“Amanda.” She still didn’t answer him, so he hauled her into her arms until he could carry her steadily.
Dean wanted out of that dragon cave immediately. He crossed the floor to get them both outside. When Amanda woke up it would be to sunshine and fresh air, not caves and the dragon’s remains.
Of course, there was the problem of getting her home. Not that it would be much of an issue—he could carry her for years if she needed him to. Dean would never let her down again. He’d die first.
The sound of motorbikes caught his attention. He jerked his head to the left. Robert had been pissing him off with all his craziness but now he’d never been so happy as he was to see the logos on the approaching New Straussvehicles.
Jane pulled up first. She jumped off the bike and strode over to him. Her sharp eyes took in the scene. “Dead dragon, I assume.”
He motioned toward the cave with his chin. “In there.”
“Right.” Jane took off in that direction while Robert approached him.
His second in command regarded him for a second before he spoke. “Amanda?”
“That’s right.”
“Dead?” Robert stared at Amanda’s unmoving figure.
“No. Just still out.” He could do more than some of Robert’s standard one-word sentences.
“Good. Come on, then.” Robert motioned for the bikes. “I’ll be glad when this is behind us.”
“I don’t have a bike. I rode a dragon here, remember?”
“How could I forget?” A muscle clenched in Robert’s jaw. Dean was really going to have to relieve him of his second-in-command duties. The man might have a nervous breakdown. “Ride behind me. You can hold her.”
“I can’t hold on to you and her at the same time.”
“Hell, Dean. You rode on a dragon without holding on, balancing a sword at the same time. You can’t manage this?”
“No.” Dean shook his head. “In that case it was my sword or my neck I was risking. I won’t have Amanda endure any more pain. I won’t risk dropping her.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Robert asked.
“You’re not going to like this.”
His friend rubbed his forehead. “I don’t like any of this.”
“I’m going to drive. She’s going to be attached to me. You’re on the back.”
If Robert could have shot daggers from his eyeballs, Dean would have been dead.
* * * * *
He stared down at her still-sleeping figure. She took sips of water if they roused her but then immediately fell back to sleep. Amanda had never once in three days regained consciousness enough to indicate that she knew she’d been separated from the dragon.
“Why won’t she wake?” Lily looked down at her sister. “Is she going to die?”
Dean smoothed the hair off Amanda’s brow. “She’s recovering. Sometimes these things can take time.” To have come so far just to lose her… That would be unbearable.
“This much time?” Steven hadn’t moved from the chair across the room in hours. He wouldn’t go near Amanda anymore.
“You know, the problem is that we have no idea. All of this is really new. Before just a few months ago, we didn’t know dragons could join with people, let alone how to free the person they’d taken. So we’re figuring it out and in the meantime your sister is safe with us again.”
“And you love her.” Steven didn’t ask it as a question.
Dean opened and closed his mouth. Well, hell. He hadn’t really thought about how he’d explain that part of his relationship with Amanda to them.
A dragon alarm sounded. He squeezed Amanda’s hand. His people would handle it. A few seconds later the second one went off. That was his cue.
“Sorry, guys. I have to go and see what’s up.” He kissed Lily on the head, nodding to Steven. “Stay here. I mean it. Don’t move. Amanda needs you to guard her.”
He turned on his heel. Each day that passed made him wonder if Princess hadn’t been lying. A vegetable that would never recover…
Chapter Eleven
Amanda drifted back to consciousness to the sound of a blaring alarm. Her eyes darted open. What was going on? Why had Princess let her back up? Not that she was going to complain.
She reached out to grip her head. Something has happened. Amanda let her mind swirl. Where was Princess? Other than the times with Dean, she’d always been present in her mind, a constant throbbing. Except now? Nothing.
Forcing her stiff muscles to move, she sat up. Where had she ended up? Was Princess gone? Her hands shook at the thought.
The room seemed pleasant. Sunlight streamed through two windows and if the alarm hadn’t been blaring louder than anything she’d heard she would have felt pretty good about being on a soft couch in a warm location. She swung her legs down to stand up and almost toppled over.
“Amanda?”
She turned at the sound. A boy with blond hair stood in a doorway. She blinked rapidly, staring at him silently. The first thing she noticed was how beautiful he was. Gorgeous, platinum-colored hair with bright blue eyes. Steven. She’d rocked him to sleep when he’d been a baby, held his hand when he’d been scared of the dragons.
And now he was so grown up. Or at least bigger.
The second thing she realized involved the fact that he held a very large gun in his hand.
“Steven.” She breathed out his name. “Look at you.”
He grinned.“You woke up.”
“Have I been sleeping?” She didn’t remember. The last thing she could remember was the brown room. The endless sameness.
She shook her head. Somehow she’d gotten out.
“Dean went and got you. Brought you home. But you haven’t woken up in three days. We were worried about you.” He moved to her and threw his arms around her.
Amanda closed her eyes and squeezed the little boy. The last time she’d seen him he’d been starving in a barn. Now he felt solid and cared for. Dean. He’d taken care of her family. Her eyes swam with tears. Steven still smelled the same. She took a deep whiff of him in case the moment suddenly vanished.
The gun he held whacked her in the back. She laughed and pulled back. “What is going on? Why are you holding that thing?”
“We’re under attack. I have to take care of Lily.”
Amanda wiped her eyes. “Where is she?”
“Hiding under the bed.” He pointed ahead. “In Dean’s room.”
“Okay.” Trying to make sense of all of this made her head hurt. Maybe she needed to do deep breaths or eat something. Still, with the dragon alarm going off it didn’t seem the time to do either. “Let’s go to Lily. And where is Dean?”
“Fighting the dragons. He wouldn’t let me go with him this time.”
“This time?” She’d have to get more of these details. They walked together into Dean’s room. Her sense of smell must have been heightened, because just as she had realized that Steven’s little-boy smell remained the same, she would have known she’d entered Dean’s room from aroma alone. The sheer masculine, woodsy, somehow fresh scent of Dean wafted through her nose as soon as she entered the room. Her whole body reacted, goose bumps breaking out on her skin and the hair on the back of her neck standing up. She shivered. Steven didn’t seem to notice. Somehow she’d have to do a better job of controlling that reaction.
“Lily?” She bent down to look under the bed, Dean’s black sheets brushing the side of her face as she did.
“Amanda?” Lily squealed, but she didn’t come out. “I love you. I’ve missed you. I told Dean to go get you—I told him he was capable. I knew he’d bring you home. Even when you were dead I knew.”
The little girl didn’t move, although her grin told Amanda how happy she was.
“Okay. Well, we’ll talk about all of that. I need to hear about your life here. But for now, I need you to tell me how much danger we’re in.”
It had been so long since she’d been in New Strauss. She had no idea whatsoever what the alar
m meant.
“Two alarms mean that there’s more than one dragon out there. But don’t worry. Hear that cannon fire?”
Amanda concentrated. Beneath the blaring dragon alarm there was the low boom of cannons being fired. “Yes.”
“It means they are bringing them down. We were using a different gun for a while, when Dean made the dragons tell him where you were. They couldn’t die before he could get them to tell him where to find you. This way, they’re just going to go splat.” Steven smiled again.
“How did Dean…um…interrogate a dragon?” She looked between Steven and Lily.
“By taking them into his mind.” Lily nodded and touched the floor next to her. “Come under the bed with me.”
“He did what?” She squeaked the last word. Had he lost his senses? How could he have risked himself like that? In a million years, she never would have wanted him to place himself in harm’s way. Not for any reason. She swallowed. There would be time, hopefully, to ask him those questions later. “Lily, honey, I’m not going to fit under there. Why don’t you come up here with Steven and me? We’ll all sit on the bed. How does that sound?”
Lily bit her lower lip, then nodded. She scooted out from under the bed and Amanda wrapped her in her embrace. Lily smelled the same too, like soap and vanilla.
Without speaking, they all climbed into Dean’s bed. She covered the kids with his dark sheets, placing herself in the middle of them. “Steven, why don’t you give me the gun?”
“Do you know how to fire it?” His eyes were serious when he asked that question.
“Yes. I used to do it. You might not remember because it was so long ago and you were so little, but I took care of us.”
“I never forgot.” He passed her the gun and snuggled up against her.
The dragon alarms blared on and on. Amanda lost track of time, feeling content despite the noise. She’d wanted to hold the kids again, had thought she never would. Her stomach grumbled. After a while she looked down, wanting to ask the kids how long these things usually went on. Instead she just stared. They’d both fallen asleep against her, their breathing deep and even as if they slept in silence instead of a dangerous, alarm-blaring situation.
She pulled them tighter against her.
The alarm ceased sounding and she heard the distant voices of men and women cheering. It must have been a heck of a takedown. Her mother would have said that Dean had ice in his veins, that these things didn’t bother him at all, that somehow that made him less than human. Amanda knew better now. Her parents had been good people who had made some bad choices. One such poor decision had been to misjudge Dean Andrews so completely.
He felt things very acutely, he just didn’t broadcast his every mood over a loudspeaker.
As if conjured by her thoughts, he appeared in the doorway. She stared up at him as he took in the scene. His eyes were the only part of his face to illustrate his thoughts. At first glance they widened and then, while he gained control of his shock, they masked over into the remote, watchful Dean she’d seen so frequently behind Princess’ eyes while she’d been in captivity.
She moved silently and swiftly, not wanting to wake the kids. They didn’t stir, their eyes still glued shut in blissful sleep.
On quiet feet, she reached Dean. They stared at one another without words. Why doesn’t he say something?
It didn’t matter. She reached up, pulling his head down to hers, and met his lips with her own. His hands went to her waist and he lifted her until she could wrap her arms around his neck.
Carrying her like that, he left the sleeping children and strode across the house.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“Guest room,” he answered her. “Don’t worry about noise. They’ll sleep through until morning now. Noise doesn’t wake them.”
“As evidenced by the fact that they fell asleep during the alarms.”
“Amanda.” He closed the bedroom door behind them. “Hell, I thought I wouldn’t have you with me again. I failed you. I’m sorry.”
She cut him off, pressing her mouth to his again. There would be time for talking. Right that second, she wanted him inside her, showing her that this was all real, that she’d really come back and could count on being here with him.
“Touch me,” she whispered against his neck. “Everywhere.”
He pulled at her shirt, taking it off her body. She didn’t wear a bra, which might have bothered her if she’d thought about it, but now she just felt glad not to have more things between Dean and her.
He leaned over her breasts. “I’ve gotten no time with these two.” He squeezed her breasts in his hands. Pleasure surged through her veins. All thoughts of food fled her mind. She only needed Dean to feed her soul.
And if he continued to play with her breasts, that would be fantastic too. He bent over and sucked on her nipple. She drew in her breath, her hands going to the back of his neck until she found his hair.
Amanda closed her eyes. Wow, the man could do amazing things with his tongue and his teeth. He bit down on her aching peak and it hardened. She hissed. How could pleasure be mixed with so much sweet pain?
Dean lifted his head and went down to the other breast, capturing her bare tip in his mouth. Her skin burned where he’d left it alone. Why couldn’t he touch her everywhere all at once?
“Easy, gorgeous. We have all night.”
She grinned. “Or at least until the next dragon alarm.”
“Hell. You’re right. We might have to hurry this up.” He stroked her breast, causing her to shiver again. “I want to spend time with them.”
She sat up on her knees. “And believe me, I want you to. But I want you in me more than anything else. I’ve thought about little else, when I could think at all, for the last however long it’s been.”
“Months, baby.” He kissed her, this time gently, as if he wanted to take some of the pain from the time she’d been trapped away from her. In that second, she believed he could. Dean performed miracles.
“All right, months. So get that hot cock in me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And where did a gentle soul such as yourself learn such language? Dragons talk dirty?”
“Don’t forget where I came from. I knew lots of dirty words before the dragons gentrified me.”
Dean smiled, a broad display of white teeth. “I’d love to hear each and every one of them.”
Amanda pulled his shirt from his body. Dean’s muscles were as she remembered them except, if possible, more defined than before. She leaned over and licked his skin. He tasted salty and male.
He groaned as if she’d touched another part of his body besides his chest. Cock. She’d shocked him. That rocked.
Dean pushed her backward on the bed, moving on top of her. “I need to get your pants off before I come from just looking at you.”
She yanked them down. “Whose clothes are these?”
“A bunch of different women donated them. I really don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“All right.” A slow smile crossed her lips. “Then I guess I shouldn’t ask who got me into them?”
“Me.”
She sighed dramatically. “Then I guess it hasn’t been long since you last saw me nude. Can’t be too exciting for you.”
He grabbed her hand and placed it on his dick. “Does this feel like not excited to you? I’ll never be able to get enough of you.”
Dean took off the remainder of his clothes. He stood before her totally nude, like a god from one of the statues she’d seen in some of her travels with Princess. “Did they carve you from stone?”
He bit down on her shoulder but didn’t answer her question. “You were made for sex. Your body is all curves and softness.” He ran his hand down from her neck to her stomach. “For months I’ve thought about you, dreaming of you, touching myself imagining it was you.”
She stroked his cock. “Touching yourself like this?”
“Harder, baby.”
<
br /> Amanda wrapped her hand around him tighter. “Like that?”
“Yes.” He sighed. “Just. Like. That.”
His erect length was hard and deeply veined. She sat up, wanting her tongue to be where her hand milked him. Before he could stop her or tell her anything that might mean she didn’t get to do just what she wanted, she leaned over and licked him.
Dean sucked in his breath. “Shit.”
“Language, Dean.” She licked again. “Wherever did you hear such things?”
“Damn it.” He pulled himself back to where she couldn’t reach him and instead tweaked her clit.
A surge of pleasure overtook her and her body started to shake. Dean kissed her belly. “Shh. I’ve got you, baby.”
He moved closer, positioning his cock near her core. “You’re so wet.” Dean slid himself inside her. “Like heaven. Better than I remembered.” He laughed to himself. “How is that possible?”
“Dean,” she whispered. “The dragon is out of me. I could get pregnant.”
“Hell, I’d love that.” He nodded. “But we should talk about that when we’re not this hot for one another.”
Dean backed away and her muscles clenched in complaint when he did. “I’ll be back.”
Amanda got a quick view of Dean’s naked ass as he hurried out the door. A few seconds later he reappeared holding two packets in his hand.
“Where was I?” He put himself over her again. “Can you put it on me?”
She could. She reached out. She hadn’t realized how badly her hands were shaking until she had to open the foil. The sheath came out and although it took her several tries, she got it rolled down his slick, hot cock until it covered him.
“Put it back in. Please. Until I explode from wanting you.”
“As my woman wants.”
Dean pushed inside her. Her muscles clenched, glad to have him back inside her where he belonged. In and out of her he moved, slowly at first, then quickly picking up into a frenzy that she could barely keep up with.
She raised her hips, meeting him thrust for thrust, wanting to tell him with her body how much she had needed him for the last few months, how glad she was to be back with him. But then rational thought left her mind. There was nothing but Dean and her, the noises they made, the sounds of their bodies coming together.
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