once he shifted back to human form.

  The woman’s spirit lived on in Makenna, he thought. He would pay Ashton’s mate to recreate the scene.

  “So, like a soul mate? Right?” Kennedy asked. “Are mates always lovers? Or, are they sometimes just…best friends?”

  He paused, thinking. “Not once in my life have I seen mates that were just best friends. The bond is a lot more than that. I’d say every mated pair are best friends. But the bond comes with love and patience and a profound kind of strength. Especially when humans are involved. Human mates are some of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”

  Wyatt was dancing around the subject. He knew it, but he couldn’t help himself. If Kennedy wanted to know if they were mated, he had no answer for her. He didn’t know what to look for, what the signs would say. It was difficult to know if a bond was there, especially if he’d never felt one before.

  She squirmed in his arms, but didn’t turn around. It was as if his words weren’t sitting right with her and she was trying to get comfortable with them. He wished he had more to tell her.

  Hell, he wished he could keep her forever.

  Wyatt didn’t want to tell her one thing when he didn’t know the truth, himself. He wouldn’t tell her they were mated only to have their infatuation crumble in their hands. It seemed wrong. He wanted to wait until he knew for sure.

  “What did you do before you came back to Grove?” Kennedy changed the subject for him.

  He let out a breath of relief. It shuddered as it left him. He wanted to go back, to promise her there was a chance they could have everything, but he didn’t know. No one knew.

  “When I first left Grove, I did a lot of things. For a while, I worked with another cousin as a roadie. He helped move bands from show to show. The life got to be too much for me. Not a lot of sleep and too much beer made my beast grumpy.”

  “Which cousin was that? Griffin?”

  Wyatt laughed at the thought of Griffin having the patience to deal with a rock band. The man could barely stand his own presence, let alone five bodies strung up on drugs, alcohol, and fame. “No, another cousin. His name is Ryker. He’s the family black sheep, or he was until Jasper started acting out.”

  Kennedy snuggled into him, a look of contentedness on her face.

  “After I left Ryker, I found a job as a logger. I built things on the side, like tables. I had fun playing with raw wood and resin. It was like creating a miniature seascape, so I began making other landscapes.” Wyatt only now realized how badly he’d missed the hands-on kind of work.

  “Why don’t you do it again? Make tables or whatever you made?” Her voice was small, but it was startling all the same.

  The past two years, he’d worked a regular nine to five job and spent the rest of his free time with someone he now knew he’d never loved. Not the way he should have. The time hadn’t been a waste, but he now longed to get back to the days where he could make things again.

  While he didn’t have a space of his own, his feet were firmly planted in Grove. Nothing was stopping him from seeking out a workspace. He had the money, and the time. All he needed to do was go out and find it. His only job in town was to look after Jasper. While it’d been branded a full-time job, with three dragons on the look-out, it wasn’t as time consuming as he would have thought.

  Hell, Ashton’s family days did more to stabilize Jasper than any watchdog mission ever could have.

  “I think I will,” he mumbled.

  “Good. Then you can make me a table for the place I’m going to get. I hate to admit that I don’t have a lot of furniture.” Her lips twisted to the side. “I have a few things in storage, hand-me-downs from relatives and art pieces I’ve picked up on my travels. Nothing that would make a home into a…home.”

  “I guess I haven’t done the best job of convincing you to leave Grove.” He snorted. All he’d wanted to do was protect her.

  Kennedy had seen the worst of them. She’d seen their fights, seen their rages. Still, she wanted to stay in Grove. Wyatt asked himself what it was that truly kept her in the small mountain town. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was him.

  Could it be that this woman was the mate fate promised him? Wyatt didn’t dare assume. He’d learned that he wasn’t the best judge of people and that he often blinded himself with his own fantasies. For a moment, he pressed his eyes shut. He did his best to banish the visions in his mind, the life he’d made up for himself, thinking that when he opened them again, the situation would look different.

  It
didn’t. There was still a very naked woman in his arms, one who looked happier than he’d ever seen her despite what happened only an hour ago. He’d protected her from the freak accident, the old elevator.

  Panic sliced his heart in half. What would happen next time? When he wasn’t there? She was so soft and human. It wouldn’t take much to hurt her.

  Wyatt buried his face in her shoulder, fighting back the intrusive thoughts that she couldn’t hear. Kennedy snuggled deeper into him. Not long later, he heard a soft snore come from her. It warmed him, filling the space that fear had left cold.

  Chapter Thirteen

  He slid out of bed before Kennedy could wake. Looking down, the white hotel sheets were twisted around her dark limbs. The pale sheets showcased her long legs and the width of her hips, hips that he’d lost himself in only hours ago. Her hair was loose, like a cloud over her head.

  Wyatt stayed there, wondering at the happiness that filled his chest. He couldn’t believe his luck. Kennedy was so much more than he ever could have asked for. She blew his every expectation out of the water. From the way she handled his secret to how effortlessly she blended into his family, he figured she would always find a way to surprise him.

  It was only fair that he bring her a surprise in return.

  He pocketed her hotel room key and stepped outside. There were strips of yellow tape over the elevator at the end of the hall, evidence of what they’d lived through. His heart gave a hard thump at the sight of it. Thoughts of what would have happened if he hadn’t followed her tried to breach the surface of his mind, but he shoved them back down.

  Wyatt had kept Kennedy from dying in the elevator.

  It was no good to think on what could have happened. Instead, he turned toward the nearby staircase. He walked the streets of Grove until he found a little, tucked away shop that filled the air with the scents of yeast and fryer grease.