He turned his head on the pillow and watched her, trying to quell the hope rising in his heart when she screwed up her face, grimacing at the pain. An instinctive reaction. Anyone would do that.
The pain spread through his body, and he slipped into her mind to help her, shielding her pain as much as he could. Her features relaxed, grew still.
Like a tiny green bud, her mind blossomed, filled her head with sheer beauty as she broke out of the bonds around her soul. At the height of agony, when every part of his body was on fire, she called out.
She called his name.
* * * *
Kristen opened her eyes to find Nathan lying next to her. They were in his bedroom, but the sheets under her body were unusually crumpled.
No. In a rush, everything came back to her. Stuart’s betrayal, that evil man De’Ath, and then nothing except nightmares she didn’t want to recall. All about imprisonment, fighting, and hurting.
Something throbbed on her side, and instinctively she glanced down, but her body was pressed close to Nathan’s and she couldn’t see. Without her asking him, Nathan moved aside.
A little red dragon was engraved on her thigh, the mirror of his. That was what throbbed. “Did I get a tattoo?” She licked her lips.
Immediately, Nathan sat up and stretched out a hand. Someone moved across the room and placed a glass of water in it. Dalton. She blinked as Nathan drew a sheet up over their bodies. “What…?”
Nathan curved his other arm around her and helped her sit so she could drink. “I needed a proxy and a witness,” he said. “Darling, I converted you.”
“Oh.” The realization took a minute to sink through to her befogged brain. “Good.”
Dalton scanned her mind, briskly and briefly. “I’ll say good-bye now,” Dalton said. “I’ll let myself out.” He nodded to her hand. “You might want to take that off.”
Puzzled, she glanced at the bandage on her hand. Flexing her fingers, she couldn’t find anything wrong, so she unwound it and tossed the bandage aside. “What was that on there for?”
“Nothing,” Nathan said, his voice choked.
Dalton smiled. He strolled across the room, picking up his shirt and shoes as he went. He was half-naked.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
Nathan watched her, his mind still, although to her surprise she discovered she was reading him without effort or even will. So deeply too. She could see everything, feel everything. Every moment of his life filled her head, his successes, his failures. In her mind’s eye, she saw a figure, dressed elegantly in a dark-blue formfitting coat and fancy waistcoat. His chin held high, a stiff white collar supporting it and some elaborate tie-thing underneath. A neckcloth, she recalled from her romance books. His pants were tight enough to make a rock star blush. But it was Nathan.
“You’re part of me now, my love.” He took the empty glass from her so he could hold her hands. “And I’m part of you. If you don’t want that, then I need to know.”
“Why?”
“Why did I convert you? Because it was the only way to break the thrall De’Ath put you into. I suspect he didn’t know how good he was. Otherwise he’d have used it more. He drugged you, and then you were susceptible to him.”
“The beer,” she said, remembering that night Stu came around to the apartment. “I bet every bottle was drugged.”
“Probably.” He grimaced. “It’s all gone now.”
“Good.” She felt rested. As she took mental stock of her body, her stomach grumbled. “Sorry.”
“You haven’t eaten for a day and a half. We’ll take care of that for you. But I need to know before Dalton’s out of reach. Do you want me like this? Almost entirely open to you?”
“Almost?” A smile curved her lips.
“There’s a tiny corner left. If you search your mind, you’ll find it too. It’s where you can put your secrets.”
“I have no secrets from you.” But she did. She flushed, her body heating and turning pink. “Except one.”
“Isadora?” When she would have looked away, he put his crooked forefinger under her chin, urging her head up. “I knew about her from the start. I’m sorry, my sweet. I should have stopped Dalton blurting it out that day. I was insufferable when you came in from the storm. I was out of sorts, but you weren’t to know that. I’d just gotten rid of someone so persistent it amounted to stalking, but that doesn’t excuse the way I treated you and what I said. I don’t blame you for saying what you did, but I knew you were bluffing from the start.”
“How?” she demanded indignantly.
“I just did.” He grinned. “I am so happy, I could explode.”
“But what about the club?”
“What about it? You are you now, sweetheart. You can be yourself. Dance as you. Or don’t dance; it doesn’t matter.”
It mattered to her. She’d finally found a niche she fit in, one she could excel at. “I want to keep doing it.”
“Then we will. Anything you want.”
She had so much to take in. He knew who she really was? She could dance?
“I’ll get the posters replaced, and anyone who asks, it was an unfortunate confusion on my part. Anything for you. Anything.” His mind stilled and his face grew grave. “Do you want this? Do you want me?”
“Of course I do.” He was so much a part of her, how could she want anything else?
“I had to bond with you to get deep enough so I could unlock the thrall. I could only do that one way. We’re bonded, my love. Together forever. Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, you’ll know. And vice versa. It can become unbearable to mortals.”
She touched his nose with one finger, rejoicing at the freedom that she could do so. “But I’m not mortal anymore, am I?”
The dragon burned through her, turned on its back to have its belly scratched. She wanted to see it for real. Couldn’t wait.
“You’re everything you always were. Just a bit more.” He still didn’t smile but watched her carefully. “Do you want to try?”
She’d had a glimpse of the fascinating, brilliant man she was now bound to. Bonded, he called it. “To you, yes. I want it. I want everything.” Laughing, she rolled over him, pinning him down. “Do I get to be stronger too?”
“You’ll have the dragon’s strength. I’ll teach you to partially shift so you can use the dragon but not make it obvious.” He cracked a smile, and relief flooded her. He was unbending. One part of his anatomy was particularly stiff.
“So what’s bothering you about all this?”
The smile disappeared, and she cursed herself. “I shouldn’t have done it without your permission. It’s something couples talk about for a long time because it means a complete change in their lives. Even Talents think very carefully before deciding on bonding.”
She didn’t need to think about it at all. “Then, yes. You have my permission. Yes and yes!”
He gazed up into her face, and she felt the familiar warmth as he touched her mind. Except the wanting went so much deeper now. He gave a tiny shake of his head, the short strands of his dark hair clinging to the pillow. “I don’t deserve this.”
“Yes, you do. Don’t go all martyr on me. I know something else we can do. How about a celebration?”
Whatever came next, she’d tackle it with Nathan by her side. Her certainly filled her heart, overflowed into every part of her. She wriggled her hips, and he groaned, then laughed ruefully.
“I can’t resist you.”
“That’s just as well, because I can’t resist you either.”
He choked off his laugh when she lifted her hips and opened her legs, straddling him. The laugh turned into a groan. “You should rest.”
“I’ve been resting. What I should do is fuck you, and then I should eat.” She sat up, grasping his cock and pumping it until liquid seeped from the top. Bending her head, she swept her tongue over the tip. “Mmm, delicious. Maybe I should just eat this.”
Ignoring his moans, she suck
ed the head into her mouth, running her tongue around the flange beneath, tasting him as fully as she could. When she read his thoughts, all she could discover was heat and need. Delighted she could tell just how crazy she was making him, she flicked her tongue over the tiny opening. Oh, he liked that. His body jerked, and he whimpered. So she did it some more. Cupping his balls, she massaged them, savoring the soft skin and the hard globes inside.
“No more.” Gasping the words, he grabbed her under her arms and dragged her off his needy cock. He lifted her with one hand and touched her pussy with the other, barely sweeping his fingers over her opening before he brought her down. He impaled her in one, savage stroke.
They both groaned. The sensation of him filling her was too good. Her pussy quivered over his hard flesh, on the brink of coming. Then, with a growl more animal than human, he sat up and took her in his arms, showing her exactly what he wanted. Her, deep, inside. Primitive emotions swept through him, and from him through her. They were one. He needed to take her in the way of his kind in days gone by, when they would just fuck without pause for days. She was his woman, and he wanted to claim her. Needed to.
She couldn’t wait.
He thrust up, deep into her, then withdrew, his power controlling the movements, operating her like a rag doll. Taking her hard and without mercy. Not that she’d have asked for any.
Kristen came apart in his arms, wailing his name, waves of desire pulsing through her as she climaxed.
He growled her name. Sweat broke out over his body, and she licked his shoulder, the muscles gorgeously firm under her tongue. “Kristen, I love you. I don’t know if I can hold on much longer.”
“Try.” She wanted another orgasm before they were done. And another, but from the way his thoughts swirled and heated, she doubted he’d manage that. He might be a big bad dragon, but he wasn’t a superhero. Only her man.
Curling her legs around him, she dug her heels into his ass, urging him on. It brought her clit into close proximity to his groin, and she made the most of it, rubbing against his thatch of black pubic hair. Exquisite.
“That’s you.” He had lost his iron control completely. “You’re exquisite. I’m yours, for all my days and all my nights. Nobody and nothing can stop that. I dedicate everything I have to you.”
“Everything?” She gazed down at him. His eyes were bright now, full of life and love.
“I’m nothing without you, so yes. Everything.”
“I want to go back to the house where we met.”
“Tomorrow, if you want.”
His cock hard inside her, she shook her head and felt the corresponding slight movement. They would never be apart again. “We have an audience to please tomorrow. But I want you to meet my family.”
“Stuart?”
Shock iced through her. “How long have you known?”
“The family resemblance is unmistakable. How many more of them are there?”
“Five,” she said. “And my parents.” She cupped his cheek. “You’ll be part of a family.”
His smile was easy. “As long as you’re part of it. I can’t wait.” He thrust up, just a little, making her gasp. They were off again, moving as fluidly as in any dance until the sexual delight overtook her and she cried out as she came. He shoved his hand into her hair and held her close, gasping her name as he jetted his seed inside her.
At that moment, she dedicated herself to him. Everything she was belonged to him, just as he’d sworn he was hers a moment ago.
It could only get better after this.
Loose Id Titles by Lynne Connolly
The SYMBIOTICS Series
Texas Heat
Stripped Bare
Unlaced
Brutally Beautiful
Sixth Sense
* * * *
THE THORNDYKE TRILOGY
Dispossessed
Dancing at Midnight
Lynne Connolly
Lynne Connolly lives in England with her family and her mews, a cat called Jack. She spends her time writing and filling her collection of doll’s houses. After acceptance by her first e-publisher she hasn’t looked back. She has over 30 books out, and plans for more. She writes in the paranormal romance, contemporary romance, and historical romance genres and she likes to add a lot of steam!
Go to http://lynneconnolly.com to read up on the latest news about Lynne.
The Thorndyke Trilogy 2: Dancing at Midnight Page 21
