by Ann Gimpel
And then he remembered the dragons’ connection to sea-serpents. Long ago, all of them had been exceptionally nimble beneath the waves. She stroked past and tapped his arm, but he’d been cataloging her moves. When she feinted right, he was ready for her and blocked her, catching her handily.
With a hand on each shoulder, he pulled her against him. Her eyes were still the same ocean-blue, but they’d developed the whirling deep-green centers characteristic of dragons. She looked at him, long and hard, her expression turning wistful.
“Such a beautiful man.” She closed her arms around his back and hung on, winding her legs around his waist.
Her breasts were crushed against his chest, and he lowered his hands until they gripped her perfect ass. Their faces were right next to each other. When she tilted hers in clear invitation, he kissed her.
As if nothing had intervened between their last kiss and now, passion took off like a team of galloping horses. The vanilla-cinnamon scent he’d longed for was there in spades, thick enough to eat. Possessiveness filled Konstantin until all he longed for was to brand the woman in his arms—make her his.
Their tongues thrashed against each other. Steam puffed from her nostrils, surrounding them. He rejoiced. It had to be a sign her dragon wouldn’t stand in the way. Dragons had their own social structure, their own ideas about who should be mated to whom.
He might know in his bones Erin was slated to be his, but her dragon was under absolutely no obligation to agree with his assessment.
Erin caught his lower lip between her teeth and nipped him. He bit back, fingers digging into the alluring globes of her ass. He yearned for her. Ached for her. His cock was poised at her entrance, so near he felt the heat of her sing to him through the water.
All he had to do was thrust upward, and she’d be around him with all her glorious heat and snugness and rippling muscles. He could almost feel her tightening around him, imagine the pulsing of climax when it took her. It made his balls roar for release. He had to have her. Had to make her his.
She ripped her mouth away and ran her tongue over to his ear, plunging it inside. He gasped and lunged upward, intent on fulfilling the mate bond. She glided out of his reach, aided by the water’s buoyancy. Her eyes were liquid with need, and her breath came fast, but she’d unwound her legs from his waist.
“But I—” rasped from him before he got hold of himself. Telling her how aroused he was wouldn’t make a difference. She already knew.
“I know. Come on.” She swam for shore, switching to walking when the water grew shallow.
He followed her to where she’d left her clothes, unclear if she was going to accept him or not. He had no idea what he’d do if she refused his offer. He’d laid himself bare before her. No woman had ever turned him down, but the stakes had never been this high.
He’d never asked a woman to be his mate. Even before the other dragons had left, when he could have asked any of several females—most of whom would probably have said yes—he’d held back. None of them were right for him. Erin was.
She turned and molded her body against his. She curved a hand around his achingly erect cock. He groaned, ashamed of how much he longed for her. Wet hair dragged over his skin as she moved lower until she knelt before him and took him into her mouth.
Heat from her burst around him as she ran her lips the length of his shaft, nipping and biting as she went. A swirl of her tongue around the head, and she took him deep into her again. She milked him with one hand and cradled his balls with the other, pressing against a place at the base of them that almost made the top of his head blow off.
He grasped her head between his hands and thrust into her mouth. It wasn’t the coupling he longed for, but it was unique and spicy and sensual rolled into one. She made little moaning noises as she laved him with her tongue. It damn near killed him to pull out of her mouth, but he wanted to taste her too.
He drew them down onto her pile of clothing, smoothing the garments into protection from the dirt. After a quick, hot kiss, he drew his mouth downward along her neck to her collarbones, tonguing the hollow between them.
Her breasts with their distended nipples were close, so close. He fastened his mouth over one and sucked enthusiastically. She arched her back, trying to get closer to his kisses. He twirled the other nipple between a thumb and forefinger, pinching hard. Trading back and forth, he lashed his tongue from nipple to nipple.
She shrieked and writhed beneath him. He felt her dual nature. Felt her dragon urging him on. It wanted his cock, but Erin’s unspoken message had been clear. They could play at sex and not be forever bound. It was less than he wanted, but he’d take her any way he could get her.
She made a grab for his cock but couldn’t reach it. Next, she shoved a hand between her legs. He raised his mouth from a nipple, loving how it glistened wetly from his saliva. “Uh-uh. You’re mine, woman. Pleasure flows from me.”
He batted her hand out of the way and slid his between her legs. The wet heat of her drew him inside the lush secrets of her body. He plumbed her with his fingers before moving his head between her legs. Before he latched his mouth around her clit, she jackknifed her body so she could suckle him. Exploring her, pleasuring her, had taken the edge off his immediate need to come. The minute she plunged her mouth over him, warm and urgent, his arousal shot back to center stage.
He closed his mouth over her clit and slid his tongue around both sides and across the top. Like the miniature penis it was, it grew and quivered beneath his touch. Working her between his mouth and his hand, he felt the tension grow as her climax first blossomed and then crested. Her rhythmic contractions were ever so hard to resist. He yearned to let go, come in her willing mouth, but he’d make her come one more time first.
By holding back, he could maintain the fine edge of lust and need that raced through him like a fine, old whiskey. He sucked harder and pumped his fingers in and out of her, tickling the special places nerves clustered thickly.
She rocked against him, gasping and moaning. The hotter she got, the harder she sucked him. But it worked both ways. The hotter he got, the more creative his touches and licks and bites. He felt her next orgasm seed itself from the remains of the one that had just blasted through her.
Shameless, he fed magic into her spiraling passion, driving her higher and higher until her lust shattered against him. The climax he’d been holding back bubbled from his balls, sheeting from him in jet after jet of thick, white heat. She kept right on sucking until he was done, lapping his semen.
Once he was certain he’d wrung the last bit of pleasure from her climax, he twisted until they faced each other and crashed his mouth over hers. She tasted of him, bitter and salt and fire, and it aroused him all over again. Threading his hands through her hair, he lifted his face from hers.
“Erin. Darling. I love you.”
She smiled. Soft, lazy, alluring. “I think I love you too, but we have to be certain. Until we are, we can pretend we’re kids.”
“I don’t understand.” He cupped the side of her face.
“No. You probably wouldn’t. Humans don’t usually start right out having sex. We do things like, well like what you and I just did. Eventually, they lead to the real thing.”
“I don’t understand. Why play at it?”
“It’s a good question with a whole lot of complicated answers wrapped up in religion and social conventions. None of them matter. I’m 90 percent certain, but I need more time with you.”
His heart cracked open and melted. “You’re my mate, Erin Ryan. Mine. I’ll wait through the ages for you if I have to.”
She laughed and leaned into his touch. “I forgot how long we live. You won’t have to wait that long. Let’s get through our first fight and a few other nitpicky things first.”
It was his turn to chuckle. “How do you know we’ll have any fights?”
“We already have. All couples do. Beyond that, you might decide I’m a total dud in the magic department. I�
��m not sealing the deal to give both of us an escape hatch.”
“I don’t want one. I want you.”
She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she said, “I’m happy. I shouldn’t be. There’s so much facing us, I should be scared to my bones and back in the study absorbing as much as my brain can hold.”
“I can take us inside.”
She nodded. “Guess I need to get dressed. It’s not warm enough to be naked, unless I’m in your arms. Then it’s fine.”
Since he never wanted to let go of her, he said, “I’d love to offer my body as a heat source, but how about if I teach you how to use magic to warm yourself?”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled. “That would be wonderful. Want to start now?”
He nodded. “Soon.” What he really wanted was to hold her just like he was doing and never let go, but it wasn’t practical. Two more minutes, he told himself. And then we’ll rejoin the real world.
It might have been more than two minutes. They drowsed in one another’s arms, sleepy and sated from sex.
“Kon. I need you,” shook him awake fast.
“I heard that.” Erin sounded fuzzy and worried. “Was it Katya?”
“Yes.” He scrambled to his feet and drew Erin to hers. Magic jumped to his call as he set seeking spells in motion.
“Tell me what you’re doing,” Erin said. “I can’t help if you don’t include me.”
Konstantin raked a hand through his tangled hair, torn between the urgent note in his sister’s sending and Erin’s request to help. “We don’t have much time,” he told her, “but I can build my spells out loud and explain what I’ve done later.”
“That would be wonderful.” She closed her teeth over her lower lip. “I don’t want to be a bother, but there’s so much I don’t know.”
He opened the tip of one finger with an incisor and sprinkled blood in the air. It floated, awaiting his command. Before he set it in motion, he said, “Katya shares my blood. A seeking spell that’s blood-based is one of the strongest of all. Once I activate it, all we’ll need to do is follow.”
“Got it.” She hastily pulled on her discarded clothing as he pumped energy into his casting. By the time she was dressed, the army of blood drops rose straight into the air.
He changed up the rhythm and cadence of his magic, summoning a teleport spell. He’d catch up with his blood on the surface.
Erin moved close, within the circle of his magic. She felt right there, like she’d been born to be a part of him and his power. Igniting his spell, he sent them winging upward, away from the cozy protection that hid them from the rest of the world.
The protection his dragon hated, and that had nearly been the death of Katya’s bond with her beast. “Be careful,” he warned Erin. “I’ll do my best, but we may end up in the middle of a passel of sea-serpents.”
“What happens if we do?”
He laughed one short, fire-tinged bark. “We turn into dragons, force them into their human bodies, and kill them. And then, we find my sister and Johan.”
Chapter 16
I’d never wanted anything quite so intensely as I wanted Konstantin’s cock inside me, but I was scared too. What if we grew to hate each other? The specter of being together forever was daunting. He seemed to be sure, but I wasn’t. We were so different, different enough even some of the things I said confused him.
Not so different any more, my implacable inner voice declared.
“Not different at all,” my dragon weighed in, adding, “He is ours.”
I pushed a mental wince aside. Maybe being a dragon shifter changed everything. Of course it did, except I hadn’t been one long enough to fully appreciate the extent of the alterations in myself. So far, my linguistic skills had taken a quantum leap forward. And I was stronger. A whole lot stronger.
Other than that, I was a total klutz in the magic department. Konstantin had been incredibly supportive of my ineptitude. Would he be this supportive if we were five years into it, and I was still making stupid mistakes?
Worry for Katya and Johan filled me. Actually, I was far more worried about Johan. Katya had resources to take care of herself. For one thing, she had a dragon. For another, she was immortal. Had Johan made the jump to dragon shifter? Had there been some problem? Was it why Katya had reached out to Konstantin?
I rolled my eyes. Lots of questions. Zero answers. When Konstantin wielded power, he made it look effortless. I hadn’t exactly followed anything he’d done beyond his quick and dirty explanation about creating a seeking spell from his blood. Something about it acting as a magnet and leading us to Katya.
It wasn’t all that simple, though. He’d mixed fire and air and a bit of water with stuff I couldn’t identify. I’d still been working to sort it out when his next spell surrounded us both. Something about his magic felt right, as if I belonged within its purview. Was that part of the mate bond he’d talked about?
I needed him and his library. And a few years to absorb everything inside it. Except I wouldn’t have any time at all. Not with the serpents growing in strength. My indoctrination was bound to be a baptism by fire, literally. My hands curled into fists as I hoped to hell I was up to the task.
“We’re nearly at the surface,” Konstantin informed me. “Ready yourself.”
I wasn’t sure what I could do, but I vowed I wouldn’t be a liability. What he’d said earlier about killing serpents shot out of left field. Could I kill anything? I wasn’t sure. I was trained to save lives, not end them. It was the same way I’d felt when Johan had thrust a gun into my hands—and expected me to use it.
Konstantin pushed me gently behind him as his transport spell frittered to nothing. Part of me was outraged. He had no right to play a knight errant. Or maybe he did. He sensed things I wasn’t aware of. That would change as I grew more adept with magic, but it was still too new for me to do much more than flounder about.
An icy blast of wind told me we’d reached the shoreline. I poked my head around his shoulder and squinted against ice crystals blowing in a gale-force blast. They battered me and made me grateful for my staunch outer clothes. Maybe someday, I’d learn to keep my body warm, but today wasn’t the day for that.
Konstantin angled his head from side to side. I assumed he was hunting for his blood couriers, although I didn’t see how they could possibly survive the wind. I longed for goggles but hadn’t been wearing any the day I’d been kidnapped and removed from the Darya. It felt like I’d lived through several lifetimes since then, but it hadn’t been all that long. Not in real time.
The sea was iced over as far out as I could see, and I didn’t understand why. It was high summer in Antarctica. Still cold, but the sea ice should be minimal. The entire bay was frozen solid, so much so, I would have chanced walking on its surface.
An unfamiliar sensation rippled through me, centered beneath my breastbone. Smoke and ash filled my lungs; I opened my mouth to let them escape. Clearly, my dragon wanted us to be in its form, not mine. Had it noticed something too subtle for me to detect?
Likely, since most of my attention was caught up in staying on my feet. Konstantin provided a windscreen, but only from one direction. A sharp crack drove through my skull like an icepick, followed by one more. The ice pack was breaking up, but how was it even possible?
The rampaging sensation within me increased a hundredfold. Fire shot from my mouth, and I twisted my head to the side to avoid blasting Konstantin. He turned to me. Grim determination changed his Adonis good looks, turning his features harsh and sinister.
“Give your dragon her head. Do it now. No questions.”
“But I have to undress.” My words were ripped away by the wind. The prospect of another shift into my dragon form scared the crap out of me. I’d barely survived the last one, but I wasn’t being rational. How could I be? The part of my brain that drove primitive emotions was buried deep and had almost no connection to my ability to reason.
“No time. Let your
dragon take over and shift. Thank all the gods you’re bonded.”
I didn’t have to do anything. Before I could release the hold I thought I had on my beast, my clothing ripped and the stretching, breaking, tearing sensation sent hot knives of agony all through me. Not nearly as bad as last time, though. Not as intense, nor did they last very long.
I remembered to visualize my red monster. It helped a lot. Soon after, I was flying, wings beating the air to take us higher. The same layered vision took over. It enhanced my depth orientation and allowed me to judge distances in a vertical plane.
Konstantin’s black dragon soared next to us.
The sharp crack that had been the beginning of my dragon taking matters into her own hands repeated. After several more intense snapping sounds, sea-serpent heads poked through the ice.
“What a bunch of lazy bastards,” Konstantin said, fire streaming from his open mouth.
“I don’t understand.” Christ! Getting words out was a struggle. My dragon was riding high on being in control. It was a hell of a wakeup call. Konstantin had sketched out a little bit about how critical it was for me to keep the upper hand. The ease with which my beast had wrested control away from me told me how much work I had to do.
“Apparently, they decided digging out a lair was too much trouble. So they formed an ice sheet and used it to hide beneath.”
More of my crash course came home to roost. “You said we’d kill them, but they’re immortal in their serpent bodies.”
At least twenty serpents had made short work of the ice. Where I could see through its cracked and broken surface, coils writhed. Maybe more of the fuckers, or just parts of the ones whose heads were above water. The air immediately above them hazed over with red.
“What is that?”
“Poison,” he replied. “It can’t hurt us.”
The missing column of blood drops zipped in front of us, or maybe these were something else. Red globules dipped and swayed in front of Konstantin’s dragon. He opened his mouth, and his long, forked red tongue flicked out and touched two of the globes.
