Match Me Later (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 4)

by Rachael Slate

  “We all taste the same.” She struggled against the warmth his words flushed through her chest. Her body had already surrendered, legs spreading wider to grant him better access.

  “Oh, I doubt that.” He purred, nuzzling her thigh. “I don’t want any of the others.”

  “They can give you everything I can’t.”

  “Maybe, but they can’t give me the one thing you can.” He swallowed thickly and raised his head. “You. I’ve been numb for years, my senses blocked out like I’m under water. Until I met you.” His dark brows furrowed. “Being with you is like breaching the surface. I can see again, hear again, feel again. I don’t want to lose this, Naya, and I don’t want to lose you.”

  Ryden slipped one hand between them and palmed her. His fingers drew circles, increasing the pressure with each pass. Pressing his thumb to Naya’s pussy, he rubbed her eager little bud through the fabric of her tight shorts. He couldn’t pinpoint what the hell he was pursuing with Naya, except that it was like the greatest mystery of his existence hid behind this connection he shared with her. Regardless of what she claimed, none of the other fox spirits tempted him the way she did. None made his pulse race, his senses spike to life.

  There was something more about her, too. As though the darkness he kept locked away pacified in her presence. And she was the bloody key.

  Repress. Suppress. Subdue. The mantra had left him numb. His entire life he’d beaten back that part of himself because he’d believed it evil, but what if it wasn’t? What if the beast was just…a beast? Neither evil nor good. Just an animal desperate to be set free.

  He grunted as Naya rose off him, and he tugged on the chain around his neck. Did he trust her enough to disclose his deepest secrets? Someone like Naya was closer to the Jade Emperor’s world than he was. As the future Queen, she must have access to the fox spirits’ records, their history. Plus, she was unconnected to Price—a combination he hadn’t encountered yet.

  She might be able to tell him whether his gut was right or wrong.

  Whether he really was a monster.

  The trail was getting hotter. If he followed it, staying close to Naya, eventually he’d reach the end. Complete the picture of what had really happened that night.

  Whether he was the demon who’d murdered his mother.

  He wasn’t sure if he could handle learning the truth—because what if he had? What would he tell Price? He’d never admitted his darkest fears to his brother. Yet living with that question burning through his mind wasn’t an option either.

  He couldn’t go to Daji for answers. She was too close to Price. Ryden had to protect his brother from the worst possibility until he’d found proof of its verification. These past couple of weeks, he’d gotten closer to the truth than he had in a decade.

  “I help you, and you help me. Simple as that. A trade. My energy for your knowledge.”

  Her fine brows drew together. “About what?”

  He drew out the chain and angled the talisman toward her. She palmed the gold pendant, twisted it in her slender hands, and shook her head. “I can’t tell you what these symbols mean.”

  “Okay, but you have connections, right? Someone who can figure this out, or access to the palace archives. I’m pretty sure this—” he pointed to a curved rune—”refers to the húli jīng.”

  She nibbled her bottom lip and released her hold on the talisman. “What makes you believe this symbol belongs to my race?”

  “A hunch. Plus, I’ve seen that symbol carved into the architecture around the palace.” Whoever had designed this place had a taste for opulence. The architect in him admired the cultural aspects carved into the stone. Symbols, dancing apsaras, traditions millennia-old. The rune from his talisman, though etched subtly throughout the stonework, had caught his attention right away.

  “Fine. I’ll do my best.” She tilted her head, studying him. “Why is this so important to you?”

  A tic worked the muscle of his jaw as he clenched it. “Because this talisman is the only thing keeping whatever’s inside me leashed.”

  She eased backward, tensing. “What’s inside you?”

  A shadow clouded his vision. He clutched the talisman to his chest. “That’s what I need you to find out.”

  ***

  Naya blew out the joss stick, inhaling the sweet wisp of fragrant jasmine smoke as she waved the incense in a circle around herself. Tonight, she would venture into the earthly realm and set right what she’d not been strong enough to earlier. Well, they would set it right. Together. Ryden’s offer warmed through her veins like a soothing hot tea. A connection took root between them, even if she didn’t like to admit it.

  Clearly, the man was seeking more than to just get laid. This palace brimmed with ladies who would flock to his bed if beckoned. The twinge of jealousy she experienced at that image was proof Ryden was growing on her.

  Probably for the worse. After he tagged along on her mission, she’d have to ditch him. A Queen didn’t need a King. Even Daji didn’t take Price as her King, only her Consort. That relationship was clearly complicated. As the Queen, Daji didn’t feed off human males like the rest of her race. She required a stronger energy—qì—acquired through the consumption of human hearts. Price’s continued state of living proved he occupied the post at her side merely as a symbol. Or a scheme from their Elders.

  Naya wasn’t privileged to the inside workings of the sovereignty—yet. Once she presented the Elders with the proof of her capability, she would relieve Daji of the throne—a situation the Queen was most eager to have come to pass. The woman was like a big sister to her, and although she hid many things well, she couldn’t conceal how weakened she was becoming. No wonder. It must be exhausting. Century after century of existence.

  Solitary existence was…lonely.

  Naya set aside the joss stick and raised the hood of her cloak.

  “Ready?” Ryden’s deep timbre carried from the doorway. Right on time, just as they’d discussed when she’d gone over her plans with him earlier. She spun and faced him. His gaze dipped across her body like a caress. “Hungry?”

  “You wish.”

  His stare lifted to hers and damn, but that was definitely disappointment in his dark blue eyes. She pressed one hand to her belly, calming the surging hunger pangs. “Let’s go.” She twirled the wafting smoke from the joss stick over the pool. Its surface shimmered then stilled, reflecting Naya’s form. The waters darkened, a vision of stairs flickering across the surface. Grabbing the lit torch on the wall, she hopped onto the pool’s edge and planted one foot on the top stair. Behind her, Ryden whistled and strode toward her. “Come on.” Sticking her other foot into the image, she descended the stairs. Ryden climbed in after her, and as he neared her, the portal overhead shuttered.

  “Crap. What’s happening?” He jerked his face toward the cloud of darkness descending over them.

  “The portal is closing. Don’t worry, it’ll open again.”

  “Uh-huh. That’s very reassuring.” She stifled a laugh at his furrowed brows and faced forward, proceeding down the winding stone staircase.

  “Shit, it’s dark.” A thump echoed. “Fuck.”

  She whirled and spotted Ryden hopping on one foot.

  “Missed a step.”

  Biting back a smile, she handed him the torch. “Here ya go, you big baby.” She didn’t require the light as much as his human eyes did, so she treaded forward into the blackness.

  “A little narration wouldn’t hurt. Where we are, what we’re doing, that kind of thing.” His grumbling echoed off the cavern’s walls.

  She sighed. If she explained, he might leave her alone to perform her task. “This is kind of like a back door. If Daji doesn’t realize I’m gone, she won’t worry about me.”

  “Basically, you’re sneaking out.”

  No point in refuting that. The other portals in the palace would leave a residue if she passed through them, but this one, it was so ancient, no one had used it in centuries. The
portal was coated in a murky film she’d have to purify before it would function. Yeah, gross.

  “I’ll need to cleanse the portal before we can pass.” Naya waved for Ryden to hand her the torch and, once he did, she set the handle into its gilded holder on the wall. As she strolled toward the pool, the firelight flickered off the liquid, gleaming. The pool filled most of the small cavern, disappearing toward the thin stream of a waterfall at one end. Beyond the ledge, blackness. Naya had been here only once—the night she’d met Ryden. Fox spirit custom required them to bathe in the waters of their ancestors upon reaching the age of maturity. A shiver crept across her skin and she recalled how she’d dunked into the frigid pool. The icy blast had rushed over her, cleansing, renewing.

  Tonight, though, smoky tendrils drifted off the water’s surface, emitting moist heat into the air. She dipped one toe into the pool, and yep, the liquid warmed her skin. Naya slid her cloak off her shoulders, tossed it aside, and slipped out of her short, black skirt and blue blouse.

  From the stairs, Ryden coughed into his fist. “Ah, what are you doing?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him and shook out her hair. “No one’s making you watch.”

  He folded his arms across his broad chest, accentuating the bulges in his biceps as though he knew how tantalizing she found his body. The quirk in his lips proved it. “Couldn’t tear my eyes off you with a crowbar.”

  His words spiked the thirst inside her, but instead of giving in, she lifted and dropped her shoulder. If she held out until she became Queen, she’d never need to feed off him. This unexplained and unwelcome attachment to him would be severed. She wouldn’t require his services, ever.

  The water lapped across her feet as she waded. A few degrees warmer than her body temperature, the liquid soothed her anxiety. After tonight, she’d fulfill her destiny—without Ryden.

  The water ebbed around her breasts, then above her shoulders. She dunked her head below the surface, searching for the portal she’d spotted the last time she was here.

  There. At the bottom of the pool, the stones in a six-by-eight frame emitted a slight iridescent glow, obscured in places by a thick coating of silt.

  Hmm. Slicing her arms through the water, she breached the surface and seized a breath. Seemed like it was functioning, just in need of a quick clea—

  Her left ankle jerked forward and piercing pain closed around it. She let out a loud gasp.

  “Naya?”

  She met Ryden’s widened gaze. He rushed to the pool’s edge. “H-help.” Panic seized her chest as the force wrenched again.

  And dragged her under.

  ***

  “Fuck.” Ryden launched into the pool, plunging toward where Naya had disappeared. He scanned the darkened waters for her. The pool wasn’t deep and he spotted the floor below him, but the edge extended beyond his view. His lungs burned, tightening from the lack of oxygen. Dammit. He couldn’t locate her, couldn’t save her…by himself.

  Shoving off the floor, he kicked to the surface. He yanked on the chain around his neck, snapping the metal, and flung the talisman onto the stones. Giving his head a violent shake, he inhaled deeply, letting the beast consume him.

  Find her.

  His honed senses leading, he dove under. This time, his gaze cut through the blackness, scoured the empty pool, and followed the flow of water to where it rushed through an opening in the cave wall. Ryden raced forward, wedging through the tunnel and twisting free on the opposite side. He propelled himself to the surface and blinked back the water from his eyes.

  Glinting winked at him from the far side of the cavern. Scales.

  “Ryden, get back!” Naya’s warning echoed off the stone walls.

  Dammit, no.

  A long, thin coil snaked around her middle, pinning her to the wall. A slithering figure slunk from the shadows into the stream of moonlight cutting across the cavern. Not much bigger than him, the creature rose on two stunted hind legs, curling the claws of its short forelegs toward Naya. Like the rest of its serpentine body, the beast’s feline-like head was covered in smooth, gleaming black scales.

  A dragon. A fucking dragon.

  Naya gasped and shoved her hands at the creature’s hold around her waist, her cut-off wheeze suggesting the beast strangled her.

  The deep, savage instincts he’d repressed for so long surged inside him, channeling his vision to focus in on the enemy.

  Ryden lunged onto the rock ledge, barreling into the creature’s side. Bones snapped as they smacked into the wall. He inhaled a heaving breath and, satisfied the bones weren’t his, snared his hands around the dragon’s slender neck. “Release her.”

  The beast’s lips curled into a snarl as he stared into its gleaming dark eyes. He tightened his grip, bloodlust replacing the anxiety pounding through his veins. This creature had taken Naya. If Ryden hadn’t been here to save her…

  “Ryden. I’m all right. Let it go.” Naya’s soft whisper pushed into his mind, her gentle hand squeezing his shoulder. “It’s just a youngling.”

  He blinked. His hands were fastened around the dragon’s neck, the beast’s eyes rolling into the back of its head. He opened his fists, dropping the dragon.

  Naya palmed his cheek and drew his face to hers. “I’m okay…are you?”

  He squinted at the creature, which slithered into the shadows, then at his hands, and back to Naya.

  “Ryden?” Her eyes widened and she stepped back. She clutched her arms around her middle, regarding him with wariness in her silvery brown eyes.

  He breathed in and out through his nose, but the pounding thirst burning through his veins didn’t lessen. What he’d unleashed had not yet been sated…

  And it was growing stronger. The residual suppression from the talisman was wearing off.

  He was growing…stronger. Fiercer.

  Hungrier.

  He dragged a hand through his wet hair and shook off the moisture. The lack of restraints—the freedom—invigorated him.

  Naya inhaled sharply. He angled his head toward her. She’d pressed her palms flat against the wall behind her and bit down on her lip, as though realizing he had her cornered.

  Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

  She wouldn’t get away from him this time.

  Naya sucked a breath into her lungs and held it as Ryden’s heated gaze passed over her nude body. Something had changed in him. She’d perceived he was strong—that he’d beaten the dragon was not surprising.

  It was the way he’d been about to squeeze the life from the creature that frightened her. She’d known him to be gentle and caring. The man in front of her had bloodlust reflecting in his eyes.

  The savage, murderous glint was gone now, replaced with another deeper, darker thirst.

  For me.

  She exhaled a shaky breath and focused on his throat. The talisman he always wore—the one he claimed kept him controlled—was missing. Oh, crap. He must have removed it to save her.

  She hadn’t needed his rescuing—she would have eventually fended off the chilong dragon. The hornless mountain dragon was young and inexperienced. Ryden had stormed into the cavern and engaged the beast before she’d had the chance to defend herself.

  He stalked toward her, a confident, powerful striding. His hungry stare fastened on her, similar to how the dragon had intended her to be its next meal.

  She swallowed hard as he approached and bent to inhale against her neck. His warm exhale sent shivers cascading down her spine, tingling into her core. This was the potent essence she’d detected in him at the nightclub. The reason why she’d chosen him over the other males. How much of Ryden was in control? His eyes flickered with a lethal gleam and his nails had lengthened, sharpened, like…claws. His parted lips revealed the tips of fangs.

  He was still a man, but the essence inside him, the beast, had blended into his body. She’d never beheld a creature like him. He almost resembled… She frowned. No, that was impossible. One of those hadn’t been born
in centuries. Ryden had to be something else.

  Naya licked her lips and pressed her palm against his chest. “Ryden? Your talisman is missing.” Could he be reasoned with? Raw seduction burned in those blue depths, but this man had yet to learn the most important lesson.

  Naya was the temptress, and she’d charm him around her little finger.

  Starting with this unbound passion that steamed from him. She centered her powers and focused on his intense aura, dimming his desire a notch.

  He drew his hand through her hair and around the back of her head. “What are you doing to me, Naya?”

  “Showing you that I’m not your plaything. Whatever is gaining control inside you, it’s powerful. But not strong enough to overcome me.”

  A chuckle rumbled in his chest. “Exactly why you’re the one I want.” He nipped at her mouth, blocking her in with one arm braced above her head and the other fisted in her hair. His damp clothes clung to him, outlining every ripple of brawny muscle. The wet material chafed against her skin, her nipples pebbling as they pressed against the clinging fabric. He inched forward, brushing his lips across hers, gently once, then more forcefully, until she gasped and he slipped his tongue inside her mouth. His hot breath warmed to her core, his temperature higher than normal, feverish.

  He controlled this frenzy…but for how long?

  Groaning into her mouth, he seized her hand and drew it between them, down to palm his rigid length. “Feed, Naya,” he growled. “You should have been able to defeat that dragon, but you couldn’t, because you’re not strong enough. You’re never going to be able to face Chao if you aren’t.”

  Damn him for forming a cohesive argument even while on the edge of savagery.

  She curled her fingers around his shaft, a delightful shiver coursing through her as his length throbbed in her hand. Her stomach tightened, and the light-headedness that had been plaguing her swept over her, making her knees weak. Ryden’s grip on her eased and she sank to the stone floor. Her mouth watered at how close she was to sampling his essence. One tug of his pants and she’d have him in her mouth, drawing out those beads of jīng energy and satisfying her deep craving.