Breath of Memory (4 page)

“Oh, fuck, I’ve gotta be inside you.” Corey wasn’t sure which of the women he was directing the plea to. He’d happily have had them both in that moment. Racha’s cries from the screen became more intense and primal. Corey urged Jill to turn around again so she could witness the moment when Racha flew to pieces.

Chapter 5

“
Watch with me, baby,” Corey’s rough voice spoke in Jill’s ear. The caress of his breath sent a pleasant tingle down her neck. He urged her to turn, then pulled her back against him as he sat on the foot of the bed.

Her entire body was awash in sensation. She’d craved getting him naked since first seeing him again. Now she had him and it was glorious. His mouth pressed against her throat, the sound of his voice murmuring incoherent words of lustful appreciation. His hips shifted against her ass, pushing the hot, hard length of his cock against her back.

Before Jill could reposition herself to fuck him, Rafe knelt in front of her. He was large, naked and still amazingly calm. The only signal that he was enjoying himself was the presence of his proud, thick shaft jutting at her from between his thighs. He gripped her hips and lifted her like she weighed nothing. He set her back down slowly. Corey’s cock was unmistakably pressed against her center, and he thrust home hard enough to make her cry out. Her voice was a harsh echo to the sounds of Racha emanating around them. She leaned back against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder, struggling to catch her breath amid the pleasure.

Rafe slid his large hands up her legs, urging her to drape them over his shoulders. His thick, forked dragon tongue lashed out, tasting her drenched core and tickling between her folds. He leaned closer, pressing soft, hungry lips to her, swirling his tongue in a frenzied pattern while Corey thrust into her. Corey gripped her chin and turned her head to kiss her, his own tongue attending her mouth as thoroughly as Rafe’s attended her pussy.

She twined the fingers of each hand into the hair of two different men, nearly lost, floating against the tenuous tethers both men had on her pleasure. Except she was more aware now than ever of the words Corey kept repeating.

“Oh, God help me I love you so much. So much.” Sometimes he spoke the words louder, sometimes they were a mere whisper in her ear. In the middle of her haze of pleasure she realized he was directing the words at the screen when he raised his voice.

She opened her eyes and was greeted with the image of a shimmering green goddess entangled with two men. She only barely recognized the half-shifted form of a dragon in the throes of lust. The only time she’d seen one had been her old lover, and the sight before her was every bit as beautiful, though different.

Racha had shifted positions again. The image of the trio on the screen mirrored Jill’s and the two men with her. Her eyes locked with the Queen’s. Racha shuddered and a shimmer of light coursed over her skin.

At the same instant, Corey’s cock surged hard and hot inside Jill. Rafe’s mouth disappeared from between her thighs, but she was too enthralled with what she was witnessing on-screen to be upset. She was only grateful when Corey’s fingers pressed between her thighs, picking up where Rafe left off. The familiarity of his touch and the sound of his voice in her ear sent her to the brink.

With one more whispered “I love you, Jill,” she hurtled beyond. She rode him harder, ignoring the painful grip his fingers had on her hips, too hyperaware of the pulse of his cock shooting hot seed into her. She yelled his name and heard it in another voice coming from all around her, resonating with an odd power. The sound subsided, leaving her confused. She had only a moment to wonder what had happened.

Corey turned them both and pulled out of her only briefly, leaving her with a dull, throbbing ache between her thighs. She needed more. He pushed her down against the mattress and slid into her again, the stroke slow and deliberate this time, his eyes locked with hers and filled with the same overdue rejoicing she felt welling up inside her. His entire body was covered with a sheen of sweat. As he fucked her, he gradually became wild and more intense than she’d ever seen him. He pulled her legs up against his shoulders and fucked her as though their lives depended on it.

A tiny voice inside her—her last vestige of rational thought—said,
your life does depend on it.

They came together a second time and he collapsed to the side, holding her tightly with his chest pressed against her back. She reveled in the familiar feel of him. His whispered words sent her back to their last day together before she’d met Aris, to the way Corey had whispered them for the first time after making love that long-ago morning. It had been the perfect beginning to what ended up being the most bittersweet day of her life. Now that he was hers again, if only for a few moments, she intended to enjoy it. She had no idea where Rafe had gone, and didn’t care. The screen on the wall had grown silent and still, but neither of them looked at it.

Corey remained pressed against her from behind. His embrace loosened after a moment and his hands slid down over her body. He traced her curves, the hard and soft of bone and muscle, her slick center, wet with their combined remnants of lust. She twisted around until she faced him. She admired his naked body with open appreciation, so familiar and so long missed. She remembered every tattoo, every scar, and found new ones whose stories she wished to know, but after tonight they’d be done for good. She had no idea how much time they had before Rafe returned to complete the exchange, or whatever he had planned, but she intended to take advantage of every second she could.

She slipped her knee across his waist, kneeling astride him. He placed his hands on her thighs and she gripped them, twining her fingers through his and pushing both his hands above his head.

“No touching. I just want to feel you fucking me one last time, please.”

He relented, relaxing and letting her make love to him. She began with slow, steady strokes, intent on feeling every thick inch of him rubbing against her slick, tight sheath. Only a few strokes and she was riding him in a frenzied rhythm, chasing the delicious sensation of the peak she remembered reaching with him that morning so long ago. He groaned and his back arched. He thrust back, pistoning into her hard and at just the right angle to bring tears of pleasure to her eyes. The hot rush of his orgasm shot into her and her entire body tingled from head to toe.

“Oh, God yes,” she moaned. “I love you,” she managed to gasp through the hitching breath of her climax. The finality of it gripped her suddenly and her chest constricted. Her voice cracked and her words mixed with sobs of sadness and grief. “I don’t want to lose you again, Corey. Please don’t make me leave.”

“Shh. He sat up and wrapped his arms around her. “I think it’s too late to change our minds,” he said.

“On the contrary,” Rafe’s deep, accented voice came from the doorway. He was dressed again, though when he’d done that, Jill couldn’t be sure. “You’ve taken possession of the lovely Jill so thoroughly, it’s way too late for me to get involved. She’s yours now, brother.”

Corey’s hard erection was still deep inside Jill, and seemed to show no sign of subsiding. The glowing pulse of the dragon mark on his chest cast his face into an eerie, green glow. Jill gradually began to notice an odd stinging sensation on the back of her neck. They both turned their heads to look at Rafe, uncomprehending.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Corey asked. “Racha told me this was how it works. I make love to her first, then give her to you to seal the deal.”

“True enough. That would have worked, if that had been what you did. You should understand dragon magic by now. Your
intent
is half of the power. If you had truly intended to give her up, I’d have taken her after your first Nirvana. I’d have given her my Nirvana, infused her with my energy, then taken over Aris’s mark by giving her my own. Except it seems the Queen left you with more than enough power to take her yourself. Not surprising, all things considered. If the Queen had intended to give her up, she’d never have left it up to you—a man so in love he has no control over the power he wields.”

Corey shifted beneath her, started to move her off his lap, but Jill objected. “Wait, Corey. He’s right.” She wrapped her legs around him and tightened her muscles around his half-hard cock. It thickened and pulsed inside her, sending a brief jolt of pleasure through her lower body. She placed her palm against the glowing mark on his chest. “I’ve never seen one glow so brightly. Except for my own the day after Aris died. And as good as making love with you felt before, it never felt so good we didn’t need a breather in between.”

His hands rested limply on her thighs, the confusion on his face transforming into panic. He let out an agonized groan and pushed her away harshly. She remained kneeling at the end of the bed while he scrambled out and fumbled for his clothes.

“This isn’t what was supposed to happen,” Corey said. He shoved his feet into the legs of his trousers and yanked them up.

The harsh bite of his words made Jill flinch after the beautiful things he’d been saying while they made love. The TV screen on the wall was blank, the call having ended. She remembered Racha calling Corey’s name over and over again, but they hadn’t been coherent enough to pause what they were doing long enough to find out what she wanted. How long had it been since they’d lost themselves that first time?

“What the fuck did I do wrong?” Corey bellowed at Rafe. “I followed instructions… you were there. You should have stopped me!”

Rafe sat casually on the end of the bed. He reached a hand out and laid it gently on Jill’s shoulder, startling her from her wide-eyed shock at Corey’s behavior.

“Darling, show him your mark.”

She nodded and bent her head, pulling damp hair away from her sweaty neck. Rafe’s strong, sure touch brushed against her skin as he took over, holding her thick golden strands up and away from her skin. She had no idea what they were seeing, but the feel of it told her something about her mark—Aris’s mark—had changed. Her hands shook and she gripped them into tight fists to hold them still.

“Jesus Christ, it looks like mine.”

“I know it does,” Jill whispered. “Except mine’s red.”

“No, Jill. It isn’t. It looks
exactly
like mine. It’s even bigger than it was before. And glowing like fucking kryptonite. Rafe, you can’t take over now?” His voice was almost a plea, but also had a touch of resignation to it.

Jill turned to look at the black-haired dragon, but knew the answer without him saying it. Their conversation in the limo came back to her. This was what he had planned, all along.

“Could you have stopped him?” Jill asked. “After the first time.”

“Yes, but my loyalty is to the Queen. She knew Corey would never have gone through with it completely if she were here making love to him, too. His draw to her power is too strong. But she never intended to give you up.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re carrying her father’s child.”

“That’s bullshit,” Corey said. “The man’s been dead for months.”

Jill blinked at him, then closed her eyes, unwilling to witness the conflict of desperation and confusion he was displaying.

“It isn’t,” she whispered. She opened her eyes again and looked at Rafe. “That’s what Aris did with his magic at the end. Just before he died and all his power went into me, he told me he gave me a gift.” She placed her hands over her flat belly.

“It’s magic similar to what young dragons endure during the hibernation,” Rafe said. “We are aware during that time, but we don’t age.” He leaned down and pulled her hands away from her midsection. A gust of shadow expelled from his mouth and settled on her skin, tingling and cool. It luminesced, briefly betraying a large dragon mark around her navel that she’d never known existed.

“The child must be kept secret. In fact, you should stay hidden until the Verdanith is assembled, too. If the Council learns Aris’s last mate is still alive, they may wonder why and come looking for you.” Rafe said. “When the Verdanith is whole, the Queen will unlock the magic so the child can grow again. If you appear to conceive too soon and the Council finds out, they’ll label the child Unbound and take it away. If it appears to be a product of a fresh union, you’ll be safer.”

A pained look crossed his face and Jill lifted a hand to cup his cheek. “That’s why you’re looking for Rowan, isn’t it? She’s…Unbound. Is that so bad a thing? The men with Racha were like that, weren’t they?”

“Yes, and I promise you, as loyal as they are to dragon law, they would sacrifice their own lives for the chance to fly again. The sex is the only remnant of dragon life they get to keep. Forget shifting, forget mating and family, forget any kind of wealth whatsoever. The things that make us who we are would be stripped from this child and from Rowan, their magic trapped inside the way we are trapped in stone for half our natural lives. But I would gladly be Unbound if it meant the right to choose how to live and whom to love. When I find her, we’re never letting our children near the Council or their blasted laws.”

“We will help. Won’t we, Corey?”

She looked around and found Corey standing by the window, still shirtless and staring out at the sunset.

“The baby’s a dragon, isn’t it?” Corey asked without turning to look at them. “How are we supposed to hide that fact from the Council after it’s born?”

“The same way you just managed to override Aris’s mark. The Queen has enough power to make you her surrogate. Not many dragons can accomplish that. Purebreds like her can. or prismatics like her brother.”

Corey met Jill’s gaze finally. She resisted the urge to apologize to him again. She’d said she was sorry and for a brief interlude that evening she believed he’d forgiven her. Now he looked at her curiously, his expression almost eager. It caused a swell of hope to fill her chest.

“That’s actually possible? For me and Jill to have a child together—one like Racha?”

“If the three of you want it, yes. At least once the Verdanith is assembled. It’s the key to all of this working out for us.”

~~~

The Verdanith was the key. For more than just their fertility issues. Corey’s eyes narrowed. “This artifact is going to help you find this other dragon somehow, isn’t it? What else can it do?”

“The Verdanith acts as a focus for power, so there are many possibilities,” Rafe said. “But to prove to the Council our laws need to change, I need to find Rowan before the the artifact is assembled and the Council finds her with it. She’s stayed hidden her entire life, which means her parents must have sacrificed their last remnants of power to protect her. But now that she’s discovered her nature, it won’t take them long to learn of her existence.”