Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (46 page)

He didn’t hold back, ramming into me in that oh so smooth way he had.
 
He thrust, again and again, and I could see my hair shifting through colors out of the corner of my eye.
 
His eyes turned from playful to ardently serious, and he started speaking in a language that sounded like Gaelic.
 
His voice was a deep lilt when he did this, and it drove me mad.
 
How had I never learned to speak that language?

Tears pricked my eyes, then ran down my cheeks freely.
 
What I wouldn’t give to have him love me again, the way he used to.
 
That kind of love was addictive.
 
I had simply known that, for him, the sun rose and set with my presence, and I had felt the same for him, though I had never been as good at showing it to him.
 
Not like he had for me.
 
Was that love he’d once felt still salvageable?
 
Were we?
 
I was terrified to ask.
 
So scared that I knew I would run from the answer until it chased me down.
 
And so the tears flowed freely down my cheeks, tears of hope and despair.

He moaned loudly.
 
It was rare for him to get loud.
 
It simply wasn’t his way.
 
But he loved my tears.
 
Some memory from long ago, he’d once told me, when my tears had moved him deeply.
 
He said I’d been crying the first time he’d realized that he would love me forever.

He moved a hand to my face, the other still gripping my hip like a vise.
 
He traced my tears with an unbelievably soft touch, never stopping his hard thrusts.
 
He licked his finger, then bent forward and started kissing the sides of my face from behind, licking and sucking at my tears.
 
That did it, and I came.
 
He followed me, like he’d been waiting for my cue, which I knew he had.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Epilogue

When I came to again I was laying on a warm, hard chest.
 
I could feel Dom stroking my hair.
 
What had woken me?
 
I couldn’t put my finger on it.
 
A feeling, maybe.
 
An instinct.
 
A sound?
 
I looked up at Dom’s face.
 
His head was tilted back, his eyes open wide and staring at the ceiling, lost in some faraway thoughts.
 

A cel phone started ringing on the beside table.
 
I lifted my head, glancing around the room, vaguely recognizing it as the room Dom had been using the last time I had been at the druid casino.
 
The bed was different.
 
“Did you get a new bed?” I asked him.
 
He seemed to be getting more distant by the second, his face closing off completely as he continued to stare at the ceiling.
 

His mouth twisted.
 
“I did.
 
I tore the last one to pieces after I found out you’d been captured by the dragons.”
 

Oh.
 
The phone stopped ringing for a few seconds then started up again.
 
“Aren’t you going to answer your phone?” I asked him.
 

“It’s for you,” he said, his voice hollow.
 

I blinked at him.
 
“I don’t have a phone.
 
I don’t have anything, for that matter.
 
This is the first place I’ve been since I came back from the dragon-trance.”

“It’s my phone.
 
But it’s for you.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do.
 
Are you going to answer it?”
 
His eyes stayed glued to the ceiling.

It stopped and started again.
 
I picked it up.
 
“Hello?”

“Jillian, we’re in Summerlin.
 
You need to get here, fast.
 
We have a lead.”
 
It was Caleb’s voice, sounding a little animated, for him.
 
He was acting as though I’d been gone for a day, instead of seven months.

“How did you know I was back?” I asked carefully, glancing at Dom.
 
He hadn’t moved a muscle.
 

“I have the casino under 24/7 surveillance.
 
The pale dragon landing on the roof was a dead giveaway.”

I shot Dom a worried glance.
 
“Do you think that’s a wise move?
 
You do not want to fuck with the druids.”

I heard a snort through the phone, then Christian’s voice in the background.
 
“Look who’s talking!”

I pushed up on my arms, becoming momentarily distracted by the sight of my gold hair trailing across Dom’s naked torso.
 
I might have drooled a little.
 
I’ll never tell.
 
I shook myself out of my distraction.

“While you’ve been playing dragon, to fly around the world, we’ve been trying to find Lynn.
 
We finally have a lead, so get your ass over here,” Caleb was saying impatiently.
 
“We’ve got Luke spying for us, and he’s actually damn good at it.
 
But he wants to talk to you before he goes back undercover.
 
He’s insisting.
 
Your sub is becoming a little too assertive here.
 
It’s too bad we need him…”
 
Caleb’s voice trailed off in a threat that I knew was directed at Luke, who I assumed was in the room.

“He’s not my-” I shot a worried look at Dom.
 
He was still in the same pose, but his expression was positively arctic now.

Christian took over Caleb’s end of the phone, his excited voice making me smile.
 
“We’ve missed you, girl.
 
Especially Luke.
 
He’s written you a stack of love letters that I read for you.
 
For future blackmail purposes, of course.
 
Chop, chop, Jillian.
 
He’s dying here, and he’s been bloody helpful.
 
He’s earned at least a kiss.
 
Dinner and a blow job would be even more appropriate, considering that he’s been risking his life.”

I shut my eyes tight in annoyance, knowing Dom was hearing every word of this, and would take it all wrong.
 
Christian knew Dom was with me, I was on his phone, but he just didn’t care.
 
He liked to stir the pot.
 
Damned instigator.

“It’s tiresome, Christian.
 
Give me your location.”

At my words, Dom got up suddenly, spilling me from his chest in the process, and not directing so much as a glance in my direction.
 
He strode, naked, out of the room.
 
I admired the view, unable to help it.
 
He had the most magnificent ass in the world.
 
I wondered where the door he’d left out of led.
 

I shook my head, telling Christian to start over.
 
I got it down this time, memorizing the address.
 
“Shit.”
 
I suddenly realized I had nothing.
 
No clothes, no phone, no car.
 
My mind went blank.

Christian was still chatting happily on the other end of the line.
 
I could tell he had missed me, by his excited chatter.
 
Even Christian wasn’t normally this ADD, jumping from one subject to the next before I could get a word in.

My mouth went dry when Dom strode back into the room, still completely nude, and carrying a large duffle bag.
 
He was semi-hard and getting harder while I stared, open-mouthed, at his perfect cock, with absolute fascination.
 

Abruptly he threw the bag in my lap.
 
He handed me a phone.
 
I studied it dumbly.
 
It was the updated version of the top of the line cel I’d had before I was captured.
 
Apparently a new model had come out while I was away.
 

“There’s a cel phone kiosk in the shops downstairs in the casino.
 
It’s yours, all set up, with a new number, and an alias, of course.
 
I figured you wouldn’t stay long before you were running again, so I ordered it while you slept.
 
My number is programmed in, and I have yours.”
 

“I assume your friends have some kind of a plan for finding Lynn, but the druids would like to become involved as well.
 
The dragons have declared themselves rogue, even launched a few attacks that were hard to cover up.
 
I’m calling some people into town who will be useful to your endeavors.
 
I will be putting together a task force designed specifically to combat the rogue dragon threat.
 
I’ll let you know the time and place of the meeting.”

I nodded mutely.
 
I couldn’t exactly turn down help, with my sister’s life on the line.
 
And the druids were officially in the fight now, with or without my consent.
 
“That bag has several days worth of toiletries and clothing, all in your size.”
 
He pointed, exuding the coolness and command of his Arch position, a position that had always intimidated me.
 
“The bathroom is in there.”

I showered and changed in record time.
 
The running shoes and jeans fit perfectly.
 
They were the dark colors I favored.
 
I fished out a small black t-shirt, zipping up the bag.
 
He had even remembered the shampoo I liked.
 

I walked out, fully dressed, carrying the bag, and froze.
 
Dom stood where I’d left him, still gloriously naked, his jaw clenched hard.
 
His eyes were grave.
 
He pointed to another door.
 
“That’s the exit.”

I paused.
 
“Where is my-our, um, egg?”
 
I knew the egg would need to be guarded, day and night.
 
I couldn’t begin to imagine what the wrong people would do with such a thing.
 
My enemies, or even harvesters with any knowledge of what it was, would go to great lengths to steal it.
 

His mouth tightened.
 
He pointed to another door.
 
“I set him up in there, for now.
 
That is the only door in or out.
 
I’ll set him up in a well fortified vault, first thing in the morning.
 
I’ll keep him safe.
 
I swear my life on it.”

I swallowed, hard.
 
I didn’t want to leave him, not even for a second.
 
I didn’t want to leave either of them.
 
But I had to do this.
 
“Thank you.”
 

“There’s a car for you downstairs.
 
Like I said, I knew it wouldn’t be long before you were running again.
 
I made all of the arrangements.”
 
There was a world of bitterness in his voice.
 

I stepped toward him, wanting to touch him, but his forbidding manner dissuaded me.
 
The fear that Dom would reject me was always enough to have me turning away first.
 
I tried for a weak smile.
 
“At least this time, I’m running towards the fight.
 
It’s an improvement, I think.”

He gave me a hard look out of those magnificent, mis-matched eyes.
 
“Not to me.”
 
He turned away first.
 
“Good luck.”
 
It was a dismissal.