“What do you have to be nervous about? You already got me off.” She gave a high- pitched titter of a laugh.
“Because I want you to feel good whenever I touch you.” He bent so that his forehead touched hers. “We can stop anytime.”
“What happened you’d just have to claim me?” she teased.
“No, Aranka. You always have a choice. If you’ve changed your mind, just say so. You don’t owe me anything.”
“I haven’t changed my mind. I want to get it right, too.”
“Just do what feels good to you. That’ll be right.” He kissed her then, but it wasn’t a mindless, primal sort of kiss grasping at pleasure like something to drown in. It was a way to communicate to her all the things words couldn’t.
He knew there were condoms in the bedside table. All the safehouses were similarly stocked.
“What if I wanted to be on top?”
“Okay, but I’ve heard it can uncomfortable your first time.”
“That’s why I need to be in charge. So if it hurts, I can stop.”
He drew her down to the bed and reached over to the drawer and pulled out a foil wrapped condom, then he handed her the package.
“You’re in charge. Do what you will.”
Chapter 5
Aranka took a deep steadying breath.
This was what she wanted, what she’d been pushing for, but now that the time had come, she wasn’t exactly afraid, but she wasn’t convinced it was what she’d thought it would be.
The way he’d touched her in the shower, he’d made her feel things she’d never felt before. Not just the orgasm, either. She’d done that for herself plenty.
It was something else, something that meant more than just another adventure.
That’s really what she was nervous about.
Aranka didn’t know what she was going to be doing tomorrow, let alone in the next year. She’d never really had responsibilities. Krysanthe was always more than happy to take over any royal duties and Aranka had been content to let her.
But maybe it was time for that to chance. It was no wonder no one believed she could do anything, because she never had.
Now, here she was with the one person who believed she could do anything and not only believed it, but expected it.
That was a heavy weight on her shoulders.
That’s why she was nervous.
“Aranka?”
The look of concern on his face said he understood everything she felt. Maybe it was silly to believe that, but she knew it in her bones.
“Sorry.” She smiled. “This is going to change everything, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out together, if that’s what you want.”
Gods, this part now wasn’t at all like what she imagined it would be. She thought it would be some rush of feeling, a tidal wave that swept her away. Only it wasn’t. She had to choose to walk into the sea. She had to choose the tidal wave and somehow, that was much more complicated.
“I do want, I’m just… earlier, it was easy. Now, I know I want to leap, but I keep looking over the side and it’s such a long way down.”
“Sit on the ledge first.” He patted the bed next to him.
She laughed and lay down next to him. “Now what?”
“Now, come here.” He pulled her toward him.
Aranka scooted against him and sighed as his arms wrapped around her. She’d never been one to seek out safety, maybe because she’d always had it, always felt she was safe. The feeling she got in his arms was something deeper, something more. Not only safety, but a kind of peace she didn’t know she was looking for.
His hand, so strong and warm, slide down her back in a soothing motion. She liked it when he touched her like that, so she returned the caress. Aranka loved touching him. She loved how hard his body was, how hot. She liked the feel of him under her fingers.
She felt the press of his cock against her thigh and something curled low and tight in her belly. It made her heart beat faster, her breath catch and her skin was on fire. Aranka wanted his hands everywhere.
“All you had to do was touch me.” She rubbed her cheek against his, drunk on the sensation of friction, the scrape of his stubble.
“I could taste you again,” he offered.
Her sex clenched and she considered letting him do just that. “Uh-uh. On your back, dragon.”
He complied and laced his fingers behind his head, giving her access to anything she wanted to do to him.
She studied him intently all the way from his shoulders, to his pecs, to his unreal abs, and his thick, hard cock.
And she dipped her head for a single kiss.
His groan, the way he arched his hips to meet her made her feel powerful. Made her brave. So she did it again.
“Aranka…” He pushed his hand through her hair and fisted the strands, but he didn’t push her down toward his cock, he simply held on.
She explored him, kissing the crown again before taking him into her mouth. He was hot and hard, but velvet, too. She liked how he tasted, the feel of him on her tongue. She looked up and met his eyes while she took him deep.
He released her hair, to touch her face. His thumb stroked over her cheek and in that moment, she saw forever in his eyes and it wasn’t terrifying.
She took the condom then and opened it. He put his hand over hers and they slid it down his length together.
She bit her lip and pulled him over on top of her. “I think I want to try being on top next time.”
He kissed her again and pressed her down beneath him. Aranka liked the way the weight of him felt on top of her—the taste of his lips.
She wrapped her legs around his waist. “Do it now.”
“Not done worshipping you, my golden nymph. You haven’t accepted all of your tribute.” He blazed a trail from her throat down to the valley of her breasts with his mouth. “I haven’t kissed you here, yet.” He took one nipple in his mouth and laved at the rosebud flesh.
He stirred all of those sensations in her again, bliss and tightness in her core that felt like she was about to be launched off some precipice. Her cleft ached. She’d felt desire before, but it had never been a physical pleasure/pain. Her whole body seemed to pulse in time with the ache—even her heartbeat.
She thought he was going to lick her again with his amazing dragon tongue, but instead, he slipped his hand between them and with the lightest touch, had her ready to beg for release.
“This is how it should be,” he whispered. “You should be needing like this before I take you.”
“Gods, yes. Imre, please.”
He pressed up against her, teasing her opening. Imre entered her slowly, as if her body were made of something breakable. She wanted to open her eyes, to see the look on his face, to share this moment with him, but it was like she’d been drugged. Her eyelids were heavy and all she could do was cling to him.
Nothing had ever felt so good.
Aranka had been told there’d be pain, but it didn’t hurt. Only this impossible fullness.
Imre was still, his body tensed, until she moved against him, testing these new feelings. She definitely wanted more.
“I can see heaven,” he said against the shell of her ear.
“Me too. Take us all the way.”
He thrust slowly, working into a rhythm that caused her to see stars when her eyes were open.
Gods above, it was everything.
This was the best adventure yet.
Aranka was lost in the ecstasy and she heard a sound in her ears that could have been screaming that she realized was her own voice as that thing that was strung so tightly inside of her burst. The orgasm rocked her body in quakes and shudders, and only after he seemed certain she’d had her pleasure, did he allow himself his.
When he collapsed beside her, she lay in the silence for a while contemplating the sensations she was still processing. “I was thinking that this was my best adventure, yet.”
“Me
too.”
She curled into him, noticing how well they fit together. Aranka was always moving, always busy, always needing to be active. Lying in silent stillness with another person had once sounded like the worst thing anyone could ask of her.
But it was different with Imre. Maybe because he accepted her kinetic intensity, didn’t try to hold her there with him.
His fingers played idly with her hair, curling the strands around his fingers. She liked the way he petted her. She liked the feeling of absolute peace and utter exhaustion that rolled through her.
Of course, now she hurt in places where she didn’t know she had muscles, but still, it was a good thing.
“I think I’m going to let you keep me,” she said lightly.
“That’s good. You don’t know how hard it was not to bite you.”
“Bite me?” She sat up and waggled her eyebrows. “Kinky.”
“You have no idea.”
“Really? You want to bite me?” She wasn’t sure if she was scared or excited. “Where?”
He threw an arm over his eyes. “We’re not going to talk about that now, little nymph. We’ve got work to do, remember?”
“Work in a minute. Tell me about the biting.”
“I like talking about the biting.”
“So we could do this again?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
She nudged him. “Tell me. I want to know.”
“It’s the mark. A claiming.”
“So I’d belong to you, like your property?”
“Not my property. My adored. My beloved. My mate. So all shifters know with whom you share your power and strength.”
“Still sounds draconian.”
“It is. But your sister doesn’t seem to mind it.”
She slapped at his chest. “Don’t talk about my sister when you’re in bed with me.”
He laughed. “Then stop teasing me with talk about the mate mark. Seriously, it was physical pain not to bite you.”
“Then why didn’t you.” She grabbed his arm and pulled it away from his face.
He looked up at her, his dragon eyes bright and shining. “Because you didn’t consent.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Would you have said yes?”
“I’ll say yes now. Next time, dragon, bite me.” Anticipated coiled inside of her and there was a fissure of fear, but beyond that, it was all hope.
Instead of teasing her, or playing with her, he said, “You need to be sure. You can’t take it back. It’s forever.”
“I said bite me. You could do it now.” She pointed to her neck. “Here? Is this where you want to mark me?”
He half-morphed and then resumed his human shape. “Gods, Aranka. My dragon almost took you up on that. It’ll be better for you, if you still want it, during sex.”
“Actually, I think I want it now.”
“Aranka—” he warned, his voice suddenly several octaves lower.
Her sex clenched and she gave a little moan. She was sore, but the idea of waiting one more second to give him what he needed seemed insufferable. She wanted to experience the bite, she wanted to give him that part of herself.
They’d already shared everything else, after all.
And fuck it, she knew that somehow, forever with Imre would be another adventure.
She straddled him and his cock was hard again, so she shifted until he was inside her. Holy gods, was she ever sore, but it felt good, too. It was a strange, new kind of pain.
When she saw him Turning, and felt it inside of her, she angled her head to the side to expose her neck to him.
His voice was the deepest she’d ever heard it and the temperature in the room had gone up at least ten degrees.
“Honor before gold. Loyalty before gold. Brotherhood before gold.” She felt the hot puff of smoke on her neck and she shivered. “Aranka before all.”
She cried out as his teeth tore into her flesh, but she grabbed him tighter, holding his mouth there.
Another round of bliss took her and even though there was pain, it was like two puzzle pieces clicking together.
“You’re mine, and I’m yours.”
She grabbed his hair and looked deep into his eyes to make her own pledge. “Imre before all.”
Chapter 6
He left Aranka at the crypt to follow up with Pim, but he didn’t leave her without a mission. She had access to all of the software to ferret out Pim’s financial records and a hack into the Loup Marais traffic cams and police database.
Imre returned to the last place Pim had parked his boat, and no surprise, it wasn’t there. But what was there was blood. It wasn’t a lot, but enough that he could smell it.
The quickest route to finding Pim would be to take to the skies, but that wasn’t an option in the daylight.
He also smelled wolves. He could track them more easily on the ground than the gold in Pim’s paint job. So he followed the scent.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
It was Pim with the meet time. Eight at Devil’s Due, a bar that doubled as the Drago Knights MC clubhouse.
He wondered just how deep this chapter of the Knights had been compromised. He remembered what he’d said not too long ago when they’d been fighting ghouls—how horrible it would be to have to put down one of your own.
Imre had the feeling he was going to know exactly what that was like.
He followed the scent of the wolves until they became the scents of men. It was no surprise that the scent led him deep into the swamp, into the opposite direction he and Aranka had taken the night before.
The trail led him to a small community of tiny cabins all raised up on docks. From the smell of it, they didn’t seem to be the werewolves associated with the Headhunters, but the loup garou, something all together different.
An old woman came out of the nicest hut and she looked right at him. He should’ve known she’d be able to smell him, too.
She wore a dress that had probably been sewn when he’d been hatched. Her hair was long and white, flowing free down her back. Various charms and tiny bottles had been woven into the mass, and she had the triplicate moon goddess tattooed on her forehead in blue ink. She motioned for him to come to her.
A large male exited the house behind her and he lifted his head to scent the air. When Imre’s scent hit him, the Change came over him immediately and he leapt toward Imre.
The old woman grabbed the wolf by the scruff and floored him, her bare foot on his throat until he yelped. She never changed form.
She motioned to him again.
Come.
He could hear her inside his head. This was old school hoodoo and Imre knew to give it, and the woman the proper respect. He’d never had trouble with humility. He wasn’t an Alpha and had nothing to prove.
At least not to these people.
This wasn’t his realm. He was a guest in theirs. So he bowed his head and held out his hands, palms up, and approached as the old woman had bidden him.
People emerged from their cabins, families with children, and natural wolves moved among them. Some bared their teeth at him, some growled, some looked on obviously unsure of what his presence could mean for them.
The loup garou kept to themselves. They did no harm and hoped for the same from the rest of the world. They were a peaceful people.
He could only imagine what the Headhunters presence here could mean for them. Those in the town who knew their secrets could turn on them and they’d be hunted to the very brink of extinction. Imre knew exactly what that was like.
A small voice asked from beside him, “Can I see your tail?”
He looked down to see a child with the biggest eyes he’d ever seen. Imre couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl, with its muddy fingers and feet, and close cropped hair.
“That’s not how it works, kiddo.”
“So you are a dragon!” This was said with wonder.
“Can I see your wings?”
“That I c
an do, but maybe after I talk with the grandmother there.” He was more than happy to indulge the child. That’s how they learned about other kinds of people, other kinds of creatures. Exposure. Talking. Given permission to notice differences, which in turn gave them permission to notice sameness, building empathy. Imre was one-hundred percent for that. But he wasn’t sure that showing his wings was the best idea at this point—they could take that as an act of aggression and he had no desire to hurt these people, or be hurt by them.
“You promise?”
“If your people will permit it. Dragons are big. We breathe fire. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Fire?” Those already impossibly large eyes got wider. “I wanna see.”
Part of him wondered if he and Aranka were to have children if they might be much like this child, so full of wonder and curiosity. It hit him in the chest like a punch.
“Your mother is probably worried sick.”
“Ain’t got one of those. She died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” A little hand pushed into his. “That’s why don’t no one care I’m talking to you. I’m an outsider now. Ain’t got no kin left. But the grandmother feeds me, sometimes.”
“What’s your name?”
“Cezille.”
“That’s very pretty, Cezille.”
“What’s your name?”
“Imre.”
“That’s pretty, too.” Her hand tightened on his. “The grandmother’s name is Fanchon.”
Fanchon released the wolf she’d held under her foot and he backed away, head bowed in subservience, but he watched Imre’s every move.
“Our Cezille has already made the introductions, so why don’t you come into my home?”
He kept his head bowed. “It’s my honor.”
“Yes, it is,” she said, but not with any rancor.
She opened the door to the tiny cottage and the scents of magick and fresh herbs washed over him. “Coffee?”
“Chicory?”
“Of course.” She set a steaming mug at the small, obviously hand-carved table.
He could see dragons winding up the legs. “You know us, then?”
“Oh, yes. When I was a young girl, I knew a dragon named Fabian. I do believe he’s one of your Drago Knights? This was a gift from him.”
Imre: Drago Knights MC (Mating Fever) Page 4
