“Don’t you mourn what is lost?”
Drakina considered his question for a moment before she replied. “It is right to feel sadness when confronted with change, but there is only cause to mourn when the loss is untimely.” She took his hand. “Or when matters have been left incomplete. Come, Troy, celebrate with me and finish what we have begun.” She leaned close and swept her lips over his, giving him an enticing taste of her kiss.
That was when he knew. Given the choices, there was only one he could make.
He could give her the son she wanted, the crown prince who was foretold to save her world, and accept the consequences to himself for not winning the wager.
And Drakina would never know the truth.
Fulfilling her desire and protecting her from the truth would be the choice of a champion.
His choice.
Troy locked his arms around Drakina and swept her into his arms, slanting his mouth over hers and kissing her deeply. She made a little purr of pleasure and twined her arms around his neck, her passion igniting his desire all over again. If making love with Drakina was to be the last deed Troy did, he would make it a celebration to remember.
Chapter Four
The Carrier appeared to have abandoned the notion of “slowly and thoroughly.”
He carried Drakina to the house, kicking the door closed behind them and continued to a chamber with large windows overlooking the forest. There was a large hearth on one wall, made of rounded river stones, though there was no need for a fire in this season. The rug was thick and the cushions were plentiful. He bore her down to the floor in the middle of the room, crushing her a little beneath his weight as he kissed her with uncharacteristic haste.
His passion fed her own and made Drakina impatient to feel his strength inside her. She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his back, then rolled him over so that she was astride him.
“Why do I get the feeling that you like to be in charge?” he teased, before she made sure he couldn’t ask any more questions. Her mouth was locked upon his, her tongue dancing with his, her hands busy with that cursed fastening on his jeans. She finally stripped them off and cast them aside, then tugged open his shirt.
Troy rolled her to her back and straddled her as he removed the shirt. Drakina surveyed him with great satisfaction. She liked this frenzy in him, this need to claim her for his own. She reached for his erection, but he evaded her fingers, sliding down to unfasten her jeans. His eyes shone as he relieved her of them, flinging them aside with similar abandon.
Drakina tore open the front of her shirt and wriggled out of it. She preened at the admiration in his gaze. In a moment more, they were both completely nude.
“Your way this time, princess,” he said, his words thrumming with intent. “Next time, mine.”
“And the time after that?” she teased
His eyes lit with an appealing humor. “We’ll have to negotiate.”
Drakina laughed that he shared her assumption that there would be at least three couplings. Then he bent over her and kissed her nipple with exquisite deliberation. He caught the tight peak between his lips and teased it to an impossibly tight point, then flicking his tongue across it so that Drakina cried out with pleasure. Again, he caught her hands in his and held her wrists together as he tormented her with pleasure. She liked being held captive by this warrior; she liked better that she was compelled to accept every sensation he chose to grant.
She was writhing on the rug by the time he lowered himself over her. She arched her back and parted her lips when she felt him against her.
“You’re so wet,” he whispered against her throat.
“I have been awaiting you,” she replied and saw the flash of his smile before he eased into her. They both froze when he was completely sheathed and their gazes locked in keen awareness of each other.
Drakina licked her lips. “Perfect fit,” she whispered.
“Kismet?” he asked, lifting a brow as if he didn’t believe it.
Drakina laughed and tore her hands free of his grasp. She seized his buttocks and parted her legs, drawing him deeper inside, wanting all he had to give. Troy shook a little in his surprise, then he braced himself above her and began to move. His erection dragged against her clitoris and Drakina wanted to roar with pleasure—when she saw the twinkle in his eyes, she knew he moved this way deliberately. She smiled up at him. “It seems you cannot abandon the notion of slow and thorough,” she teased.
He buried himself within her and rolled his hips. “I want to watch you come,” he said. “I felt it last time, but this time, I want to watch.”
“What happened to fast and furious?”
“After you come,” he vowed. “Then I won’t be able to hold back.”
“Promises, promises,” Drakina complained but she was only teasing him. She’d never experienced such a splendid mating before.
It was due to her partner. Troy’s confidence, his skill, his size, all combined to make her see the merit of slow and thorough. She rolled her hips, trying to draw him even deeper inside, and felt him get harder. She massaged her own nipples, seeing how his eyes glittered, and writhed beneath him. Troy rolled them over so that she was above him and she shook out her hair. She kept pinching her own nipples, ensuring that he had a fine view, and rolled her hips so that she rubbed against him.
When she moaned at the size and strength of him, Troy eased his finger and thumb between them, then teased her clitoris. He rolled it, then pinched it hard, so hard that she came in a sudden rush. Drakina gasped, she shook, and then she roared with the vigor of her release.
For the first time, she wished it had taken a little longer.
“You make me yearn for slow and thorough,” she complained.
Troy chuckled with satisfaction. He rolled her beneath him and drove deep inside her. He bent to capture her lips and plundered her mouth, even as he claimed her with sufficient speed and passion to satisfy her impatience. Drakina felt the thunder of his heart, the haste of his breathing, the quickening of everything within him. Her own body responded and she felt the tide rise anew within her, redoubling its power, filling her with heat and promise.
Until he drove deeper than ever and roared with his release. Drakina came again and clutched at him, holding him fast against her as their combined shouts made the floor shake beneath them.
She tasted salt on his temple and felt the Seed run hot inside her.
It was done.
When Troy lifted his head, she smiled up at him and ran a hand through his hair with pride. The Seed was within her. The Crown Prince would be conceived within hours. Incendium would be saved, by some means she could not name, and she would be free of her father’s command. Drakina had a strange sensation of her heart feeling full enough to burst, and yet it was none of those things that gave her such pleasure.
It was Troy, looking at her with admiration and more than a little desire. Troy, who had been driven by seeing her passion to make his amorous claim with haste and power. Troy, the warrior who would be the father of her son.
Drakina’s throat was tight, but it wasn’t because of the son he had given her.
Kismet. She thought of the word that had been repeated between them, and her gaze fell to the tattoo on his arm. Had she found her HeartKeeper?
The fact was that her quest was accomplished. She could leave immediately. She had achieved all that was necessary. Yet, she wanted to linger.
She wanted to stay with Troy.
Was there a greater destiny between them? It was one thing to be the Carrier of the Seed. It was another to be her destined mate. But her HeartKeeper? Drakina had never imagined she would be so fortunate as to have such a partner in her life.
But in this moment, she suspected that he lay atop her, disheveled and most satisfied. She reached up and framed his face in her hands, then drew him down for a leisurely kiss. Her heart was full. There were no words. There was only flesh against flesh, pleasure, exquisite torment, a
nd thundering release.
All because of the marvel that was Troy.
Her HeartKeeper.
* * *
Troy knew he shouldn’t have been surprised that Drakina had sexual stamina to match his own.
She was a dragon shifter, after all.
After she had blown his mind, he tugged on his jeans and went down to the basement and turn on the water again. He got the old water tank going, then primed the pump for the well. He flushed the pipes, impressed that the plumbing was still in pretty good shape.
He went back to the living room to find that Drakina had lit a fire on the hearth. She was naked, and evidently at ease to be so. She was standing at the window looking over the forest behind the farm. Dusk was falling, and the light outside was beautiful. “Always my favorite time of day,” he said without meaning to do so.
“Why?”
“Because the sky is still colored from the sunset, but you can see the stars high overhead. In the east, it looks like night already. And I like that light blue, the last greenish bit before the sky gets dark. It seems magical.” He frowned, uncertain he could explain it properly. “Like we’re on the threshold of something.”
“Neither day nor night,” Drakina agreed. She reached for him and he went to her side, drawing him into her arms as they looked together at the forest. “Does this time have a name?”
“Twilight.”
She said the word, then nodded approval. “It is a threshold, except that you have no choice but to go forward into night. You cannot go back to the day.”
Her words seemed portentous and she was more serious than he’d seen her before. “Sometimes you just have to walk through the shadow to the light.”
She turned a little in his embrace so she could meet his gaze. “I believe that is almost always true.” Her gaze searched his. “Have you secrets, Troy?”
“Everyone has secrets, princess.” He averted his gaze. “Shower?”
“Is that a manner of bathing?”
“And one that lends itself well to what I have in mind,” he promised, then led her to the large bathroom on the second floor. The shower was roomy enough for two, and the hot water tank seemed to want to make up for its long rest.
It turned out that Drakina was more than amenable to learning more about leisurely lovemaking.
* * *
How could Drakina have ever imagined that her mate was unattractive? Troy was perfect, just the way he was. A valiant warrior, built strong and true. A man sufficiently confident to challenge her, a dragon shifter.
And that smile could have been designed to drive Drakina wild.
His nature was good and kind, noble even, as was fitting for the Carrier of the Seed. His sexual endurance was phenomenal. His son would be strong and potent, a majestic crown prince. The combination of gifts from both parents would make him formidable.
Maybe he could save Incendium. Drakina was surprised to realize that she cared less about that than she had.
Was Troy her HeartKeeper?
In addition to his other gifts, he made love like a champion. His touch curled her toes and exhausted her, yet left her hungry for more. She could become used to him by her side.
She touched her lips to Troy’s shoulder, thinking of defying her father about the Carrier becoming the Consort, and Troy stirred in his sleep.
He smiled and opened his eyes, looking rumpled, satisfied and adorable. Drakina’s heart squeezed. “Sleep well?” he murmured.
“Long enough,” she replied, moving into his embrace. He tangled his fingers in her hair, surveying her with admiration. “Perhaps we should ensure the Seed is planted.”
“Don’t you know?”
She smiled that he understood her so well. “It is,” she admitted. “The Crown Prince is conceived.” She ran her hands over his skin lightly. “But it would not hurt to be absolutely sure.”
He laughed. “You’re a fantasy come true.”
“How so?”
“I think every man dreams of having a beautiful partner who is insatiable, too.”
“But probably not a dragon shifter.”
“You might be surprised, princess.” He pulled her head down and kissed her slowly, easily summoning her passion again.
“Did you fantasize about such a partner?” she asked when Troy finally let her speak.
That smile turned mischievous. “Come on. I’ll show you something.” He seized a towel and knotted it around his waist, then rolled out of bed, grabbing her hand. He led her upstairs, to the part of the house she hadn’t yet seen, and into a small chamber toward the back. There were stars on the ceiling and maps pinned to the walls, a model space ship hanging from a string, and a shelf filled with books. A small bed was in the corner, a desk in the other, and she realized this was a child’s room.
“Mine,” he said, anticipating her question.
His. Troy had lived in this room as a boy. Drakina studied it, wanting to memorize every detail and know all about his childhood. He seemed disinclined to talk, though. He was kneeling in the far corner, by the window, and had pulled back the rug. One of the floorboards had been cut and he lifted it up, revealing a hiding place nestled beneath the floor.
His face lit when he reached in and withdrew a square tin box with a lid. It was covered with a plaid design and marked with the logo of a shortbread company. Shortbread. Drakina wondered what that was. This seemed a most strange place to keep any kind of food.
Troy set the tin on the carpet with obvious pleasure. “My treasury,” he confessed, a twinkle in his eye. “Or my hoard.”
Drakina smiled and sat opposite him, wrapped in her own towel. “The secrets of the heart are in the hoard,” she said, her tone teasing. “Are you sure you want to show me?”
He nodded once, pried the lid off the tin and handed it to her.
Inside were three small model cars. There was a ball made of pieces of string tied together and wound into a ball. She lifted it and turned it in her hand, mystified, then met his gaze.
“I needed a rope if I was ever going to ride a dragon,” he admitted.
Drakina lifted the chunk of rock with amethyst crystals on one side and gave him another look.
“And I needed a gift for her. Something shiny.” He smiled. “Gems seemed a good choice.”
Drakina smiled. There was another rock, one that was dull and grey, shaped like a cone.
“A genuine dragon tooth,” Troy confided.
“It is not.” She turned it, seeing that it was also the shape of a fang.
“I was sure it was. It was proof that there were dragons out there in the hills.”
“Maybe there are.”
“There was one, and that’s good enough for me.” They shared another of those sizzling smiles and Drakina’s heart skipped a beat.
HeartKeeper.
There was another piece of rock, a sliver of obsidian, that caught the light and was filled with reflections. It was almost round, about the size of her palm.
“My father brought me that. He said it was a dragon scale and I treasured it.”
Drakina smiled, both at the whimsy of a man who would tell a child a tale he did not believe, and the fact that the rock was almost the same color as her own dragon scales. Could her father and his astrologers be right about destiny? “Where did he find it?”
“He said it was on the path to the barn, which I found very exciting.”
“The dragon had been in your yard!”
“Exactly.” Troy lifted it from her hand and turned it in the light. “I suspect, though, that he bought it or maybe even had it shaped, just to thrill me.”
They shared a smile at that. “Peri, my youngest sister, found a story in my father’s archives about mice that fulfilled wishes,” she said. “We have no mice on Incendium, and those on Regalia do not fulfill wishes. They are considered a pest there.”
“A lot of people feel that way about them here, too.”
“But my father indulged Peri and share
d her wonder over the story. Together, they conspired to steal small pieces of cheese from the kitchen—because the castellan does not tolerate food being eaten in our chambers—and set them out each night in her chamber to lure the wish-granting mice.”
“Did they ever see any?”
“Never, for there are none. But the cheese disappeared each night, which thrilled Peri.”
Troy grinned. “Your father ate it?”
“He would never admit it, but I saw him once, leaving her chamber with a plate of small pieces of cheese.”
“You don’t think it’s bad to encourage kids’ fantasies then?”
“Who is to say what is fantasy and what is truth?” Drakina leaned closer and brushed her lips across Troy’s. “Your father probably thought there were no dragons, but he was wrong.” She touched her lips to his once more, and whispered. “I like that you dreamed of dragons. It makes me think that the astrologers were right, and that there is something to be said in favor of destiny.”
“I wanted to be a dragon more than anything else in the world,” he admitted, putting away his box of treasures.
“Maybe being the father of one is almost as good,” she murmured, and then there was little more to be said for quite a while.
* * *
Troy awakened in the guest bedroom with Drakina sleeping beside him. He’d forgotten how quiet it was at the farm, and how tranquil. He laid in the darkness for a long time, listening to the wind and feeling Drakina’s breath against his shoulder. He was tired, but in a good way. He’d never made love to a woman so many times in a row, or in such rapid succession. They’d done it in the living room, as fast and hard as she wanted, then slower the next time. He’d had her against the wall of the shower and again on the bathroom floor, and once more in the bed. He’d never imagined he could do that and still want more.
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