by Jaime Rush
She exhaled in pleasure, her fingers moving through his hair, tugging it like she couldn’t pull him close enough. His cock throbbed with wanting her, making his jeans uncomfortably tight. He wanted—needed—to be buried inside her. Tendrils of magick crackled over his skin and through his body. What the hell? He’d never felt anything like that before.
There was a lot that he’d never experienced before meeting Violet.
Her Dragon was heating up, too, all around her waist where he now held her. Its essence was now in him. He felt it connect to his own magick, twisting together the way magick vines could wrap all around you. She must have felt it, too, because her hand went to her tattoo. Her Dragon stretched sensually, its eyes afire like sparkling amethysts.
“It’s not supposed to want a Deuce,” she whispered, surprise in her voice.
“Does it want a Deuce?”
“Very much.”
He traced his finger lightly over her tattoo, feeling the energy it exuded. He knew enough about Dragon essence to gain an advantage in battle. He knew nothing about how it felt to be Dragon. “Do you want a Deuce?”
Her gaze held his. “Very, very much.”
He pressed his forehead against hers. He was disciplined. Strong. But not with Violet. “Something about you pulls at me, tears away my resistance.” His voice was raw. “You tug at my wild side, the part of me I buried long ago.”
“Is that the part you forgot was inside you, the ache that never went away?”
He brushed her hair from her face, his thumb grazing her cheek. “I forgot until you. Every time I’m close to you, that side of me takes over. And right now, more than ever, I need to keep my head straight. We shouldn’t do this.” The mist in his eyes swirled something fierce, belying his directive.
Violet felt his words in her body. The ache in them, the wanting. “You’re trying to be Vega-like, and I get that. Honor. Discipline,” she said. “And there are sound, logical reasons for not going further. But right now, I need your arms wrapped around me so I feel safe for the first time since Arlo’s death. I need your body pressed up against mine so I can pull your heat and strength into me. And what I need, really need, is the hot kind of comfort that only a man can give me. Only you.”
He hesitated for a moment, and then reached for her on a groan. His mouth found hers, his hands cradling her face. “Why are you making it so hard for me to be good?”
He was hard. He wanted her. She didn’t want to think about all the differences between them, didn’t want to think about tomorrow or what consequences it might bring. She wanted him, too, and she wasn’t going to let him suffer another unresolved hard-on. Remembering how Kade had told her his fantasies, how he’d responded to her when he’d been blindfolded, made her shed her own inhibitions. She gave a tug on his pants. “Take these off, Kade. That’s an order.”
Surprise sparked in his eyes, and he lifted his face to the ceiling. “Oh, no. You’re really killing me here, Violet.”
“No backtalk.”
He pulled his gaze back to hers, both agony and arousal on his expression. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Faster.”
“Anything you say, ma’am.” Now it was only arousal burning in his eyes. He unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, pushing them down to the floor and stepping out of them.
She hooked her finger over the waistband of his boxer briefs. “Now these.” She pulled it and let it snap back against his erection. He blinked at the sensation, then complied.
“You looked good on my bed. I want you on it again.”
He grabbed a crinkly package out of his pants pocket and marched to her room. When he tossed it onto the nightstand and turned around, he was at full attention…in every way.
She stepped up close to him. “Make love to me. We’ll sort out everything else later.”
She slid her hands over his chest, the contours of his muscles and smooth discs around his nipples. The feeling of being alive rushed through her, her blood pulsing, her heartbeat pounding. And a strong man crushing her against him as though he couldn’t get enough of her. Oh, yes, hot comfort.
His tongue moved through her mouth, exploring, devouring. His hands skimmed down her back and beneath the waistband of her panties. He cupped her cheeks and let the tips of his thumbs trail up the seam of her behind as he drew his hands back up. She pressed her hips closer, rocking her pelvis against his erection. He let out a soft growl, drawing his hands low enough to touch her wetness. She’d never been wet without the guy having to work at it. Kade had gotten her that way and hadn’t even touched her intimately. Now she growled, echoing the roar of her Dragon. She’d never made that sound before. The primal nature of it stirred her deep inside.
“Vee,” he whispered, lowering her to the bed and nuzzling her neck as he came down with her.
She remembered the way she’d told him not to call her that. Now the word trickled through her blood on her soft exhale. He braced himself over her, his mouth working its magic across her skin, her breasts. He sucked just hard enough to make her squirm without hurting her. She clutched at him, tracing her nails across his scalp.
His fingers hooked on the waistband of her pajamas and shoved them down her hips. She wiggled the rest of the way out of them and kicked them off the bed. His fingers and thumb drew a line to the delicate skin of her inner thighs, and then he cupped her pubic area. A tantalizing vibration pulsed deep into her core, so wild, so crazy, she shuddered.
“What was that?” she managed between gasps as waves of an electrical thrumming sensation shot pleasure through her body.
His chuckle was low and throaty. “Sex magick. It’s a nonlethal way to use our magick.”
“Nonlethal, my ass. You’re killing me.”
The sensual spiral wound through her entire body, making her pull his thick hair as her body arched.
His sexy chuckle was just as stimulating. “Oh, you’ll live, babe, and then you’ll be begging me for it again and again.”
She shot him a look at his arrogance, but his devilish smile extinguished any spark of ire. Then he sent another wave of magick that knocked her flat on the bed again. She clutched at the sheets, feeling like she might lift right off the bed.
She was on the edge of a mind-bending orgasm when his mouth came down on her, and his tongue slowly moved around her folds. Her breath came in short pants now. Her hips writhed, seemingly of their own accord. She opened herself to him and fully spread her legs. Her hands tangled in her sheets in an attempt to anchor herself. She screamed, long and guttural, as the climax swept her mind and body away. Her Dragon’s essence rolled over her, heating her skin as it pressed close to the surface. It reveled in the sensuality and danced in pleasure.
More, more, more…
“More,” she echoed on a halted breath.
Yeah, she was begging. That’s how good it felt. She didn’t even care that she was begging.
He ran his right hand down her inner thigh and slid a finger into her vagina, while his thumb circled her already sensitive clit. Another wave of sex magick flowed from it, convulsing her body and loosing another orgasm. Along with another primal scream. She thought she might have ripped the thousand-thread-count sheets she’d paid a fortune for, but who cared? This time he let his tongue alone take her to yet another orgasm, and damn, it was good that way, too.
When she could breathe and think again, she realized he was kissing his way back up her body. The tip of his penis left a wet trail as it glided along the path his mouth had just made. It felt like velvet and steel against her heated skin. He kissed along her jawline and murmured, “You even taste good, like a summer wine.”
Violet pushed him back to the bed and straddled him, leaning down so that her hair grazed his chest. She ran her tongue down his neck and across his pecs. Her body was low enough to skim his as she moved. Her nipples tingled as they glided over the hard planes of his chest. She felt his thick erection beneath her stomach, and then in the hollow between her breasts. He l
et out a low exhale as she sank lower against him.
He ran his hands along her back, his fingers flexing whenever she put extra pressure on his penis. She felt the faint sprinkling of hairs that grew soft and even more sparse as she moved down the center of his stomach. She took the thick length of him into her mouth, though he was too long to take him wholly in.
She laved the smooth head with her tongue, the length of his shaft with her mouth. Her teeth brushed softly against his skin, and he panted. When he arched, his fingers curling into her shoulders, she moved to his inner thighs. She wanted him to come inside her, hungered for it. He didn’t wait for her leisurely ascent, pulling her level to his face and kissing her so hard and deep, she lost herself in it.
“I’ll get the condom,” she said on a gasping breath a few moments later. She crawled to the nightstand and grabbed it with trembling fingers. Sex had never been a need like this, a desperate need to have him inside her.
While she was still on all fours, his hands slid around her waist, and he pulled her ass against his pelvis. He leaned close behind her, his body over hers, and kissed the back of her neck. She glanced up and caught the shadowy reflection of them in the mirror above the dresser. The sight of him draped over her, predatory, animalistic, rocketed through her.
Her Dragon purred and made her arch into him even more. She handed him the package and heard him tear it open. He moved away for a second, then braced his hands on her behind and positioned himself to enter. She pushed against him, wanting to feel all of him.
He braced his weight with one hand, the other slid beneath her stomach, and he filled her in exactly the way she needed. Like that unnamed ache he’d spoken of, she had yearned for this but never knew what it was. No, it wasn’t just a man inside her, or sexual release, but something more.
Something Kade.
He leaned down over her, as he’d done before, his mouth near her ear. She loved the sound of his breathing growing ragged and the way his fingers tightened on her stomach when she moved into the thrust. When her own breathing grew labored and her insides felt as though they were about to burst, he touched her clit again and sent another blast of sex magick.
Sparks caught her eye. In the mirror, she saw a flash of blue light shimmer over his skin. It tickled all along her back.
“You’re sparking!” she said between breaths.
“Yeah…I know.” He sounded as surprised as she did. And then he sent another surge of magick.
The orgasm tore through her, ripping her apart. Kade thrust hard into her, and his body shuddered. He held her tight, more of those sparks tripping over her as their orgasms swept over them.
“Holy dragonfire,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah,” he managed on his own sawed breathing.
They rode the sensations, moving in a slow rhythm inside her. Several seconds later, he gently pulled out and wrapped his arms around her, falling to his side with her in his embrace. He looked beautiful, his face flushed and dewy, his eyes bright. She hoped she looked half as good.
She ran her fingers along his arm. “You had electricity—magick running all over you,” she said, watching the last of the glimmers fade from his skin.
He lifted his arm, flexing his hand. “I’ve never had that happen before. That was wild.” He brushed his fingers down her face. “Everything about it was wild.”
She nodded, moving her mouth to kiss the tip of those fingers. “Thanks for…well, the hot comfort.”
“It was a lot more than that.” He pinned her with his gaze. “Wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” What were they going to do about it? She couldn’t quite nudge that question past her lips. Too many things were already zinging around in her mind, her body. Like how right it felt to be in his arms, how everything about him felt so right, which didn’t make any sense at all.
He glanced toward the window, where dawn was beginning to lighten the sky. “It’s almost morning.”
“Does that mean you have to go?” She was kidding, yet the thought tightened her chest.
“I’m not going anywhere, babe.”
The words washed over her, spoken in his low, intimate voice. Especially babe. No one had ever called her that other than Kade’s pretend usage. Maybe a whispered “oh, baby,” but nothing meaningful. “Good.” She snuggled closer, her face next to his. She wouldn’t ask him about the future, wouldn’t extract any promises. She wasn’t ready to make any herself.
She would always be a Dragon, a Fringer. And Kade was a Deuce, a Vega to the core. But in the quiet afterglow of the most incredible sex of her entire life—hell, she’d never even imagined that it could be that good—Violet didn’t care about their differences or the inevitable end to their arrangement. She wanted to sink into this moment. She stroked his dagger tattoo. “Does your tattoo have a consciousness? Does it make demands?”
“No. The tattoo is probably like your Dragon in the way it changes my cellular structure, but mine is just a weapon. The Guard commissions a magick inker to make them.”
Her finger traced the V on the dagger’s hilt. “Tell me what it’s like to be you. To be respected, perhaps feared.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “The people whom I want to fear me—my opponents—aren’t usually afraid of me. They think they’re better, faster. They’re usually wrong.”
“Oh, and tell me what it’s like to be so humble, too, while you’re at it.”
Another laugh, as rich as chocolate. “Who needs to be humble when you’re great?”
She nudged him.
His smile faded. “People respect me because I’m a Vega, not because I’m Kade Kavanaugh. Probably like they disrespect you for being a Castanega. It’s not personal.”
“I wish I could see it that way.”
He kept staring at the ceiling, absently stroking her arm with his finger. “I know how it feels to have people look at you like you’re dirt.”
She propped herself up on her elbow. “I would have guessed you had a charmed life.”
“I did until twenty years ago, when my father tried to release a prisoner.”
He told her the sketchy details, pain and humiliation etching into his voice. “It drives me crazy not knowing exactly what happened. Did he fall madly in love with this delusional woman? Seems unlikely. Everything for him was about his reputation.”
“But why did people look at you like you were dirt? Your father was the one who supposedly went against the law. Ah, people judging you for your family’s sins.”
“Yes, but that was only part of it. There were some who were jealous of my fast rise to Vega, especially since I flouted the rules. When they called my ascent into question, the Guard backed down and demoted me.” He met her gaze. “The way you probably felt walking in there was how I felt every day. For five years, sacrificing who I was, toeing the line and ignoring my instincts just to prove myself. And now…” His expression tightened. He obviously wasn’t used to sharing, which made this even more special. “My sister is an Argus. If I screw up, she’s going to pay for it.”
Violet remembered the woman with the green eyes like Kade’s. “You mean screw up as in investigating this on your own?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you did.”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “Me too.” His sincerity saturated those words…and her heart.
“It’s odd how much we have in common,” she said. And how perfectly natural lying there sharing their bodies and souls felt. “My father also died under mysterious circumstances. We’ll never know why he ended up on Garza land, and why they felt compelled to shoot him.”
His expression darkened. “Did you ever doubt your father? Ever think he was up to something he shouldn’t have been?”
She shook her head emphatically. “My people have flaws, no doubt, but my dad wouldn’t have been up to no good.”
“I thought my father had fallen prey to human emotions. I didn’t know him, not on any deep level. I
believed the rumors. I bought into the corruption of a man but never considered the corruption of the Guard.” Kade looked torn. “My father was a regimented, cold hard-ass, but he always backed me up. When I got into trouble for breaking the rules, he reminded my commanding officer that I went with my gut, just like he’d taught me. That I usually succeeded.”
“And you regret not believing in your father,” she said, reading his pained expression.
“Yes.”
She sighed, looking at her closet door. “My biggest regret is not wearing the dress my father bought me when I was nine. I was a tomboy, because that’s how I was raised. I knew Dad suspected that I wanted to be girly, at least at times. It meant a lot to me, but the only time I wore the dress, my brothers teased me and called me ‘baby doll.’ I put the dress away. Dad never even saw me wear it.”
Kade pulled her closer against him. “Regrets suck. But I don’t regret this.”
Chapter 13
Even in deep sleep, Kade heard his phone vibrate. Morning light spilled onto the bed, where he had made the most amazing love with a woman he was supposed to kill. He had no doubt that he’d made the right decision, but the consequences were going to be tricky as hell. Because keeping Violet alive was now the most important thing in his life.
Her dark hair spilled across her pillow, eyelashes fanning her cheeks as she slept. Her mouth curved in a slight smile, and her fingers twitched where they lay on the bed between them. He wanted to wake her and lose himself in her again. They had connected in a way he’d never done with anyone. And he had no idea what to do about it either.
He rolled out of bed and grabbed his pants, then went into the bathroom. When he came out a few minutes later, she was still asleep. He stepped outside and squinted in the bright sunshine. Chumley followed him and wandered out to the yard, though the dog kept an eye on Kade. Maybe he wasn’t used to seeing strange men at Violet’s house. Kade liked that idea way too much.
