by Tate James
When it finally slowed to a stop, all that was left of the road where Simon had stood was a massive wall of white. From the way the road had curved around the edge of the valley we were in, I could tell that a section of almost three hundred yards had been wiped out by the mini-avalanche, taking my nemesis with it.
Well, fuck.
36
When the dragons found me again, I was still frozen to the same spot, just staring at the heap of snow and ice where I had last seen Simon.
“Hey, guys,” I said in a bit of a daze as they touched down on the road behind me. “Everything okay with the shifters?”
Vali’s warm breath ruffled my hair, and I dragged my attention away from the obliterated road and turned back to them. If I had thought the two of them had an intense stare as humans, it was nothing on their dragon stare.
“Wait, do you guys even have proper eyelids? Do you blink?” My balance was feeling a bit shaky, and I needed to brace my hand against Cole’s face to stay upright. “What caused all of this?” I waved my hand at the avalanche, but in the sudden absence of action, exhaustion was hitting me like a sledgehammer. My eyes rolled back as my legs turned to jelly, and I crumpled.
The sound of arguing woke me, and I looked around with barely open eyelids. From all appearances, I was in bed again. Patting around with my hand seemed to confirm this theory so I rubbed my tired eyes, then opened them a bit more.
From where I lay, I could see the shadows of the guys in the next room as they argued loudly with the door wide open. The discussion had obviously been going for a while before I woke up, so it took me a minute to work out what was going on.
“He’s right!” I yelled out, dropping in my own input without bothering to get out of bed. My body seemed to weigh a ton, and my joints were aching like I had the flu or something.
“Thank you, princess. For once you’re using your brain!” Austin yelled back at me.
“We weren’t disagreeing with you, Aus,” Caleb’s voice responded, a bit calmer than his twin was sounding. “We simply wanted to understand what you were saying. You weren’t making a whole heck of a lot of sense, bro.”
“He’s trying to say that I can heal myself faster and easier if I’m touching someone,” I offered because they were right that Austin seemed to be having a hard time explaining it. “And faster still if the contact is a bit more sexual.”
My eyes must have been playing tricks on me still because I could have sworn Cole and Caleb just did a rapid-fire rock-paper-scissors, then Caleb swore profusely.
“We will need your help in town anyway, Caleb,” Wesley said with a strange tightness to his voice. “Let me just check on Kit, and we can go—” There was a small scuffle out of my line of sight, then Wesley darted through the open bedroom door and shut it behind him.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he whispered, meeting my eyes with a small frown. “You look…”
“Stunning?” I joked. “I know. I feel it too.”
Wesley cracked a small smile and knelt down beside the bed so his head was level with mine.
“We need to head out and help the town clean up, check on anyone left injured, things like that,” he told me, looking a bit disappointed about it. “But we should be back in a couple of hours. Did you want me to get you anything while we’re out?”
His thoughtfulness made me blink a couple of times in confusion, and he smiled with a bit more warmth. “All right, restock the coffee and buy Kit a cheeseburger. Got it.” Leaning forward, he gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek, then left the room before I could respond.
Once the door was open again, Caleb pushed in and halfway dove at me, wrapping me in a massive hug through the blankets and burying his face in my hair. Over his dark head, I saw Vali and Austin leaning against the doorframe.
“Kitty Kat…” Caleb mumbled into my neck as he moved my hair aside with his face and began kissing the soft skin below my ear. “You’ve got to stop with this fainting business. It’s scary as fuck.”
“I’ll try.” A laugh snorted out of me. “I promise it’s not intentional. Maybe this Vic guy can shed some light on my abilities and stop it from happening.”
“That would probably be useful,” Vali commented from the doorway with a dry tone of voice. “Come on, Caleb. I’d rather get this cleanup done quickly so we can get back here.”
Caleb lifted his face to look me in the eye, pushing up on his forearms as he frowned down at me.
“Try not to get in any trouble while we’re gone, okay? Otherwise, there will be trouble…” He narrowed his eyes at me in warning, and I laughed.
“Understood. Go; help these poor people. We can debrief when you’re all back.” Leaning forward to close the gap, I placed a light kiss on his lips, then prodded him in the side.
“Ugh, fine.” He sighed. “We will be back as soon as possible.” Smacking another quick kiss on my lips, he pushed off the bed and left the room. For a moment, Vali and Austin stayed where they were, then Vali gave me a nod and followed after Caleb.
“Asshole,” I greeted Austin with a small grin. “Thanks for the assistance earlier.”
“No problem,” he murmured, his gaze on me intense and unblinking. “You look like shit.”
“Thanks. So do you.” He really did. There was dried blood all crusted down one side of his face and into his hair, and the bags under his eyes looked dark and bruised. Neither of us spoke for a long, tense moment as our eyes remained locked on one another. Austin was the first to break our stare off, dropping his gaze to the floor and rubbing the back of his neck. Glancing back up, he opened his mouth as if to say something, then must have changed his mind as he just nodded thoughtfully and left.
As the front door slammed closed, Cole’s impressive frame appeared in the entrance to the bedroom. His face was carefully blank, his cold stone-like mask firmly in place, and it made me sit up a little in the bed.
“Hey, big guy,” I said softly, as if I were speaking to a wild horse ready to bolt. “What’s with the face?”
“What face?” he asked, meeting my eyes with his unwavering stare, giving nothing away.
“That one.” I pointed to his face. “You’re giving me your closed-off, emotionless face. Why? What’s going on in that head that you don’t want me to see?”
“Vixen…” He heaved a sigh, his shoulders dropping a bit from their tensed-up state, and he rubbed a weary hand over his forehead. “How are you not totally repulsed by me right now? I turned into a huge-ass fucking reptile.”
A small smile threatened to surface on my lips, but I doubted Cole would appreciate my humor in a time like this. He was clearly feeling insecure about his new, um, species?
“Cole, hon, it's my fault you're not so human anymore. If anything, you should be furious with me. Are you?” I was genuinely a bit scared to hear his answer on this, as it had been playing on my mind a lot since his half-shift on the plane.
Cole huffed another sigh, not unlike the noise he made as a dragon, and approached the bed that I was sitting in. “Call it even?”
Relief washed over me, and I grinned back at him. “Fuck yes. Now, are you getting in here or…?” My question didn't require finishing as he whipped his shirt over his head and dropped trousers at lightning speed. Laughter bubbled out of me as he threw back my blankets and dove into the gap beside me.
“What?” he muttered. “It's cold without clothes. I might need you to keep me warm…” His huge hands slid around my waist, slipping between my shirt and pants and making gooseflesh break out all over my body. Despite his skin being cold to the touch, warmth seemed to radiate into me wherever his skin touched mine. My back arched a little, craving more.
“Vixen, you're still dressed,” Cole whispered into my ear, his smoky voice sending tingles straight to my pussy. Hot fucking damn.
“Well, that's awfully rude of me.” I chuckled. “Better rectify.”
Cole generously helped me out of my bloody, torn clothing, then I grimaced as I looked down
at myself. Dried blood, dirt, and grease were crusted all over me, and it turned my stomach a little.
“Cole, babe, as much as I am dying to get those boxers off you, I need to clean up first.” A shudder ran through me when I spotted a greeny-brown smear down the side of my thigh.
Oh so gross, what the fuck is that?
Cole's mouth twitched up in a smirk. “Maybe I should help you. You do look awfully weak right now…”
“Sure,” I laughed, “but seriously, just to get clean. We can do the fun stuff once all this gross is gone.”
Throwing back the blankets, he scooped me up in his arms, bridal style, carried me down the hall to the small main bathroom, then deposited me onto the edge of the vanity while he started the shower running.
“Whose house are we in, anyway?” I asked as I looked around with curiosity. It was an interesting design choice, all done up with a nautical theme. The tiles around the shower cubicle had little anchors on them, and towels and curtains were in blue and white.
“Uh, Victor's,” Cole responded while checking the water temperature. “And his water heating sucks dick, by the way.”
“Why are we at Victor's? Isn't he on a beach in the middle of nowhere?” The muscles of Cole’s naked back were flexing and moving as he leaned into the shower to run his hand under the water once more before he nodded his approval and turned back to me.
“He is. But Granny Winter was feeling rather guilty about the way things went down, so she said we could stay here until he gets back.” He reached around behind me and unhooked my bra with a deft snap of his fingers, then dragged his gaze down my front slowly. His eyes seemed to burn a path all over me as he took a moment to browse, then lifted me down from the sink and tugged my panties down my legs.
“Cole…” I warned in a breathy whisper as he landed a chaste kiss near the juncture of my thighs on his way past, but he just smirked at me. Picking me up entirely by the waist, he twisted and deposited my naked body under the hot water.
“I can still walk, you know,” I teased, then sighed as the steaming water sluiced all over me.
“I know,” he responded, leaning his shoulder against the opening of the shower cubicle but making no move to join me. “But you need to conserve your strength.” He threw me a seriously sexy wink then handed me a bar of soap.
“You're not joining me?” I asked, surprised, and he shook his head.
“Nope, I decided it's far too tempting to take you here in the shower. Best I wait out here and just… keep an eye on you…” These last words were almost purred, and a wicked idea came to me.
“Hmm.” I shrugged. “Suit yourself…” Taking the offered soap, I proceeded to lather it between my hands, then slowly, slowly, rubbed the suds all over my body. As I paid particular attention to my breasts—I had been shot in the chest after all—I was rewarded by a pained groan from Cole's throat and the firmly erect tent in his boxer-briefs.
“Vixen,” he warned as my soaping slid further south, just to make sure all of me was clean, “you're the devil in disguise, aren't you?”
Smiling like the devil he accused me to be, I shrugged one soapy, wet shoulder and ducked back under the water to rinse off.
“All right, you're clean enough,” he snapped, holding up a towel. “Out. Now.”
Chuckling at his impatience, but fully in agreement, I turned off the water and stepped into the waiting towel. He gave me a rough, fast toweling off, then threw the fabric aside and swept me back up in his arms to carry me back into the bedroom totally nude.
“Took you long enough,” River's honey-like British voice scolded as we entered the bedroom. He was sitting in the armchair in the corner of the bedroom, once again in his suit pants and crisp shirt, but the sleeves were rolled up and his tie was loose around his neck. His face always sported at least a couple of day’s growth, but he was looking just a little rougher than usual. So did Cole, and fuck it was a good look on them. A shiver of arousal ran through me, and I knew I was already wet. Not from the shower, either.
“Alpha.” I grinned as Cole gently deposited me onto the center of the bed. “I didn't know you were joining us too. Didn't Cole and Caleb just rock-paper-scissors?”
Cole snorted a laugh from where he reclined against the pillows beside me, and River smirked. “Firstly, you weren't meant to see that, and secondly, I'm in charge. I do what I want…” His gaze leveled at me like a laser beam. “And right now… do you know what I want, Kitten?”
Biting my lip, I gave a small headshake, “No, absolutely no idea; you had better tell me.” Cole snickered from beside me, one huge hand dropping to cradle his own rigid cock straining against the thin fabric of his underwear.
“Yes, Alpha, why don't you tell us?” he teased and leaned over, capturing one of my taut nipples in his lips and sucking lightly before releasing and smirking at River. The breath caught in my throat as the scalding heat of his lips suddenly contrasted with the cool air on my wet flesh. River cast his molten gold stare to Cole, raking his eyes over his best friend then switching his attention back to me.
“I think right now, I'm in the mood to watch.” His voice was pitched low, and I could practically feel the words caressing my skin, making me break out in gooseflesh once more.
“Mmm, and what would you like to watch… sir…?” I murmured, my tongue flicking out to wet my lips. Without a doubt, this was a first for me. Being watched, so openly, as another man did whatever to me. Even when River and I’d had sex with Cole in the bed, it hadn't been like this. This was exposed, vulnerable, raw, and it was majorly turning me on.
River shifted in his chair, getting comfortable, and I noticed his belt was already open, his fly already undone. “For now, Kitten, I'm going to need to see those legs open a bit wider.”
My knees spread almost of their own accord, and I gasped when the cool air met my already soaked flesh. Cole's hand moved from his own erect length to caress my inner thigh, dragging his fingers slowly up my skin, then stopping just short of where I wanted them and resting there.
“Like this?” I asked River, breathlessly. Fucking hell, they're going to torture me.
“Perfect,” he purred back. “Cole, why don't you check and see how turned on our girl is getting.”
“Gladly, sir,” Cole smirked, his fingers finally reaching that inch higher and rubbing a couple of quick, firm circles over my clit, then diving deep into my aching pussy. A gasping moan dragged from my throat, and I arched into his hand, desperate for more. Cole's lips recaptured my nipple again as his fingers pumped slowly into me, his tongue flicking over my tight peak before he grabbed it in his teeth and gently bit down.
“Oh my god,” I groaned, my eyes rolling back a bit. “Cole…”
“Cole?” River prompted, and Cole released my nipple from his mouth, then, devastatingly, removed his fingers as well.
“I'd say pretty damn turned on, sir,” he reported back, and River gave a noise of approval.
“Excellent. Kitten, why don't you help Cole out of those shorts. They look like they're about to tear in half,” River commanded, and when I looked over to him, he already had his own rock-hard cock out of his pants and clenched in his fist. His liquid gold stare seared into me as I shifted to do as I was told.
Cole lay back against the pillows, a lazy smile across his usually serious face as I swung my leg over to straddle his knees, my back to River, and I grasped at the waistband of his underwear. Carefully and slowly, hoping to get a little revenge on him, I peeled the fabric down. His cock jumped, suddenly free, and I couldn't help myself as I leaned forward and laid a lingering kiss against the silken head.
Ignoring his moan of encouragement, I continued peeling his underwear down his legs as I retreated the length of his body. Excruciatingly aware as I was that River was behind me, I arched my back as I moved, raising my butt up in the air in what I hoped would be an enticing way.
“Perfect, love,” River's sexy accent purred, a whole lot closer than the chair he
had been sitting in. “Now stay like that, on your knees. I want to see you take Cole's dick in your mouth.”
“Whatever you say, sir,” I grinned, looking up to Cole where he lay back on the pillows. His huge, muscled arms tucked behind his head as he looked down at me with his bottomless gray eyes. Leaning forward, to get closer to his crotch, I shifted my weight onto one elbow and left my butt up in the air, as commanded. The open, exposed feeling was driving me wild. Especially knowing River had left his seat.
When is he going to touch me, dammit?
My other hand wrapped around the base of Cole's cock, lifting it away from his belly and bringing it to my lips. Taking my time, I gently traced the satin-soft head with my tongue, flicking and licking while Cole growled deep in his chest.
“Hey,” I teased. “None of that dragon, growly shit from you, Mister.”
River chuckled, somewhere close behind me. “You heard her, Drake.”
“Wait.” I popped my head up to look at Cole. “That's your call sign? Drake? As in Dragon?” A grin was spreading across my face as I appreciated the coincidence.
“Kitten,” River said in a stern voice. “I gave you an order. Why is it not being followed?”
“Sorry, sir,” I smirked, then dipped my head back down, this time capturing Cole's dick in my mouth and sucking lightly at the tip before taking it deeper while he groaned. My hand still grasped his base, so I worked it in time with my mouth as I bobbed up and down, sucking, twisting, licking, then ever so lightly scraping with my teeth.
A warm hand smoothed up my naked butt cheek, and I gasped, inadvertently taking Cole deeper into my throat. He moaned, his fingers threading into my hair, and I trembled in my own overwhelming arousal.
River's other hand was now cupping my other butt cheek, and I could feel his warm body standing behind me as he leaned close.
“That's it, Kitten. Take him deeper.” His lips brushed my ear as he spoke, and I could see him from the corner of my eye as I followed the command. Relaxing my muscles, I pushed down deeper, my jaw wide as Cole's enormous dick slid into my throat. River watched intently, his golden eyes hot with desire as I pulled back, then dipped deep once more, dragging another moan from Cole. His fingers tightened in my hair.
