by Tasha Black
Neve felt every stroke of his tongue. She trembled, unable even to voice her need for him to suckle and bite instead of this endless tenderness.
He continued to tease and torment her breasts, even as he slid his hand under her to ease the cotton scrubs down to her ankles.
The cool night air felt so good to Neve’s heated skin.
To her great disappointment, Johnny drew back.
He was gazing down at her, the look on his face half pain, half pleasure.
“I love you, Neve Whittaker,” he told her plainly. “But I’ll stop now if you want me to. I’ll get us out of here and you can decide how you feel after a meal and a good night’s sleep.”
She searched his face desperately, trying to coax her frazzled mind into remembering how to put together the words that would make him keep going.
He loved her. Could that be true?
His jaw rippled with tension as he watched her and waited.
It was true. And, impossibly, she loved him back.
“I love you too,” she managed, reaching for him again.
It was enough.
With a groan, he buried his face in her soft belly, then worked his way downward.
Neve’s senses were suddenly amped up. She could feel every blade of grass beneath her back, hear the breeze in the palm trees, taste the slight moisture in the air.
But mostly she felt the pull of her need.
Johnny nuzzled the soft skin of her thighs, urging her legs open.
She looked down at him and he rested his cheek on her thigh to gaze into her eyes as one of his long fingers parted her curls.
Neve whimpered as he stroked her gently, without penetrating. She was so wet - she could tell by the way his callused finger slipped so easily against her, creating a delicious friction against her swollen sex.
“Poor baby,” he whispered in wonder, shifting his body between her legs.
Neve bit her lip, wishing for control. It was all she could do not to beg.
She could feel his breath against her.
“Oh god, baby,” he whispered.
And then his hands were spreading her wide. The night air cooled her and then his hot tongue was there, stroking her until she thought she would explode, then slowing to tease and torment her more.
Neve was vaguely aware that she was moaning.
He lapped at her again, this time sliding a finger against her opening.
She lifted her hips up to him, sliding her fingers through his hair, trying not to grind herself against him, but barely able to help herself.
“So good,” he murmured, sinking his finger inside.
Neve saw the stars with her eyes closed.
“Are you ready, love?” he asked her.
Unable to speak, she tilted her hips up to him in reply.
“Good girl,” he praised her.
Neve waited in an agony of anticipation.
The she felt his finger moving inside her, massaging a place that made her gasp with pleasure.
“Oh, please,” she pleaded, lifting her hips shamelessly up to his mouth.
Johnny smiled against her and then slid his tongue upward to circle her clitoris without touching it.
“Please, please,” she begged.
Johnny smiled against her and then he flicked his tongue out to lash her where she needed it the most.
Neve thought her heart would stop beating.
As if that one indulgence had broken down his control, Johnny began to lap at her frenziedly, manipulating the tiny nub until Neve could feel the pleasure building, building, high as a roller coaster.
Then he pushed her over the edge and she felt herself float for a moment.
As the climax finally crashed down on her, she rode wave after wave of maddening pleasure in a symphony that seemed like it might never end.
When it was done, she pushed up on her elbows, panting slightly.
“Beautiful Neve,” Johnny whispered.
But Neve didn’t want niceties, she wanted her man.
“Please,” she asked again, reaching for him.
He crawled up to her and she could see her own juices glistening on his lips.
She pulled his face down to her and kissed him anyway, surprised to find that she didn’t mind the taste of her own desire, that truthfully she found it sexy to taste herself on his lips.
Johnny kissed her slowly, gently exploring her mouth.
Neve wrapped her legs around his waist, and pulled him closer.
He was so hard, so hot against her belly.
“Easy, babe,” he growled.
Neve found herself as worked up as before, as if he hadn’t just solaced her.
She slid her hand between them to touch him. He was so large she could hardly hold him. Gently, she stroked smooth velvety skin over rigid muscle beneath, and rejoiced as she felt him trembling in response.
“Neve,” he said softly through clenched teeth.
“I need you, please,” she begged again.
“It’s not just me,” he told her. “It’s… us.”
She gazed up at him and saw his amber eyes had taken on a golden hue. The thought of the dragon electrified her, amplifying her desire.
“I need both of you,” she whispered.
He lowered his head to rest his forehead against hers.
“We are yours,” he whispered back.
30
We are yours.
The dragon’s voice echoed in Johnny’s head.
He meant it, they both did. It was like finding intimacy with himself as well as with Neve. She was making them whole.
These thoughts were ephemeral, but here in the real world, his very real mate needed his help. Trembling, she lay beneath him, her sex warm and wet and throbbing for him.
He eased his cock against her, gritting his teeth at the incredible sensation. He was ready to spill his seed right now, but he couldn’t let it happen that way, not this first time, not ever. Her pleasure would be his aspiration, always.
Praying not to come, he pressed himself an inch inside her. She was so tight, and he was swollen so hard, he was afraid to hurt her.
When she bucked her hips up to meet him, he gave her another inch.
Now she was crying out, her nails sinking into his arms.
The dragon screamed with excitement, and there was only Johnny between them to stop them from destroying each other.
He smiled and eased just another inch inside her, though it killed him to stop there, and slid a hand between them to tease her clit with the pad of his thumb.
When she caught her breath and her sex clamped down harder on him the heavenly pleasure was too much and he rocked himself into her to the hilt.
She moaned and wriggled, trying to accommodate his length. When he felt her nails dig into his arms again he knew she was ready.
He slid all the way out of her and back in. She cried out sweetly and he repeated the motion.
“Please,” she begged for the fifth time that night. God, he loved to hear her beg.
He rewarded her with harder, faster strokes.
She jogged her hips up to meet him, goading him into giving her more, faster, until the sensation was too much and he was helplessly chasing his own pleasure, the blood pounding in his ears.
Neve looked up at him, her eyes glowing with satisfaction, as if his pleasure were more important to her than her own.
She was his woman - his mate. He knew it to his bones, though of course neither of them knew what that really meant. It was alright, they would find out together.
The sensation was too much for him now, and his thumb found her clit, desperately working her until she came apart for him rapturously just as he exploded inside her in spasm after spasm of unrelenting pleasure.
31
Neve drifted between dreams and reality.
The stars glowed above her, and Johnny held her against his warm chest. One moment she was floating on a dragon, the next she was resting in a nest of tall gras
s.
Was this how ordinary people felt when they were in love? This sea of bliss, this ocean of sweetness?
Johnny’s finger trailed lightly up and down between her shoulder blades.
“Are you awake?” he whispered.
“Mmm,” she answered noncommittally.
“We should go back, they’ll notice that you’re missing,” he said.
She would have thought that there was a tinge of sadness in his tone, but that would be silly. No one could possibly feel sad after the magic that had just happened to the two of them.
“Okay,” she agreed as she sat up and stretched, then began to pull her clothes back on.
When she looked up, the dragon was staring back at her.
“Oh, hello,” she said uncertainly.
The dragon winked at her, his visible amber eye reminding her that this was Johnny, or that Johnny was this.
He lowered his head and she snuck in to kiss his massive cheek shyly, before darting around his leg to mount his neck again.
This time she wasn’t afraid. This time she planned to enjoy the ride.
They soared into the sky, and soon the meadow was a tiny triangle again. The impossibly graceful beast carried her over miles of black ocean dotted with the reflections of a galaxy of stars.
At last, a tower of smoke telegraphed what was left of Sanctuaries.
The dragon sunk down into the cliffside below the building, staying out of sight, then rose to land a quarter mile away.
Neve slid off his back and onto the grass of the far end of the campus.
By the time she had straightened her clothes, Johnny was standing beside her in human form.
Wearing nothing but a strange look on his face.
32
Johnny stood in the glow of the moon, memorizing the face of the woman who had accepted him for who he truly was.
How could he have forgotten the inevitable? How could he have failed to think about it until now?
He had been so sick with love for her that he had selfishly claimed her without thinking about the consequences of his actions. And now he didn’t know how he could live without her.
But she did not deserve a life of exile.
“What happens now?” she asked. He could hear the suspicion in her voice.
“You can just say you got out the back somehow,” he told her carefully.
“What about you?” she asked, concern marring her lovely features.
“I don’t think I can go back, Neve. If any of those people saw me shift, it would be too dangerous for my family. I’m going into hiding, my love. I’m going to disappear. Maybe forever. You can tell them you never found me in there.”
“I’ll come with you,” she told him without missing a beat.
His heart soared, but he knew that bringing her would be horribly selfish.
“You have a life, Neve,” he told her sadly. “You help people. They depend on you. I can’t take you away from your calling.”
Someone’s coming.
Johnny looked up at the dragon’s warning, but it was too late. A small figure ran toward them.
“Neve,” a voice called out.
The voice was a pretty familiar second soprano.
“Jocelyn,” Neve called back.
“Holy shit am I glad to see you,” Jocelyn crowed, wrapping Neve in her long arms.
“Hello, Jocelyn,” Neve said quietly.
“You guys must have made it out the back when that gas line blew. That is amazing,” the kid continued.
Neve nodded awkwardly.
Jocelyn eyed Johnny up and down, then handed him a plush Malibu Sanctuaries robe and a sooty blanket.
“Thanks, kid,” he told her, slipping on the robe gratefully.
“Sure. The reporters are going to want to talk to you about how you made it out. When the gas line exploded we all saw the blast. It was right by your room. They’ll probably want to know all about how you climbed around that cliff,” she warned him.
Oh.
So his cover wasn’t blown.
He smiled, grabbed Neve’s hand, and squeezed it hard, as the crowd on the lawn began to approach.
“I mean, it’s not like you just grew wings and flew to safety, right?” Jocelyn asked pointedly. “Although gas leaks can make people think they see some pretty weird stuff.”
Oh.
“Thanks for saving Tacos,” she said, winking at him.
Before he could respond, the kid disappeared into the crowd.
Well, there it was.
Salvation in the unlikeliest of places.
He turned to Neve and smiled.
“Look,” Johnny said. “I think we have about one minute before that crowd of reporters figures out that we’re Johnny Lazarus and The Angel of Malibu. Have you ever been to Pennsylvania?”
“Um, no, why?” she replied.
“Because it’s time for you to meet my mother.”
Her warm smile was all he needed to know that everything was going to be okay.
No.
Everything was going to be amazing.
33
Neve studied Johnny out of the corner of her eye. His long frame seemed out of place wedged into a coach seat on an airplane.
The gapes and stares of their fellow passengers were testimony that they agreed.
As a matter of fact, her dragon love seemed out of place in an airplane at all, after the way he’d flown so gracefully on his own. But Johnny didn’t think he was ready for a cross-country flight as a dragon, and he needed to get back home right away, so here they were. Probably the first time Johnny had flown coach since his first gold record.
Neve still couldn’t believe the events of the last few hours. The fire, the mystery of Johnny revealed, and the beginnings of plans for the two of them.
But then there had been the phone call to his mother.
Being “off the grid” was a pretty good thing during rehab, until there was a family emergency.
Hearing that his brother had gone missing during Johnny’s stint at Sanctuaries drove Johnny out of his mind, and though he knew Derek was safe and sound now, he was desperate to get home to see him. No waiting to charter a fancy flight.
Neve understood. Though she was a bit on edge at the idea of meeting the family when they were reeling from Derek’s accident.
“I need you with me,” Johnny had told her earnestly.
How could she say no to those amber eyes?
And besides, it would be months before McGrath needed her at the Sanctuary again. If she even got her job back.
But then McGrath had called her on their way to the airport. She’d been terrified to take that call, it was clear that she and Johnny had more than a nurse-patient relationship.
But she bravely picked up on the second ring.
She replayed the conversation in her mind, marveling at the strange way everything had worked out.
34
“Neve,” McGrath’s jolly voice had greeted her.
“Yes, Mr. McGrath,” she replied.
“Thank God you’re alive, girl! I don’t know what I’d ever do without you. You got them all out, kid,” he said. She heard the unshed tears in his voice.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, fighting back tears of her own. “I’m sorry about your beautiful building.”
“Oh hell, don’t worry about that,” he insisted. “Poor design, the sprinklers were on the main water supply. When we put in the low-pressure system for drought season it lowered the pressure on the sprinklers too. We’re damned lucky no one was injured.”
“Oh,” Neve replied, not sure what to say.
“The construction company that screwed that up will be on the hook for most of the cost of rebuilding,” he said bluntly. “Speaking of which, I’ll want your advice on that.”
“My advice?” she echoed.
“Cut the shit, child, we both know you’re the brains of my operation. And my niece tells me you already run the place.
“You
r niece?”
“Angela.”
“Oh,” Neve said, probably letting too much surprise show through in her voice. “I didn’t know…”
Angela?
“She asked me not to tell anyone,” he said. “Said she didn’t want any special treatment.”
Well she certainly hadn’t gotten any from Neve.
“But I figured you already knew. She tells me you guys are pretty close.”
We are?
“And she also tells me that there isn’t a blessed thing that gets done there without your say so. Which is why I’m taking this fire as a sign from above that I need to put your gifts to better use. I’d like you to help me design a facility that gives patients their best chance at recovery.”
Neve’s heart leapt in her chest, but looking over at Johnny, she realized there was another conversation she had to have.
“Listen, Mr. McGrath, I appreciate your offer, but I need to disclose something to you. It’s about a relationship I have… with a patient.”
“Ha,” he barked. “Yeah, I heard about that, too. Let’s just say we’re good on this one if you can get that punk to sign a hold-harmless. But don’t make a habit of it.”
Relief flooded Neve’s veins and she let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.
Johnny smiled at her in question and she shook her head. She would explain later.
“Thank you, Mr. McGrath, believe me, I don’t plan on making a habit of it. I can be back right away to help you plan the building,” she told him.
It was hard to think of jumping right back into work but she was willing to, glad to do so if it meant a better life for the patients.
“There’s one other thing Angie told me,” McGrath said darkly. “She says that you work too many hours. That you don’t take vacations. Or even proper lunch breaks. That’s the best way to burn out a good employee. For the next thirty days you’re on paid vacation. I do not want to see you or hear from you. Except for my waiver, get me that boy’s signature.”
“Yes, sir,” Neve replied.
“I’m not finished. After that you’re to work no more than forty hours per week, and that’s firm. I’d like to see you have a happy life and you can’t do that when you never leave work. Do I make myself clear?”
