Dragon in the Blood (Vale of Stars Book 2)

by Juliette Cross

  I groaned, mounding her breast then circling her nipple with my thumb. “No, what. I’m going to have to hear you say it.”

  “No.” Her gaze dropped to my lips. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “What do you want?”

  After I slid my hand out of her shirt, I unzipped her thermal suit lower and slid my hand under her panties and between her legs, finding her nice and wet. She let out a sweet moan.

  “Do you want this?” I stroked her till she whimpered.

  “Yes.”

  “Say it.”

  “I want this.” She rocked her hips.

  Sweeping my lips over hers, I gave her a swift glide of my tongue, then withdrew, still stroking my fingers slowly. “What else do you want, Valla?”

  She finally snapped her fiery gaze to mine. “I want you. I want you inside me. But, know this.” She squeezed my dick harder. I grunted and caught my breath. “I’m not a submissive little girl you can order around.”

  “I never thought you were,” I said, sliding one finger inside her.

  “Ah.” She let out a little cry. “I bet you’re dominant in bed.”

  “You got that fuckin’ right.”

  “What if I want to be dominant.”

  If possible, my dick got even harder. “Baby, you can ride me all night long if that’s what it takes for me to get inside you.” I tugged on her braid again. I licked a line down her throat then bit my way up to her ear. “But between us, I think you really want me on top.”

  She moaned when I bit her earlobe and sucked. I pulled my hand from her pants then lifted her by the waist and gripped her tight with one arm, shoving open the door to her room with the other. I had to drive inside her. Now. Before I burst into flames.

  A fire burned low in the hearth. I set her by the bed. We made short work of stripping our clothes and gear, both of us fumbling to get them off in a manic frenzy. Buckles, harnesses, thermals, panties, and underwear flying off and landing in a staggered heap.

  Bathed by golden firelight, her moon-pale skin was smooth and creamy, her pink nipples taut under my heavy gaze. She opened her wings, looking like the Morgon goddess she was.

  “Lay down.”

  She arched a brow at my rough command, but her own desire, strong and filling my nostrils, guided her to obey. Not out of submission but out of sheer desire for me.

  Expectant, she stretched onto the bed on her back. She waited. Kneeling over her, I lifted her leg and nipped a trail from the inside of her ankle up along the inside of her thigh till I found her sweet spot. She clenched the sheets with both hands and arched her back, driving me to suck harder.

  “Mmmm.”

  “Conn,” she whispered in the dark. Never had my name sounded so erotic.

  She spread her knees wider, her hips rocking gently. I slid two fingers inside her and moaned. So tight. So wet. She cried out, mounding her breasts with her own hands. She was climbing fast. Too fast.

  Lifting my mouth away, I continued to stroke slower with my fingers. She watched me, her electric blue gaze lighting up the shadows. Brazen as ever.

  “You know what you need, Valla?”

  “What?” she asked, panting.

  I slid a third finger inside her, readying her for me. She bit her lip on a whimper. Still stroking, I shifted my body alongside her. “You need a man who understands you.” I nipped her shoulder and swept a kiss lower. “Who accepts your strength as a warrior.” I opened my lips over her nipple and sucked. “And who can give you what you need as a woman.”

  “And are you that man?” she asked on a moan, her hips making small thrusts. She ached. Maybe even as bad as I did. But I doubted it.

  I pulled my hand away.

  Whipping open my wings, I lay on top of her. I pressed my weight down and spread her thighs wider with my knees, brushing my mouth over hers. “You know that I am, Valla.”

  She tried to rock up her hips, my cock heavy between her legs. I gripped her hip to keep her still and shook my head. “You know that I’m the only man who can really give you what you need.” I slid my lips over hers and hovered there, just feeling her lips against mine, her strong, slender body waiting for me. “You don’t need just any man. You need me. Isn’t that right, Valla?”

  She clutched one hand roughly in my hair and yanked my head back to look me in the eye. “Yes. Now would you shut up and fuck me, Rowanflame?”

  I smiled and sensed her body coiling tighter beneath me. An aphrodisiac like no other.

  “Hard or gentle for your first time?”

  “Hard.”

  “It may hurt.”

  “Shut up and do it, Conn.”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  I pushed inside her slowly. Her mouth fell open and her eyes closed tight when I hit her hymen. I opened my mouth on her neck and bit down as I thrust hard, tearing through till my hips were flush against hers.

  “Ah!” she cried.

  I stilled as her body stretched around me. The first man to ever be inside Valla Moonring. And I would be the fucking last. I pulled out and thrust in again. Hard. She whimpered—a needy, aching sound, though tinged with pain. That’s when I realized she liked a little pain with her pleasure.

  “Like this?” I pumped inside her, slow and steady, but making sure to pound her at the end of each thrust. She was getting all of me. Just as she’d asked for. My dragon would have it no other way. Valla would know who I was. Take it all or nothing.

  “Yes. God, yes,” she said, claws digging into my back. I was so fucking turned on.

  Molding my mouth to hers, I stroked my tongue inside, relishing the feel of her sweet body rocking beneath mine as I drove deeper and harder. A satisfying growl rumbled from deep inside me where my dragon lay as I finally took my mate, marking her in every way I could…except for soulfire.

  The burning had intensified, but then eased the moment I drove my cock inside her body. The only real relief came from coupling. Still, soulfire stung while I thrusted toward climax.

  Lifting up, I watched, marking every sensual line of her face. Pink flushed her neck and cheeks. She made the sweetest sounds I’d ever heard. She clung to me as she rolled her hips with little thrusts and I pounded hard and fast. “More, Valla,” I murmured. I gripped her nape, pulled her up to me, and slanted my mouth roughly over hers.

  She met my fierce kiss, slipping her tongue inside and tasting me with the same intensity. Valla was my match, my equal in every way. Now was the moment I knew what it meant to have a mate, to have a second half.

  My beast rose up. I pulled apart from her kiss and held her gaze. “I want you to come. Right now.” Dominance rode my vocal cords, the dragon wanting her surrender. Needing it. I couldn’t hold him back if I tried. Not anymore.

  Expecting defiance, I groaned with pleasure when she nodded.

  “I want to hear you, sweetheart.”

  And as if on command, her mouth fell open with a cry, “I’m coming…oh, fuck…I’m coming.” Her walls pulsed around my cock.

  So perfect. She was so fucking perfect.

  I stilled, letting her ride out the orgasm. When she opened her eyes, I saw nothing but sky-blue and dragon-slit pupils.

  “My turn,” she said, her own dominance pushing back, needing control. “Roll onto your back, Conn.”

  I’d deny her nothing. I pulled out of her, which felt like losing a limb, and spread my wings flat on the mattress as I lay on my back. Sweet Valla crawled on all fours on top of me, her braid loose and untidy, and straddled my hips, then planted her palms on my chest. I reached between us to guide my cock home, but she gripped my wrist and thrust it away.

  “I’ll do that,” she said, wrapping her delicate fingers around me. “Hands behind your head, Rowanflame.”

  If I hadn’t known she’d been a virgin moments before, I’d never have suspected it. Damn, she was aggressive in bed. And I loved every second of it.

  Leaning her weight forward, she guided me inside her, slowly sinking
down, her mouth parted in ecstasy. Then she rode me, bracing both hands on my chest, sliding in a delicious rhythm, not too fast, not too slow. I kept my hands behind my head as she’d told me to, thrusting up when she rode down. One hand skated over my abs, her eyes following the path, fingernails grazing my lower abdomen right above where our bodies joined.

  I’d imagined having sex with her a thousand times, and never in my wayward dreams did I picture this. Her strong, feminine body atop mine, hands touching me with need, eyes full of desire, riding me with wild passion as if she couldn’t get enough of me. There was no dream where I pictured this. And yet it was an image that would remain seared in my mind until the day I died.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful,” I said.

  She smiled and said, “So are you,” stealing what was left of my heart. She had all of it now. All of me. And she didn’t know it.

  I couldn’t take it anymore. Sitting up, I wrapped my arms around her and took one pretty pink nipple into my mouth.

  “Conn,” she said on a breathy sigh, picking up her pace as I licked and nipped with teeth and tongue. “You’re going to make me come again.”

  “Faster, Valla,” I commanded.

  My voice rolled rough and deep with my full dragon at the reins. I swept to her other nipple and nibbled with my teeth. She liked that. She came with a wild scream, her head snapping back, milking my cock till I could hold back no longer. I spilled inside of her, my wings whipping out, stretching wide with the best fucking orgasm I’d ever had.

  Gripping the nape of her neck, I molded my mouth to hers, kissing her deep and slowly, swallowing her little moans as our bodies still pulsed with pleasure. When we’d finally both come down, I pulled apart, panting. So was she. I gripped her hips and gently lifted, not missing the wince as she slid off me. She rolled onto her side.

  “Stay there,” I said, walking over to the wash basin where the innkeeper had left a bowl of clean water and cloths. “I wish there was plumbing in Aria. A hot shower would feel good right now.”

  I dipped a cloth in the basin and wrung it out, trying to warm it between my hands as I walked back to join her in bed. She watched me in silence, a tilted smile quirking up her lips. I tried not to swagger, knowing I’d put that dopey smile on her face.

  “Sorry,” I said as I lay down facing her. “I wish it was warmer.”

  Placing the cloth between her legs, she bit her lip and closed her eyes. “It’s okay. I’ve got it,” she said, taking the cloth.

  “Hurts?”

  She nodded, cleaning where I knew there was blood, for I’d seen some on myself. Guilt pricked at my conscience. Had I been too rough?

  “Stop scowling,” she said with a little laugh. “I don’t regret a thing.”

  “Sure as hell hope not.”

  That would kill me. But now that the intensity of the moment was over and I could see through the blinding I’ve-gotta-fuck-her-now frenzy that was driving me before, I wondered what this meant for her. She’d made it perfectly clear on more than one occasion she didn’t need a man in her life to stifle her independence.

  She finished cleaning and set the cloth aside, still silent. Too silent. Soulfire swirled anew, a dim boil to what it would be once it built up again, but still stinging my insides with the reminder that she still wasn’t mine.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She avoided meeting my gaze and remained quiet.

  “Valla?”

  “It’s not that I regret this. But I’m not sure this is right, if we should—”

  “Wait. Was this a one night stand for you?”

  My pulse pounded as I waited for her slow reply. And how did she respond? A one-shoulder shrug.

  “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me, Valla. After that?”

  “I didn’t say that it was or that I wanted anyone else. It’s just that—”

  “That what?” Fury laced my words now. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.

  She stood to pull her panties on. Yep. She was covering up, closing me off, as fast as she possibly could.

  I stood next to her, arms crossed, still naked. “I’m waiting for an answer.”

  She clasped her bra behind her back and sighed, finally facing me. “It’s just that I never said I wanted one someone else. You seem to want more from me than I’m willing to give.”

  “What’s wrong with a relationship?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with relationships…for Kol and Moira…or Paxon and Ella.”

  “Just not Conn and Valla,” I added with bitterness.

  “I’m not built that way,” she said, almost pleading as she slipped her shirt on, reaching behind her back to zip up the backflaps. I sure as fuck wasn’t helping her this time.

  “What way would that be? With feelings?”

  An angry flush filled her cheeks, her mouth falling open in surprise. Yeah, I could be an asshole when I wanted to be.

  “Look, Rowanflame,” she said, her wings snapping tight against her back. “I don’t want a boyfriend. I don’t want a lover. I don’t want some behemoth, alpha fuckwad crowding my space and ruining my life. I like my life just the way it is.”

  She crossed her arms, mirroring my stance. I stared a moment longer before snorting in disgust. I pulled on my underwear and pants and gripped my shirt and thermal suit in a tight fist before glaring back at her.

  But when I spoke, the dragon had been leashed and my heart had been broken. “I suppose that’s where we differ, Valla. I liked my life just fine, too. Then I met you…here in Aria. Really met you, and I discovered the woman behind the warrior. Then I sort of loved my life with you in it.”

  I stormed toward the door, picking up my boots on the way, stopping for one second but not looking back. “Don’t worry. I won’t accost you again. You can lay your fears to rest on that score.” I left and slammed the door behind me. I took two steps toward my own room before I saw the tall, dark shadow of Kol leaning against the doorframe. Waiting for me.

  Fuck.

  Not now. I knew this would happen eventually, but now there seemed to be no reason to battle it out with the protective older brother. I’d keep my promise to her, even if I died a slow painful death with the acidic burning of soulfire unquenched in my breast.

  I stopped right in front of him, knowing I smelled strongly of sex…with his sister. “Come on, Moonring. If you want to punch me, get it over with.”

  Arms folded across his thick chest, icy stare unwavering, he shoved off the doorframe to his full height. There were few Morgons as tall as Kol and his twin brother, Kieren. But he didn’t intimidate me. I could hold my own, even with the likes of the Captain of the Morgon Guard. Especially in the mood I was in right now. Honestly, I had no fight in me. It might even feel good to get the shit kicked out of me right now.

  “Looks like you’ve already been punched,” he finally said.

  I snorted a laugh. “You could say that. No need to give me the shove out the family door. Valla already took care of that.”

  I pushed past him, opened the door to my room, chucked my shit on the floor, and blew a flame into the hearth to heat up the dying coals. He remained in the doorway.

  “She’s stubborn, my sister.”

  “That she is.”

  “She doesn’t think like most women.”

  “I know.”

  “Comes from being raised by only men, I’m afraid.”

  Sensing actual regret in his voice, I turned from the hearth. “What is it you’re trying to tell me?” I asked, exasperated and wanting him to leave so I could wallow in self-pity by myself.

  He clenched his jaw. News flash. I didn’t give a fuck. The only woman I’d ever cared about, the one my beast yearned to heartbond to, the one I longed to cherish as my own till we took our last breaths together in old age, had just dismissed me like I was nothing. Even worse. An inconvenience.

  Kol shifted awkwardly from one foot
to the other. “Only that her stance against men may have been a little my fault.”

  Stunned, I waited since he seemed to be trying to work up to something.

  “I raised her to be strong and independent, to prepare her for a male-dominated world and for a dangerous life in the Morgon Guard.”

  “Yes. I know all this. What of it?”

  “I also raised her to hold onto that independence. And to never let it go.”

  I shook my head in disgust, turning away from him, and braced my hands on the mantel above the fire. “Job well done, big brother. You succeeded.”

  A pause stretched, and I was sure he’d gone, but I hadn’t heard the door click closed.

  “But you’re her mate,” he protested, as if that made a difference.

  I stiffened. Yes. He knew. The humiliation that my own mate had rejected me and I’d have to live out a solitary life with others knowing this fact galled me to the core. I wanted to scream and yell and fly to the stars till the cosmic cold burned me back down.

  “Yes,” I grated out. “But that doesn’t matter much now, does it?”

  “Have you told her?”

  I scoffed and rounded on him. “Are you fucking insane? She doesn’t want me. Not even as a lo—”

  “Don’t.” He raised a hand in the air. “I don’t want to hear it even if I know what you just did to my baby sister.”

  If he only knew.

  “There’s no way in hell I’m telling her, only to receive more scorn and rejection,” I replied, clenching my fists. That old feeling of being “lesser” crawled out of the pit of my stomach. My pride reared up and put a stop to it. “Congratulations, Moonring. You did your job well. Your sister is beautiful and strong and perfectly untouchable. Just like everyone told me she was.”

  He leaned toward the shadow of the corridor as if to leave, then said, “Give her time. She’ll realize she’s wrong.” He shook his head. “But if she doesn’t, then you need to prove her wrong.”

  “And how would you suggest I do that?” I asked, aggravated and angry.

  His brows rose and in a calm voice, he said, “Now, that would be up to you, my friend. You know her better than anyone else.”