Breath of Memory (2 page)

“The hell it’s over. She’ll accept you.”

“But will you?”

Chapter 3

C
orey met Jill’s pleading gaze and felt his heart breaking all over again. He’d let her go finally a year earlier. Moved on, but now here she was, begging for his acceptance. For the life of him, he couldn’t bring himself to give it to her yet, even though he wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and tell her it would all be okay.

“You can’t even answer me, can you?” Jill asked.

“There’s got to be an alternative,” he said. There was always an alternative where dragons were concerned. “Trust me, I’ll find it.”

He was walking to the door when she called out. “Corey, I meant it when I said I still love you. I’m not trying to get between the two of you, but you need to know.”

He suppressed an urge to turn and look back at her again.

“I still love you, too. That’s the problem,” he said to the door, then opened it and walked out.

~~~

He went back to his own office to clean up and get ready to leave for the day. The sunset was reflecting off the sides of the buildings outside his window, casting the space in an orange glow. He stood gazing out at the waning light, trying to get his thoughts in order. He didn’t turn when he heard his door open and close behind him.

Racha’s lovely, delicate scent washed around him before her hand rested on his arm. He could just make out her reflection in the glass and caught her concerned expression. He closed his eyes and inhaled. After just a moment in her presence, his body relaxed and his thoughts seemed to clear.

“Do you do that on purpose?” he asked. “Breathe when you think I’m stressed.”

“I don’t like seeing you distressed. Why didn’t you tell me you had a history with her?”

“Because it was just that… history.”

“She is my inheritance. At least part of it. The most valuable part of it. But if she distresses you, I will reject her.”

“But she’ll die if you don’t accept her. Is there something else we can do?”

Racha’s hand slipped into his, cool and soft and so delicate. He closed his fingers tightly around hers, knowing she could handle it. His insides were a tangle of emotional knots over seeing Jill, tasting her, enjoying giving her pleasure again, then learning how dire her circumstances were. He’d have behaved differently in the elevator had he known.

“Corey, you know our bond lets me feel some of what you feel. Are you sure you want to give her up?”

“I can’t be around her when I’m bound to you. It’s torture. Knowing she was with your father instead of me.”

“Very well. The Second Shadow lives in Kol’s region. He’s been resistant to finding a mate. I spoke to Kol a few weeks ago and he suggested this dragon might need a temporary change of locale, too.”

He felt dirty, bargaining for Jill’s life like this, for her ownership, essentially. If he were man enough he’d have forgiven her, accepted her. But at what cost? Would he be compromising his relationship with Racha for this old lover who had left him?

It was better this way. Jill would live, and she’d already exhibited a penchant for dragons, so perhaps this Shadow would make her as happy as Racha’s father had.

“I want to meet him first before we decide.”

She squeezed his hand. “I’ll make the call tonight, but you’ll have to handle the rest as my proxy. I have to meet with my brother and the Council in two days. I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Right. After Jill’s appearance he’d nearly forgotten about dragon politics. The Queen had to appear in person to petition the Council to assemble the Verdanith that would refocus the Council’s magic and improve the race’s fertility.

“I’ll take care of it. Let’s go home.”

~~~

Making love to Racha always felt like a walk through summer rain. She quenched his heat with steady, unrelenting attention until he succumbed and let her inundate him entirely with her touch. While he was amorous and urgent during the day in her office, she repaid him with gentle and thorough attention at night in their bed. They were languid and unhurried. When they climaxed, the glow of power spreading between them nearly blinded him and washed their bedroom in pulsing light for several moments until it subsided. Only the faint pulsing green of his mark was still visible.

She didn’t say it, but he knew she thought it.
Maybe this time.
They both knew better. Until the Verdanith was assembled, they wouldn’t conceive. Jill’s situation was a much more immediate concern. While Racha was gone dealing with politics, he’d be here preparing to send his old lover into the arms of another dragon.

“You’re thinking about Jill, aren’t you?”

“You’re smarter than you are pretty, which makes you a fucking off-the-charts genius.”

Her tousled black head rose up into his line of vision, silhouetted in the glow of moonlight that came through the window of their penthouse apartment. The side of her face caught the moonlight and seemed to shimmer slightly, the faint outlines of her usually invisible scales catching the light.

“Please be sure about this, Corey. The transfer of the bond is a tricky one. I won’t be able to complete it since I’ll be away, so you’ll have to do it for me. Your mark gives you the authority and the power to do it. But if you’re not completely committed to the transaction it could backfire.”

“Shhh. I’m committed.”

She looked skeptical. “You haven’t even asked what you have to do to complete it.”

“Some dragon ritual, I guess…” He started to shrug when it hit him what the last dragon ritual he’d encountered had involved. He took a deep breath. “Alright, let me guess… Dragon number two… Second Shadow or whatever he is… has to fuck me in the ass to take possession of Jill.”

Racha snickered softly and slid atop him, laying prone on his chest with her chin resting on her hands. “No. Well, not unless you want him to. But the three of you do have to make love together.”

His traitorous cock twitched at that comment and she raised an eyebrow. “You felt that?” he asked uncertainly.

“Maybe.” She shifted her hips until her thigh brushed against his cock. The soft warmth of her skin aroused him enough that there could be no mistaking how much he wanted her again. She shifted again, pressed her hands into his chest and rose up. The tip of his cock was still pressed just in the right place and she sighed when the hard length of him pushed into her with just a little rise of his hips. Her eyelids fluttered in that way they did when she was enjoying herself. He sat up and embraced her, lowering his mouth to her breast and teasing his tongue and lips around one nipple until it perked up in response.

She continued talking in between the fucking. “If you enjoy it, all the better, but you will have to relinquish control to the other dragon after you find your Nirvana. When he releases his magic into her, she’ll be primed for his mark. After he marks her, my father’s mark will disappear, and the exchange is complete.”

“And if you were here, you’d complete this exchange…with the other dragon.” It was a struggle for him to maintain the thread of their conversation amid the tight clenching pull of her muscles around his cock, but he managed.

“It would be business.” Her words came out in a purr. “Nothing like this.”

“Am I enough for you?” he asked. He trailed his fingertips down the length of her spine, marveling at her texture. The velveteen feel of her scales was always present, even if he couldn’t see them. She relaxed and released her magic for a second, letting her skin go all dragon. Even the tight sheathe of her core seemed to tighten and change texture, though not in an unpleasant way. He fucked her harder, enjoying the friction. She’d expressed a need to be scratched in that form, and he’d done it many times. She’d have crushed him if she changed completely, but still seemed to get the same pleasure out of having his hands on her true skin, even if the rest of her was still human-shaped.

He raked his short fingernails down her back and back up, and continued along every inch of skin he could reach until she vibrated with satisfaction. Her skin went back to its pale human sheen and he gripped her hips, urging her up and down on his shaft.

“As long as you do that, yes.” She grinned at him, but her smile faded quickly and she paused in her motions. She wrapped herself around him, arms and legs both embracing his torso while her head rested on his shoulder. “It’s just that she was Father’s. I believed when I was young that I’d never want anything from him. That I’d reject it the way he always seemed to keep rejecting my mother. But here I am, taking his place. And he’s left me one of the most amazing treasures, but I have to give her away.”

“She made the choice. She can’t stand to be around me, anyway.” And he couldn’t stand to not have this. Racha’s lovemaking had become a drug to him. He feared losing it. Losing her love. And would do anything in his power to preserve what they had.

“Am I enough for you, my love?” she asked.

“More than enough.”

“I can tell you still love her, yet you’re insisting on this. Why?”

He let his hands pause in their caresses. He rested them at her waist and lay back again, pressing his head back into the pillow. He’d asked himself the same question all day, and there was only one answer.

“I can’t love you both. And I can’t lose you.”

“You admit that you love her,” Racha whispered.

“I want you. Every fucking moment.”

Racha’s face pinched as though she were irritated by his response. “And I want you, but giving her away isn’t easy for me, either. I could feel your draw to her today—the pull was strong enough that it only took a nudge from me for you to have your way with her in the elevator.” She rose up along the length of his cock and sank back down. The sensation left him giddy. She did it again until he held her still, his fingertips sinking into the flesh of her thighs.

“That’s why I have to let her go. I can handle the transfer. Then it’ll just be you and me. The way it needs to be.” He cupped her face between both his hands and looked her in the eye. “We were meant to be together, you and I. She let me go, so I’m letting her go.”

“Very well. I just hope you’re not doing this to punish her for hurting you.”

“I’m doing this to save her life. That’s all.”

~~~

The small cafe Corey arranged the meeting at was virtually empty during a midday lull. Patrons were beginning to trickle in slowly. Jill had hesitantly accepted the invitation after his insistence that he had an alternative that would keep her alive. Corey hadn’t told her she’d be meeting that alternative today, however. And with luck and some clever persuasion, she’d be out of the woods by the end of the night.

The dragon arrived first, as Corey had arranged, and there was no mistaking him. Large and dark-haired, he was clean-cut like a man who cared about appearances. Corey didn’t so much, given his mood, but he’d made sure to shave that morning. Like Racha had said, this was a business transaction, so a professional attitude seemed appropriate. It was a struggle for him to think of it that way, but if he tried hard enough maybe he’d be able to convince himself.

He took the dragon in with one quick glance. His size and obvious power might have been intimidating if it weren’t for the broody look on the man’s face. Something Corey could identify with. Their eyes met and the dragon nodded solemnly. He stepped across the threshold and walked toward Corey.

The clang of something metal being dropped on a hard floor resounded around him when Corey stood to shake hands with the man. He shot a glance at the embarrassed barista behind the counter. The pretty young woman blushed brightly after looking at the two of them and turned away.

The dragon chuckled. “It happens when we go out in public sometimes. Animals flee… humans get more clumsy. Mass hysteria. I’m Rafe. And you must be the Queen’s Consort, Corey.”

They sat and the flustered barista brought over the cappuccinos Corey had ordered earlier. She’d regained her composure but couldn’t keep her eyes off Rafe. The dragon barely seemed to notice.

“Kol tells me you have a dire situation and need my help.”

Corey was happy to get straight to it. “Racha’s father mated a woman before he died, he kept her alive with… ah…”

Rafe nodded. “With the last vestiges of his power at the end. That is how we generally go, given the choice. We infuse some object, or even a person, with our remaining life essence, generally as a gift for our offspring when they come out of hibernation. I take it the Queen won’t accept the inheritance?”

“She will. But I won’t.”

Rafe’s dark brows drew together. He took a sip of his coffee and studied Corey. “Two women—one a dragon queen. Most men would be over the edge with eagerness. Why aren’t you?”

Corey had hoped to not have to get into the details, so he hedged. “I believe the Queen deserves my undivided attention.”

Rafe raised an eyebrow. “Either this woman is too awful or too perfect. If she was mated to Aris, I doubt it’s the former. I’d be honored to take her, but I don’t believe you really want to give her away.”

Corey was about to object when the subject of their conversation walked in. Jill paused in the doorway. When Corey saw her, the room seemed to close in on him. Her golden waves draped over bare shoulders in the summer dress she wore. She’d been out in the sun today for a bit. He could tell from the flush of heat on her cheeks that caused the smattering of freckles across her nose to stand out.

Rafe turned to look at her, too, and turned back with a hard look. “You are a fool if you’re giving her up.”

“It has to happen.” He stood to greet Jill. She came forward and accepted his embrace and the kiss on her cheek. She seemed to linger in his arms for a second before pulling away. She looked at Rafe, who had stood and was looking expectant.

“Jill, this is Rafe.”

“You’re the dragon who’s going to save my life, aren’t you? Because this asshole can’t find the guts to do it himself.”

Rafe grinned and looked at Corey. “See. She’s attuned to the situation as well as I am.”

“It’s not open for discussion,” Corey said, sitting down again. “Are you both amenable?” he asked when they were all seated and Jill had made her order from the perplexed barista who’d decided to attend to them personally.