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

by Kara Lockharte

  “I’m going to my mother’s estate, Lana.”

  I swallowed. After my mother died, I swore I would never go back there again. I twisted Val’s ring on my finger, thinking of my failure. I couldn’t help her, but I could still help Lucas. “I said I’m going with you.”

  The dog rushed over to me and barked.

  He arched his eyebrow. “The dog too?”

  “Of course,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure quite how.

  He looked at the dog.

  Cute wide puppy eyes.

  She was such a con, that dog.

  He smiled. “I think I have just the thing.”

  9

  The dog lay flopped across the backseat as we drove to the airport, Lucas on the phone making arrangements . By the casual references to mergers and trades in amounts that would fund a small nation, it seemed that he had taken control of the family business.

  I swiped at the tablet he had loaned me, reexamining the algorithm. Was there something different I could have done to save Val? Another choice I could have made that would have changed things?

  Val’s white, green-tinged, unseeing eyes flashed in my memory. Another addition to my nightmares.

  I realized that Lucas had gone quiet. His hands were on the steering wheel.

  “No self-driving car this time?”

  He kept his eyes on the road, but the corner of his lips turned upward. “Would you like it to be?”

  Heat flushed through me. I had no answer.

  There were things between us that needed to be spoken of.

  The surety and confidence I’d had before? Gone, of course.

  “Are you going to give the dog a name?”

  I had thought about it. But giving the dog a name seemed as if it would taunt death, because it was like saying that I would live, when most likely I would die.

  “Haven’t thought of anything I liked.”

  I could die at any moment.

  If there was anything I had learned, it was to take advantage of each moment before immortal monsters made up of teeth attacked.

  “Lucas, in case something happens…”

  Fuck, why couldn’t I say it?

  The car slowed at an electronic metal gate. Lucas rolled down the window, punched in a code, and the gate opened. In moments, we were driving down a path where a lit-up air strip was clearly visible through the trees.

  Beyond it, I could see the outlines of a small plane, humming, waiting for us.

  Something twisted hard inside my chest. The last time I had been on a plane, the Devourer had blown us out of the sky. I tried to ignore it, forcing a lightness in my voice. “Well, that’s a lot easier than going through a security line.”

  “The Princess knows people.”

  “I bet.”

  His hand closed around mine, as if he knew what I was thinking. “We’ve been working on developing this new stealth paint that makes it virtually undetectable by magical means. If the Devourer’s minions are anywhere near us in the sky, we’ll know.”

  Lucas had saved me from the plane crash last time. It wasn’t the plane that was the problem. It was what had happened afterward.

  “Thanks for letting me know.” I got out of the car and let the dog out, and she trotted next to me.

  “Benji?” Lucas said. “I always liked that movie.”

  “No. She’s not a Benji.”

  Lucas was smiling. An on the verge of opening a pile of presents at Christmas kind of smile.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” he said, looking at me with heated eyes. “I’ll tell you once we’re on the plane.”

  The dog raced forward into the plane, which was decorated in that clean, minimalist style that spoke of wealth. The dog barked excitedly. She leapt on a leather couch, promptly put her head down, and went to sleep.

  “I was wondering when the dog would finally go down,” said Lucas.

  He tapped on a panel at the wall and a bar opened.

  “A drink? I have a bottle of Angel’s Envy here.”

  I looked up at the mention of that rare whiskey.

  He remembered I liked whiskey. And not just any whiskey, but one that had been popular twenty years ago and was now no longer made.

  “Sure. On the rocks, please.”

  Ice clinked into glass. He poured out two glasses and brought me some. I took a sip and let the velvety taste settle my nerves.

  There was a hiss as the stairs to the plane retracted and the door began to close.

  The plane began to move. “Have a seat. We’ll get going in a moment.”

  I sat down and watched out the window at the lit runway as we began to move.

  Daniel had flown the last plane from his laptop. I glanced at Lucas, who was calmly drinking his whiskey. “Are you flying this plane?”

  Lucas shook his head. The plane began to accelerate, and my heart started racing. Apparently, I was more nervous about flying again than I had thought. “Nope.”

  My voice came out higher pitched than I’d intended. “So who’s flying this plane?”

  “A woman who is five hundred miles away from here. She’s a drone pilot.”

  Oh.

  A hot smile spread across his face. “You and I are the only ones on this plane.”

  “Cruising altitude achieved,” said the woman’s voice over the intercom. “We’ll reach your destination in approximately forty-five minutes.”

  “Thank you,” said Lucas.

  “And the dog,” I said.

  “The dog?” he said, puzzled.

  “The dog,” I repeated lamely. “You know. It’s just us on the plane.”

  He leaned closer. “I know.”

  “Aren’t you injured?”

  He ripped his shirt off, revealing his chest and torso—ridged, perfect, and unmarred as ever.

  “I heal fast.”

  He pulled me to him, enveloping me in his heated embrace. My fingers slid along the striations of his almost obscenely defined obliques, reveling in the sensation of his bare skin. It was one of those weird, ironic things in the universe that made dragons in their human form such icons of physical human perfection.

  He rested his forehead against mine. His voice was quiet, heavy with the weight of unspoken meaning and memory, reminding me that my pull to him wasn’t just that he was a gorgeous bastard. “I’m glad you came back.”

  It was that it was Lucas, the lonely little boy who had shown me how to be brave, and what it was like to fly. There were so many things to say to him. So many things I needed to say to him. And this was the perfect moment.

  “Lucas,” I said, lifting my head.

  He looked at me. “Yes?”

  But fifteen years of pretending, denying, ignoring what I wanted, what I needed, was a habit that was hard to break.

  I stood on my tip toes, entwined my hands around his neck, and kissed him hard, trying to say to him in actions what I still could not say to him in words.

  I love you.

  So intent I had been on my own needs and thoughts that I had forgotten how utterly powerless I was to resist the ceaseless smoldering between us. He opened, and I could taste his unmistakable dragon-ness, the hint of whiskey, and the ever-present potential of ferocity that was utterly inhuman.

  But I had never been logical when it came to Lucas.

  He gripped my ass and hoisted my legs around his waist. I let out a yelp of surprise, then a moan as his mouth found my nipple. He sucked hard, and a charge of pleasure rocketed through me.

  I heard a door slide open and then felt myself rolled onto a bed. He kissed a line down between my breasts as he yanked off my pants, exposing me to his gaze.

  Instinctively, my hands sought to cover—not my groin, but the curvy belly I had always hated. The one that kept me from ever being able to wear bikinis with any sort of confidence. He only growled and pinned my wrists to the side. “I love looking at you.” He lowered his head. I closed my eyes as he kissed my belly, unable to face the fact he
was up close with the part of me I hated most. “I love your body, all of you.”

  “Lucas…”

  He surged upward and kissed my forehead. “Your mind.”

  He slid downward and kissed my chest. “Your heart. I love who you were and who you are now. You’re perfect. And you’re mine.”

  And there I knew what I had been hiding from myself for so long. All I wanted was to live long enough to grow old together.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. As if it hadn’t been impossible before, with the absurdly different lifespans of human and dragon.

  But it was Lucas.

  “Seal yourself to me.”

  “What?” I shook my head. “You said humans couldn’t do it.”

  “But you’re not completely human anymore. The armor is changing you.”

  “No,” I said. As much as I loved him, it would be folly because of the uncertainty of my survival.

  His eyes shuttered. “It’s just a link that will let me know where you are and vice versa. And if we are to face the Devourer again, it will be a bond that we should both be able to draw strength from.”

  I was already always aware of his presence in a room. This would bring the awareness to every bit of my waking existence. I’d never be able to shake free of him.

  Not that I had much of an ever left.

  “I don’t know what we’re going to face. If you were a dragon, you would be able to access my fire and I yours. But since you’re human, I don’t know.”

  I could tell there was something else he wasn’t telling me.

  I looked away. “Don’t link your life to mine, Lucas.”

  He put his hand on my cheek and turned my face toward him. “As I said before, I will never not try to save you, Lana.”

  I fought the tears welling up in my eyes. “I don’t want you to risk your life. No.”

  “It can be temporary if you wish. But you must remember, I am already sealed to you.”

  “Unseal yourself, then.”

  “That’s not how it works. It’s like a vow of loyalty. I’ve already chosen you. And I’m not taking it back.”

  “I don’t want you to die.”

  “I have no plans of dying. Seal yourself to me, Lana, as I have you. Do this if not for you, for me. Because I need…” His voice faltered.

  My God, I was so selfish, and he was so fucked.

  I had tried to keep away, tried to protect him, but I was only human. I could only keep him out for so long. And I realized that in saying yes to his request, I could say all the things I couldn’t say. “Promise me that this doesn’t risk your life.”

  “Nothing in life is without risk, Lana.” His hands closed around mine. “Seal yourself to me, and let me help you keep you safe.”

  This was precisely what Kelora had feared. That Lucas would link himself to a weak, unworthy partner and doom himself.

  But I wasn’t weak or unworthy.

  I took a deep breath. “Okay then.”

  Lucas’s eyes were bright with love and hope, like some love-lost knight from a Nordic fairytale. I gazed at him, memorizing that look in his face for the cold, dark times that would come. “Tell me what I need to do.”

  I had been wrong. It was the hot, expectant smile now across his face that I would remember forever.

  His fingertips skimmed my waist, trailing down to my exposed mound, leaving trails of heat along my skin.

  “Oh,” I said.

  Fingers parted my cleft, gently stroking my liquid desire, making me forget everything for a moment but the sensation of his hot fingertips.

  “All you have to do is say, ‘My fire is yours,’ when I tell you.”

  I blinked, struggling to remember words. “That’s all?”

  He lowered his head with a savage smile. “Leave the rest to me.”

  And then his mouth was on me, pouncing on me with all the ferocity of what he was.

  My dragon.

  He wasn’t slow and gentle, nor did I want him to be. His tongue flicked and punished my clit with inhuman precision and pressure. I cried out and shuddered with unbelievable ecstasy. My legs wrapped around his neck, and I shamelessly ground myself against his mouth, wanting more, demanding more. There was a deep rumbling, almost clicking, from him that only ratcheted up the need within me.

  I cried out his name over and over again, as his skillful mouth drove the tension within me tighter, higher.

  He shoved two thick fingers inside me, startling me. I clenched around him hard, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted more. I wanted him, I wanted him inside me, linking us in the most primal way possible. I pulled at his hair and gasped for mercy. “Please, please,” I moaned.

  “Yes?” he said, his voice all teasing masculine arrogance.

  Bastard. “You want me to beg?”

  “I want you make things clear. Consent is sexy, don’t you know?”

  He was making it so that words were hard, savaging my ability to think beyond the promise of now. “Fuck me. Put your big dragon cock inside me and fuck me into next Tuesday.”

  Lucas burst out laughing. My face went red as I realized the nonsense I had said. I didn’t meant to say it; it just came out, a reference to the terrible B-movie we had once streamed online. But he pulled me to him, hugging me tight as he ever had. “I love you Lana, so very much,” he said between laughs. “You truly are my mate.” He settled between my legs, his large and evident interest no less diminished. “And yes, I would be delighted to fuck you into next Tuesday, Wednesday, or any other day of the week.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but his mouth covered mine in a bone-melting, toe-curling kiss. Embarrassment gave way to reignited desire as his cockhead painted the slick outer lips of my pussy with torturous heat. The memory of him spearing me was enough to make me tremble.

  “Look at me,” he said, tilting my chin up. “I want to watch you as I fuck you.”

  I opened my knees and clamped them to his hips. I reveled in the utterly dominating feeling of his weight pressing me into the bed. He settled his head at my opening. And slowly, inexorably, he began making his way in. All his muscles were in hard relief as he consciously held himself back. Oh, it was so delicious, the intensity of his gaze, the heft, the strength, the feel of him inside me, stretching me, filling me.

  And then when he was fully inside me, all the way, he paused. He glowed with magic as he said, “I love watching you orgasm. I want to wake up every morning and have you for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the snacks in between. And it wouldn’t be enough. Never enough.”

  It wouldn’t happen, it couldn’t happen, but he was right that it could never be enough.

  I touched his cheek. He turned and kissed the inside of my palm, an oddly sweet gesture considering I was still impaled on him.

  “I’m going to fuck you now.”

  “Don’t hold back, dragon. Not like last time,” I added teasingly.

  I could see a hint of flame in his gaze. “Don’t ask for what you can’t handle.”

  I slid my hands down his perfectly formed chest. “Try me,” I said, tweaking his taut nipple.

  His cock hitched in surprise, actually lifting me. It sent a shockwave of electric tingles across my skin.

  He snarled and pulled me against him as he withdrew and then thrust hard into me, slamming against my clit. Again and again. Faster, harder, deeper. The intensity of it was almost too much to bear, even as I gloried in the feel of him thick and hot inside me, savored each massive heavy thrust, filling me more and more.

  Wait-a-minute.

  “Lucas,” I breathed in between hot delicious thrusts. “Are you—”

  “Dragon,” he reminded me. “Shapeshifter.”

  My eyes widened, because oh God I could feel his cock inside me…changing…somehow

  Fuck.

  Oh.

  Fuck.

  I exploded, all fire, heat, and light, burning through my body, transforming me into shivering atoms of pure rapture.

  Later, I lay c
urled in his arms, boneless and utterly spent. Lucas’s breathing was slow and even as I watched the rise and fall of his chest, I wondered if he had fallen asleep.

  And it occurred to me that he had forgotten to tell me when to say those magic words.

  I traced the curve of his pec and placed my hand on his heart. “My fire is yours,” I said softly.

  A glow suffused me, warm and more complete than anything I had ever felt. If the Earth was to be hit by an asteroid and vaporize us this moment, I felt sure that my molecules would know exactly where to find his.

  My voice cracked. “Did you lie to me?”

  Lucas looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language. “What?”

  “You said this sealing was temporary. How could this be temporary?”

  He looked away. “Feelings…emotions are what they are. You can’t change an apple to an orange.”

  I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Do you have a problem with your feelings?”

  I almost laughed out loud. That was the core of my life’s problems, all these feelings for him that I shouldn’t have. “Yes, if this means that you might die. I don’t want you to die.” I knew there was stuff he wasn’t telling me.

  “I don’t want you to die either.”

  “That’s not the—”

  The intercom chimed. “Mr. Randall, we will arrive at the optimal exit point in approximately ten minutes.”

  “Great, thanks, Captain Levy,” said Lucas, getting out of the bed. “We have to get the dog ready,” he said, striding out of the room.

  It was never love that was the problem between us.

  It was all the other things.

  I let the scales cover my forearms to reassure myself I was strong enough to protect him. The black crystalline structure of the scales seemed…shinier.

  They had eaten Val.

  Who was already dead, I reminded myself. Once the Devourer got into someone’s head, the person was effectively gone.

  Or were they? I mean, the Devourer had taken control of Lucas and I and forced us to try to fight each other.

  It weighed so heavily in my mind, I couldn’t help but walk over and ask Lucas, who was in the process of feeding the dog something.