“Aisling’s going for blood,” Jim said, snickering. “I can’t wait to see what Uncle Damian makes of Fiat. You think I could place a bet on who’s left after the dust settles?”
Stephano’s smile faded completely. I leaned into Drake and breathed in his dragon essence, allowing it to seep deep within me, content in his arms.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. Everything is going to be all right. You’ll see—Uncle Damian can be a badass when he wants.”
C
old air suddenly swirled around me, causing my bare nipples to harden painfully. Startled, I jumped, and was grabbing for the towel when a familiar voice said, “There you are. I wondered where you were hiding.”
I let the towel drop and smiled as Drake stood in the doorway of the sauna, quickly removing his clothing. “You’re letting out all the steam,” I pointed out.
The look he gave me could have melted asbestos. “I assure you that you’ll have as much steam as you can stand. If you don’t mind me joining you, that is?”
“That ‘Occupied’ sign on the door to the sauna doesn’t apply to you. Although…how did you know Paula and Dad weren’t the ones in here?”
He laid the last of his clothing on the bench outside of the sauna, closing the door behind him. His emerald-eyed gaze took its time moving along my body, making me shiver a little with its intensity.
“They just went to bed. Paula said you were going to take a late night swim,” he answered, dumping a ladleful of water on the hot coals. Steam boiled up around him, obscuring the sight of his body for a moment.
“Yeah, well, there’s nothing like a relaxing steam after a nice dip.” I lay back on the bench, my breath catching in my throat at the sight of his sleek muscles moving as he picked up the towel that had fallen on the floor. “So, I was thinking about you.”
“Good things, I hope?” he asked, his eyes glittering brightly as he watched me.
I stretched a little in order to arch my back in a shameless display. “I was thinking about how you shift for a second into dragon form when you have an orgasm. It got me musing over what it must be like to be an animal in human form.”
Drake had started for me, but at my words paused and cocked an expressive eyebrow. “I am most decidedly
not
an animal,
kincsem
.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I know you’re a man. But sometimes I have a hard time remembering that there are other emotions that you must be feeling than those experienced by the average joe.”
His other eyebrow rose. “I am not a man, either. I am a dragon. I have simply adopted this form as one which is both comfortable and practical.”
“You’re certainly not getting any complaints from me about it. But I wondered…” I allowed my gaze to wander over his impressive expanse of flesh. “Perhaps if you got in touch with your inner dragon, you might be able to shift at other times?”
“It is common for dragons who stay in one form for a long period of time to lose their ability to shift into their traditional form,” he said quietly. “You seem to be under the impression that we are at our most dragon when we are in the latter form—which is not true. We are dragons no matter what our appearance.”
“I’m not disputing that at all. I wonder, though, just
how
dragon are you?”
He was on me in a heartbeat, his body warmed and slickened by the steam. “You question my dragonhood?”
“I want to know if there are deep, primal instincts driving you that I have yet to see,” I answered, gasping when he took the tip of my breast in his mouth, bathing it in fire.
“I assure you that I have many primal needs,” he answered. “Needs which only you can fulfill.”
“Good. I thought we’d explore your dragon side tonight. Just to see if it has any effect on the whole shifting thing,” I said, squirming underneath him.
“I am more than happy for you to explore any side of me you like,” he answered, nuzzling my other breast.
I allowed my hands to play along his sides, sweeping down to dig my fingers into the heavy muscles of his behind. “You want me, don’t you?”
“Do you need to ask?” He wiggled just a little. He was quite obviously aroused, his body slick against mine.
“Not really. “I nibbled his neck, then bit him on the shoulder. “I want you, too, in case you didn’t notice.”
His hand, which had been busily stroking a path up my thigh to parts northern, paused. “I noticed,” he said, plunging a finger inside me.
I damn near came off the bench at that. “Let’s try a little experiment…oh, god, yes. Do that again!”
His fingers flexed. My eyes crossed, but through the haze of steam that filled the sauna, I could see a quizzical look on his handsome face. “What did you have in mind?”
It took some effort to remove myself from the paradise of his hands and mouth and body, but I wiggled out from under him and snatched up a towel, saying as I did so, “Dragons like to hunt things, don’t they?”
“That depends what the prey is,” he answered, blowing a ring of fire at me.
The towel, not one that had been specially treated to inhibit fire, burst into flames. I dropped it and picked up another one.
“How about me?”
He stood up slowly, his eyes lit with a strange look. “Run,” he said.
“What?”
“You wish to see the predator in me, do you not? Very well. Run.”
My mouth opened to tell him that there was no way in Abaddon I could outrun him, but at a low growl deep in his chest, I turned on my heel and ran.
My heart was beating wildly, adrenaline spiking through me as I ran across the room, hesitating for a moment as I tried to decide where to go. Drake emerged from the sauna, his head lowered slightly, an intense look on his face as he stalked toward me.
“Do you know what it is to hunt,
kincsem
? It is a feral drive, one of the most primal urges in dragons, the need to find and possess. It heightens my senses until I can hear your heart pounding, hear the rasp of every breath you take. Your scent lies heavy in the air, sinking deep into my blood, teasing me, tormenting me until all I can think of is possessing you.”
I gasped and backed away, too caught up in the moment to think straight.
“Do you really wish to unleash the beast within me?” he asked, continuing to prowl toward me, the muscles of his body moving in a beautiful ballet of power and grace. “Do you think you can handle the feral side of a dragon,
kincsem
?”
Cold stone touched my back, stopping me from escaping. I knew just how a mouse felt when it was dropped into a snake’s cage. I tried to answer, but all that came out was an unintelligible squeak. I was caught between intense arousal and a base need to escape, unsure of which emotion to act upon. My body and heart told me Drake would never harm me, but the primitive part of my brain was demanding I get away from the big, scary beast that wanted to eat me.
He was a hairsbreadth away from me now, the look in his eyes a mixture of passion and something I didn’t recognize, something so frightening it sent my brain into a screaming fit. “Do you really wish to face my true being?”
I was poised to run, the flight instinct in me swamping other emotions, but just as I was about to flee, Drake lifted his hand. Instead of the expected fingers, a curved blue claw touched the mark he’d branded into my flesh.
“Oh, dear god, yes!” I cried, flinging myself on him, wrapping my legs around his hips as his hands…claws…whatever they were dug into my butt and hoisted me high. I kissed him with every ounce of love I had, offering myself as a sacrifice to tame the wild dragon, my mouth welcoming the intrusion of his tongue even as he thrust hard into my body.
Our lovemaking was fast as he claimed and I surrendered. Flames licked along my skin as he pressed me into the wall, his body moving in a rhythm that sent me soaring. I bit his neck, sobbing incoherently into his shoulder, my hands mimicking his claws as I raked them along his back. There was no gentleness between us, no soft, teasing touches—this was mating, pure and simple. I had unleashed Drake’s tightly held primal emotions, triggering his need to dominate.
But I was a wyvern’s mate. I answered every hard thrust with little movements of my own, somewhat hindered by our unorthodox position, but using my hands and mouth to show him he wasn’t the only one who could go wild. As a familiar tension built inside me, I clutched his butt and urged him on faster, crying out his name when I was swept over the edge.
A fireball exploded around us as Drake’s shout of exultation changed to an animal roar of triumph. The throat I had pressed my face against changed, elongated, the hot, sweaty skin morphing for a fraction of a second into greenish yellow scales.
I collapsed against him, my heart and soul singing, my brain completely unable to cope with anything else at that moment but the depth of my feelings for the man who had so completely filled my life.
Consciousness returned with a warm, enveloping air that caressed my bare flesh. I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the bench in the sauna, and Drake splashing water on the rocks. He looked down at where I lay, a smug little smile curling the edges of his mouth.
“You’re just lucky I’m a wyvern’s mate,” I told his smile, holding out my arms for him. “If I’d still been mortal, I doubt I could have survived that. When can we do it again?”
He sank down upon me with a hot look, and even hotter kisses.
When I toddled down the stairs to the front hallway the next morning, no one was around except Jim, lying on the floor in a pool of sunlight reading a newspaper featuring bare-breasted women.
“There you are. I wondered if you were going to get up anytime before noon,” Jim said, flipping a page.
“I’ve been up for a couple of hours, Mr. Smarty Demon, trying to find a hotel with a decent-sized room we can use for a reception. Man, I have a headache. Where is everyone? Is Uncle Damian here yet? And Rene? Have you seen Drake? Did Paula go out shopping, or is she going to come with us to find a new dress?”
“For a prince of Abaddon, you sure don’t seem to know much,” Jim answered, not bothering to look up from the newspaper. “Hoo baby! Look at those hooters! You gotta love the English newspapers!”
“Answer my question, oh ye of the smart-aleck mouth.”
Jim heaved a profound sigh. “Depends on who you mean. Yes. No. Yes, but he left. No, she and the absentminded professor went for their morning walk, and finally, yes. Anything more you’d like to know? The square root of fifteen million? Why the sky is blue? How many demons can dance on the head of a pin?”
“Left?” I asked, focusing on the most important tidbit of information. “Drake left? Where did he go? We only have a couple of hours before the wedding.”
“Dunno. He just said Uncle Damian and Rene were going to be your guards this morning, and took off with Pál and István.”
Uncle Damian loomed up in the doorway, fixing me with a gimlet eye. “There you are.”
“Good morning. Do you happen to know where Drake has gone off to?”
“He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. Come in here. I want to talk to you.” He did an about-face back into the living room.
“Uh-oh. Someone’s in trouble,” Jim said, standing up and stretching.
“Hardly that,” I said, although I had to admit my uncle’s forebidding frown was not something I took lightly.
“I’m going to see if Suzanne needs any help with breakfast,” Jim said, strolling toward the back regions of the house where the kitchen was.
“Just remember that she works for Drake and me, not you. If you try to bribe her into hiding the fact that you filched an additional breakfast, she’ll tell me!”
“Who is Suzanne?” Uncle Damian asked as I closed the door behind me.
“A green dragon who is our cook and general dogsbody, no reference to Jim intended. She’s István’s girlfriend. You probably saw her last night.”
“Ah. Short girl. Dark hair.” He nodded.
“That’s her. She’s a doll; I don’t know what we’d do without her. Is this going to take long? I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time,” I said, glancing with fondness at a small table in the corner of the room. Drake and I had enjoyed many steamy moments by means of that particular piece of furniture. Just thinking about some of the times had my pulse pounding. “I’ve had a horrible time trying to find a room for the reception, and there’s still the shopping to be done. Are you sure Drake didn’t say where he was going?”
“Yes.”
“Dammit. I suppose I could call him—” I had started reaching for the phone when Uncle Damian stopped me with a few words.
“He says you’re pregnant.”
I sighed and sat down on the arm of the couch, clicking off the phone. “
Possibly
pregnant. We’re not sure, although I do have an ultrasound scheduled for this afternoon. I’m sorry if you’re shocked that it’s possible I’m pregnant before we got married, but—”
Scorn curled his lip. “Do you seriously believe I care about that?”
“Well…I know Paula will be full of lectures for weeks when she finds out.”
“I am not your stepmother. But I
am
evidently now your bodyguard. What’s this business of you going over to another group of dragons?”
“Drake told you about that, huh? It would take hours to explain it, so I’ll just give you the quick and dirty version—two other wyverns pulled a nasty on us last month, with the end result that I am temporarily considered the blue wyvern’s mate. And since we’re already at war with one sept, I’d like to avoid any similar confrontation with the blue dragons, hence the need for me to have a bodyguard when I attend their meeting tomorrow. If you’re not up to the job—”
Uncle Damian made an impatient noise. “As if a little job like protecting you from some dragons is going to challenge me. I just want to know the lay of the land so I can make some plans.”
I gave him the name of the hotel and added that I would bring in a couple of other people to help. “I’ll have Jim and Rene, and possibly my demon steward, and in a pinch, Dad.”
“I doubt he would be of much use,” Uncle Damian replied, not quite rolling his eyes, but I could tell he wanted to.
“There’s more to him than you see,” I answered, reaching for the phone again.