It was all he could think about.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked.
“Can’t you wait out here?” Lucy shouted as thunder grumbled through the clouds.
“Why the hell would I do that?” Caleb couldn’t budge a muscle. Not when she was staring at him with those gorgeous azure eyes—the ones that put his heart in a vise and squeezed. “Come on, let’s get inside and dry off. After the storm passes we’ll head out again.”
She shook her head, sending wet tendrils of hair flying about her face. “I’ll go inside and find the chest. If there’s anything in it that’ll help find Tristan, I’ll come back out and let you know.”
“And I’m supposed to wait out here for you like a good little boy?” He laughed. “The clouds are dropping buckets and I’m buck ass naked. You’re being ridiculous. Come on.”
He took her hand. She ripped it away.
“Fine,” Lucy said, “then you go inside and I’ll stay out here.”
“You’re not making a lick of sense.” He brushed a golden lock out of her face. Her bottom lip trembled, making Caleb want to suck it into his mouth. There were so many things he ached to say. He wanted to tell her about the day he left Tristan to guard the portal by himself. But out here, on a ledge high up in the castle tower, in the middle of a storm, wasn’t the place to say such things. “If you wanna argue, we can do it inside.”
“If we go inside together,” Lucy said, “I’m only going to feel things for you that I shouldn’t feel.”
The rain turned to needles, lancing Caleb’s skin. “What are you talking about?”
“Do you think it’s easy for me to see you after all these years?” Her voice shook. “Every second I’m with you, I remember those feelings I had when we were young. They all come flooding back. Only now you’re here, and I’ve touched you and kissed you, and now I can’t forget how those things felt. Don’t you think it’s hard for me to feel a connection to someone who is hell-bent on pulling away?”
“Pulling away?” Caleb palmed the stone on either side of Lucy’s shoulders, pinning her in place. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“But you are. You may be here in the physical sense, touching me, kissing me—” her breath hitched “―but just like in the chamber at the cavern, you’re going to pull away.”
“You’re the one who asked me to kiss you, remember?”
“Wonderful.” She huffed, slapping her hands against her sides. “Throw a moment of weakness in my face.”
“Lucy, I didn’t mean—”
“I’m not taking one step into this castle and risk getting even closer to you, until I know what your intentions are.”
“My intentions?” He froze. “Shit, Lucy, you want to do this now?”
How could she not see what was happening between them? Their chemistry was electric, sparking on the air, defying the strength of the storm.
“Beyond the kiss, did what happen between us happen because I asked for it, or because you wanted it?”
“I never do anything that I don’t want to do.” Caleb lowered his head to hers. Fat drops of rain slid down Lucy’s tank top, dripping between her breasts. Her porcelain-pale skin was drizzled with rain, a thin sheen of sweat mixed with it, giving Caleb fantasies of licking the cocktail off her skin. “How can you not see what’s happening between us?”
As Lucy’s gaze trailed down his body to his erection, her eyes widened with insatiable hunger. He was rock hard, swelling with the need to finish what they’d started in the chamber. The sight of Lucy sprawled on the bed, the taste of her most sensitive flesh, succulent and honey-sweet...simply thinking about it again made Caleb’s muscles clench into torturous knots.
“There’s something beneath the surface. Something that’s holding you back from me.” Lucy lifted her chin and arched her back, bending into him. “If you want to keep our relationship on a platonic level the way it was before, you can tell me. But I need to hear it before I get too deep so that I can set boundaries for myself. Can you understand that?”
“There’s no denying that I think of you as one of my best friends, Lucy. What you don’t understand is that I’ve thought of nothing but carrying you to bed for three long years. I’ve dreamed of your muscles squeezing around me as you shatter apart. I’ve made myself crazy with thoughts of things I want to do to you.” Caleb was drawn so incredibly tight, it was a wonder Lucy wasn’t beneath him already. “But I don’t want to wreck what we’ve got for a few hot and heavy moments under the covers.”
“Caleb, I’m already past all that, but I can’t risk getting closer to you until I know what you’re in for.”
“What I’m in for? Damn it, Luce.” Did she want a ring or a promise of forever? He’d just returned after three years of being away to find Tristan still missing. Already she wanted promises he didn’t know if he could keep. He’d been right all along. Sex complicated things. Except they hadn’t even gotten that far yet. “Lucy, I’m here because you said we should come here. Because you said there might be something here that’ll lead us to finding Tristan and bringing him home. What more do you want from me?”
“And that’s it? That’s all you have to say?”
“I think the best thing for us to do is focus on finding him. Everything else can be dealt with later.” The words It’s my fault he’s gone were too damn difficult for Caleb to say, though they teetered on the edge of his tongue. “If you come inside with me, we can check out the portal beneath the castle. It’s sealed and safe now, but at least you’ll get to see where this whole thing started.”
“You can go check out the portal.” Lucy’s lips pressed white and she shook her head. “But if you can’t be straight with me here, I’m not moving. If you want to be with me or not, you need to say so. I can handle the truth, Caleb, I just need to hear you say it.”
Was she afraid to be alone with him in the castle? Afraid of what might happen between them? She seemed more afraid now, with him, than she did when she was about to marry a stranger.
“Damn it, if you weren’t so...” Caleb groaned, pitching between what he wanted and what he needed. He wanted Lucy, wet and sex-drunk, writhing beneath him. But he needed to tell her about what happened and admit that it was his fault. If she could forgive him. If she wasn’t such a damn temptress slicing away at his last shred of control.
“So, what?” Lucy’s thick, rain-soaked lashes fluttered quickly. “If I wasn’t so, what?”
She couldn’t have known what a sight she was—the rain drenching her skin, the seductive curve of her lips, the top clinging to her plump breasts—how erotic she looked, how she starred in Caleb’s deepest fantasies. For three long years, he’d searched wastelands inside the portals with the guilt of his past as his only companion. He’d dreamed of Lucy coming for him, searching him out and finding him there.
He wanted her like he’d never wanted another, but there were other feelings brewing beneath the surface. Things he couldn’t pinpoint and didn’t want to, at least not now. The blood seemed to have vacated his brain. All he could think about was stripping the clothes off Lucy’s body and sliding between her legs.
God, his chest was so tight. Air wheezed in and out of his lungs. Blood thrummed through his veins, drowning out the thunder grumbling its way across the blackened sky.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Lucy’s breasts began to heave. “If you’re going to seduce me again only to leave me unsatisfied, I’d rather stay out here.”
“Unsatisfied?”
Oh, hell, no.
Caleb cracked. Pushed Lucy against the wall. Ground against her, pinning her with his hips. If it was one thing he could do, it was pleasure a woman. He’d pleasured Lucy before. He’d do it again.
He slammed his hands against the stone for fear that he’d grip her too forcefully. Instead, he assaulted Lucy with his mouth, sliding his tongue past her lips, devouring as much of her as he could get.
She moaned, the tiniest so
und that stoked his fire hotter, and scratched her nails down his back.
There was no pulling back. No calming the flames now that they’d erupted into a raging inferno. Caleb may’ve been able to restrain himself when they were in the chamber, but not now.
Not after she’d thrown down a challenge.
He thrust against her, bending lower to claim her mouth from a better angle. The peak of her nipples pressed against his chest, causing a growl to slip from the back of his throat. He nipped at her bottom lip, and moaned into the kiss as her hands grazed his abs. Her fingers were tantalizing, rousing every nerve in Caleb’s body, pinning them on edge.
Rain fell between them, onto their faces and between their mouths, saturating their kiss. Their mouths slid together, wet and hungry, and when Caleb’s heart lurched, Lucy’s breath broke out as an exasperated sob.
She could feel him, Caleb was certain of it. Lucy was sensitive with the workings of his body, like a true rider should be. She felt when his heart clenched, when his stomach tumbled. Her reactions were in tune with his.
He’d never felt this way before. Never wanted to pleasure a woman for her sake alone. He’d never felt such pure satisfaction at making a woman tremble and come apart, even when there was a possibility that he’d get nothing out of it.
Being with Lucy was blissfully different.
Possessing her mouth, Caleb slid one hand down from the wall and jerked the button on her pants free. Answering his demand, Lucy pushed her jeans down and kicked out of them. Unable to wait another second before feeling Lucy’s heat, Caleb stroked two fingers over her panties. The dampness of her center had soaked them through. She was hot, wet and quivering with need.
Lucy squirmed when his fingers brushed against her clit, so he stayed there awhile, teasing her through the soaked fabric. He relinquished the fight with his self-control and dragged his other hand off the wall. He brushed his fingers through her golden halo of hair, down the smooth curve of her cheek. And when she moaned into his mouth, he grasped her chin and tilted her to him so that his tongue could dive into her fully.
Hot spikes of desire pulsed down Caleb’s body, constricting his muscles, hardening his cock to the point of pain. His own climax wasn’t far away. If Lucy touched him, just once, he might lose the rein he gripped so tightly.
As if she read his mind, Lucy reached between their bodies and gripped his shaft. She gasped into his mouth as he throbbed into her hand. Her touch was soft where he was hard. A feather-light caress where he was pulled brutally tight.
“These. Off,” she said when his fingers swept urgently over her panties.
As Caleb backed away, staring into her heavy-lidded gaze, Lucy slipped out of her underwear.
She was absolutely stunning. And all his. What sparked between them was so much more than a challenge, so much more than friendship that had lost control, or a few moments of passionate abandon. What the hell was happening?
He groaned, biting back a curse, as he thrust against her, against the stone.
Using both hands, he peeled the soaking tank from her body and cupped her breasts in his hands. They were so incredibly soft. Heavy and filling his palms.
As he bent lower to suck one of the perfectly pink nipples into his mouth, she ran her fingers through his hair, grasping with greedy fingers. He wanted to give her what she wanted—the pleasure with the blissful pain—but he didn’t want to hurt her. Gently, he licked the rain from her nipple, then scraped the tiny peak against his teeth. When she groaned, arching back, lifting her lips, he nipped at the sensitive flesh, causing her to cry out.
Caleb flicked his tongue against her nipples, as his hand found her core once more. His fingers slid into her, cruelly slow, until she spread her legs, widening her stance. Using Lucy’s rapid breathing as a guide, Caleb found her pleasure spot and circled there, until her body began to shake.
This was all he needed. Everything. His world. He could stay here awhile, tease her, and bring her to a soul-shattering climax again and again. He’d get so much pleasure watching her mouth drop open in ecstasy as she came. Being selfless when it came to sex was a foreign concept, yet with Lucy, it felt so right.
As Lucy began to come apart, sagging down the wall, Caleb’s stomach twisted in wicked indulgence. He plunged his fingers into her warmth, stroking her from the inside, relishing in her peaking desire.
With a strangled cry, Lucy’s inner muscles clenched around Caleb’s fingers, intense little tugs that hardened him to stone.
“I want you inside me,” she breathed. “Now.”
Aching to feel the tugs of her core against his cock instead of his hand, Caleb nodded. Held painfully taut, he roped one of Lucy’s legs around his hip and poised himself at her center.
Lucy breathed hard, expectantly, her magnificent breasts rising and falling with each labored heave. Her skin glistened with moisture, and her mouth—he’d never tire of staring at her mouth!—fell open in a seductive O that Caleb ached to trace with his tongue.
Powerless to hold back, Caleb sheathed himself inside her in a single, forceful stroke. They groaned in unison, their bodies moving in time with each slow, languid thrust. Lucy was a tight fit, a glove that molded around him perfectly.
There was no greater feeling than this. What he’d felt for Lucy all along couldn’t have been lust. There were other feelings buried beneath the surface of friendship and physical intimacy. Feelings he’d denied. Until now.
Caleb shut his eyes as chills gathered at the base of his spine. He plunged deeper into her warmth, right up to the hilt. Claimed her mouth. Hiked her leg higher on his middle and grasped the lush round of her backside. He drove into her again and again, each hard thrust climbing toward a trembling peak.
“I’ve dreamed of this,” Caleb said, each word deeply staccato. “You feel so good, Lucy, so fucking perfect. You feel―” the breath dropped out of his lungs as he met her hungry gaze “―you feel like heaven.”
Lucy threw her arms around Caleb’s neck and hopped up, wrapping both legs around his waist. “Take me there, then.”
“Gladly,” he breathed against her lips.
He rammed into her again. And again. Waves of molten heat surged through his veins, tightening and constricting, threatening to overflow with each vigorous thrust into her core.
But he held back. He burned with the desire to make Lucy come a second time.
He lifted her hips to the tip of his shaft. Shook with anticipation. Slammed her hips over him again, drowning his cock in her slick heat. His eyes rolled back as sensations gathered into a storm in his middle.
Lucy’s breasts smashed against Caleb’s chest, sliding against his rain-slick skin. Her core tensed and pulsed, promising another release. Caleb’s body responded on a primal level, aching and throbbing, straining with ravenous hunger.
“Come for me, Luce.” He slipped a hand between their bodies and massaged her clit, teasing the slick nub until her hips convulsed against him.
As she bucked against the stone, pulsing with ecstasy, Caleb let the sensations thundering inside him wrench him over the edge. With a final, resounding push, he released his seed, giving Lucy all he had to give.
Chapter Five
Lucy had expected Caleb to be a great lover...nothing could have prepared her for how soul-shattering he truly was. For those precious moments, when he was deep inside her, gazing into her eyes, calling her Luce—the way he used to do, with that gentle, loving lilt—Lucy would’ve sworn he cared for her.
That he actually loved her.
Although he hadn’t said the words, she felt something different when they were together. There was a spark. A knowing. A warm, numbing sensation in her heart. Part of her thought she was picking up the vibe from Caleb the way riders do with their dragons. That the heart-tugging came from inside him.
But now, staring at herself in the bathroom mirror inside Thorne Castle, Lucy knew she was being ridiculous. She hadn’t been claimed as his rider, yet. The heartwarming f
eeling she’d detected was still there, just as strong as before. It must’ve been her feelings she was picking up.
She dressed in a gray tank top and jeans—the only spare clothes she’d brought for their journey—then tied back her hair and leaned over the sink. Her cheeks were pink, flushed from their steamy encounter, and her eyes were glowing a brighter shade of blue than she’d ever seen them.
It had everything to do with the amazing Draco waiting for her in the other room. The Draco who made her feel as if she was the only woman in the world he wanted to be with.
But what would happen if they couldn’t find Tristan? How could she marry Geezer knowing how she felt about Caleb? Now that he was back, she wanted him, not the Draco her brother had demanded she claim.
The whole situation had just catapulted into seriously complicated territory.
After a quick double check of her appearance, Lucy opened the bathroom door and nearly ran face-first into Caleb’s wall of a chest.
“Took long enough,” he said, smirking.
He’d changed into jeans and a white cotton shirt, which perfectly matched his carefree persona. His dark hair was tousled and falling down in front, and was still wet from the rain. She longed to run her fingers through his hair again, to feel its silky strands brush between her fingers.
“I still can’t get over the fact that you were here, guarding the portals with Tristan.” She stepped past him into the cold hall. “How long were you stationed here?”
“Not long.” He led the way to the shadowed great room, where a massive hearth rested on the far wall and a stone-arched doorway veered off the side. “Maybe a month before...”
...before Tristan disappeared.
“I see,” Lucy said.
Why couldn’t he have told her what he was doing? And why did she still feel like there was more that he wasn’t telling her?
“Do you want to see the portal?” Caleb stood against the hearth, his arms folded over his chest. “I can take you down there if you need to see it.”
Demand of the Dragon Page 4
