Soulfire: A Dragon Fantasy Romance (Nightwing Book 1)

by Juliette Cross

  “Of course,” Jessen added.

  “Stop making snarky remarks about my ancestors or I won’t finish the story.”

  “It’s a bit barbaric though, isn’t it?”

  “And humans haven’t done anything barbaric in their ancient past?”

  “Point taken.” She tilted her head to the side and yawned. “Go on.”

  I leaned my elbow on the right armrest and crossed my ankle over my knee, angling my body toward her and the fire.

  “Dragons themselves, when in their beast form, often hunted and ate animals from the forest. Paulinus didn’t even hesitate. He pulled his knife from his boot again and cut the fleshy part of his forearm, then offered it to the fair maiden to drink. And while her pale cheeks flushed with color from his blood, there was a deep sadness still in her eyes.

  “Paulinus asked once more, ‘Please, sweet maiden. How can I help you?’

  “‘My heart is lonely,’ she replied.”

  This time Jessen didn’t interrupt. She blinked heavily, growing drowsy, but she still seemed to be listening.

  “Paulinus knelt next to her bed of wool, cupped her delicate hand in his, and sang the sweetest lullaby he could think of. It was one of the hearth and home. His song was so beautiful that the maiden cried when he sang of an old mother holding her son in her arms who had wandered far from home as a young lad and had finally come home.

  “When the song ended, the storm disappeared and the sun shone again. The maiden stood and held her hands out to Paulinus. He took them, then she said, ‘You have granted me three things I needed most, so I will grant you three wishes of your heart’s desire. Tell me, and I will grant your wishes if I can.’

  “Paulinus quickly answered, ‘I wish to see the most powerful magic in the world.’

  “Without hesitation, the maiden backed away from him, her fiery eyes flaring bright as stars, her body trembling with the change before a crack of energy rebounded in the cave. The flash of electricity blinded Paulinus for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes, a golden dragon stood before him. She then said in the maiden’s voice, ‘What else do you wish?’

  “Stunned by her magnificence in dragon form, her scales glinting in the rays of the sun that slanted into the cave, he said, ‘I wish to see the most beautiful thing in our world.’

  “She told him to climb up onto her back, so he did. She ducked out of the cave with Paulinus clinging to the spine of coarse hair on her neck, then rocketed into the sky. He thought the heavenly sky was the place she intended to show him, but after a length of time she descended out of the wispy clouds toward a ring of mountains with a deep valley at its center.

  “This valley wasn’t a normal one. It was made entirely of sparkling gems, glittering in the valley like stars.”

  Jessen smiled sleepily, her cheek still pressed to her hand. “The Vale of Stars.”

  I nodded.

  “Is that the end?”

  “You’re terrible at listening to stories.” I scratched my chin, noting the day-old scruff. She half-laughed, her eyes hooded with drowsiness. I continued on in my steady story-telling tone. “She told him, ‘This is the most beautiful thing in the world.’ While they flew in a loop above the vale, she told him to ask for his last wish. He replied, ‘I would like the most precious treasure in the world.’

  “She descended into the valley and found a rocky outcropping to land. He slipped from her back and stared out at the vast fields of rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. She transformed back into her maiden form and said, ‘There it is, my shepherd. The most precious treasure in the world.’

  “He gazed for a moment, then turned away from it all to face her. Clasping her hand, he pressed it to his heart and said, ‘No. It is not. Love is the most powerful magic.’ He cupped her cheek and whispered, ‘You are the most beautiful creature in this world.’ He leaned closer and just before he pressed his lips to hers, he said, ‘And you are my most precious treasure.’ As soon as he kissed her lips, the force of the magic between them filled them up and burst them both into glittering shards, shooting them straight up into the sky where they scattered among the sky with the stars.”

  “That is not a happily ever after,” she grumbled, her eyes slipping closed.

  “Sure it is. They lived in the sky together for eternity.” I heaved a sigh. “Like I said, there are many versions to that—”

  By some miracle, she’d drifted off to sleep. Perhaps it was the wine or the warmth of the room or coming down from the shock of adrenaline in her system. Or maybe I just bored her to sleep. Probably a combination of all of the above. No matter. I was grateful.

  I lifted her gently off the floor, cradling her close. As soon as I touched her, the stinging pain inside me cooled. God, she felt good to have near me.

  Setting her on the bed, I eased beside her, needing to be close to her. She murmured something I couldn’t understand before molding her body to my side and wrapping an arm across my chest. I trailed my fingers through her silken hair, reveling in this perfect moment with my mate. And knowing that when we woke in the morning, I’d have to tell her the truth and hope the stars were in my favor. Well, if Paulinus could spill his heart and soul to a golden dragon, then I’d have to summon the courage to do the same to the sweet human in my arms. No matter the consequences.

  Chapter 13

  I woke slowly, feeling warm and content, but somehow restless. That’s when I realized I was sprawled across a shirtless Lucius in his bed. The feel of his hard body beneath mine was both wonderful and terrifying. My heartbeat sped away when I smoothed my palm over his ridged torso.

  Damn, he was beautiful.

  A fire still burned bright in the grate across the room, but it felt late.

  “Don’t be afraid,” he said, voice rumbling against my chest pressed to his side.

  I lifted up to look down at him. He reached out and combed his fingers through my curtain of hair that had slid forward across his chest.

  “Please don’t be afraid of me.”

  “I’m not afraid.”

  “I can hear your heartbeat.” His blue eyes burned brighter in the semi-dark. “It’s racing like mad.”

  “That’s not because I’m afraid,” I said with confidence, letting my gaze sweep down the strong column of his neck where his pulse beat hard at the base, down over his broad pectorals then to his perfectly sculpted abdomen where a smattering of dark hair trailed a line below his naval and disappeared beyond the waistband of his loose black workout pants. I swallowed hard, realizing he’d changed sometime during the night, and it revealed the extent of his own desire quite clearly.

  When I lifted my gaze back to his, his chest rose and fell more quickly, yet he did nothing but watch me.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “About two in the morning.”

  “I’m not sleepy,” I admitted dumbly, having no other way to tell him what I wanted.

  He remained passive and still, yet a sizzling current charged the air. It must be a Morgon thing, for it swept over me in a wave, raising gooseflesh on my skin. But before we could move forward, I needed to set something straight.

  “Last night, I never,” I shook my head with force, “I never agreed to that announcement my father gave.”

  “I’d thought you loved him, that you’d lied. But something occurred to me after I left. You hadn’t responded to his touch at all. And I know how you respond when you want someone.”

  I smiled, faltering when my gaze once again drank in the stunning beauty of his bare torso.

  “So I came back, and I saw—” His teeth ground together. “I would’ve killed him. I still want to. I want to break his bones into splinters. I want to find him right now and finish it.”

  His biceps and abdomen bunched. Still sitting next to him, I reached out and lay a hand on his chest.

  “When I saw him on top of you, I thought I would go insane if I didn’t feel his breath leaving his body. Only the thought of you left alone kept me fr
om the brink.”

  He looked at me. He wore no mask now. None. Emotion, raw and intense, rippled off him. He was up in a flash, kneeling in front of me. I jumped out of my skin.

  “Sorry.” He closed his eyes and licked his lips, towering above me even on his knees, his wings parting open. He gripped his thighs as if restraining himself from touching me. If I thought my heart was pounding hard before, I was wrong. When he finally met my gaze, I sucked in a breath at the raw vulnerability there.

  “Jessen, if you don’t know it by now, my heart is already yours.” He clutched a hand to his chest. “I realize we’ve known each other for a short time, but—” his hand curled into a fist over his sternum—“I’m burning alive for you. I can’t hold back any longer. Will you—” he took a deep, jagged breath. “Will you bind your heart to mine? Will you be mine through life’s flame and beyond?”

  I’d never heard those words before, and yet somehow they spoke to my heart as if I’d been waiting for them all my life. Waiting for him. The lump in my throat, a swelling of such utter joy, kept me from speaking. The myriad of emotions tightening the lines of his face—fear, anticipation, hope, need—were a crippling mixture of unguarded beauty. He wanted me. Forever. And I wanted him. So desperately. How did this happen? How did I fall in love with a Morgon man I hardly knew? A spark of electric heat pierced my body, pushing me to claim a life that was always meant to be mine. Pushing me to take this man as my own.

  “Woman, if you don’t answer me soon, I may die right here in this bed.”

  I laughed, a tear slipping, rising onto my knees. “Yes.” I pressed my palms to his bare chest. Then more softly, “Always.”

  “And I will be yours.” He released a shuddering breath, his dragon eyes sparking with blue-fire. He caressed my cheek with his knuckles. “Always.”

  I waited for him to kiss me, but he didn’t. His eyes roamed to my other cheek, a frown marring his model-perfect face. His hand came up near the swollen bruise, but he didn’t touch. His eyes fell to the small cut on my lip. His body tensed as if he might toss me aside to seek out and murder Aron anyway. Not that I gave a damn about the bastard’s life, but I didn’t want him intruding on this special moment of mine. I wanted Lucius all to myself, not lost in murderous thoughts.

  “Lucius, I told you I will be yours. I want you in every way.” I cleared my throat, plucking up the nerve to say what I wanted more than anything. “I want you to—” Oh, God. How do people say this stuff? Heat filled my cheeks.

  His devilish yet tender smile warmed me further. “I want you, too.” He edged closer on his knees, enveloping me in strength and hard muscle and heat. I swallowed, finding it extremely difficult to breathe with him this close and half naked.

  He dipped his mouth to my neck and laved a trail of kisses down the side of my neck to my collarbone then across the upper slopes of my breasts, heightening my desire. He cupped the side of my neck, wrapping his long fingers around my nape, some spearing up around the base of my skull. He grazed his lips up my jaw but still didn’t kiss me.

  “If you don’t kiss me soon, I think I might be the one who dies right here in this bed,” I confessed in a breathy rush.

  He trailed a finger over my bare shoulder, exploring with a soft sweep just above my breasts, his gaze following his hand.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course, I am.”

  His intense focus shifted to meet my eyes. “What I mean is, are you ready to seal yourself to me…with soulfire?”

  Again, there was only one answer. “Yes.” And my heart and body were in complete agreement with where this was going.

  “Thank the stars,” he rumbled low and deep.

  His hands drifted to the knot of fabric at my shoulder where he’d tied it last night. Slowly, he undid the knot and let the fabric fall, sliding the dress down to my waist. I hadn’t worn a bra with this dress as I wasn’t large-breasted, and it fit snugly with an inlaid bustier in the bodice of the gown. Somehow, I wasn’t even remotely modest being observed by his heated gaze. On the contrary, it made me brave…and eager. Ready. I pushed the dress down my waist and over my hips. With a quick shift on the bed, I slipped it down off my legs and tossed it to the floor, then returned to my position kneeling in front of him.

  He shook his head, his pretty mouth ticking up on one side. “Unbelievable.”

  “Touch me, Lucius.”

  He needed no more encouragement. He spanned his large hands around my waist and pulled me flush against him, his mouth hot on my skin. He licked and bit a trail from below my ear down to the curve where my neck met shoulder. I moaned, gripping his biceps to keep steady. A growl rumbled from his chest as he swept lower.

  I closed my eyes as he nipped and licked farther down over the small curve of my breast then opened his mouth over my tight nipple. My hands clenched on his biceps as he loved me there with his wickedly talented tongue.

  “Lucius,” I whispered in desperation, arching my back to get closer. To say his hot mouth teasing the taut nub was heavenly would be the most insane understatement ever.

  I dug my claws into his biceps, which only made him hold me harder. He crossed unhurriedly to my other breast, and I melted, liquefying under the attentions of his perfect mouth, wanting more with each gasping breath. His teeth grazed my tight peak, shocking a whimper out of me. Heat coiled in lower places. He kissed back up my neck, steering around my lips, then without warning, I was on my back with him over me.

  “When I painted you,”—his words poured like thick honey as he hovered above me, keeping his body off of mine— “I imagined this moment. When I could touch you.” He lowered, dipping his head to trail his lips along my collarbone, his pelvis pressed to mine, a heavy thigh between my legs. “When you would want me to touch you.” A graze of teeth just under my jaw. My breathing accelerated. “I never thought it would happen.”

  My brain hazed when he spread my legs wider with his own. “In my imagination,” he scaled down my body, licking a line between my breasts as he went, voice like velvet. “I was always in control.” He swept down my stomach, pressed a kiss to my naval, then hovered above my panty-line, his hot gaze shifting up to mine. “I never thought I would be such a slave to your beauty. To you.” I sucked in a breath when he held my gaze and edged lower, his hot breath seeping through the thin layer of lace. “But I am.” He wrapped a large hand around my inner thigh, his thumb pressed right up against the edge of my panties. I couldn’t even breathe. “I am yours.” Then he opened his mouth over my slit, wetting my already soaking-wet panties with his glorious tongue. He paused. I whimpered. “Command me anything, and it will be done.”

  Oh, God. Don’t stop. That was my first command. I wanted to scream it, but I couldn’t form words, my mouth gone dry. Distractedly, I realized I had fisted my hands in his sheets, clenching to the point of pain as I watched him and he watched me, all while he licked and sucked me through the barely-there fabric. It was a new kind of torture I couldn’t imagine in my wildest, wettest dreams.

  Unable to keep still, I rocked my pelvis up on a short moan. His dragon eyes flared brighter in the dark, the predator watching me with feral intent as he lapped and sucked sweetly.

  “More,” I begged.

  He stilled.

  “Please, Lucius.”

  With a devilish grin, he eased the lace to the side and glided his fingers through my folds, finding me more than slick and ready. He rumbled a growl of pleasure, the sound vibrating the bed before he slid a long finger inside me.

  “Lucius,” I whispered.

  His gaze snapped from my sex, where he stroked with divine and agonizing slowness, back up to me, then flicked his tongue out and spread my slit. I cried out and grabbed a fistful of his hair, clutching him harder to me, hot desire making me more brazen. I opened my legs wider for him. But he refused to go faster. Just grinned like the demon he was. He stroked and petted until I lost control, writhing like his wild wanton. Breathless, sliding my hips back and fo
rth, a primal need drove me on. My body coiled tighter and tighter. Just before I peaked, he slid a second finger inside me and firmed his lips over my swollen nub.

  “Oh, God!”

  A violent shudder rocked me to my toes. I moaned loud and long as my sex clenched around his fingers and he pumped them deeper, his mouth delivering agonizing pleasure. When I finally came down, my body relaxing into sated stillness, except for the excessive panting, he leaned back on his heels and slipped my panties down my legs. All calm and controlled. While I was already completely undone.

  “I lied to you last night.”

  Confused but feeling entirely too much like a well-pleasured goddess to be angry, I asked, “About what?”

  He tossed the panties over his shoulder but kept my ankle in his hand, wrapping his fingers completely around it.

  “Some Morgons do want to eat humans.”

  He pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the inside arch of my foot. I gasped, not knowing that could possibly be an erogenous zone. But apparently, it was. He slid his gaze down the length of my raised leg, stopping at my sex before skimming up my torso and over my breasts and neck to my face.

  “Because I—” he licked his bottom lip— “I want to eat every inch of you.”

  Oh, my God. The things he said. I was lost, drowning in desire and need. Even after I’d just come harder than I ever had before.

  I couldn’t do or say a thing as he shifted off the bed and removed his pants, then crawled up the bed and over me, spreading my legs as he came closer. The fire at his back created a dark silhouette of my Morgon man. His gaze seared me with its heat and his intentions. Gifted with superior sight, he saw my body as clear as if we were sitting in sunshine. When I couldn’t bare his intensity a second more, he lowered his weight onto me, his great black wings spread wide, a protective canopy above us. I wanted him, needed him inside me, even though my heart raced with both excitement and trepidation. “Kiss me.”