“Suits him, don’tcha think, Kerry.” Miri smiled at her and then drew her in for an unexpected hug. “Thanks for bringing him along. I’d have been forced to come down and drag him up here otherwise, and that would have gotten me in all sorts of trouble.”
The cutlery clanged out of Mark’s hands. It made Kerry jump, especially as it was accompanied by an animalistic growl that would have done any large predator proud.
She involuntarily took a step away, right into Duncan, who flung one arm around her and squeezed her shoulder, as though to reassure her. Strangely enough, it did. She couldn’t help but be drawn into his comforting warmth. Miri simply laughed and rolled her eyes at her husband.
“See what I mean, Kerry.” She blew a kiss at her husband while she said that, then winked at Kerry. “Men, I tell you. I had a baby, and I’m tired, sure, but I’m not ill, and perfectly able to come and see Duncan and beat some sense into him, but no…my Lord and Master has other ideas.”
Duncan’s big shoulders shook in silent laughter, and Kerry got the distinct impression that she was missing something here, something vital. While it was obvious that Miri and Mark were in a D/s relationship, as confirmed by Mark’s raised eyebrow accompanied by that look, there was a strange undercurrent.
The baby in Duncan’s arms chose that moment to half wake up. His little face screwed up as though he were in pain.
“Hey there, easy, ma wee laddie.”
With the same expert care he’d already shown, Duncan shifted the little mite up his chest so that the baby’s head rested on his massive shoulder. He let go of Kerry to do so and proceeded to rub the baby’s back in large circular motions. The contrast of his huge hand on that fragile back did strange things to her insides, and Kerry had to remind herself to keep on breathing. As it was, she felt rather light-headed and was clearly seeing things, because little Maddock gave a huge burp, and a plume of smoke shot out over Duncan’s shoulder, followed by blue flames. They licked across Duncan’s back, and Kerry half expected his clothes to set alight.
When neither he nor the baby’s parents reacted at all, Kerry was sure she was losing her mind. Especially when baby Maddock did it again, and this time the flame licked her skin.
It didn’t hurt, exactly, but it gave her enough of a fright to startle away.
“Shit, are you okay?” Duncan handed the baby to Miri and grasped hold of her exposed arm. The skin still tingled where the flames had touched her, and Kerry couldn’t help her flinch away from the contact.
Duncan swore softly and seemed to grow several inches in front of her.
Yep, she was seeing things all right. Must be the thin air up here in the mountains.
“Kerry, I can explain—”
“And that’ll be our cue to make ourselves scarce for a bit,” Miri said, interrupting Duncan. “Guess that let the cat out of the bag somewhat prematurely. Or rather exposed the dragon. Sorry about that.”
Miri giggled—a high-pitched, somewhat nervous sound—and retreated with her husband on her heels. Not that Kerry could blame her. She rather felt like running too, because right now Duncan didn’t look very amenable. Far from it. He looked ready to murder someone, his usually so warm brown eyes swirling in amber fires. Utterly fascinating. Utterly terrifying. And she was on her own with the man/thing/whatever the hell he was with no means of escape, even if she had known where they were exactly and where to run to.
He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a long breath. The heat behind it singed her skin, and Kerry screwed her eyes shut and frantically shook her head.
No, just no.
“Don’t be afraid, wee one. I can explain this. Look at me, please.”
When Kerry refused and blindly backed away from him, the most menacing growl shook the entire building. It also halted her where she stood because the air positively sizzled around her, swirling in a vortex that threatened to yank her off her feet, before the silence deafened her.
When she cautiously opened her eyes, Duncan was gone. In his stead was a huge, utterly stunning dragon, his brownish-blue scales shimmering in the light as he ducked his head to fit inside the place.
Kerry opened her mouth to…well, she wasn’t exactly sure what, to be honest. Screaming seemed pointless, even if she had managed to produce anything besides that pathetic wheeze that appeared to be her attempts at breathing.
The dragon crouched lower, to enable him to squeeze into the room. As huge as the open plan area was, it proved quite a challenge. He wrapped its large tail around her in an embrace that should have been terrifying, yet was oddly comforting, which made no sense at all. His tail alone was bigger than her, the end of it culminating in a wicked-looking spike. Yet more lethal-looking spikes came out of his spine, horns sat either side of his face and when he opened his massive snout, razor-sharp teeth gleamed at her, and yet, his eyes were all Duncan.
Warm, intelligent, and worried as they regarded her thoughtfully, before he blinked and his pupils turned into lizard-like slits, and Kerry did the one thing she’d never ever thought she would…
She fainted.
* * * *
Damn it all. This was so not going to plan. His dragon snarled his annoyance, and flames appeared around them in a protective semicircle, which was utterly unnecessary in Miri and Mark’s living room, yet his animal side was not listening to reason. With his mate this vulnerable, his instincts took over. All his dragon wanted to do was carry off his woman and finally make her theirs.
Considering she’d passed out cold at the first sight of his dragon self, Duncan didn’t think that was the best idea right now.
“Will yer get ye’self under control?” Mark’s voice made Duncan spin his head around while he tightened the hold he had on his mate to make sure she remained upright. Crashing onto the stone tiles that made up the floor in this section would hurt her. Humans were so damn fragile, after all.
Unperturbed by the fire circle his dragon still maintained around them, Mark stepped straight through. “We just redecorated this place, and Miri will have the scales off my freaking back if you mess up her interior design. Get a hold of ye’self, Strannach. Here, I’ve got your girl.”
Sure enough, the other man had grasped Kerry under the shoulders, and Duncan carefully uncurled his tail from around her. She stirred and flinched away from Mark when he hoisted her up against his chest. It took every ounce of self-control Duncan possessed to not hurl a stream of fire at the other dragon for daring to touch his mate, however innocently and much needed that contact was. The mocking grin on the other man’s face was a testament to Mark’s knowledge as to what was going through Duncan’s mind right now. He changed back to his human form with a bone-crunching jar.
Kerry came back around as he took her off Mark, and the way she leaned into him, made a grab for him, and didn’t let go as he carried her over to the seating area soothed the worries churning in his gut.
“Duncan?” Had it not been for his supersensitive hearing, he would have missed that whispered question. He certainly wouldn’t have caught the desperate note behind it, one that made him hold on to her that little bit tighter as he sat down with her on his lap.
“Aye, wee one, ’tis me.”
A shudder went through his mate’s frame, and she gulped down a lungful of air before she buried her face in his chest.
Duncan exchanged a glance with Mark over her head, and he saw the same worry reflected back in the other dragon’s eyes. So much rested on how she would take this revelation, after all. Dragons had only survived this long—and there were precious few of them left over—because their existence was a closely guarded secret.
“The dragon you or the normal you?” she asked.
Mark swore softly when he heard that question, and Kerry stiffened in Duncan’s arms. She pushed away from his embrace until she was sitting up straight, arms wrapped around herself in a protective stance that made his dragon itch to come out. There was nothing Duncan could do about the blue flames licking a
cross the stone tiles by his feet. He knew the minute Kerry noticed them, because she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around his neck in a stranglehold in her frantic scramble farther up his lap.
“God, make that stop, please. You’ll burn us all alive.”
Mark’s short laugh meant that her head whipped to the side as she glared at the other man.
“How is this funny? Any of it? You’re one, too, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question as much as a statement, and screwing her eyes shut, she nuzzled into Duncan’s neck. Tears scalded his skin, even as she tried to get closer. The fact that she did, her subconscious instinctively seeking the protection of her mate, acting on their connection, made that ball of worry in his gut loosen up.
Mark must have had similar thoughts because he nodded.
“Aye that I’ll be, as are Miri and the wee bairn. For what’s it worth, I’m sorry the wee one was the reason you found out. I’ll leave Strannach to explain it all to you.” Duncan looked into the eyes of the man’s dragon when he addressed him. “He should have told you before bringing you here. I’ll inform the elders.”
The unspoken censure behind those words stung, and had it not been for the calming influence of his mate draped all over him, he’d have followed through on his earlier impulse to torch the other guy, Miri’s mate or not. Not that it would have done much good. Dragons were by and large immune to each other’s fire, but it sure would have felt good to let loose like that. Instead, the flames around his feet grew out of control, blue changing to yellow heat as he snarled his reply.
“You’ll do no such thing. They don’t need to know yet.”
“The fuck they don’t.” Mark’s fire joined his, his more turquoise than amber as their combined dragon fury clashed at Duncan’s feet. Kerry clung on tighter.
“Please, make it stop. Please!”
His mate’s impassioned plea got through to his dragon. Taking a deep breath in, Duncan closed his eyes and recalled his energy into the tight control he normally exerted over that side of himself. When he opened his eyes, it was to see his mate watching him. Of Mark, there was no sight. No doubt the fucker was on the phone to the elders even now. Then again, what did he expect? Mark’s father was one of them, and Mark was duty- and blood-bound to report to him. The truth was Duncan should have reported to the elders the minute he realized Kerry was his mate, especially as she was human. They would check her genealogy and its compatibility to his, and also confirm her being marked or not. Not that Duncan had ever given a shit about the rules, but following them meant his lassie was protected by them all.
Renewed flames licked across the floor, and Kerry gasped when one licked up his leg and touched her foot.
Before he could pull it back, she reached out and ran her fingertips through the edge of the blue flame. Inside his head, his dragon roared his approval at her actions, while outwardly Duncan didn’t dare move a muscle. This, right here, was too important. One false move on his part and he’d scare her off for sure.
“Why doesn’t it burn?” She turned slightly to look at him, eyes wide and questioning, but it was the sheer awe and wonder he sensed from her that made him breathe a sigh of relief.
“It’s just a manifestation of my dragon. It’s not meant to burn, not unless I intend it to.”
“Oh, that’s…” Her words trailed off, and seemingly emboldened by his reassurance, she hesitantly put her hand on the flame for an instant. So brief was the contact that had he blinked, he’d have missed it, but she repeated it over and over, each time leaving her hand in a fraction longer. Slowly the tension seeped from her body and she relaxed into him, which made his dragon far easier to control. His fire retreated as his animal half relaxed with her until there was no outer trace of his dragon left. It came to rest back on his biceps as a tattoo, snout facing toward Kerry in a good imitation of a goofy grin. Her eyes widened when she noticed, and then she shook her head.
“I thought I’d imagined him moving before, but your tat is so much more than just a tattoo, isn’t it?”
She at long last looked up at him, and Duncan exhaled sharply at the quiet understanding in her blue eyes.
“Aye, it is.”
She nodded and traced the edges of his dragon with a fingernail.
“What’s going through that head of yours, wee one?” This treading-softly approach was killing him, but he didn’t want to spook her, and he couldn’t read her emotions right now. It was almost as though she shielded herself—a common enough occurrence between mates—but she was human and they hadn’t mated yet, so…
Damn it, maybe the elders have a point in their rules.
“He’s beautiful.” His dragon positively strutted at that praise, and, sure enough, that goofy grin on his arm got wider as the dragon inched closer to her and winked. Kerry laughed. A rather nervous laugh, for sure, but she didn’t look as though she was going to faint or run away screaming, so that had to be a good sign.
“He’s a pain in the ass around you. Believe me, I don’t make a habit of shifting inside. Wreaks havoc on the décor, as Mark pointed out.”
Her brows drew together at the mention of the other man.
“What did he mean he’d have to tell the elders? He made that sound so serious. Are you in some kind of trouble? Should you not have shifted in front of me, is that it?” She paused and wriggled on his lap as though to get comfortable. Predictably, his cock took that as an invitation to signal his interest, and she went very still when she noticed. A faint blush stained her cheeks, and Duncan couldn’t hold back any longer. He had to taste her. Giving her ample time to pull away, he slowly closed the distance between them until his lips were hovering mere millimeters over hers.
“I’ll only be in trouble if you don’t agree,” he murmured.
“Agree to what?” Her husky reply made him even harder, as did the sweet scent of her arousal, which perfumed the air between them.
“To become my mate.” He didn’t wait for her reply, the urge to finally taste her properly a too-urgent beat in his bloodstream. Kerry’s lips, so soft and sweet under his, opened to his gentle pressure. Her sweet moan as he thrust his tongue inside, to fuck her mouth in a rough and urgent imitation of the other part of her he wanted to possess, meant that all finesse went out the window. All that mattered was the need to taste her, to possess her mouth, to drink in her submission, her whimpers of need, as she fisted her hands in his shirt and kissed him back.
Duncan let her for a few fast heartbeats before he took charge again. One hand tangled in her hair, he angled her head just so to enable him to take the kiss deeper, while he trailed his other hand down her throat and into her cleavage to wrap around one large, soft breast. Kerry went wild in his arms when he squeezed that globe harder, flicked his thumb across her rapidly hardening nipple, and then withdrew with a bite to her lower lip. Eyes closed, breathing rapidly, with the fine sheen of arousal coating her skin, her lips swollen by his kisses, she looked good enough to eat, ripe to take any which way he could think of.
“Look at me, wee one.”
Duncan grimaced at the hoarse quality of his voice. He might as well hold up a big sign declaring his feelings, for fuck’s sake. At least he wasn’t the only one barely holding on to his composure. When Kerry’s eyes fluttered open, the hugely dilated pupils and the trouble she apparently had to focus on him told their own story. She maintained her death grip on his shirt, even as she straddled him, her hips instinctively rubbing against his jeans-covered erection in such a way that Duncan saw stars.
He grasped her hips to hold her still, rested his forehead on hers, and growled his instructions.
“Hold still, woman, or so help me, I will not care about the fact that Mark and Miri can walk back in here any moment, and I’ll take you right here and now on this couch.” His claws ran out as he talked. Kerry gasped, not in pain but in delight, even as she blushed furiously and blinked as she no doubt saw his dragon in his eyes. He knew his tongue had forked, could
see the wonder in her eyes when he tasted the air, drank in her sweet scent and the rightness of this moment.
“Your tongue, it’s…”
Duncan grinned and licked up her jaw until he reached that sensitive spot under her ear. His precious girl shuddered and whimpered her need.
“Please, I…”
“Hmm, you beg so nicely, my sweet. I look forward to hearing you do that properly when you’re tied to my bed and at my mercy. Just imagine what I can do with that tongue, how it will feel when I eat out your wet cunt, tunnel into both your holes at the same time, when I cover you in my fire.” He pulled back just enough to study her, and her reaction made his dragon roar.
Flushed and panting, she looked like a woman on the edge. Her eyes crossed a little when he brought his hands back up to her rack, tested her breasts’ weight by lifting them, and then flicked his thumbs over the hard peaks, jutting through their covering like come-suck-me beacons.
“So beautifully responsive. I wonder what will happen if I do this?”
With a wicked grin up at her, he yanked her tank top down and, with one arm around her waist to hold her up, bent her torso back just enough to enable him to take one large rosy-tipped nipple into his mouth and suck.
“Fuck, I can’t…oh God, don’t stop.”
Hearing her reaction, he sucked harder, dividing his attention between both breasts until she was dry humping his erection in small, jerky, and ever-faster motions. His dragon urged him to finish this because he picked up the movement heading toward them. While neither Mark nor Miri would be shocked at his claiming his mate in their living room, he didn’t want them to witness his lassie falling apart. Her scream of surrender would be his and his alone.
Duncan released her nipple with an audible pop while grazing his teeth along the nub.
“My poor wee one, so needy. Come for me now, and look at me.” He dropped his voice on the last few words, and Kerry’s eyes fluttered open. Her passion-filled gaze locked on his, and he murmured his approval.
Marked by the Dragon [The Dragon of Skye 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 6
