by Alisa Woods
He didn’t know if she heard him, but a low rumbling started deep inside her. Her arms and legs thrashed the water, and with the heat coming off her, it was like the pool itself was boiling. Then she suddenly went rigid, throwing her head back and nearly going under—he kept her above water but barely missed the stream of dragonfire that shot out of her gaping mouth. She roared like the fiercest dragon in battle.
Then she sagged in his arms.
“Holy fuck,” someone on the deck said. He thought it was Leksander, but all of Leonidas’s attention was focused on his mate.
Her eyes were blinking open and squinting up at him.
“My love. My love.” He was just babbling now, but her fever had passed, somehow venting with the dragonfire. And the dragon inside her… he could taste it receding. He didn’t know which side won, but the expunging of the fire from her body had taken most of the heat with it. She gave a full-body shudder, and he held her close against him, sloshing water between them. Her skin was a normal temperature now—still hot, but the expected kind for a dragon’s mate.
He blinked up at their onlookers. “She’s okay.” Then he gave them no more mind. “You’re okay,” he said to Rosalyn gently, as much to reassure himself as anything.
She was clinging to him now, her hands on his shoulder and in his hair. “Leonidas,” she breathed. It was still shaky. “Hold me.”
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her bare skin against his soaked shirt. He nuzzled her cheek and bunched her wet hair in his fist, holding her hard like he expected her to slip away from him. Her hands were grabbing at his soaking wet clothes—his jeans and t-shirt damp and heavy between them while she was already stripped down to her panties and bra. Her mouth sought his, hungry and trembling, and he returned her kiss with an ardor only near-death can bring.
He was shaking. So close. He’d been so close to losing her. And with her… everything.
He deepened the kiss, his hunger to touch her and hold her and feel her rising.
She seemed blind to everything outside the two of them, clawing at his body and lifting her legs to wrap around him. He snuck a quick glance at their onlookers, but they were already leaving—Lucian and Arabella leading the way, Leksander having to tug away Erelah, who was gaping at them with frank curiosity.
Fucking angelings. She had nearly killed Rosalyn. Inadvertently, and he knew she meant well, but fucking hell. There was no way he was letting her near his mate again. Not until the baby was born. Possibly ever, not with the demon inside her.
But they were leaving now, and his mate was climbing his body, frantic for him.
He barely waited until the others were gone before magicking away both his and Rosalyn’s clothes. Suddenly naked in the pool, she moaned and ground her sex against his rock-hard erection.
“Leonidas,” she gasped. “I need you inside me.” Her legs were wrapped around him, but she wasn’t at the right angle, and their bodies were just slipping against one another, wet with pool water and sensuous, but maddeningly not making the contact they both urgently needed.
“Lean back, my love,” he said, hooking his hands under her shoulders as she did so.
She arched, her nipples pointing to the rough-hewn rock ceiling above them, and that put her at just the right angle to slip his cock inside. She tipped her head back, mouth wide open and gasping. Her hands grasped hard onto his arms to keep from slipping. He rocked into her, the water splashing and lapping at them. She moaned and dug her fingers into him, but her head was so far back she was practically immersed in the water again.
“Yes!” she shouted. “Yes, harder!”
He obeyed, plunging into the tight hotness of her body, a vivid contrast to the cool of the water and the heat and tension growing low and fast in his belly. Her softly rounded stomach was bathed in the water, submerged as he slammed their bodies together, faster and harder the more she cried out, rushing toward a frantic climax for them both. Magic sparked wherever they touched, but it also ran like electricity through the water and electrocuted them with pleasure. It was insanely erotic just the wetness of skin and slapping of bodies and sloshing of water, but the sizzle-burn of magic rushed him headlong toward a climax that felt wild and out of control.
They came at the same time, a shuddering release with him roaring as he spilled his seed and her venting more dragonfire into the crackling air above the pool. He thrust and thrust until he’d released every drop, hoping some of that might soothe whatever fire raged inside her… and so he could wrench every last spasm of orgasm from her.
She continued to rock against him, even as he could feel the last of the orgasm fading. It was wanton and wild, almost desperate. Then she lurched up from the water, pulling herself upright with her grip on his arms and facing him while still joined with him.
“More,” she demanded, but her eyes were wild. Too wild.
“My love—”
“More!” She hoisted herself up, his spent cock sliding from her, and ground her sex against this rigid stomach muscles instead. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and a crazed expression lit her beautiful face. “Give me all your magic!” she hissed.
The demon was raging inside her. He could feel its darkness through their magic touch, not just taste it with his fae senses.
He cupped her bottom with one hand to hold her close, then slipped the other between their bodies. He knew her so well… he could give her what she wanted… but should he?
She threw her head back and cried out as he thrust his fingers inside her. She writhed and banged against him—unleashed and enthralled by the pleasure he was giving her—but his stomach was twisting in knots. In any other circumstance, he would love to see her let go of every inhibition this way, to lose herself in his touch, but this… this was feeding her demon, he was sure of it.
Her demands for pleasure got louder and more lewd. “Fuck, yes! Make me come!” she shouted, thrusting against his hand.
He paused, uncertain—what was he doing?
She growled and whipped her head up—it was so full of fury, it chilled him to the core.
“Don’t stop!” She beat on his shoulder with her fist.
Bitter tears pricked his eyes. He worked her sex fast, trying to bring her to climax as quickly as he could. As she cried out and came around his fast-pumping fingers, the wetness on his face wasn’t just pool water.
He was losing her to the demon… but he was afraid to infuse her with dragon magic, lest that simply burn her up as the two sides—the two essences inside her—fought to possess her.
Either way, she wasn’t herself anymore… not like this.
Once her climax passed, he slipped his fingers out.
“Noooo!” she complained, but he just unlocked her legs from around his waist and lowered her feet to the floor of the pool.
He cupped her wet cheek in his hand, holding the wildness of her growling expression still. At least she was no longer burning up. “We need to get you out of the pool.”
She fought to cling to him again, trying to climb his body with hers. “No! Give me more!”
He held her close and started walking to the side of the pool. “My love, we need to stop.” Every step was tearing him up inside.
“No stopping!” She fought against his hold, so he released her.
She splashed away from him, limbs flailing, eyes wild. She caught one edge of the pool with her hand and screeched. He cringed—did she hurt herself? She curled around her injured hand, hunched and wary, throwing looks at him. But then her body seemed to calm.
He shoved his way through the water until he reached her.
She cringed away from him, but the wildness was gone from her eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked, reaching for her hand.
She untucked it from between her breasts, but shied away from him, staying out of reach. He could see nothing wrong with her hand—she must not have hit it too hard.
She stared at it anyway. “No.” Her voice was shaky but cal
m. She slowly drew her gaze up to his. “I’m not okay.”
“You’re going to be fine.” But it felt like a lie when the words left his mouth.
She shook her head in small, rapid movements. “No, I’m not.” She turned and hoisted herself up to sitting on the edge of the pool. He knew the rocky flagstones that comprised the deck had to be cold—goosebumps rose across her flesh—but that didn’t slow her down.
She clambered to her feet. “I… I have to leave.”
“What?” He fought the water to reach the side and climb out of the pool after her, but she was already heading for the door. “Rosalyn, wait!”
She was naked and dripping wet and fleeing out into the keep. What in the name of magic was she thinking?
She turned and faced him, but she was still backing away. “I just need… I need some time alone, Leonidas.”
A chill swept through him. “What?” He understood her words, but his heart refused to hear them. “You can’t… you’re my mate, Rosalyn.”
But she was shaking her head and backing toward the door. “No, I’m not. I’m… I’m some kind of… monster.”
“You’re nothing of the kind!” He reached her, but her outstretched hands, palms out, kept him from touching her. She wasn’t even looking at him, her gaze vacant and fixed on some point on the floor, unseeing. “Rosalyn, you can’t just—”
She whipped her head up to look at him. “Give me clothes.” It was so sudden and firm, it left him speechless. “Now, Leonidas, or I’ll walk out of here naked and dripping wet.”
He gaped at her. Was she leaving him? He couldn’t… his mind refused to believe that. Mechanically, he flicked his fingers and conjured clothes over her body, magicking away the pool water as he did. Just a simple t-shirt and jeans, comfortably fit over the soft bump of her belly.
“I won’t leave the keep,” she said, the horror just now sinking into his chest. “I’ll… I’ll stay with my mother in her room. Don’t visit me. Don’t call. I just… I need time to sort things out.”
She was leaving him.
He should tell her no. He should refuse to let her leave. He should cry out like his heart was breaking because it was. But he just stood there, inarticulate, his body refusing to obey, struck dumb by the shock.
Rosalyn turned and shuffled out of the pool room.
A thousand angel blades plunging into his heart couldn’t have hurt more.
“Rosalyn, you need to eat something,” her mother said.
Rosalyn stared balefully at the chocolate croissant and tea her mom had set on the small, spindly-legged table next to her stuffed chair by the window. It had been there a long time—an hour? Two? She wasn’t sure.
The tea had long ago gone cold.
“Maybe later.” Although she had no appetite. After losing control so badly—to both the demon and the dragon inside her—she’d locked down everything until she could be sure she was in charge of herself again. Except that dullness of the mind had shut down everything. Appetite. Lust. Feeling of any kind. Even the terrible heartbreak of seeing Leonidas’s face when she told him she needed time away… all of it was shoved somewhere deep inside where she wouldn’t feel it.
She couldn’t afford to.
Anything that fed the demon was a danger to her and her baby.
She reflexively rested a hand on her belly. It rumbled under her fingers.
“You see?” Her mom was still hovering over her. “The baby needs it, even if you don’t want it.”
Rosalyn nodded, dully. Her mother was probably right. She picked up the croissant, broke off a corner and stuffed it in her mouth. She dutifully chewed, but it tasted like nothing—just emptiness and misery. She swallowed it down quickly and gave a half-hearted smile to her mom.
But instead of being mollified, her mom just took a perch on the upholstered chair opposite hers. “You didn’t use to keep secrets from me.”
That drew a bitter smile out of Rosalyn. Of course, she had kept secrets from her mom. All the fucking time. About the shady traders who came through the shop. About Leonidas. Even about going to her dad for help with breaking Leonidas’s curse.
Although her mom was right about one thing—the lying had taken a serious uptick recently. But how could she tell her own mother she was turning into… something else?
Rosalyn tore another chunk from the croissant. “I already told you about the demon.” She shoved the food in her mouth and chewed. She hadn’t eaten since before the visit to Lucian’s lair—and that was hours ago. Since then, she’d been through hell and back. Her body was seriously food-deprived. She wolfed down more of the croissant.
Her mom’s sharp-eyed examination of her softened a little as Rosalyn ate more. “So, the demon is getting worse.”
Rosalyn flicked a look at her but didn’t answer.
Her mom scowled. “I don’t need special dragon magic to know something’s wrong with my own daughter. How is the baby?”
Rosalyn’s mouth went dry. She struggled to swallow down her bite. “I’m just… I’m trying to protect him, Mom, but I don’t know…” She was useless for the treaty. That’s what the angeling said, but what did it mean? That her baby would not make it? Or just that a demon-infected baby wouldn’t fulfill the treaty? Rosalyn could feel the baby’s essence entwining with the demon even more since the epic war between her dragon and demon sides. Her dragon had nearly killed her, and then the demon fought back and turned her into a sex-crazed maniac in the pool. Tears welled up—she’d treated Leonidas, the man she loved, like a piece of meat. And even worse, letting the demon rage like that had only cemented its hold on the baby… and her.
And the demon was still roiling inside her even with all her emotions on lockdown.
Her mom leaned forward, concern etched on her face. “Rosie, please tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll get through it, like we always do.” She gave Rosalyn an uncertain smile.
“Oh, Mom.” She dropped the rest of the croissant on the table and covered her face with her hands. “I’ve made a terrible mistake.”
“What are you talking about?” Her mother’s hands were soft as they gently pulled Rosalyn’s away from her face.
The tears were working loose—the pregnancy hormones were making it hard to keep things under control. Then again, her life had never been fucked up at this level before. “I made a baby that’s… that’s got this demon in it. It’s bad enough that I’m infected—I’m turning into some kind of fucking monster!—but the baby too? That’s just not fair! And the whole point of this was to fulfill this stupid treaty, and now with the demon, even that’s not going to work… it’s just a disaster, and I’m losing my mind, and I’m turning into this… this creature… I never should have mated with Leonidas in the first place! How could I be so stupid?” Tears were chasing each other down her cheeks now. She brushed them away with the back of her hand, but she couldn’t stop fresh ones from coming. The demon was churning inside her, wanting to get loose again. She gritted her teeth and shoved all those feelings away.
“Do you love Leonidas?” Her mother’s gaze was intense on her face.
Rosalyn scowled. “Of course! This isn’t about that—”
“And do you love this child you’ve made?”
Rosalyn rubbed her head—it was starting to ache. “Yes, but—”
“Then that’s all you need.”
“Mom.” She wasn’t helping. “There’s so much more to it.”
“No, there’s really not.” Her mother leaned back and drilled her with a serious look that sobered the tears still trying to gush from Rosalyn’s eyes. “Loving a man like Leonidas is not a mistake. Mating with a man like your father, who I never loved… now that was a mistake. And even then, I got you out of the deal, so I still wouldn’t change a thing.”
Rosalyn blinked back her tears. “Wait… you never loved Silas? Even before he threw us out?”
Her mom tilted her head to the side. “Why do you think I fell so hopelessly in love with some rand
om shifter who happened to stumble into my life? You know how Leonidas and his kind are… I never had anything like that pure and selfless love in my life. Never. Not from my parents, all wrapped up in their proud magical lineage and how special they were because they were purebred. Certainly not from Silas, who wanted me for the prestige I could give him, and the status, and the purebred children. The closest I came was with Alora, given we were both trapped in that horrible coven, but even she betrayed me when I needed her most. I understand it now—she couldn’t go against our parents and Silas. They were too powerful. But she could have tried harder. She could have fought for me. She says now that she wished she had, but that doesn’t erase the heartache of those many years when it was just you and me against the world, Rosie. A love like you have with Leonidas… that matters.” A smile snuck on her mom’s face. “That man would lay down his life for you, Rosalyn Thorne. I can see it in his eyes. Don’t ever think it was a mistake to mate with him—to give your love a chance—no matter how things turn out.” Her mother stared intently into her eyes. “No matter how it ends, Rose, you made the right choice.”
Rosalyn was struck silent by her mother’s words. Because they felt true… even if everything seemed like it was falling apart right now. But there were a hundred horrible ways this could end, and if there was a way it could end right, she couldn’t see it. She’d had nothing like that perfect little family with Lucian and Arabella and Baby Larik. What in the name of magic was she thinking? That her luck would suddenly change?
“Mom, this demon thing,” she said softly. “It’s bad.”
“Whatever it is,” her mother said earnestly, “you need to go back to Leonidas and sort it out.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No, I mean I literally can’t.” Rosalyn folded up her legs and hugged them tight, protectively covering her baby. “Being around Leonidas is bringing out my demon. The dragon part, too. It’s too emotional for me being around him.”
Her mother grimaced. “Maybe if you talked things out…”
“That’ll just make it worse.” Rosalyn sighed, released her legs, and picked up the croissant again. “Leonidas is amazing and sexy and damn near perfect in every way. I’m crazy in love with him, Mom. But he brings out all these feelings that just ramp everything up and out of control. It’s dangerous… for the baby and me.”
