She swallowed. “I know that. I just don’t like the thought of such a small thing being pulled apart.”
“Sophia will treat the dragon with respect,” said Arlo. “Clarissa will be there as well. She knows the ways of dragons. She will make sure nothing bad happens.”
Juniper nodded. “Sophia can have the dragon. When she’s done, I want to organize a real funeral. Dragon bodies were always burned on a pyre. We need to do the same for this one. Show it respect.”
“Of course. We can do that.” His fingers traced up and down her arms. “How’s your arm?”
“It’s treated. I barely feel it.”
“Did you sleep?”
“Maybe an hour or two. Every time I close my eyes I keep seeing that building and all the sick things inside it.”
Arlo nodded, all too aware of the effect flashbacks had on a person. “We all got out. We stopped the State.”
“For now,” said Juniper. “What about the next time?”
“We’ll be there the next time. And the next. We’ll keep going until they’re no longer a threat.”
Juniper let out a shaky sigh. “I guess so. Right now, I don’t feel like fighting anymore.”
“Then don’t.” He traced a finger across her lips.
She blinked at him, her eyelashes full of tears. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you to forget.”
Juniper’s eyes glowed purple for a second before she closed them. Her lips parted, and her tongue traced the tip of Arlo’s finger.
Arlo inhaled and stroked her hair. This was right. She needed a distraction, needed to remember there was pleasure to be had.
When she opened her eyes, he saw desire. He wrapped a hand around the back of Juniper’s neck and drew her toward him, hearing her breath catch as their lips met.
Her mouth parted, and Arlo could taste her salty tears mixed in with their kiss. He pulled her closer and ran his hand down her back.
She moaned softly as he caught hold of her hips and squeezed her to him.
Breaking apart from their kiss, he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bed. Let the coding geeks do their work. He had something much more important to focus upon.
Placing her on the bed, Arlo’s hands slid to her pants. He unbuttoned them and pulled them down her hips, taking her underwear as well.
He sucked in a breath as he saw her naked limbs. Faint scale patterns laced across the flesh, shimmering as he watched.
She held her hand out to him.
Arlo grabbed her fingers and kissed her palm. He slid his lips along her flesh until he reached her neck. He nuzzled her ear and growled as a gasp escaped her.
“That’s it. I want you to remember this. Don’t think about anything else.”
Juniper turned her face to his, her eyes glowing purple. She grasped his head and thrust her tongue into his mouth.
He returned her passion, but forced himself to hold back. He didn’t want to bruise her, but he did want her to feel him, to be reminded of him every time her thighs touched together the next day.
Her fingers laced around his neck and she yanked him down on top of her. Damn, she was strong. He loved that.
Juniper’s fingers scrabbled for his shirt.
Arlo pulled back and tore the shirt off. He watched as her fingers traced the lines of his stomach. She looked up at him and bit her bottom lip.
That was so sexy. He couldn’t resist sampling those lips for himself again. He filled himself with her taste, drinking in her sweet flavor.
She gasped, hooking her legs around his waist and pulling him on top of her. “I want you.”
“You’ve got me.”
“All of you.”
Arlo kicked off his boots and yanked down his pants.
Juniper’s hands snaked down his back and she pulled him back down.
“Easy!” Arlo grinned at her and stroked a strand of her hair from her face.
“I don’t want easy. I need to feel. I have to feel you inside me.”
A deep primal urge hit Arlo. He covered Juniper with his body, kissing her face, her neck, her breasts. She was perfection.
He groaned as her hand wrapped around his hard shaft and pumped him. “Beautiful, you keep doing that and this will be over too soon.” Arlo eased himself out of her hand. “When I come, I want to be inside you.”
Juniper bucked her hips against him. “I need that too.”
Arlo’s shaft slid against her wet folds. She was so ready.
He couldn’t hold back any longer. He slid inside, just a few inches. He needed to take his time, no matter how much he wanted to thrust in hard and deep, making Juniper scream.
“No!”
Arlo stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t be gentle.”
Sucking in a breath, he thrust harder. She was tight and hot as he slid in all the way.
“Yes! Don’t stop.”
Arlo drew back and thrust again, long, deep, and slow.
Juniper grabbed his ass and pushed him in again.
“This is killing me.” He wanted this to last and she was making it impossible.
“I want you. All of you. Don’t hold back. You can’t hurt me.”
He picked up the pace, thrusting harder, going even deeper by lifting her hips.
“More! I want more of you.”
Arlo lifted Juniper’s legs onto his shoulders, giving him full access to her hot, sweet center. He plunged in, feeling her body shake beneath him. A low, primal groan slid from her lips.
He went harder and deeper, not able to hold back any longer. His hands grabbed her hips and he felt her tense around him. She was close to coming.
So was he. Seeing her naked, writhing and sweating beneath him was too much. He pressed his fingers against her clit.
“Fuck! Arlo!” Juniper bucked beneath him. Her legs clamped around his neck as her orgasm spasmed through her.
Arlo kept pressure on her clit as he pounded into her. With a groan, he came, burying himself deep inside and collapsing on top of her.
After a minute of lying in their delicious mingled scent, he forced himself onto his elbows.
Juniper’s eyes were half-closed, a smile on her face.
“Everything okay?” He kissed her swollen lips.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her. “Just perfect, bomb boy.”
He smiled as he nuzzled his lips against her neck. Damn straight. This was everything he’d ever wanted.
JUNIPER’S EYES OPENED. She was naked and lying next to Arlo.
A faint blush crossed her cheeks as she remembered what they’d done all night. He’d explored every inch of her, smashing away the scary images of the fight at the building and her heartache over the loss of the dragon.
Her smile faded as she remembered the egg. They’d been so close to getting it out. So close to taking it away from the State.
Arlo shifted beside her, and his eyes opened. “How did you sleep?” His fingers traced over the bare flesh of her arm, and a warmth ran through her.
She kissed the scar that ran along his jaw. She knew he hated it and often covered it with his hand, but she loved it. It made him distinctive. “Better than I have done for ages. How about you?”
“No bad dreams,” said Arlo.
“Do you often have them?” She shifted closer to him and slung her bare leg over his.
“Most nights,” said Arlo. “I’ve never been able to figure out how to switch off the flashbacks. Sophia calls it post-traumatic stress. I’m not so sure myself, but I’d be happy never to have them again.”
She saw a flash of anguish in his eyes. “Do you have flashbacks of anything in particular?”
“It’s the same old thing.” Arlo shut his eyes for a second. “Losing my best friend. Seeing the life fade out of him.”
“Is that why you fight so hard?”
He blinked at her. “I guess so. And I will never stop. I won’t let any of my brothers come
to harm. I won’t let you come to any harm either. No matter how many times you put yourself in danger.”
The same flash of anguish appeared again. Juniper kissed him until it disappeared. She didn’t mean to distress Arlo, but, like him, she never wanted to give up.
“I could get used to that,” said Arlo. The path his fingers made across Juniper’s flesh sent sparks of heat from her head to her toes.
“I’m glad to hear it,” said Juniper. “Do we have to get up today?”
He grinned at her. “I’d be happy to stay here with you forever. But I have a feeling Heath will come looking for us soon. I also promised to get Mary a coffee the last time I saw her. She will not be happy I abandoned her.”
“Maybe we can hide.”
“It’s a tempting thought. Heath would find us, though, and have us pulling double shifts with a cleaning crew as punishment.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad if we were being punished together.”
“You’ve obviously never been reprimanded by Heath,” said Arlo.
Juniper gazed into Arlo’s green eyes. “You know, dragons mate for life.”
Arlo’s eyebrows raised. “I’ve heard that. Lincoln tells me Anastasia claimed him as her mate once they’d bonded.”
“He’s happy with that?” The nerves jumped through Juniper. It was different for each dragon hybrid, how dominant their dragon’s demands were when it came to finding a mate. Ever since she’d met Arlo, something had stirred in her. She’d thought it was just friendship, but the more time they spent together, she realized it was something primal. That had terrified her at first. Now, lying here with Arlo, not hiding anything from him, Juniper realized that having a single mate wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
“I’ve never seen him so happy,” said Arlo. “Lincoln walks around with a stupid grin on his face most of the time. He loves nothing more than making Anastasia and Skyler happy.”
Juniper ducked her head. “How would you feel about being a dragon hybrid’s mate?”
“Is that an offer?”
“I don’t think I have a choice,” said Juniper. “My dragon side wants you. In fact, I’ve wanted you around for a long time. Now my dragon side is demanding it after what we did last night.” She risked a glance at him and saw a huge grin on his face.
Arlo wrapped his arms around her and rolled her on top of him. “That doesn’t sound too terrible.”
She narrowed her eyes. “It wouldn’t be terrible being mated to me.”
“I don’t know. You do have a habit of not listening when I’m trying to talk sense to you.” He pressed kisses down her throat.
“I listen, sometimes.” She tried to ignore the hot touch of Arlo’s lips against her flesh but failed miserably.
“I can’t have my mate putting herself at risk,” said Arlo.
“That’s something we need to discuss.” A thrill of delight ran through her as she felt how hard and ready he was for her. “Well, then, that makes it official. You’re mine. Every other woman is off limits to you. I hope that won’t be a problem.”
He pulled her down for a kiss, and his hand slid down her naked back. “Not that I can think of.” Arlo’s wrist comm pinged, and he sighed. “I’m tempted to ignore it, but—”
“It might be important.” Juniper rolled away and grabbed her clothes.
Lust filled Arlo’s eyes as he watched her. “Go ahead.”
“We have all the information decoded from the data stick,” said Kade.
“Great. We’ll come take a look.”
Juniper jumped to her feet as she shrugged her shirt on. “What data? What’s going on?”
Arlo grinned as he threw on his own clothes. “Don’t give up just yet. We might have a second chance to bag ourselves an egg.”
Chapter 19
An hour later, Arlo was in the briefing room with Juniper. Kade was also there, along with Heath, Lincoln, Malachi, and Ranger. Sitting next to Kade was Harry and Katie, both looking nervously excited. This was probably the first time they’d been in the briefing room. Kade rarely let them out of the computer room.
Danni stood in her usual position at the head of the table. “Kade, give us an update on this new site.”
Kade pulled up a stream of text and a map. There were several exterior photographs of a grand-looking castle. “These are the findings from the data the squad grabbed. I can confirm there is a second site similar to the one discovered.”
“There are dragon eggs there?” Juniper leaned forward in her seat.
“We think so,” said Harry, shooting the group a nervous look. “The information we’ve decoded suggests they’re replicating the same experiments at this site. It makes sense to have a backup site. The State know we’re interested in this kind of work. They’d be foolish not to have a Plan B.”
“We can’t be one hundred percent sure that’s what they’re doing, though,” said Kade.
“The setup is identical,” interrupted Katie. “Hive one grabbed these images.” She pulled up a set of photographs, revealing cylinders being taken into a building.
“Thank you, Katie.” Kade gave her a sharp look.
“Where is it?” asked Arlo. “Can we get there?”
“It’s not far from here,” said Kade. “It’s in Alpha Zone nine. The location is about half an hour’s copter ride.”
Heath jumped to his feet. “This is another chance for us.”
Danni nodded. “It’s a good opportunity. I’d advise caution when going in. The State will be on high alert. They know we’ve discovered their actions and won’t want another project destroyed.”
“They don’t know we have this data,” said Heath. “As far as they’re aware, we got lucky finding that last site.”
“Even so, go carefully.”
Arlo felt Juniper’s fingers slide into his. She gripped his hand so hard it hurt, but he let her. He leaned close to her ear. “This time, we’ll succeed.”
She smiled at him, but he could see the worry in her eyes. “We can’t let them have any dragon eggs.”
“We won’t, not this time.”
“You leave at dusk,” said Danni.
Everyone around the table nodded and began making final arrangements.
At the end of the briefing, Arlo led Juniper away from the room. It must be killing her knowing they’d have to wait until dark before they could leave. But it was the safest time for them to move. Darkness was always their friend.
“How do you fancy some shooting practice?”
“You don’t think I can handle a weapon?” asked Juniper.
“I’ve seen you in action and know how well you handle yourself. It never hurts to get in some fine tuning. I was thinking more for me than you, anyway. Bombs are my speciality.”
Juniper shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind. Some of the weapons I used in the Badlands were old school. I even had a gun that fired bullets.”
“Lasers are more effective.”
“Don’t you hate the smell of burning flesh, though?” asked Juniper as they walked along the corridor toward the weapons room. “It always turns my stomach when I smell someone who’s been blasted with a laser.”
“I’ve smelled that so many times I think I’m immune to it.” Arlo wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. He pushed open the door to the weapons room and pulled out two pulse laser guns. “We have a practice room next door. There are targets in there.”
Juniper took one of the weapons. “Lead the way.”
Arlo walked back into the corridor, his hand resting comfortably on the small of Juniper’s back. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to touch her. He didn’t think he’d ever get bored with that. He was still getting used to the idea of being her mate. She had claimed him. After so many hours wondering if she even liked him, now he was hers. The thought made him smile as he set up two long-range targets. “Show me what you’ve got.”
She grinned at him, lined up her first shot and fired.
They ran through a
few different shooting positions. Arlo showed Juniper how to relax her shoulders before she fired to improve her aim, but she knew what she was doing and needed minimal instruction. After an hour of practice, she was averaging kill shots.
“Now it’s your turn.” Juniper rolled her shoulders and set down her weapon.
Arlo grinned, lined up fresh targets, and aimed his first shot.
A puff of air drifted past his cheek and his aim went wide, taking a slice off the side of the target.
He turned to see Juniper grinning at him.
“Did something distract you?”
“That was a warm-up shot.” Arlo turned back to the target. As he was about to fire, Juniper’s hands wrapped around his waist and stroked down his thighs.
Arlo slammed the laser blast into the wall as her fingers settled on his crotch.
“You’re doing that deliberately,” he growled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Laughter traced through Juniper’s words as her hands slid over his chest.
He turned and looked into Juniper’s eyes. “I thought you wanted to get some practice in?”
“I’ve had enough practice. But we need to do something to distract ourselves.”
Arlo couldn’t agree more. As his lips met hers, the door to the training room opened and Annie and Honor walked in. They stopped dead as they saw Arlo and Juniper wrapped in each other’s arms.
Annie grinned at Honor. “Sorry. We didn’t realize the place was in use.”
Arlo stepped away from Juniper. “No worries. We were just...” He waved a hand at the forgotten targets.
“Sure you were.” Honor shook her head as she placed her gun down. “Although Kade’s not keen, I need to improve my aim.”
“Same here,” said Annie. “Heath keeps on about me not having to ever leave the base. I have to go out sometimes. I need to know I can look after myself when I do.”
“The same goes for Juniper,” said Arlo.
She scowled at him. “I look after myself fine.”
Arlo (sci-fi romance - The Ember Quest Book 4) Page 18
