Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

  Kean groaned against her, kissing her fiercely as one hand slid up from her hip to cup her full breast in his hand. He squeezed, his thumb finding her nipple through the fabric of her borrowed dress, and as he circled and pressed the sensitive bud, she let out a whimper of need.

  “Tell me yes,” he rasped in her ear. “I need to know that you’re not scared. That you want me as much as I want you.”

  “Yes,” she groaned, her fingers sinking into his hair and tugging him closer. “Yes, Kean. I want you. I’ve wanted you always.”

  “Why aren’t you afraid of me?” he asked, lowering his head so that his mouth could fasten onto the nipple he had been teasing. “Thank God you’re not afraid of me. You’re delicious.”

  Her breath caught in her chest as his tongue circled around and around the sensitive bud, tormenting her in the best kind of way. “I don’t know,” she whispered, lifting up into him, eager for more. “Maybe I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”

  He didn’t say anything in response, instead focusing his attention on her body as his hands and mouth traced every inch of her skin, tasting and stroking her until she was shivering beneath him, not from the cold but from the heat he was stoking within her.

  The only complaint she had was that he wasn’t giving her a chance to reciprocate, and she was longing to explore the expanses of muscles that were rippling above her. When the urge became too strong, she flipped them over, straddling his hips, her dress hitched up around her waist so that there was nothing between their bodies as she moved against him.

  He moaned for her, reaching for her hips so that he could thrust fully inside her, but she stopped him, a twinkle in her eye. “Not yet,” she murmured, rotating her hips, then leaning down to trail heated kisses down his perfect chest. She traced the ridges of his abdomen with her tongue and teased the softness of his navel with her lips. Then she moved back up him, kissing over his pecs and then over his shoulders and down his biceps, her teeth grazing against the bulging muscles.

  “Dhara,” he moaned, lifting his hips up against her. “I’m dying for you, honey. I need you.”

  She was right there with him, so eager for his body that she was dripping with anticipation. As their eyes locked, she lifted her hips above him, his erection strong and hard below her, then slowly slid her body down onto his, surrounding him with her most feminine softness as he thrust up to meet her.

  The sensation of him inside her almost sent her careening over the edge of her pleasure immediately, but she controlled the urge, not ready for her first time with Kean O’Shea to be over so quickly. She wanted to linger in the pleasure, to feel him stretch her as he grew harder, to revel in the sensation of his length sliding in and out of her, slow at first, then faster and faster until he was pounding up into her with all of his strength.

  If it didn’t kill her, it was going to be the best thing that ever happened to her, and if it did kill her, she would die a happy woman.

  “Dhara,” Kean groaned again, his hands clutching her hips as he held her in place, circling her above him. “Oh, Dhara…sweetheart…fuck.” His eyes rolled back in his head, and he thrust up against her harder, still holding her hips down so that he could piston his hips against her again and again.

  Dhara felt her body tighten around his, and she grabbed onto his wrists, biting down on her lip to keep from screaming his name as their bodies moved together in such perfect rhythm that they might have been doing this all their lives. “Kean! Yes…Kean…harder,” she pleaded. “Don’t hold back. I want all of you. Inside me. Around me. Take me…”

  He seemed to need no further encouragement as he flipped them over again, his body still buried deep within hers. As her back landed on the grass, he yanked her legs up over his shoulders, and when he slid his cock back inside of her, it reached so deep that Dhara’s eyes closed and she drifted away on a pleasure so intense that it consumed her.

  Again and again, he thrust into her, sending jolts of need through her everytime his hips slammed against hers. His fingers wrapped around her ankles, and he trailed kisses along her calves, his fingers caressing the sensitive spot behind her knee that he somehow instinctively recognized.

  It was all too much, and it was going to be over too soon. Dhara wanted it to last for an eternity, but she grew closer to her peak every time his body slammed back into hers, and she could tell from the sweat beading on his forehead and the heavy rasp of his breath that he was nearing the peak of his own pleasure. She wanted them to go together, joined in every possible way as they satisfied each other’s deepest needs.

  He must have wanted the same thing, because his eyes opened and were riveted on her face, his gaze penetrating hers as he watched her for the exact moment that her climax hit. When it did, her lips parted and a moan slipped from her, as pleasure cascaded over her again and again, tensing every muscle and claiming every part of her completely. As she lingered in her peak, she felt him reach his, his guttural groan matching hers and her name whispering from his lips over and over again as his body pulsed into her, spilling his seed inside of her.

  When they surfaced from their pleasure, they were both gasping for breath, the slickness of their skin causing them to slide against each other as they collapsed and let their muscles relax after the blissful tension that had overtaken them.

  Kean turned his head toward hers and kissed her softly, his eyes bleary, warm, and soft as he looked down at her. He smiled, and she smiled back, and for just a moment, nothing else existed.

  There were no spirits haunting her. No questions about her past. No fear of the supernatural world. No fundamental reason that they could never be together the way they wanted to be. No star-crossed dragon and human lovers, who would never achieve the happiness they hoped for.

  All that existed was the lingering buzz of pleasure, the delicious exhaustion in their bodies, and the gentle comfort of knowing that as long as they didn’t move or open their eyes, they could lie wrapped around each other forever, just like this.

  Nothing could touch them.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Kean

  He had made an incredible mistake.

  Kean lay on top of Dhara, knowing that he had done irreparable damage to their relationship, to his world, and to her chances of ever overcoming the paranormal forces that haunted her.

  He had wanted her so much, and she had looked so enticing, standing there with arousal written all over her face, so blatant that she might as well have begged him to take her. Her eyes had been begging him without saying a word.

  It wasn’t as though he hadn’t wanted her too, or that he was blaming her for the fact that they were now naked, entangled, and covered in wet grass, sparks still dancing between them in a way that would have been utterly blissful if it hadn’t been so entirely wrong.

  They had slept together. No—they had made love. They had made love together in a way that Kean hadn’t even known was possible. He’d had good sex before, and a number of times. No woman had ever complained about his skill in the bedroom. But this had gone above any definition of good sex and transcended into something that so deeply connected them that Kean knew in his soul that he would never be able to distance himself from Dhara.

  Not ever.

  And that meant an end to his way of life as he knew it. It meant risking the entire Celtic Dragon Clan. It meant leaving his brotherhood. It meant that he would have no one to help him get her the help that she needed. It meant that he had made a choice—a choice that he wasn’t sure he was ready to make.

  But she was wrapped around him so sweetly, her soft, warm, vulnerable body completely open to him as he still rested within her. Her heart beat against his, at a different tempo and with a different power, but somehow still in sync.

  She was in love with him. He didn’t have to be supernatural to pick up on the emotions that were whispering over her skin, and he knew that he was in love with her too. If he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have reacted to her so strongly. As she
had shattered apart around him, he had once again felt the urge to shift and embrace his true nature. She had that kind of power over him, and though he’d anticipated it and been able to control it without running from her this time, it was no less powerful than the first time that he had brought her pleasure.

  The woman was under his skin, embedded in his mind, and anchored into his heart.

  And she also had a death sentence on her head and the power to sever him from the only ties that he had ever known.

  If there was a way to reconcile those things, then he didn’t know what it was. Nor did he know what to say to her as she lay nestled beneath him, clearly still in a state of bliss so complete that there was no place for the darkness of reality.

  He didn’t want to be the one to remind her of the place they were in, and yet he couldn’t keep lying there, pretending they were two carefree lovers taking an afternoon romp in the woods.

  Eventually, she was going to remember that she had ridden to this clearing on his back—while he was in his dragon form.

  As though she was reading his mind—and perhaps she could—her eyes opened, and she looked up at him, realization seeming to set in for the first time.

  “You’re not a bird.”

  It wasn’t the sentence that he had expected, and he wasn’t sure how to respond. He sat up slowly, their bodies separating with reluctance. “No,” he agreed. “I’m not. Why did you say that?”

  “I kept getting images of you flying,” Dhara said, sitting up too, her slender, toned arms moving around her legs to hug them to her chest. “And I knew that you were supernatural somehow. I thought that you could…become a bird, I guess.” She flushed, partially because of how silly the statement sounded and partially because after passionate lovemaking, they were both now sitting in the chilly air, naked except for the dress that was still wrapped around her waist.

  “I’m a dragon,” Kean said quietly, knowing that there was no turning back from this moment, right now, right here. “I was born into the Celtic Dragon Clan, and my friends who work with me at the agency—they’re all part of the same clan.”

  “Dragons,” Dhara repeated, shaking her head. As she looked away, she withdrew herself a little from him, and on one level it hurt to see the woman who had just given herself to him so completely suddenly feeling nervous in his presence, but on the other hand, he would have expected nothing less. She was in love with him, and their attraction to each other was undeniable, but the fact that he was a shapeshifter and a being who was more supernatural than not was bound to give her a moment’s pause.

  If it hadn’t, he would have been more suspicious of that.

  “You can ask me anything you want,” Kean said, drawing her attention back to him. “I promise I’ll answer you honestly, if you make me a promise first.”

  She nodded, her watchful eyes fixed on him. “All right. What promise?”

  “My clan doesn’t ever tell anyone our secret. The few times that a human has found out about us and what we are …it hasn’t ended well. For the human.”

  Dhara swallowed hard, her muscles, once relaxed from the intensity of their shared pleasure, tensing again. “What does that mean?”

  He didn’t mince words with her. “Usually, it means that whoever finds out about us…dies. But—” he added quickly, “We’ve never had this kind of circumstance before, where a dragon has openly revealed himself to a human. And I would never, ever let something happen to you, Dhara. You need to know that. I will protect you with my life, from anyone. But what you know is dangerous to you, and you need to understand that.”

  “Why is it so…secret?” she asked. “I mean, I understand why you wouldn’t want to advertise it, but the way you’re talking…it’s like you’re the CIA.”

  Kean thought for a moment, trying to decide how to explain it to her. “Dragons were created through a curse,” he finally told her, starting back at the beginning. “It was 1623, in Ireland. The British Empire had been trying to subdue Ireland for quite some time, and in the midst of the rebellions, one village in particular rose up, organized, and did a great deal of damage to the British armies as they marched through the area. Men, women, and even children participated, and the British army was not only hurt from a military perspective—but humiliated. To be defeated by Irish women and children was an embarrassment.”

  “Ireland,” Dhara murmured. “That’s why all your names…”

  He nodded. “We have always kept our Irish heritage strong. My mother’s name is Colleen. My father’s name was Patrick. Even after my group moved to Boston, we always honored Ireland in whatever way we could. But I’m getting ahead of myself.”

  “Sorry,” Dhara said, gesturing for him to continue. It seemed to be of no concern to her that they were sitting naked in an opening in the midst of a forest, and Kean took it as a sign that she still trusted and was comfortable with him.

  He could only hope that he would live up to her trust by keeping her safe from what haunted her…and from the punishment his friends might feel obligated to dole out.

  “An embarrassment,” Kean said, picking his story back up. “So the British crown employed one of its worst weapons—a witch who, many years before, had been captured and sentenced to death for her witchcraft. But she had bought her life by promising to live secretly and use her magic only in service of the Crown. Whatever it asked of her, she would do.”

  Dhara’s eyes were wide and rapt, and she seemed to be drinking in every word he had to say without question.

  Somehow, Kean found that he almost enjoyed explaining it to someone—someone who didn’t have the past that he and his friends had. Everyone in the Celtic Dragon Clan knew the history of their culture like the back of their hand, but Kean had never told the story to anyone and been able to see their reaction to it for the first time.

  “The witch cursed the village. It wasn’t a small village—we think about three hundred fifty people lived there at the time. And she cursed all of them by turning them into beasts that were designed to be hated and feared before quickly dying out.” He smiled slightly and gestured to himself. “Dragons, she called them. It came from the Gothic Saxon term ‘drogo,’ which meant something similar to…ghosts. They would wander the Earth in bodies so large and bulky and uncomfortable, stirring only fear and horror in the eyes of anyone who saw them, that they would quickly die. It was a horribly cruel curse, the way she intended it. To trap the people in prisons of steely scales until they died of starvation.”

  “But that’s not what happened,” Dhara said, leaning forward and hugging her legs closer to her chest. “You’re still here.”

  He smiled again. “Aye, that we are.” His Irish accent always grew stronger when he talked about his heritage, and it was with pride that he told the story of his ancestors. “See, the witch had underestimated the village. She thought she had turned them into walking ghosts, but they stuck together. All three hundred fifty of them. They figured out how to survive, and they went far away from civilization, where they wouldn’t be hunted or abused by anyone. And they lived for generations as dragons. But they weren’t procreating.”

  “So they would die out.”

  “Yes,” he said. “They didn’t want to though. Obviously, they didn’t want to. Existence in some form is better than nothing, and they had also managed to develop a language—a way of communicating. It was a system of simple sounds and gestures, but it was enough that they started to form a true society. The oldest of the clan began to try to prepare their younger generations to find an even better existence, and they consulted with another witch. Oh, it was a complicated process, of course—first they had to convince the witch that they were beasts with fully human minds, and then they had to convince her to help them. But she eventually did, and while she couldn’t completely undo the curse, she was able to…modify it.”

  Dhara was clearly fascinated, hanging on his every word. “She found a way to let them shift. To be in human form sometimes.”

>   He nodded. “Yes. It was difficult for them at first, but as they practiced, it became easier. They could shift in and out of their human form, and once they had the ability to do that, they could communicate and live so much more effectively. They were still on their own, of course. Nobody knew of their existence, as so much of Ireland is rugged land untouched by humans. They lived in the peaks of the mountains and hills and kept themselves away from everyone else as they slowly honed their skills and learned how to use their bodies, intended to be bulky and dysfunctional. They made them graceful, powerful, and strong. And in their human form, they retained much of that strength and speed that the dragon form provided. They became warriors, who lived in secret, protecting the people of Ireland from bandits, spirits, armies, and anything else that might harm them. They turned the curse that had been put on them into something that, though they didn’t know it, protected the Irish people from so many things.”

  “Something changes about you,” Dhara murmured. “When you talk about them, it’s like your eyes glow and your whole body sits up straighter.”

  “I’m incredibly proud of what I am,” Kean told her. “And I’ve never been able to share it with anyone else before—anyone outside of my clan.”

  Reaching out, she took his hand in hers. “I’m glad you’re sharing it with me.”

  “So am I,” he said, and in spite of all the dangers he knew lay ahead of them because of his decisions, he meant the words. Sharing this part of himself with Dhara felt as right as making love to her.

  “How did you end up…here?”

  “The famine,” Kean told her. “The Irish Potato Famine, in the 1840s. It was the first thing that the Celtic Dragon Clan couldn’t protect the Irish people from. We couldn’t fix the land or grow more food, and all we were doing was taking up more than our fair share of food. It became desperate, and there was disagreement amongst the Celtic Dragon Clan—still large at around two hundred members—about what they should do. They ended up scattering to different parts of the world, and it turned out to be one of the only things that saved us.”