“Christ—krasavitsa.” He pushed the ropes away so that he nearly slid out of her, then he pulled them closer so that he sank inside her to the hilt.
Sensation coiled hot and desperate in her lower body, and she reached for his hips. “Yes,” she whispered.
He pushed inside, and her eyes opened wide at the slow stretching.
She whispered, “Do it again.”
“You’re mine,” he said. “Say it.” He pulled back and slid the full throbbing length of himself into her core. Tiny shivers shook her on the swing, and she arched backward. He worked his thumb over her clitoris, and she writhed on the seat, close to madness.
She grasped the ropes, lost in the feel of his coaxing her over her edge, while he pushed his hips forward and back. Opening her eyes, she saw the gym upside down, blue mats on top and white walls overhead. The image was disorienting and only heightened her awareness of him. Her narrow channel stretched around him even as her need built.
“You are mine so beautiful, mine, mine, mine.” He stopped moving and focused on her swollen nub with his engorged manhood still inside her.
“Yes,” Mei cried out, as the tight spiraling sensation began.
He worked the sensitive folds between her legs with jerky circles, sending her racing over the cliff of a consuming release. Nothingness, absolute bliss, her every cell singing with grace, making her feel as if she flew above herself, floating above the earth with no effort at all.
Darius pumped into her, hard now, and shouted with his own release. Her mind returned to her body to find it bent backward over his arm, her hair brushing the floor behind them.
Between her legs, she remained anchored to him in a primal connection she loathed to break. His chest rose and fell with his harsh breathing. He pulled her to sitting and rested his forehead against hers, eyes closed, still recovering.
Why had she been denying them this?
She felt amazing—able-to-leap-tall-buildings amazing.
Darius shifted and dislodged himself from her.
“No.” Her whispered word was lost, and she didn’t repeat it when he lifted her to her feet. Her head spun at the reversal of position, and she rested against his bare chest as he carried her to the edge of the elevated mat spread under the trapeze set.
He set her down on the floor so her back rested against the mat, and moved off to pick up his discarded clothes. Mei adjusted her skirt to her knees and watched him through half-closed eyes. Unselfconsciously, he pulled on his black shorts and looked at her over the muscled curve of his shoulder. The slow smile he gave her was all mischievous, male satisfaction.
Her body hummed from amazing, upside down, trapeze sex with him. And she wanted to do it again, soon. She shook her head at herself as Darius handed her clothing.
“Best workout ever.” Darius sat next to her and rested his back against the soft mat.
She laughed and fumbled to put on her bra. He lifted the weight of her hair from her back and helped her pull down her silk shirt.
For a moment, he held the length of her hair in his hand as he had the swing rope. He tugged gently to turn her face to his, and then released it. His face was open and relaxed, his pale blue eyes warm and content.
His knees fell open to rest against hers. The feel of skin on skin, bone to bone, was easy, the most natural thing in the world. “Next time we should try the pommel horse.”
Mei laughed. “You still got pommeling on your mind?”
“Oh yeah.” He sighed and tilted his chin to the ceiling, exposing the length of his throat. “Some pommeling and tumbling would be good. We’ve got time to make up for.”
The reminder of time brought back all that was at stake. Their immediate peril from the Crescent Group crashed down on her, sucking her breath away. She averted her eyes so he wouldn’t notice the abrupt change.
He’d agreed to go away with her. Once she got him stashed somewhere far away and safe, she could sneak back to the gala and see if it really was Li. If it was Li… she didn’t know what she’d do then. She just needed to concentrate on getting Darius away from the casino.
“Why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?” He lowered his chin so that he stared straight into her face.
She felt the bright-light glare of his scrutiny. Panic edged, tightening the relaxed muscles at her lower spine. “What?”
“I’m not buying for a minute that we’re going to run off for a romantic weekend after all this time.”
Her mind stumbled, but he didn’t look away.
She blinked, blinked, blinked, and smiled, running her hand up his bare forearm. “None of that matters now.”
He gave her a raised brow look that said he knew her actions were avoidances. “Take a minute, but I want the truth.” He took a long swallow of his bottle of water, making his throat move in a way that made her want to find the pommel horse and return to all that was good and easy between them.
He wanted the truth. She couldn’t tell him about Li, or else he would be even more culpable then he was now. Did she dare go through with her decision to tell him the truth of the Crescent dragons?
“Umm…” Her sluggish mind tried to think faster.
She couldn’t force him to leave the casino. She would have to give him a compelling reason. Revealing her true bestial nature would do it.
It was the right choice.
Her heart clenched around the pain seeing revulsion in his eyes would cause. “You’ll hate me,” she whispered. “Everyone will hate me.”
“Since when does that bother you?”
She pulled her knees to her chest, away from him, cradling herself, feeling like he’d sucker punched her. The real pain was worse than she’d anticipated. “That hurts,” she managed.
“What could be so bad?” He sounded genuinely bewildered.
“You don’t really know me at all.” She stared at her bony fingers, thinking of the miles they had traveled with her. But distance and time had not shielded her from her past. Nor would it shield him.
“On the contrary,” he said with a teasing smile that did nothing to minimize the gulf of knowledge she had yet to bridge. “I know you love sushi—”
She jumped on the conversation detour. “Pretty dumb to leave it in a box though.”
“That one didn’t work out so well,” he admitted with a wry tone. “I know you like books, and Tee thinks you are funny.”
“Tee?” She should have known her meddling friend would be at the bottom of his gifts. “You should’ve known not to trust her advice again.”
Silence stretched between them, and she knew her reprieve was over.
“There is nothing in the world you can tell me that would push me away from you.” He brushed the side of her neck and held her chin lightly, holding her gaze to his. “Tell me, Mushka. We’ll handle it. Whatever it is.”
She weighed the precipice and pulled back, like the coward she was. “I wish you wouldn’t call me Russian names I don’t understand.”
“Darling, love, beautiful,” he said. “Quit stalling.”
She really couldn’t tell him in mere words. He would never believe her. She’d have to show him. She reached inside for her dragon and came to her feet in front of him.
She took a moment to commit his look of caring and determination to memory, knowing it would soon be replaced by hatred and loathing.
Chapter Seven
Mei’s dragon rose from her human with a shimmer of turquoise and sprang to the top of the gymnasium before spreading blue wings and unleashing a torrent of water on his head.
“What the hell?” Darius had no time to prepare for the deluge. Frigid water cascaded over him, sweeping across the gym floor like an unmanned fire hose.
The tsunami of water upended exercise equipment in its wake. Crashing metal echoed through the room as the weight station he’d used toppled to the ground, taking down the racked 210-pound barbell.
Overhead, Mei’s dark blue dragon looped in slow circles under t
he ceiling girders. He blinked hard, taking in her odd ice dragon appearance. She did not look like any of the ice dragons he’d seen. She was smaller, and her blue scales shimmered in the fluorescent lights as she circled back to him.
He stood still, a mixture of admiration and shock churning through him. She was magnificent. His own dragon surged under his skin, ready to fly beside his intended mate, even as his human brain tried to tally the visual data.
She looked like an overgrown sea horse with tiny wings. Her front and hind feet pulled into her narrow chest, so she didn’t coast as most dragons did, but undulated through the air like an oversized kite. She didn’t have horns and a prominent, big boned head. Her skull was slicked back, so that even her ears lay flush to the side. The whole effect was slow moving—but aerodynamic, as if she was made for the water.
Hydro-fucking-dynamic.
She was a water dragon.
Rage balled in his gut, and he fisted his hands at the evidence of a murderous, supposedly long dead and extinct, water dragon. Despised even after hundreds of years for their treachery against the crown.
“Get down here!” he snarled, not bothering to hide his anger.
Mei’s dragon responded by swooping low and side-swiping him with her tail. She knocked him on his ass and darted away.
“Water dragon!” he yelled even as his dragon wrestled control from his human at the assault that had brought him to his knees. His wings pushed through his back, and his talons extended from his skin.
No. He forced his dragon back inside, knowing he would tear her to shreds.
Is there still nothing that would push me away from you? Her dragon’s voice in his head was as melodious as a wind chime and just as sharp in tone.
Come down here so we can talk, he said with mind speak.
The water dragon turned her back on him and flew to the north end of the gym, near the door. Alarm replaced his fury. Anyone could walk in and see her.
Please, change back and come here, he pleaded, but she stayed in the rafters.
What the hell was a water dragon doing at the Crown Jewel, right under Alec’s nose? The Book of Dragons was clear. Water dragons were worse than dissenters, worse even then traitors. They were murderers and liars, exiled hundreds of years ago and killed into extinction.
Or, so they all believed.
This was a game changer.
Her motions were awkward in the air when she shifted direction, making it obvious that she preferred the water. Shift back before someone sees you, he ordered.
You didn’t answer me. There was pain in her transmitted voice, and her hurt carried to him through her hunkered, head-tucked flight. There was no joy in the release of her dragon from her human skin, and he sensed only sadness.
She was hovering above him, as close as she’d come since knocking him down. Would you have me as your mate now?
Would he? He didn’t know.
He stood tall, taking on a fighting stance, letting her know his patience was growing thin without overtly threatening her. His own dragon roared in turmoil in his head: protect her, crush her. Her kind is evil. Protect your mate. Slippery is the water dragon. His dragon roared the ancient saying, and the tips of his wings pushed again at his back.
You are starting to piss me off, he said to her.
The blue dragon arched her back, and he braced himself for a blow. She shot another stream of water at him. This time he was ready and captured the water in the air in a blast of ice.
The stream suspended from him to her, like an ice bridge thrown down by Zeus. It cracked and shattered to the ground in massive chunks, pelting the abused equipment.
Mei landed in front of him, close enough that her dragon’s moist huffs spread a fine sheen of frost across his chest. Her opaque eyes met his human ones, longing and pain clear in the dark depths. Darius fisted his hands to keep from reaching out to touch her, even as conflicting emotions twisted his soul.
In a blue shimmer, she shifted back to her human form. Her black hair tangled down her back and her clothes were bunched up like she’d put them on too fast. “I’m sorry,” anguish pulled at her voice.
His heart twisted in his chest, and he grabbed her shaking shoulders and pulled her to him, wanting more than anything to comfort her and take her pain. She muttered nonsensical things against his chest that sounded like they could have been sorrys.
Before, only heat had smoldered between them. Now her skin felt clammy and his cold, as if someone had turned the air conditioner too far down. He shivered, an involuntary shudder, a reaction that he, an ice dragon, had never had before.
“I knew you would hate me.” Her words sounded muffled between them.
“No.” He tried to think of the right thing to say to calm her—even if it wasn’t true. “I’m just surprised.”
She nodded, but he couldn’t tell if she believed him. They stood locked together for the space of a few breaths. He frantically tried to triage his concerns but only came up with questions.
“How can you be a water dragon? They were all killed.”
“Apparently not.” Her smile was grim.
“I’ve seen you use ice before.”
“Ice is just water. It is a small thing to change it.”
Darius stared at her, feeling his slack face give away his confusion. Finally, he stepped away from her and ran his hand through wet hair. “The king would…”
“He would kill me,” she said calmly. “He’d have no choice or lose the support of all the kingdom.”
She was right. The water dragons had orchestrated the murder and overthrow of Alec’s ancestors hundreds of years ago, all because they did not want to follow the ancient order to cross-breed with other dragon folds. The king’s order had been for strength, for longevity. For the good of the whole.
By murdering the ancient king, they had changed the course of succession until Alec had wrestled back control with promises of unity and peace. Alec couldn’t give Mei a pass without causing a revolution. It was his own great-great-something grandfather who her people had killed. It was one thing to take the dissenters in stride for the sake of peace, but a water dragon who had murdered his ancestor?
Never.
“Are you going to tell him?” she asked.
Indecision twisted his gut. Alec needed to know. If there were others, they could threaten the king’s life. “How many water dragons are there?” he asked.
Mei looked mutinous, and he knew without her saying anything that there were many. “How many more?”
“The women are kept in the dark. It’s not their fault.” Panic raised the pitch of her voice. “They have no idea about the outside world.”
“Who else knows?”
“Only you.” Mei lifted a shoulder in a move that seemed defeated. “It’s just you. You deserved to know, and you wouldn’t have believed me if I told you.”
“You don’t say.” His attempt at levity felt fake, like canned applause in a closed studio.
“You can’t tell anyone.”
“We’ll go to Alec together.” It was the only course of action that made any sense to him.
Angry red color heated her face, and she crossed her arms. He could feel her sense of betrayal, could feel her pulling away from him, shutting herself up tight in her lockbox of control. “You said you would leave with me now.” She threw an impotent hand in his direction. “Remember. Now. Now. Now.”
Oh, he remembered.
The fevered nows between them echoed in his mind, reminding him that this was his mate. Her treacherous people aside, he had to find a way to protect her and not betray his king.
But how?
Something niggled at Darius’s mind. “What am I missing?”
“We can talk to Alec after the gala.” Mei gave him a wild-eyed, desperate look.
He stepped back from her, giving himself space to connect the dots. “You want me to avoid the gala. Are there more water dragons coming here for the gala?” He took a breath. “And
you’ve known about it?”
“I don’t know for sure.” Her shoulders hunched forward in what he hoped was shame.
“Is this what you meant by being scared?” he demanded. “The fax. Is it them?”
Mei’s recoil from him made him certain.
How could she do this? Her keeping the threat from him and her betrayal of their king stung. Slippery was the water dragon. He viewed her through a caustic lens; her containment and poise now seemed untrustworthy and altogether fugitive.
Sneaky.
She was a sneaky liar. Distain swelled and spilled between them, tainting the air with something acrimonious and rotted.
“They could be planning another assassination attempt,” he said, “and you don’t want me to tell the king?”
Mei gave a hurt cry and ran to the door. He caught up to her easily and trapped her with his arm across the metal doorframe.
“I don’t know for sure that it is them,” she said. “I swear, I don’t know.”
“You realize if they try anything, everyone will blame you.” He shook her shoulders, trying to get the gravity of the situation through to her. Mei cried out again, and he knew, without her having to insist any more, that she was telling him the truth.
Finally.
The truth.
He wished to God he’d never found out.
Chapter Eight
Mei ran barefoot through the casino with her shoes in her hand, scarcely remembering getting in a cab to go to the apartment she shared with Jane. Every cell of her body felt battered and crushed. She’d known Darius might reject her. It shouldn’t hurt so much, but it did.
She paused outside the door to the apartment when she heard the faint noises of TV and Jane and Tee talking inside. Friday night, Girls’ Night In for Game of Thrones and wanton ice cream consumption. The last thing she needed was for the two of them to see her turmoil.
She shut the door quietly behind her, hoping they wouldn’t hear her enter.
“Who killed Joffrey?” Tee’s question met her in the hallway.
“Don’t you dare tell her and ruin it,” Jane called out.
Dragon Her Back Page 5
