She padded down the hallway, to the only other room that Eamon could be in, and she laid her hand on the doorknob.
Then she pulled it back, wondering if she could really go through with what she was about to do. It was only the thought of turning back and spending a long, lonely, sleepless night in her own bed that convinced her to take the risk, and she slowly turned the knob, the door swinging open.
Holding her breath, she slipped inside Eamon’s bedroom, closed the door behind her, and quietly padded over to the bed where Eamon should be lying, asleep. The darkness in the room was thick, and she was right beside the bed before she realized that, though the covers were turned down and the pillow looked like a head had lain on it, there was no one in the bed.
He wasn’t there, and Autumn turned around, wondering if he was somewhere around her, sitting in the dark, his mood as dim as hers had been when she went to bed. There was no sign of him though, and no bathroom attached to his room. She didn’t know where he could be, and she was suddenly nervous, remembering what it had felt like the last time she had expected him to be somewhere and then he had been gone for a whole day. She hadn’t known if she would ever see him again when that happened.
“You’re overreacting,” Autumn said to herself, walking over to the open window and looking out into the night sky. “You’re completely overreacting.”
She stared out into the night, thinking of Eamon, and then, in the distance, she saw a glare off of something large and white. It was in the sky, getting higher and higher as it got further away, and when Autumn squinted to see it better, she could hardly believe her eyes.
It was him.
The dragon—the one she had seen in the Azores—the one that she could almost believe she had imagined. It was flying over the city of Boston, moving quickly to disappear above the cloud cover. When she blinked, it was gone, blending into the night, with just a hint of the glare still coming off of one wing.
Impossible!
A dragon in the Azores had been out of place enough, but on an island so otherworldly it wasn’t such a shock to see a dragon swoop out of the sky. In Boston, the only city she had ever known—nice, normal, boring, simple Boston—it was unfathomable to see such a magnificent creature soaring.
Where had it come from? Where was it going? What was it doing here? How did it keep finding her? Why had it appeared out of nowhere right when she had needed help for her girls so badly that she had even called out to Eamon, despite being convinced that he was dead or worse?
There were no answers to any of the questions in her mind, but what frustrated her most was that, again, Eamon wasn’t here to see the dragon. He would believe her that she had seen it again, but she wanted him to see the dragon with his own eyes—to confirm to her that she wasn’t crazy. That the dragon was real.
But he was never there when she saw the dragon. Why was he never there?
It clicked for Autumn in an instant, the knowledge flashing through her mind like a billboard sign on the highway. The moment she had the thought, she couldn’t understand how she had ever missed what was right in front of her face from the moment she had met Eamon.
He was different, and not just because of his stunning looks, but because of the aura around him. He knew so much about the supernatural world, and he wasn’t a bit surprised when she explained what she’d seen to him. It was almost as though such shocks were nothing new to him. And then there was the sense that he was always keeping something back from her and the way he kept her at a distance. She’d called for him when the girls were seconds from drowning, and the dragon had appeared.
How had she not seen it then? How had she missed the fact that the dragon had dropped them, disappeared, and Eamon had appeared moments later? How had she missed Eamon’s spirit in the dragon’s eyes?
It would be there. She knew it as well as she knew her own name. The dragon who had saved her was—somehow—Eamon Cleary, the man who she was falling more in love with all the time.
It was a shock to the system, no doubt.
But it also changed absolutely nothing.
Autumn sat down on Eamon’s bed, leaving the window wide open, and leaned back, staring out at the dark sky for some sign of the white dragon. She would wait for him there, and when he came back, there would be nothing to keep them apart.
Absolutely nothing.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Eamon
It was a relief to soar through the air, his wings cutting through the air with the strength that empowered him again. Shifting into his dragon form and flying free was like going home after a long, exhausting journey, and every stroke through the air restored him.
As he flew, he tried to clear his mind of all of his troubles—the coven, his own uncertainty about the clan and his responsibility to preserve its traditions, and Autumn and all that was connected to her. It only partially worked; Autumn was never fully gone from his mind, especially as he flew over the harbor, looking down at the waves and imagining simpler times when his cases didn’t threaten his life, town, and heart.
Even though it was summer, the night air up high over the water was cool, and he flew with the currents of the wind, circling around and around until he was almost dizzy with the motion. He dove beneath the water, his wings slicing through the underwater currents as well as they cut through the pockets of wind above. Surrounding himself with the water helped him to escape the pattern of thoughts that dominated his mind, and when he surfaced, he felt the same way he expected someone would feel after a year of therapy.
Refreshed. Capable. Confident.
It might not last, but it was a relief in the moment, and he flew slowly back toward Isabelle’s house with a renewed determination to fight off the coven’s powers and figure out his personal life in the meantime. Landing in an out-of-the-way space, he quickly shifted back into human form, pulled on his clothing, and ran lightly toward Isabelle’s neighborhood. Finding her house, he grabbed onto the trellis that would lead him back up to his window, swinging easily upward and gripping his windowsill.
When he hauled himself up over the windowsill, he took a moment to dust himself off before turning toward the empty room he had left several hours before. He had expected to see his empty bed waiting for him, but instead, his eyes landed on Autumn, sitting wide awake in the center of that bed, watching him with her wide, luminous eyes.
A jolt of panic ruptured through the calm he had achieved in the air. “What are you doing here? I … went out for a walk. I needed to clear my head.”
“I know where you were.”
She didn’t look or sound upset, and she didn’t take her eyes from him for a moment. Even still, Eamon didn’t move toward her either, his instincts, trained to keep his secret, taking over. “I was outside. Walking.”
Now Autumn stood up, slowly walking toward him. “Don’t lie to me. You don’t have to.”
“What is it you think I should be telling you?” he asked cautiously, not moving toward her, but not backing up either. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he saw the truth in her eyes. She knew, and she was still walking toward him without flinching away in fear.
“Tell me yourself,” she urged, reaching him and placing her hands on his chest. “It will mean so much more if you tell me your secret, Eamon. I’m not walking away. I’m still here.”
He didn’t mean for it to happen, but his arms moved around her, drawing her the rest of the way into his body. “You don’t know what you’re asking, because once you know, you can never unknow, and I’m afraid that it will trap you and the girls in something you don’t really want.”
“Let me decide that,” she whispered. “Isn’t it my choice?”
Eamon swallowed hard, sliding his hands down to her hips, his fingers molding around the curves there. “I … Autumn, I’m not entirely human. I’m not human, really at all.”
She nodded, tracing her fingertips against his chest. “Okay.”
He’d said the words—and noth
ing terrible had happened. Eamon swallowed hard, his hands gripping her more firmly, as though he still thought she might run away. “That dragon …”
“Yes?”
“The dragon you saw was me. I can shift into the form of a white dragon, and that’s where I was tonight. I was flying through the air. It’s the most incredible feeling you could ever have, soaring through the sky, the wind whipping around you and lifting you higher and higher. I love to dive into the ocean and swim beneath the waves, mingling with the underwater creatures that nobody else ever sees. I can swim down so far into the water that it grows frigid and dark and my white scales glow like lantern fish. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I just never surfaced. I could live down there forever—that’s how amazing it is.”
Never before had he talked about that part of his life with anyone other than his friends, and it was like something inside of him that he hadn’t known was wound tight released, elation flooding him. The words spilled from his lips like they never had before as he tried to give her a little taste of what it was like to be in the form that was truest to his spirit—the one that made him feel most alive.
She listened to every word, not interrupting him and never pulling back, even when he told her that he sometimes wanted to disappear into his dragon self. Her total acceptance tipped his heart over, landing it fully within her hands, and when he paused for breath, staring down at her, the smile that she gave him sealed his fate.
He was in love with this woman, and he was never going to let her go.
“Autumn …”
All he said was her name, but his need must have been evident in his voice, because she nodded in answer to the question he hadn’t asked.
“Yes. Now.”
He needed nothing more to finally allow himself to indulge in what he had wanted from the moment he had seen her. Picking Autumn up in his arms, he laid her back on the bed and covered her body with his, framing her face with his hands as he stared down into her eyes. Their lips met, and Eamon was lost, sinking into her kiss like he sank into the ocean depths. He was surrounded, drowning, and never happier.
They both knew what they wanted, and Eamon didn’t hesitate as he slowly unbuttoned the silk pajamas and slid them from Autumn’s slim, delicate body. Her skin was creamy and smooth, and he feasted himself on it, dotting small, soft kisses down her neck, along her collarbone, and over her shoulders. Encouraged by her soft moans, Eamon continued his exploration down one arm, teasing his teeth against the faint rise of her bicep and brushing his tongue against the sensitive hollow of her elbow. One after another, he took her fingers into his mouth, sucking gently and teasing the spaces in between them, loving the way that Autumn moaned helplessly for more.
He didn’t give in to her whispered pleas until he was ready, enjoying teasing her too much after so many nights of waiting for this moment. Slipping her shirt from her, he paid the same attention to her sweet, firm, small breasts as he had to the hand he had just finished with. Circling his tongue around her pebbled nipple, he drew her legs around his waist and pressed his hips against hers.
“Eamon!” Autumn gripped him hard, her voice shuddering with need. “Oh God. Eamon.”
“How long has it been?” he asked, looking up into her perfect face.
“Years.”
Her answer only heightened his pleasure, not because he wished abstinence on her, but because he knew how good she was going to feel the moment he released all of that built-up tension.
It was that knowledge that made it impossible for him to continue his slow trail down her body, and he gripped the waistband of her silk pajama bottoms, dragging them down her lean, toned legs. White panties waited for him beneath the bottoms, and he pressed his fingers to their damp apex, rubbing her gently through the fabric as he continued to tease her breast with his lips.
Her cry of pleasure might awaken the whole house, but he didn’t care, and she didn’t seem to either. She moaned and writhed under the touch of his hand, and he stroked her firmly, pushing her higher and higher. As she neared her apex, he slipped his fingers beneath the fabric of her panties, sliding them into her damp folds and lightly brushing her clit directly.
It was the last little push that she needed, and Autumn clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the noise as she hit her peak, lingered there, her hips bucking, and then slowly, gradually declined, her hips lowering back onto the bed as she gasped for air.
Her head fell to the side and a shiver passed through her before her muscles went limp.
More pleased with himself than he had ever been, Eamon smiled, sliding up her body to kiss her tenderly. “If that’s how you react when I haven’t even started yet …”
She managed a breathless laugh, her hands lifting to tangle in his hair. “God, that was amazing. I really needed that.”
He chuckled too, all of their worries gone for the moment. Stroking her hair back from her face, he kissed her eyes, her nose, and then her lips again. “Do you want more?”
“In a way…”
With an impish look, Autumn flipped him over, her naked body hovering above his as she made quick work of his clothing. Her lips trailed a heated path down his chest, lingering over the firm lines of his abdomen as she slid her hands beneath his firm ass and squeezed.
Her lips felt so good on him that he laid his head back and closed his eyes, just enjoying the sensation. Then his eyes flew open again as her mouth touched the heat of his rigid cock, her silky tongue gliding over him as her lips took him in fully.
Eamon moaned, sinking his hands into her hair and lifting his hips so that he slid further into her hot, sweet mouth. “Autumn,” he whispered, pulsing his hips gently. “Yes…God.”
With eager dedication, she sucked him, using her lips and her tongue in tandem to set off every sensitive nerve that he had. The heat of her mouth was bliss, and the pressure of each pull of her mouth brought him closer to his own climax.
But as much as he wanted to later, perhaps over and over again, he didn’t want to finish in her mouth the first time. When he got to the point where he knew he couldn’t hold back anymore, he guided her off of him, drawing her up into his arms as he rolled them both on their sides. His body was yearning for more, but he took just a moment to look into her eyes as his hand roamed over her sweet curves. Their legs tangled and Eamon gently lifted one of her legs over his hip as he positioned himself at her entrance.
Gazes locked, they joined, Eamon sliding inside of her slowly at first, then pumping in hard as he realized how sweet her body felt wrapped around his. Lying on their sides, they began to move together, his hand gripping her thigh to keep her pressed against him and her arm draped around him to keep their chests pressed together, her heart beating against his.
From the pressure of her mouth, he was already at the edge, and her wet, hot center was even better than her sweet lips. He was in heaven, thrusting in and out of her again and again, using every bit of self-restraint that he had to keep from thrusting into her madly and spilling himself now, before she was ready.
She was too precious to him for him to take her solely for his own pleasure though, and he watched her beautiful face, noting the flush of her cheeks, the glaze that came over her eyes, and the way her lips parted. Soft gasps escaped her, and then her hips began to thrust more firmly against his, her head falling back as her eyes closed.
He knew she was close again, and he thrust into her hard, circling his hips so that his hard length touched every sensitive spot deep within her. For his efforts, she rewarded him with a shudder that took her over from head to toe and a moan that spilled from her lips without restraint. Her body tightened, spasmed, and then released as she hit her peak and fell over the edge of it, and the sensation of her muscles tightening around him put Eamon right at the edge too. He fell with her, pumping hard into her as he spilled his seed deep within her center.
Their lips met as they came down from their mutual highs, and as the aftershocks passed through their
bodies, they kissed slowly, wrapping around each other with no regard for the sheen of sweat on their skin or the tangle of sheets around their legs. Eamon held her to his heart, his face buried in her neck, and her fingertips traced down the contours of his back, drawing pictures on his skin.
Eamon closed his eyes, unable to believe that they had gone to bed barely looking at each other, and now, just hours later, she knew everything there was to know about him and they had shared the most intimate experience he had ever had with another being. His world was perfect, despite being utterly flawed, and he knew—beyond a shadow of a doubt—that he wasn’t just falling for this woman.
He was head over heels in love, and he wouldn’t want it any other way. Whatever they had to face, they would face together, and whatever risks she had to take to be with him, he would make sure that they were well worth her while.
Eamon was never letting her go again, because for the first time in his life, there was something outside of the clan that was worth fighting for with his whole heart. Autumn had changed absolutely everything.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Autumn
She was sore, but in that delicious sort of way that was nostalgic for the long, heated night before. Languidly stretching in the bed, Eamon’s arm wrapped around her waist as he cuddled her from behind. Autumn opened her eyes just enough to see the sunlight beginning to peek in through the open window. She had probably only been asleep for an hour, given that Eamon had come back in the middle of the night and they had spent the following hours making love until they couldn’t keep their eyes open anymore.
It had been a long time since she had woken up with a man wrapped around her, and it was the sweetest feeling in the world. Autumn wriggled back against Eamon, and she was rewarded when he tightened his hold on her, pulling her closer as he nuzzled against the back of her neck. Her hand tucked inside of his, their fingers laced, and Autumn’s eyes began to close again.
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