by Kira Nyte
Right now, he might very well categorize himself in that list of “the worst.” He grappled for the slippery cords of calm as their kiss intensified. The quiet little whimpers that wafted from her throat to his ears worked effortlessly to undo him.
When he caught his hand slipping lower down her back, the tips of his fingers cresting the top of her jeans as he skimmed the soft, warm skin beneath her sweater, he buckled down, tapering off this dangerous session before it turned into something along the lines of no-clothing intimacy.
The pool would have been a delightful addition.
Now he understood why Zar’s bed rocked more than it lay silent. Every story he heard about the connection between lifemates was true a hundred-fold.
Alazar gave Ariah’s bottom lip a gentle tug with his teeth before he straightened up. Smoke and bones, he needed an ocean to extinguish the fire raging uncontrollably inside him. The orb-like distortion of his dragon’s sight could not hide the dark, dark depths of Ariah’s lust-strewn gaze, her pupils like bottomless abysses calling him back. Her lips, rose and moist, separated as she panted for breath.
When her fingertips traced his brow, curved back around over his cheek, and came to rest against his lips, he couldn’t refrain from capturing one tip between his teeth and flicking his tongue over her pad. Her nostrils flared and her cheeks darkened.
“You have fire in your eyes,” she whispered.
There’s fire in more places than my eyes, Ace.
He kept that to himself, releasing her finger. “Dragon.”
Ariah slipped her hand over his chest, resting her palm flat over his throbbing heart. Slowly, he managed to bring his dragon back to heel and his vision returned to normal.
“Why…why did you stop?”
Alazar stared at her for a long moment, contemplating the question and exactly what she was asking.
At last, he leaned over, plucked a purple and yellow flower from the swaying grass, and tucked it in her hair. He drew his knuckles along her silky waves, desperately fighting to keep from sinking said fingers back into her hair. She was too alluring, too tempting, too everything at the moment.
“You’re not answering me.”
“Since you are reluctant to go swimming without a bathing suit, I doubt you’re up for skinny dipping.” He gave a small tug at the collar of her sweater as her face flushed. “I think you know where that kiss was headed.”
She cleared her throat, glancing away. “Yeah.”
“Don’t sound so miserable. Come on. Take this thing off, since you have that tank top item beneath it, and hop in.”
It killed him to step away, to break the connection as he dropped his hands to his sides. The distance was safe. Any other time, he would have shed his shirt before diving into the water. He kept it on and took the plunge, letting the cool rush of the mountain-fed pool douse the heat permeating his skin.
The water sizzled when he hit it.
When he broke the surface of the crystal clear waters and twisted to face Ariah, his little Ace stared at him, a brow arched, and arms crossed over her chest.
The sweater was still on.
Alazar slapped the water, sending an arc of shimmering crystal blue toward her. “Come on, Ace.”
“You smoked, you know that?” She motioned back and forth between them with her finger. “Internal thermostat went kaput again? Or is the water super cold?”
Alazar tipped his head, unable to stop the grin from curling over his lips. “Why don’t you dip a toe in and you tell me.”
Cautiously, Ariah moved to the edge of the pool and stretched her foot to the water’s surface.
The moment her toes touched the water, Alazar unleashed a small ripple of his old power through the pool. Water latched onto Ariah’s leg and tugged her away from the ridge, protected her from hitting the rocks, and dropped her into the water.
When she broke the surface with a gasp, her wide eyes shot to him. Alazar smiled.
“You were taking too long.”
“Wha…Did the…Did you…” She jerked around, looking at the rocks, Alazar, back at the rocks. “Did you see that?” He was stunned when she began a furious swim, not stopping when she reached where he tread until her entire body wrapped around him like a ribbon. “The water. It-it pulled me in. Is this pool haunted?”
“That was me.”
Her head snapped around, those wide eyes gauging him for a long moment. “No. You were here.”
“Magic, Ace. All Firestorm have magic in The Hollow. It’s stripped when we go into the mortal realm, but here?” He demonstrated another small dose of magic, arcing a thick swell of water up over her head before the pool reabsorbed it. Ariah leaned back a little more, the uncertainty in her eyes melting into awe. Her legs remained wrapped in a death grip around his waist. He shrugged. “Since we are a race of fire dragons, we can control fire the best, but we have some sway over all the elements to a degree. If the Baroqueth were the only ones with power and magic, we’d have been wiped out in the first war.”
Alazar enjoyed watching her revel in this new bit of information. She dropped a hand to the surface of the water, touching it like she had never seen water before. The wonder in her expression captivated him. Thankfully, he could hold her and tread water with little exertion. He didn’t want to disrupt these precious minutes.
At last, she brought her dream-laced gaze back to him, her lips tugging upward. She reached toward the back of his head and poked the knot of his hair. “You realize that trying to get bands out of wet hair is a pain in the butt, right?”
“Well, I hadn’t thought about it when I took the dive.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I had some smoking to do.” He gave her leg a playful squeeze. “Keep these wrapped like this, and the water is going to get hot real fast.”
“You’re right.” Ariah took her sweet time peeling herself away. “I don’t want you getting the wrong impression of me.”
“Sweetheart, that could go both ways. Rest assured, what you’re feeling is completely normal.”
“Wanting to throw myself at you is normal?” Ariah scrutinized him, her face scrunching in one of her adorable expressions. “I’ve never wanted to throw myself at anyone.”
“Then I’m honored to be your first.”
And hopefully your last.
“Let’s lighten things up a bit, shall we?” Alazar was willing to make an effort to keep things respectable. Looking at his current predicament, he wasn’t sure swimming with Ariah was the smartest idea. “Splash contest?”
Ariah snorted. “I lost that before it even began.” She dove under the water, resurfaced, and swam closer to the falls. “Is there something behind there?”
“A grotto.”
It also led to one of the three entrances to his home.
The mountain peak that rose into the sky a quarter mile away, where the first plummet of the falls snaked over the jagged rock and into the river that fed this pool, awoke the longing in his spirit to return. For good. If Ariah came with him, he’d be complete.
He twisted to find Ariah had paused at one side of the falls, squinting against the light mist. She flashed him a smile.
“Can I go back there? Or are you going to do another magic trick?”
She didn’t give him an opportunity to answer before she disappeared behind the curtain of water. Alazar rubbed a hand over his face.
“This was definitely not your grandest plan, buddy,” he muttered under his breath. Gathering his mental reinforcements, he took after Ariah, realizing this trip to The Hollow was going to have one of two results.
With each stroke closer to the falls, he knew exactly which result was going to come to fruition.
Chapter Sixteen
Ariah was living a dream in this twist of reality. Alazar promised to give her a fairytale. He delivered above and beyond anything she could have imagined. She could no longer fight what had been sown in her soul from her earliest years. Everything she had seen so far—and she doubted s
he saw even a tiny fraction of the whole—from the weeping trees, the music of the wildlife, the spirit-cleansing scents, to the warm breeze and the magic, stole her breath, stole her logic, and left her never wanting to leave.
Then, Alazar kissed her. With that single kiss, he split open her world beyond repair and carried her into a realm of fantasy and perfection.
He stole her thoughts. He stole her strength.
She feared he had stolen her heart before she realized it was capable of living.
That kiss. The fierce hunger in his eyes. The tenderness in his touch.
She felt nothing shy of safe and secure with Alazar. Crazy as it may be, she felt complete. She didn’t want to lose that.
Brushing aside the wet strands of hair plastered to her face after crossing through the waterfall, she soaked in the hollow feel of the grotto and the rays of sunlight that stretched beneath her feet, casting the water in the clearest of blues until it faded a few feet ahead. The rock shelf she passed beneath opened up overhead, the soothing echo of the water behind her hypnotic and relaxing. The walls shimmered as though encrusted with diamonds.
It was magnificent.
She treaded deeper into the grotto, the burdensome weight of her sweater dragging on her arms, until the tips of her toes brushed pebbles. The ground came up beneath her until she stood waist-deep in water, weaving her fingers along the calm surface as she stared in amazement at the walls.
“It’s gold.”
Ariah grinned, warming as Alazar drew closer. She had become hyperaware of his presence, the way it made her skin tingle and her heart flutter and other places melt. She recognized the effect he had on her when she first laid eyes on him in the Hallowed Bean. Now? The intensity of her reaction to him made her nerves hum.
Water sloshed quietly as he approached her from behind. “The cave is filled with veins of gold. Here.” The air around her thickened until she almost couldn’t breathe. Alazar slipped a hand beneath one of hers and lifted them from the water. Her hand felt so small against his as he cradled her fingers, palm up. “Trust me.”
“I do.”
Oh, how natural those words felt falling from her tongue without hesitation. A strange, prickling sensation started along her knuckles, spreading around her hand and across her palm. The prickling turned to a momentary shock of heat.
Tiny flames erupted from her palm. She jerked, eyes widening, jaw going slack. She hadn’t realized she had stepped back into Alazar until his other arm wrapped around her waist and his mouth rested closer to her ear.
“There is so much I can teach you. So much I will teach you. My fire, Ace, in the palm of your hand. This”—he lifted their hands, the flames growing brighter—“is who you are. Keeper. Lifemate. This will become the flesh to your skeleton, if you choose.”
Ariah lifted her head, following the glinting veins of gold in the rock. The firelight brought them to life, live metal in its secured home. It was absolutely stunning.
“I’m speechless,” she murmured, angling her head into Alazar’s until their noses brushed. “How could I walk away from this?” She slid her free hand along his arm, folding her fingers between his at her hip. “From you?”
“I hope you won’t.”
Ariah lifted her head enough to catch Alazar’s gaze. Sincerity blazed in the light of his eyes. She moistened her lips.
“I’m not strong enough to fight what is happening between us,” she whispered. “I don’t want to fight it.”
“It’s not meant to be fought, Ariah.” Alazar’s hand folded hers, extinguishing the flames. “I fight it solely for your sake.”
“Don’t.” Ariah closed her eyes, seeking the warmth of Alazar’s breath as she brought her mouth closer to his. “Not anymore. Give me that chance to live.”
“Ariah?”
“I’ll be your Keeper one day.” Ariah brushed her lips over his. “But I want to be your lifemate now.”
There was still so much she needed to learn and understand. She had denied herself a life for so long. She would not now deny herself what she needed most. The central pillar to this new life. The arms around her, the body pressed to her back, and the mouth that found hers in a kiss taut with restraint. A need she had only recognized a short time ago.
Alazar. Firestorm dragon. Lifemate.
Completion.
* * *
The crackling flames in the fireplace and the subtle flickers from candles lent a calm, relaxing glow to the otherwise dark room. Ariah couldn’t wipe the smile from her face as she basked in the afterglow of her spontaneous decision to stop fighting the natural pull to the dragon man lying beside her. She kept her face pressed to his shoulder, her eyes closed, and absorbed the waves of heat that kept the chill of the room at bay. Not to mention the comforting heat radiating from Alazar’s body.
“I think I missed the grand tour of your home,” Ariah murmured. The airy whorls he drew along her spine worked their own magic, threatening to put her to sleep.
“You received the abbreviated tour.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Extremely abbreviated. Secret-entrance-only abbreviated.”
“All I remember is stairs.”
“Because I carried you the rest of the way, and I was in a bit of a hurry.”
Ariah shifted, propping her chin on her fist, and gazed down at Alazar. The man was incredible in every possible sense of the word. Her entire body sang from the delight he gifted her with skill and tenderness.
“I’ve delivered on my debt of dessert.”
Alazar chuckled, twisting to his side. “Oh, no, Ace. I have a weakness for chocolate truffles, so the debt is still owed.” He brushed his thumb over her lower lip. “Besides, you are not a bet, nor are you a prize. There is nothing that can compare to you.” Pinching her chin between his thumb and index finger, he drew her closer and kissed her once. “And I do know you.”
“You’ve been in my mind.”
“You’ll be in mine soon enough.” He nuzzled his nose against her cheek. “I think I’m going to keep you here. You do wonders for the stagnant air of this place. It can definitely use a woman’s touch to make it not so…cave-ish.”
“Ahh, so you live in a man cave? I would’ve never guessed.”
Alazar pinched her waist. She squirmed, biting back a laugh until he tickled her in earnest. Ariah let out a cry of laughter, curling in on herself, sinking her hands into the silk of Alazar’s loose hair.
“It’ll be yours, too.” Alazar pressed a crushing, fierce kiss to her mouth before he sat up. Ariah wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and caught her breath. “Everything I own.”
Ariah cleared her throat after her bout of laughter and pushed up alongside Alazar. She stayed his hands as they started to pull his hair back and gave a small shake of her head when his gaze landed on her.
“I like it down.”
Alazar narrowed his eyes. “You’re not a long-haired man-bun kinda gal, Ace. Right?”
The brief shock caused by the realization that he’d picked up on her thought from the Hallowed Bean wore off as quickly as it hit. She smiled, twining a thick lock of russet hair around her finger.
“Guess you didn’t catch the last bit of my thoughts.” She tucked the lock behind his ear. “The bit about how I really like it on you.”
Alazar caught her hand as she lowered it back to her lap. He drew her knuckles to his lips, kissing each one, stealing another string of her heart. In the recesses of her mind, the last ten years tried to haunt her, promising heartache and broken dreams.
Batting away the dreary voices, she rested her head against his muscled arm. “Think my uncle and your leader are wondering where we are?”
“They’re most likely chumming it up over stout and steak.” He played with her ring finger, his thumb brushing against her skin as if tracing a ring she did not see. “Wonder if Mark ever thinks about coming back here.”
“If he didn’t make the worst mistake of his life by marrying the witch, I’m sur
e he would leave everything in Georgia in an instant. I remember how much his eyes would light up when he told me about this place. His heart longs to return, but his obligations keep him Georgia-bound. Ten years of awkward estrangement from my father has not changed that in him. He’s still the same man I loved and adored before Miriam came along.”
“I’m going to have to meet this Miriam witch and tell her to keep her spells far away from you.”
“I can hold my own against the prissy snot.”
She hadn’t meant for her voice to sound so acrid and hateful, but the half-amused, half-curious look Alazar cast her made her realize how nasty her statement sounded. Frankly, she didn’t care. She’d held her own against bigger and badder people than Miriam.
She’d faced the barrel of a gun, for crying out loud.
“You mentioned in the pool that you have magic here because the Baroqueth couldn’t be the only ones with power. Were they always enemies?” She needed to get her thoughts away from the woman before it ruined her mood. Learning more about this impending threat was a good detour. “How powerful are they?”
“They weren’t always enemies. Some had been Keepers eons ago. But like any epic fall, jealousy and greed came into play. A Baroqueth Keeper wanted his dragon’s power and was willing to kill for it.” Alazar shrugged. “That was centuries ago. The first battle. The second was thirty years ago. Not sure how powerful they’ve become since, but after the attack on Kaylae, we realized their powers have increased. Cade’s been trying to figure out how many are living, where they are, and how powerful they’ve become. He’s also been trying to locate the Keepers of the other Firestorm dragons and determine if there are more females. We know of two more female Keepers besides you and Kaylae. Since females are rare and provide hope to continue our bloodlines, the Baroqueth will seek to destroy them first, before they come after the dragons. Once we meet our lifemates, Ace, to lose them would be devastating to our minds.”
His fingers tightened around hers, whether he realized it or not. He stared into the flicker of the fire, his breathing steady, his face calm. “Now that I have you here, I could never picture my life without you. It’s that potent, that quick, and that encompassing.”
