“It’s a dream, really,” Angela said, sinking into his side. “None of this feels real.”
“If it helps, pretend it’s not.”
Standing in front of the pillar, the dragon halted, jerked back its head twice then thrust it toward the stone, opening its jaws. Red-orange flame burst in a hot cloud against the gray stone. The dragon drew back its head twice more to fill its throat with fire, which it used to bake the stone.
“Enough, Drago.”
The dragon’s head swiveled back, and he retreated several steps, resting on his haunches again, which rendered his appearance only slightly less daunting.
Guy turned his head and kissed Angela’s hair. “It’s time, my dear. Would you like to meet him first?”
Angela took a deep breath and nodded. He held her hand as they approached the dragon. The creature, for its part, remained still except for the blinking of golden eyes. It was curious, as was Guy, whether Angela had the courage to greet the beast.
She was lovely in her loose blouse and short skirt. Ethereal. Moonlight silvered her hair and illuminated her pale skin. When she stood directly in front of Drago, she reached out a hand, palm up, just as Guy had done.
Guy smiled as the dragon slowly bent to push its snout against her opened hand.
Angela gasped, but her expression was one of delight rather than fear. “May I touch him?”
“No quick moves, but yes, pet it like you would a skittish horse.”
Her hand slid up the long snout, then over the top of the bridge. The dragon bent down further to invite her hand to rub the top of its head where the fringe of spikes that ran down the center of its neck and back began.
Extending a finger, she gingerly touched the tip of one spike. “It’s not as sharp as it looks. And it feels smooth, like oiled leather.” She smoothed her palm downward, across its chest to the arms draped at either side. Her hands banded an upper arm, but only covered a small portion of its girth. She let out a deep breath and stepped away, raising her head to meet the dragon’s wary gaze. “Has he ever forgotten himself with a woman?”
“There are restraints attached to the pillar.”
“For him?”
“For you. So that you cannot flee. It’s for your safety.”
She snorted softly. “Are you telling me that if I try to run, he might see me as prey?”
Guy was surprised she understood that Drago’s mind was more animal than human. “Precisely.”
She glanced to the side, meeting his gaze. “I never imagined my first time would be like this. I dreamed a hundred scenarios, but... this...” She waved her hand toward the dragon. “I don’t want to disappoint you. You both have this one chance to make this right.”
“Don’t think about us. I know it’s hard to do, but know that whatever happens, you will be safe.” He infused his words with confidence. “I will see to it.”
She blew out a long breath and straightened her shoulders. “I don’t want to run, but I’m beginning to shake.”
Guy held out a hand. “I’ll bind you. The stone is warm. Close your eyes and imagine another scenario.”
“Do you have that blindfold?” she asked, her voice small.
Guy’s stomach dropped. She was afraid after all. His gaze swung to the dragon, whose chest deflated, its head lowering as though defeated.
“Come,” Guy said. “I’ll prepare you, darling.”
Angela concentrated on her breaths. Tried to calm them and do as Guy had suggested. Imagine another fate. Everything she’d read had been tainted because the stories were written by the families who’d survived the virgins’ sacrifices. To those villagers, because they hadn’t witnessed it directly, the girls had been ravaged by a beast, eaten whole. Never again seen by loved ones.
And who said they hadn’t been right? Was she too eager to accept Guy’s word? Why was that? Was her attraction to him and to the romantic notion of a handsome noble cursed by a witch claiming her common sense?
And yet, she’d met the dragon, felt the smoothness of his brownish hide, stood close enough to see the jagged rows of teeth, the spiked strip that ran down the center of its back. She’d touched him and he’d done her no harm. However, she wasn’t fooled that his true, wild nature couldn’t easily be aroused.
Guy had called the bands around her wrists and ankles “safeguards”. The truth was, she didn’t know what would happen next, and part of her was terrified, but the other part was intrigued. Her life would change...or end...in the next few moments.
Her heartbeats pounded loudly inside her chest. The sound intensified it seemed, because she was again blindfolded, and every sensation was exaggerated. Every wisp of wind felt as though it was directed to tease her breasts, to tickle her belly and soothe between her open thighs.
Warmth radiated from the stone behind her, and she embraced it. Imagining her back blanketed by a man, and then she felt fingertips trailing down her cheek.
Guy. His touch thrilled, tracing the delicate line of her collarbone, then slipping down to curve around her breasts. When fingers plucked her nipples, she let her head fall back to rest against the stone, to let the heat seep into her blood. “I wish...” she began, but wondered if finishing the thought would somehow affect the outcome.
“Don’t speak,” he whispered, so close his breath fanned her cheek. A kiss landed on her mouth, and she opened to it, allowing him to slide his tongue inside to mate with hers. His mouth lifted, and she tried to follow.
“I promise you pleasure,” he said in a low tone. “Accept him, accept us. We will love you, Angel. I already do.”
Her heart leapt, and she whimpered.
Then she felt it, the dull thud against the ground. The dragon was moving, nearing.
Her body stiffened and she pressed her back against the stone to escape; her breaths grew jagged again.
“Feel, sweetheart. Just feel. You will come to no harm. I swear it.”
She heard the slide of metal, and remembered another of the stories she’d read. Of a knight who’d faced the dragon with a sword, never to be seen again.
Guy was that knight, and he’d survived. He waited beside her, sword drawn to protect her. She felt pleasure in that knowledge, and her heart slowed a bit.
Then something wet slithered over her knee cap. Wet, warm, thick.
She remembered Drago’s not-quite-human tongue. How he’d pleasured her with it, pushing it inside to see whether she was pure, and perhaps prepare her for this moment when his thicker, longer tongue would take her.
All of a sudden, the image of the dragon bent before her, its long head poised between her thighs, wasn’t completely terrifying. She imagined the handsome lord, frightened the first time he’d transformed, realizing the curse wasn’t an old woman’s crazy rantings.
Drago was inside this beast, reliving a horror he’d reenacted hundreds of times. This was an ancient rite, and now she was a part of it. Perhaps his savior. She wanted this to work, to be the reason he found peace. She wanted to know him, to fall in love with him, and to share her destiny as part of this strange, magical triumvirate.
As his tongue licked upward touching her inner thighs, crowding against her folds, she drew calm around her like a cloak, and eased apart her thighs, giving him permission.
A rumble sounded from the beast in front of her, but she wasn’t frightened.
Warm lips pressed against her cheek. A hand cupped her breast and squeezed. The flickering point of the lush, wet tongue pushed between her folds and entered her.
She stiffened momentarily, but laughed nervously. “I’m not afraid. It’s still so new,” she whispered.
“You’re doing well. So lovely. Have I told you how beautiful you are? A moon goddess.”
Because she felt beautiful and powerful, she didn’t scoff. The tongue inside her vibrated, then pushed upward, and she knew Drago, the beast and the man, was overcome with the moment too.
The thickness driving upward stretched her tight walls, but she shook
her hair, fisted her hands, and began to rock her hips, forward and back, following instinct to ease the dragon’s passage inside her, to seek the pleasure Guy had promised.
Was this how a cock would feel, burning her inside and out, causing gooseflesh to prickle her skin, her belly to cramp with the tension building deep inside her womb?
The tongue withdrew partway, and she moaned, disappointed at the loss, only to groan more loudly when it thrust deeper, and deeper still.
Her entire body vibrated with longing, until a sharp sting, interrupted her pleasure. Drago held still inside her. Angela dangled in the chains, afraid she’d somehow failed, but the faint flickering of the end of his tongue, deep inside her, reignited the pleasure. She arched her back and screamed as joy overcame her, exploding outward from her womb to tremble down her legs and cinch the entrance of her sex around the wondrous thickness filling her.
Around them, she grew aware of the wind whipping at her hair, a furious chilling burst that rocked her in her chains.
Drago withdrew.
Guy’s arms surrounded her, and he stepped in front of her to press her body to the pillar, protecting her from the wind howling all around them. He pulled away the blindfold.
“What’s wrong?” she shouted.
“I don’t know.”
“This hasn’t happened before?”
He shook his head and held her close. Not that she minded the sudden storm. Something elemental, something primal moved in the swell and howl, and then rain began to fall, lashing at first, then quieting as the wind died away.
Her manacles opened one by one, not by Guy’s hands, which were still stroking her back. Arms falling to her sides, she glanced shyly over Guy’s shoulder to find another man standing there. One with golden, slitted eyes.
His gaze locked with hers, and he bowed slightly at the waist.
“Drago?” she breathed. He was as tall as Guy. In the bright moonlight, she could see his hair was the color of midnight, his skin olive. Each of his features was beautiful—large eyes, heavy winged brows, a chiseled jaw and straight nose.
Guy slowly pulled away his arms and stepped to the side while Drago and Angela eyed each others’ nude bodies. “Something’s different,” Guy said, his voice tense as though he was afraid to hope.
“Something is different,” Drago said, as he flexed his arms. “I can feel it. I am no longer slave to the beast.”
She shivered at that deep, warm timbre she remembered.
“And yet your eyes, Drago,” Guy said, reaching for Drago’s jaw to turn his face. “They are the beast’s.”
Drago frowned, but then the atoll began to shake. “We have to leave!”
Guy grabbed her hand and followed Drago as he ran toward to the bridge.
The ground shook so hard, they stumbled. She fell to her knees, cutting them on the sharp shale, but Guy pulled her up behind him, and dragged her toward the bridge. “We have to get to the keep. Quickly.”
All around them, the brittle shale shook and splintered, snapping. The ground shivered, sifting the rock slates they balanced on as they leapt for firmer footing on the bridge.
They were midway across when the bridge started swaying side to side. She glanced back. The ground had fallen away from the end of the bridge, and the walkway began to tilt toward the ground. She grabbed desperately for a handhold, scratching her fingers. “Guy, we aren’t going to make it!”
A roar thundered, louder than crashing rock, and she glanced back to see Drago, arms outstretched, his face etched with anger. “Why now, you bitch?” he roared. But his form shimmered in the moonlight then expanded in a quiet explosion. Again, the dragon blocked the end bridge that fell away into the deep abyss.
Guy shoved her to the ground. She fell hard, scraping her knees. Then Guy gripped the stone rail at one side. The entire bridge shook violently, slamming Guy against one side then the other and into her. A loud wrenching shudder moved the bridge.
Angela lifted from the ground, and screamed because she realized they were falling...down...down.
Another roar rent the air. She glanced up, to find the dragon falling with them, head pointed downward, its wings folded close to its body. When the animal was so near she feared it would slam into her and Guy, it reached out its taloned paws, gripped each side of the bridge, then expanded its wings. They caught air—so quickly that again Guy and Angela slammed together, but then they lifted and fell in gentle swells as the beast rose up from the bottomless depths, scaling the crumbling atoll until the castle walls appeared on the other side.
She got to her knees to peer over the section of bridge they stood on and watched in wonder as the dragon set them down on the grounds before the keep then leapt to the side.
Guy and Angela scrambled from the bridge to stand before Drago whose great body shivered then melted away to again reveal the man.
His face was chalky, and he fell to his knees.
Angela rushed toward him and knelt. Her hands cupped his cheeks. “Are you all right? You’re clammy.”
“This wasn’t exactly what I expected,” he said, leaning his cheek against her palm as he dragged in deep breaths. “I’ve never changed by my own will.”
“Does this mean the curse is ended?”
Bewilderment shone in his gleaming eyes. “I’m still part dragon.”
“But you controlled it. I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.”
“No?”
For the first time, their gazes met and locked. She found she liked the strange vertical slits, the glittering gold of his irises.
Drago’s mouth curved into a slow smile. “I owe you a debt of thanks.”
Uncomfortable now, and all too aware they were both completely naked, she frowned. “I don’t want thanks. It’s not why I allowed you to...” Her words sputtered to a stop.
“Drink the blood of your innocence?” he murmured, beginning to smile.
Angela wrinkled her nose. “That just sounds gross.
“The act was...lovely. Your pleasure freed me.”
They shared slow, intimate smiles, and Angela tried her best not to ogle the hard planes and swells of his rugged body, but failed.
Behind her, Guy cleared his throat. “We’ve promises to keep, Drago.”
Angela shook her head. Drago was coated in cooling sweat. Her own body shivered in the aftermath of everything that had happened. “I don’t expect anything. You don’t owe me.”
Drago pushed off the ground and reached down to offer her a hand, which she took. When he pulled her up, he held her inside the circle of his arms. Bared skin warmed. “Guy, here,” Drago said, “would take exception to your phrasing. He’s already in love with you, and there’s part of me, the beast, I think, that’s still eager to play.”
Hearing his sexy, rumbling voice, Angela felt heat wash over her body. Her nipples tingled. Drago’s cock stirred and pulsed against her belly. “Guy loves me? That was real?”
Guy grunted from behind her, and Drago’s grin stretched across his wickedly handsome face. “We are bound, little one. We three. There’s no escape.”
Since she was already more than a little in love with the idea of this strange triumvirate, Angela prayed to God that vow was true.
Chapter Five
Drago eased into the large tub then held out his arms to the woman. Guy had left them at the bathroom door to find food and wine for their celebration—and to leave the two of them alone, giving Drago privacy to soothe Angela’s nervousness.
Angela stood beside the tub, blushing.
“Come,” he said. “We’ll bathe. Both of us are covered in dust and your knees need tending.”
Her shoulder lifted. “After everything that’s happened, I shouldn’t be shy, I guess.”
Her modesty was refreshing. An elixir. Just as wondrous as the innocence he’d taken. “Come,” he repeated, this time with more insistence. He felt like growling when she reacted to his command, her nostrils flaring, her breaths shortening with arousal.
He could see now what Guy had all along. She was perfect for them. Strong, but naturally submissive.
Her gaze steadied, and she stepped over the rim to join him, settling with her back against his belly. He enfolded her with his arms. They rested together for a long moment. He remained silent, letting her regain her bearings while the hot water and forced intimacy soothed away her maidenly resistance.
She reached for one of the wash cloths draped over the side of the free-standing, porcelain tub. Then she picked up a bar of soap, smelled it, and chose another before dunking the cloth and the bar and rubbing them together to work up a lather. So thoroughly did she rub that he wondered if she planned to keep doing it until the soap disappeared.
Drago rubbed his hands up her body, then took the soap and cloth from her hands.
She clenched the edge of the tub and stiffened with the first glide of the cloth across her breasts. “Do you remember everything?” she asked, her voice a little shrill. “About when you were the dragon?”
“I do,” he said, scraping a nipple with the terry cloth until it hardened into a delicious little point. “I was trapped inside the beast, but I was as eager as it was to taste you.”
“Was there ever a moment when it wanted to eat me?”
“The dragon’s craving was for your first blood and to feel your pleasure blossom. The animal was every bit as joyous as I was when you surrendered.” He scraped the other nipple, then dropped the cloth into the water to enfold her soapy breasts in his palms. His caresses were light but firm.
Her breath hitched. “This is all so strange.”
“Being loved by a dragon?”
“And being shared. I can hardly believe this is happening.”
Drago lifted a hand and turned her chin to the side so she could see his face and he hers. “This is destined. Our finding each other. My knight. My ladylove. I thought freedom would be an end to the magic, but we will share it now.”
Color spilled into her cheeks. Her wide hazel eyes brimmed with unspoken questions.
“We are bound. All three together,” he said quietly. “So long as we stand together, we will live forever.”
Dragon's Desire Page 5
