Belonging to the Dragon: Lick of Fire (Dragon Lovers Book 2)

by Kara Lockharte

  He only sounded like that when he was hurting.

  “I was the closest dragon. I found them all dead.”

  I put my arms around him. “I’m sorry.”

  He stared straight ahead. “Not just dead. Their bodies were twisted, malformed. Hearts melded into scalps, eyes merged into wings, intestines where tails should be.”

  I went cold. The Devourer was apparently this monster alien artificial intelligence, programmed to dismantle and dissect beings for study. Millennia ago, something went wrong, and the Devourer destroyed the homeworld of the Dragons in an effort to figure out how dragon magic worked. The survivors fled to Earth, but pieces of the Devourer had followed them.

  We’d both been prisoners of the Devourer.

  “Pieces of the Devourer were there, were close by. I ended them. But it took some time. I was injured. By the time I recovered, Daniel told me you were on Hunter’s plane working with them.”

  I remembered how he’d seen me, stopped, and abruptly marched to his quarters without so much as a hello. That had been the final straw for me. “You avoided me as much as I avoided you.”

  His whole body tensed. “I’m going to kill Daniel one day for bringing you into that.” He brushed the back of his fingers against my upper arm, as if he were feeling for scales. “You could have died.”

  Trails of heat lingered where he had touched me. What was he saying again? “Now that’s where you’re being stupid. He asked for help, and I gave it freely.”

  I watched his lips as he spoke. “You’re only human.”

  I blinked as his words brought me crashing back to the realization of who I was, who he was.

  I had never forgotten what his mother had said to me, the day she’d found us kissing in the garden.

  When evil comes, as it surely will, will you let him die protecting you?

  Because you will never be strong enough to be what he needs.

  You’re only human.

  I had to tell him. I saw in his expression that he knew what I was going to say.

  “Lucas—”

  His hand was suddenly on my breast, his thumb grazing it through my dress, caressing my pointed nipple. The delicious, erotic shock of his touch startled me into silence.

  “I know you, Lana. You overthink things too much.”

  “Lucas—”

  He brought his mouth to mine. My mind blanked. His mouth was insistent, as possessive and demanding as I had secretly dreamed. Hot, starved need surged as I realized what was happening. Oh my god, it was Lucas, kissing me, touching me, and I was kissing him. I had been trying not to stare at his viciously muscled chest, the savagely carved arms, or brick-wall abdomen, because of the memories of that night. He was warm and hard all over, a huge, striated beast of masculine perfection. This was what I’d been trying so unsuccessfully to forget, trying so pitifully to convince myself that I didn’t need.

  And now, Lucas was all mine to touch.

  “I scent you, Lana,” he said, as he kissed my neck. The grin of anticipation in his voice sent warm shivers along my spine. Searing fingertips were at my outer thigh, then inner. His hard cock was hot against my ass, having slipped under the mini-dress. I couldn’t help but grind myself against him, as my core clenched in anticipation.

  He petted the crotch of my panties, teasing me with the thinness of the barrier that had been soaked by my juices. His lips grazed the top of my somehow exposed breast. “You can’t hide from me.”

  He took my nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. Desperate heat rushed through me. I arched into his hand. He pressed the thick heel of his palm into my clit and rubbed. Bliss bloomed, and I cried out.

  I grabbed at his massive shoulders, too wide for any proper grip, knowing I had already lost. Fuck, he’d barely touched me, and I had already gone off.

  “Look at you,” he said, satisfaction in his voice. “You’re so primed for me. Something in you knows who I am.”

  I tried to figure out what he was getting at, but my mind was so fogged and distracted by the hot cock still underneath me, it was hard to process rational thought. “I know who you are. You’re a rich boy who thinks I belong to you.”

  “Your body seems to agree with my assessment.” He hooked the crotch of my underwear and tore it off, my juices slickening his naked length. For some reason, I’d thought I had exaggerated the memories of his size in my sex-starved, fucked-up dreams, but oh, how wrong I had been.

  If anything, he was bigger.

  The thought of that, of him, inside me, flooded me with greedy desire.

  “Confess, babe,” he said with a cocky grin. “You don’t want me to stop.”

  He shifted me, lifting me like an insubstantial doll, swinging my leg over his head so that I straddled him.

  “Still on the pill?” he asked.

  This could be my out. All I had to do was lie and say no. With dragons, unplanned pregnancy was the only concern.

  “Yeah,” I breathed.

  “Yeah, what? You want me to stop?”

  The car suddenly accelerated. The blunt head of his cock nudged between my cleft.

  I leaned back. The horn on the steering wheel blared. I jerked forward, partially impaling myself on him. He gripped my ass. “So fucking hot and tight,” he groaned.

  My hands gripped his shoulders. “Fuck me, you tease.”

  He sheathed himself inside me.

  I shuddered at the pain of his sudden invasion, my hands seeking purchase on the merciless landscape of his body and finding none. I rocked, trying to adjust to his size, sparking orgasmic convulsions with every movement. He groaned, squeezing my ass hard.

  “Yes, Lana. You are mine, my match, my fate, my mate.”

  Even through the passion, I knew those were dangerous words, things I didn’t need to hear from him. “Lucas—”

  “No,” he roared, his hips punching upward. “Fucking feel me. Feel me inside you. You know the truth.”

  He was moving, oh God, he was moving, thrusting. I couldn’t help it; I moved with him, savoring the carnal ecstasy of Lucas, his strong hands cradling my hips, his mouth on my nipples.

  His eyes were golden, his skin glowing with dragon magic. “Don’t deny it. Don’t deny this.”

  Oh God.

  Pleasure ripped away rational thought, wave after wave, cresting higher and higher. I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want it to stop.

  My hands scrabbled across the muscled terrain of his chest. He snarled, his teeth lengthening, muscles hardening. “Fuck yes, Lana. You’re mine.”

  He was ferocious, relentless, and utterly focused on one thing: my pleasure.

  I was helpless as a whirlpool swirled me dizzyingly into its unstoppable vortex. Scales flared from my skin, then vanished as I shuddered and screamed.

  I had come fucking beyond anything I could remember.

  Yet he kept moving, faster and faster, drowning me with more mindless, primal rapture.

  I couldn’t take much more. “Lucas,” I breathed.

  “Stronger than you look. You can take it,” he growled, burying his cock deep into me. “You can take all of me and more.”

  He seized my arms, his skin and my skin glowing, every gorgeous, glistening muscle in hard relief in with his magic, promising the ecstasy I had tried to forget.

  Light burst. He shot within me, deliciously hot as only a dragon could be. The heat sent a magical tingle rocketing me to atmospheric heights beyond any human passion.

  It was so intense, I felt as if I was floating.

  And then he yanked me to him and spoke the words, echoing with magic, that I had convinced myself I would never, ever hear.

  “My fire is yours, now and always.”

  5

  Flames curled around his skin, around mine, yet I was unburnt.

  The residuals of multiple orgasms were still making it hard for me to think.

  “Lucas.” I said, in between panting breaths. “The hell did you just do?”

  If I could look up the
definition of cocky in the dictionary right now, his smile would be right there. “I sealed myself to you.”

  Well, that sounded suspiciously permanent. “What do you mean, ‘sealed?’”

  His cock, still outrageously hard, twitched within me. I fell against him as my treasonous body clenched in response.

  “Fuckin’ dragon,” I muttered.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, still smiling. “But you’re still here. On my cock, where you belong.”

  His hands still around my hips held me in place. I squirmed and gasped, unable to stop the rapturous little convulsions still reverberating from our connection.

  “Lucas! I can’t think!”

  That grin. Oh. My. God. I would remember that grin for the rest of my days. He began rocking his hips again, slowly this time. “Exactly.”

  The pleasure was rising again. I groaned and raked nails across his chest.

  “Lucas—”

  His breath was getting shorter, the edge to his words harsher and more guttural with each delectable movement. “It’s…a dragon…thing. I’ve used my…magic…to tell others…

  He stopped suddenly, then brushed hair from my face and looked into my eyes. “I’m yours.”

  There was something about the sincerity of his gaze, the feeling of him inside me, that exploded yet another orgasm in me. He groaned and held me tight.

  I laid on top of him, listening to his heart beat for I had no idea how long, not wanting to talk, not wanting to break the spell.

  He had done something that irrevocably linked him to me.

  “Lucas,” I said warily, tracing the muscular lines of his arm. Even in human form, his physique was as aggressively formidable as you could get. I hadn’t even known that double biceps existed in real life.

  All mine.

  I ignored the stupid little voice inside me. I had to remember that he was a dragon. There were few tales in which dragons and maidens found their happily-ever-afters together.

  “What did you do?”

  “I’ve pledged myself and made a promise to you. You call me, and I will be there.”

  I blinked. That didn’t sound so bad

  Oh wait, it was really bad, because I didn’t, I couldn’t, have Lucas Randall be a part of my life.

  I lifted my head and tapped his nose. “It’s called consent, you know.”

  He wrinkled his nose. “I didn’t ask you to do the same. You can’t. You’re human.”

  And there was the crux of it.

  I was human.

  Even now, I could hear his mother’s voice in my head. He is not for you.

  And even after all this time, the thought made me furious.

  I scrambled off him, back to my seat.

  He gave me a look as if he was going to pull me back but stopped. Instead, he reached for the storage compartment between the seats and pulled out a package of wipes.

  I seized on that opportunity to needle him, because it was better than talking about whatever had just happened. My mind was still reeling. “You drive around with baby wipes?”

  “They’re useful,” he said casually. “Blood, brain spatter, spinal fluid—you’d be surprised at what gets on you when have to deal with disagreeables. Baby, wipes take care of it all.” He winked at me.

  I took the package.

  Lucas raised his seat, tapped on the dashboard, and another floating green luminescent screen popped up. “My choice to seal myself to you has no bearing on your freedom.”

  I finished with the wipes. “So if I chose to fuck someone else, I still could.”

  A vein jumped in his neck. In an instant, Lucas, the boy I had known, disappeared and was replaced by a monster who seemed as if he were the living embodiment of violence held in check.

  Barely.

  His voice was unnaturally calm. “Technically, yes.”

  Okay, now that was a nerve. Something to deal with later.

  Something beeped. I checked the program I had been running to search for the Devourer.

  Two possibilities: Baltimore and Philadelphia.

  Well, we were headed in that direction anyway.

  I looked out the window and folded my arms across my chest. Why? Why would he ‘seal’ himself to me? It didn’t make any sense. I wanted to ask him.

  But something inside me knew better than to ask.

  “I’m not giving up the armor.”

  “I’m not asking you to. All I’m doing is taking you to see someone who might be able to help you understand it better.”

  “Who?”

  “We call her the Princess even though her kingdom is gone. She’s the oldest of the dragons who came over to Earth so long ago. If anyone knows something about sym-armor, it’s her. That sym-armor is designed for dragons, not humans. It can’t possibly be one-hundred-percent safe for you to be wearing it.”

  I pressed a fist to my mouth, then lowered it. “Nothing in this world is one-hundred-percent safe. And I’ve been wearing it and wielding it just fine,”

  He exhaled a sigh of exasperation. “Lana. The thing eats blood. Can you honestly tell me that there is nothing suspicious about the armor?"

  I looked away. I had been having strange dreams. Being middle of battle in a foreign landscape, covered with blood, and glorying in it.

  But I wouldn’t tell him that.

  “This armor is what is going allow me to get Val back.”

  “When we finish with the Princess, I will help you find Val.”

  And then? And then what?

  And then we would have to deal with this sealing crap.

  I wanted to say no. Out of pride. And out of fear. Because I could not spend so much time in his company without something happening that wasn’t supposed to happen.

  Like being “sealed.” Whatever the hell that meant.

  Going with him to this Princess was definitely not a safe choice.

  I planned on saving Val myself. But I had to think logically.

  Moreover, I didn’t quite know what I was facing. I was just the puny little human with some magical armor I didn’t understand. And he was a full-blown dragon shifter who knew magic. To turn down his help would be just stupid.

  “Fine.” Well, that hadn’t come out like a sarcastic teenager at all.

  “This Val you’re trying to save,” he said conversationally, as if he were asking about a friend we’d happened to run into at the grocery store. “Is this Val Rodriguez?”

  I jerked up. He remembered?

  He had the slightest smirk at the corner of his lips. “The one who defended you in school when Tommy Warner called you the N-word?”

  He did remember.

  “You never introduced us.”

  “You were never around.” I folded my arms. “It wasn’t really boarding school that you were away at, were you?”

  “It wasn’t,” he confirmed.

  After we turned five, his mother sent him away, supposedly to boarding school. He would come back once a year, for just a few weeks in the summers, harder and stranger than before.

  “You’re a good friend,” he said.

  I let out a harsh laugh. Was that why he thought I was doing this? “Don’t.”

  He looked genuinely surprised. “What?”

  I shook my head.

  “You donned an alien suit of armor that gives you nightmares in order to save your friend. Nope, that’s not friendship at all.”

  I clenched my fists. “Val is where she is because of me.”

  Eyebrows raised. “How so?”

  “Val wasn’t always at Oakwood Elementary. Sometimes her parents would take her elsewhere, following the jobs that were available down South. And then they’d come back. We were friends when she came back. But then I started going to boarding school too. One time, when I came back, Val and I decided to meet up at the mall.”

  “Like teens do.”

  “She was into shoplifting. I wanted to show that I was cool like her. So I did it. And I got caught.”

  It was t
oo dark to read the expression on Lucas’s face. I could use the armor’s abilities to change that, but for some reason I decided against it.

  “I freaked out. Because I knew that the school would kick me out.”

  The fancy-pants boarding school his mother had sent me to. The school where I had to stay and get good grades because my mother would be deported if I didn’t. Bile filled my mouth as I remembered the panic, the anxiety, the surety that I’d be reported to the school, that Lucas’s mother would find out and then my mother would be forced out of the country.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. None of it mattered now, because Mom, God rest her soul, was gone.

  Yet I could still feel that anxiety, that nausea, that nervousness, roiling my stomach, even after all this time. Even as an adult, the deepest fear of my childhood, my mother being taken away, was still with me.

  I sat up straight. I was an adult. I would not be cowed by it. I forced myself to keep talking.

  I tapped my fingers against my knee. “They had black-and-white security tapes back then. With our long hair, jean jackets and jeans, on those tapes, they couldn’t tell us apart. The guard said all us Spanish looked the same. So Val took the blame, saying it had happened to her before and that it was no big deal. But they had just passed a new three-strikes law aimed at reducing juvenile mischief. And that was her third strike. She was expelled from public school and sent to juvenile detention. Her mother went to sign papers for her release and was taken by immigration agents during a visit and deported.”

  That could have been me. That could have been my mother, sent back to a place she had been trying to escape. I clenched my fists. “Meanwhile, I graduated from high school with honors, got into a fancy East Coast college. And Val? She met her first pimp in juvenile detention.”

  I shook my head.

  Lucas’s hand took mine. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”

  Tears fell from my eyes. It was the first time I had told anyone this story. Now that I was grown up, I avoided my childhood town like the plague. Which most of my circles would never understand.

  “There were a few years where she’d call me every few months asking me for money. Sometimes it was for bail, sometimes to get a place to hide from her pimp. I gave it to her when I could. But then, one day I discovered she had taken the money to give to her pimp. I confronted her about it. She apologized, then asked me for more money. After a while, I stopped answering her calls, and she stopped calling.”