by Bianca D’Arc
“Is that all?” he pushed, wanting more. “You just want to forget?”
She shook her head, trying to find the words and not sure how he would handle the truth. She felt so much for him, so fast. Most guys didn’t want to hear that kind of thing on such short acquaintance. She bit her lip in indecision, but he tapped her upper lip with one finger, coaxing her to release the lower one.
“I want more than that,” she told him, deciding to be daring. “I want you, Paul.”
His sexy smile lit her world. “Then, you shall have me.” He dipped his head closer to lick at her lips, biting gently on the lower one then releasing it. She found the move almost unbearably exciting. “And…I shall have you,” he finished, naughty promises in his eyes that she couldn’t wait to be fulfilled.
Chapter Six
Syd gasped as Paul lowered more of his weight onto her. He was so solid. So warm and masculine. So much more than any man she’d ever had before. She had a momentary thought that, after this, she might well be ruined for all others. If that was to be her fate, she decided to embrace it fully. Embrace him fully. For this night might never come again. While she had him here, she was going to savor the experience and do her best not to think of the future at all.
That thought firmly in mind, she began to touch him in daring ways. Ways she hadn’t tried with the other men she’d been with. She reached for Paul, stroking her hands over every inch she could reach, letting her impatient fingers work on the buttons of his shirt, the zip of his jeans. She wanted him naked, and she wanted it now.
But he had other ideas. Paul slowed her, impeding her progress with gentle movements. Focusing his attention on her body. Her pleasure. Her enticement.
It was something none of her former lovers had ever done. Of course, there hadn’t been that many, but she had some experience. Paul was making her feel like an utter novice once again. He didn’t think only of his own pleasure, rushing her to the finish line. Rather, he seemed to not even be aware there was a finish line, so to speak. He made her aware of the here. The now. The infinitesimal moment when his touch lit her world with incandescent pleasure…and the promise of oh, so much more.
Wow. Her head was spinning already, and they were both still mostly dressed. He’d loosened her top, but it was still mostly on. She wanted it gone. She wanted his shirt gone, too, so she could feel the texture and heat of his skin against hers. She wanted to feel him body to body, all over. As soon as possible.
Again, Paul appeared to have other ideas. He undressed her with unhurried calm and heated touches that sent her senses into orbit. Forget flying, she was going intergalactic. His touch, and his talented lips and tongue, sent her higher than she’d ever been before without actually climaxing. She wasn’t sure, based on what she was feeling right now, if she would survive an orgasm with Paul, but she was desperate to find out.
When he finally divested her of her shirt and bra, she waited for him to pounce. Instead, he leaned back to just look at her. She could feel her nipples tightening as his gaze wrapped her in approval and desire. She’d never had a man look at her like that. Not once, in all her life.
Yes, sir. She’d been right. Being with Paul could become addictive, but at the moment, she didn’t mind. She’d happily become an addict if he’d just keep looking at her like that…and more.
“Vrei sa fii tu steaua mea norocoasa?” he whispered in what had to be Romanian, his mother tongue.
“What does that mean?” she whispered back. Paul shook his head slightly and smiled.
“Sorry. I asked if you wanted to be my lucky star.” He looked a little sheepish. “It sounds better in Romanian.”
“It’s charming,” she told him, reaching up to stroke her fingers through his dark hair. He was so incredibly handsome in a rugged, strong way. She was quickly becoming fascinated with every little detail about him. “And the answer is yes, in case you were in any doubt,” she told him in a quiet voice, a shy grin on her lips before he lowered his head and claimed her mouth again in a kiss hotter than any other he’d given her to this point.
Things began to move a lot faster after that. Where before, he’d seemed to want to savor, now, he seemed driven by need. Her clothing disappeared under his skilled hands, as did his. She had the vague idea that he just threw all the clothes toward the corner of her bedroom, but she wasn’t sure. Wherever they’d gone, she was glad they could no longer interfere with the sensations she’d longed to feel.
Skin on skin. Desire and heat. Need and acceptance. It was all there. Everything she’d ever dreamed of but had never found with a lover.
It was perfect. And, in that perfect moment, he slid into her for the first time, making her gasp. It was a simple joining. Man on top in the traditional way, but that didn’t mean it was boring or routine. Not in the least.
Paul began to move almost at once, as if he was losing control over the game of desire he’d played until this point. It was the sexiest thing he’d done to date. The idea that she could make him lose it fired her confidence in her own femininity and made her want, more than anything, to be an equal partner in this seduction of the senses.
She met him move for move, thrust for thrust, participating fully in the act that she began to realize would alter her fate in some way. Like all her premonitions, she didn’t know how she knew what she knew, but she did. Something big was happening here.
And she wasn’t just thinking about the part of him that was buried deep inside her at the moment. That thought made her smile at her own silliness a moment before Paul changed up the pace, doing something that made his cock hit a spectacular place inside her she hadn’t known existed. She screamed his name as she came, and he kept going, making her climax last and last.
It was like nothing she’d ever experienced before as pleasure sent her body into spasms of intensity. Multiple times. Holy cow! Multiple orgasms. She’d thought that was just a myth, but Paul was proving the incredible reality to her. Over and over again.
When he finally joined her in ecstasy, after wringing every last bit of pleasure out of her body that he possibly could, she was more than ready to return the favor. Her body clamped around him as he went rigid in her arms. She watched his face, his eyes closed as pleasure washed over him. He was an amazing man who had already given her more than any other man she’d ever known, both in pleasure and in safety.
He’d helped her. He’d probably saved her life twice over. And now, he’d introduced her to a new level of lovemaking she hadn’t known existed.
What an incredible man.
Paul couldn’t believe the pleasure to be found in Syd’s arms. The experience of being with her made all other sexual experiences he’d ever had pale into insignificance. He wasn’t sure what it was about her—or what had just happened here—but he knew he had to stick around to at least try to figure it out. There was something very special about Syd, and he wanted to learn all her secrets before they went their separate ways. That was…if he could bear to leave her after this.
At this point, he wasn’t at all sure he’d be able to make himself go.
As they began to come down from the most intense sexual peak of his life, Paul couldn’t speak. He just tucked her into his arms, making them comfortable on her big bed, then let the moment fade into sleep. He’d have time to think about everything in the morning. For now, they both needed to recharge and rest.
Paul woke briefly a few hours later, when an attempt was made to breach the ward he’d put up near the side of the house. Someone or something had tried to enter through one of the ground-floor windows, but the ward—coupled with some of the surveillance gear he’d re-used for his own purposes—had scared them off. Nothing like using their own motion sensors, hooked to a lamp in the room, against them.
They’d no doubt triggered the motion sensor he’d aimed at the window, and the lamp had lit, making them think someone was about to discover their attempted intrusion. The magical ward he’d put around every opening into the house h
ad told him instantly which window had been tried, and he also knew that no one had successfully entered the house.
Syd slept on, serene in his arms, and he decided the intruders could wait until the morning. He wasn’t about to get out of this cozy bed with the woman who was fast becoming important to him to look at a cold trail. For, he had no doubt, the intruders would not try that window again.
They probably wouldn’t try anything else that night, but if they did, he would know the instant it happened. If someone managed to get in, he wouldn’t mind going dragon on their ass if they threatened his woman.
That’s when he realized he was thinking of Syd not just as a woman, but as his woman. Hmm. That was somewhat startling to realize, but he couldn’t work up any real energy to question it further at that moment. Not when sleep was calling his name, and he had a warm, sensual, giving woman in his arms. He let it go for now. He’d think about everything later. This moment was for savoring.
Paul woke again a couple of hours later. Another attempt had been made on one of the windows, and the intruder had been rebuffed again. He had to give them points for persistence, but so far, they hadn’t demonstrated that they had enough firepower, magically speaking, to overcome his wards. They also didn’t seem to realize he’d rigged their own surveillance gear against them. They probably hadn’t thought anyone could do so that fast, but Paul was good with electronics and had realized years ago that he had something of a talent for it.
Still, the continued attempts to get in made him realize that Syd was very vulnerable. If he wasn’t here, she wouldn’t know about any attempted intrusions, much less that there was probably a team waiting outside her door to abduct her—or worse—given half the chance. What if she went outside to water the garden, or put out the trash, or any one of a hundred possible things that could make her leave the protection of her newly-warded home?
She didn’t have the skills to deal with physical threats—or magical ones—and Paul couldn’t spend every moment with her from now on. No. He would need backup if he wanted to keep her safe, and that meant making contact with some locals he could trust. With any luck, his friends in Grizzly Cove would have seen his messages and replied by morning, and he could work on getting some real security help to safeguard Syd. Hopefully, by later today, if all went well.
Paul silently marveled at how easily he’d adapted to having found relatives—albeit distant relatives—in Grizzly Cove. For a loner who’d been orphaned as a baby and had never known what it was to have family, Paul had not only been accepted with open arms by the bear shifters he’d found that likely shared an ancestor with him, but he’d come to depend on them in ways he’d never depended on anyone before.
It was nice, having a family. It was something he’d always wanted and had now found, to a greater degree than he’d expected, but his quest continued. Finding other dragons was his goal, and if Syd could help him do it, then he would stick to her like glue and keep her safe against her enemies. No matter what.
Of course, after last night, his reasons for wanting to keep her safe and staying with her had become ever more complex. There was indescribable pleasure involved now, as well as genuine feelings. It was all a little confusing, but at the heart of it, it was really very simple. He liked her. He cared for her. He wanted to make love with her as often as she’d let him, and he didn’t want that to stop…ever.
Wow. Talk about things moving fast.
Then, there was the possibility that she could lead him to more dragon shifters. It was what had drawn him to her from the beginning, but now, the relationship had evolved—in only a few short hours—into something that had him thinking about the future and how to keep her with him for years to come.
That’s the moment he was thinking in terms of years. Decades, even. Everything he had been able to discover about dragon shifters indicated that they lived an extraordinarily long life. Bear shifters were among the most magical of common shifter species, and they routinely lived at least three centuries, if they didn’t die due to warfare or other injury. Dragon shifters were a lot more magical, which meant a much longer life.
Which begged the question—was Syd the kind of woman that could be a true mate, or was she a temporary partner in life? Was she a human magic user with a human lifespan who would share a few decades with him, then break his heart by dying? Or was she something else? Could she be the true mate that could share in his magic…and his years?
There were legends about that kind of thing, but Paul was still woefully unknowledgeable about his own kind. This was the kind of question he could’ve asked his parents—if he had ever known them. As it was, he was unprepared and not sure what to think about any of this.
Regardless, they had more immediate problems. Another of his wards rang with an attempted intrusion. Enough was enough.
Easing out from Syd’s bed so as not to wake her, he decided it was time to singe a few tails. Hopefully, that would allow him to rest a little longer with the woman who was quickly coming to mean everything to him.
Paul went through the house, room by room, window by window, and reinforced his wards with something that would offer a bit more zip the next time some jackass tried to breach his magical protections. A yelp sounded, not ten minutes later, as he was finishing up. He went over to the room on the first floor that Syd used as an office and stood quietly in the window, where anyone outside could see him.
Casually, he looked down to find one of the team members from earlier in the evening, lying prone on the grass a few feet from the window. He’d been shocked and thrown, his body still twitching, though he was conscious. He took one look at Paul standing in the window and started a rapid, awkward crab walk backwards, away from the house. As soon as he was able to stand—the effect of the zap wearing off a bit—he did so and turned tail to run into the trees at the edge of the property.
Paul watched him go, smiling. He let his teeth lengthen just the tiniest bit in a micro-shift. Let them wonder what he was. Shifter or even bloodletter. Keep them guessing. Let them realize they were up against something they hadn’t counted on. That ought to get them to leave Syd alone for a while.
Paul knew he was just buying time. Hopefully, they’d leave Syd be long enough for Paul to get backup in place. He just needed a few hours. Half a day, at most. Judging by the response so far from the team that had infiltrated Syd’s house earlier, they didn’t have the kind of firepower they’d need to be a serious threat—but he’d bet they could get it.
The race was on to see whose backup would arrive first.
That thought in mind, Paul left the window with one last disgusted glance and went into the main living area, picking a spot where he wouldn’t be readily visible from outside. He’d closed all the curtains and blinds he could, but there were a few windows that didn’t have either. He’d fix that later today, if Syd was willing.
And he’d spend what was left of the night convincing her to be willing, if necessary. He looked forward to it. But, first, he accessed his cell phone and checked messages.
Bingo. Cousin Peter had come through. He had a contact name and location for Paul to try in the morning. He’d even promised to call ahead and tell his contact that Paul was on his way. In the shifter community—particularly among ex-military shifters—it really helped to have someone on the inside of that community vouch for you. With Peter’s introduction, things should go a lot smoother with the local shifters, and Paul hoped he would find some willing to help Syd out.
According to what Peter had to say about his friends in this town, they sounded like just the sort of people Paul needed. Ex-military with honed skills in protecting high-value targets. Value couldn’t get much higher than Syd’s life and freedom. Paul would be sure to impress that upon any shifter who agreed to help.
Before that, though, he still had a few hours in the night left to be with her. He went back to her bedroom and climbed back in her bed. She rolled over and snuggled into him, waking a little.
“Where did you go?” she asked, her voice low and scratchy with sleep. Sexy.
“Just checking things,” he told her. He would not worry her right now with the knowledge that there had been multiple attempts to get into the house in just the past few hours.
She seemed to wake up a little more, leaning up on one elbow to look at his face. He didn’t like the little worry line between her eyebrows, so he decided to distract her. He slid his hands down to her hips and coaxed her over to straddle his body. He was naked once more, though he’d put on his jeans to prowl around the house earlier, and his cock was ready for action, as it seemed to be whenever he got within touching distance of Syd. Damn. The woman could lead him around by the balls if she ever realized her power over him, but he already knew she wasn’t that kind of woman. No, any power she had, she would use for good. Or, so he believed.
Maybe he was being naïve. Maybe he was too trusting. Or, maybe, he’d found a genuine pearl on a dark mountain road.
As she discovered his readiness, the worry line between her delicate brows lifted, and interest kindled in her eyes, as he’d hoped. She surprised him, becoming the aggressor, reaching down to align their bodies before sliding onto him, holding his gaze throughout. He gasped.
“Damn, woman,” he ground out, his passion going from zero to a hundred and sixty in nothing flat.
“What? You don’t like it?” she teased, pretending to lift away, but his hands on her hips stopped her and brought her back down on his hard cock as she made a humming sound of pure pleasure.
“You know damned well that I do,” he told her, reaching up to cup her breasts in his palms. She was so beautifully made. Everything about her was luscious and perfect. What he considered perfect, anyway. Perfect for him.
Syd didn’t know what made her so bold, only that she liked being on top, and she liked the fire in his eyes as Paul looked at her. The heat of his touch sparked an answering fire in her own body as she began to move on him, taking him deeper with each new stroke.
