DragonMate (6 page)

Need roared through her like an out of control fire, leaving her helpless to do anything other than writhe and cling. His possession was a blend of pain and pleasure, the size of his cock almost more than she could bear, and yet each stroke made her crave another and another, hunger for the hot wash of his seed and the satisfaction of knowing he desired her.

His thrusts grew faster, more frantic. More desperate. His arm slid under her, lifting her, changing the angle. “Come for me,” he said against her lips.

There was no escaping the ecstasy as he struck her clit with each hard thrust, sent release searing through her, then followed her into orgasm with raw, uncontrolled shudders and fiery jets of semen.

She didn’t pull from his arms afterward. It felt too good to be there, and besides, she doubted he’d let her.

At the very edges of her hearing she could swear she heard him purring. Not the rumble of a cat, but what she imagined a dragon would sound like as it lay on a pile of treasure.

The thought put a smile on her face. She couldn’t resist the urge to press a kiss to the tattoo on his chest. “It suits you.”

His fingers caressed her nipple then the spot above it. “But it will be far more satisfying to see it on you.”

The words sent a flutter through her belly, part nervousness and part hope. She wanted to believe in Aislinn’s mirror with its heartmate stone border. She wanted to believe there was a future with Kirill.

Did that make her incredibly foolish? Or hopelessly romantic?

The sound of music turned her thoughts to Carolyn. “That’s my phone,” she said, scrambling from the bed and hurrying to the door where she’d dropped her purse on the floor without even being aware of it.

She was breathless by the time she answered. Her heart rate sped up when she heard Caro’s voice on the other end. “I only have a minute before we head out again. Mark said I needed to give you a call and let you know I’m okay.”

There was something in Carolyn’s voice that had the worry settling once again in Jazzlyn’s gut. “Are you?”

“Of course. I know I missed Nana’s party, but if you’d ever let yourself get over that boyfriend you had in high school, you’d know how being with someone you’re crazy about trumps other activities. You met Mark. He’s
nothing
like John Lamford.”

Ice filled Jazzlyn’s chest as worry for Caro turned into fear. John Lamford was
Caro’s
high school boyfriend, not hers. He was the first and only one of them Jazzlyn had ever thought was decent.

She tried to keep her voice casual as she asked, “Where are you?”

“I’m—” There was a sharp inhalation on the other end of the phone, followed by a murmur Jazzlyn thought might be Mark talking, then Caro said, “I need to cut this short. Worry about yourself, Jazzlyn, not me. I can take care of myself. Bye.”

Warm, masculine arms pulled Jazzlyn’s back against an equally warm chest. She replayed the conversation in her mind, noticing Caro’s call had come in with the phone number blocked.

“She’s in trouble?” Kirill asked, pressing a kiss to Jazzlyn’s shoulder, his arms protective and reassuring.

“Yes, but she thinks she can handle it.” Or at least that’s what Jazzlyn thought Caro was trying to convey, along with a warning to stay away.

“Perhaps that’s why Aislinn picked up only hints of anger and fear but not terror or panic.”

“Maybe.” Jazzlyn turned in his arms, chilled despite the heat pouring off his skin.

Aislinn had also told her to trust her instincts, and her instincts said Caro had wanted help, until Mark said or did something to make Caro say, “Worry about yourself.” Otherwise why would Carolyn have made a point of saying Mark was nothing like John Lamford?

Kirill’s hand stroked the length of her spine. “You don’t think your cousin can take care of herself?”

“I don’t know. She started to tell me where she was, then didn’t. I think she was warning me to stay away. But everything inside me says I need to see Caro in person before I can let this go.”

Jazzlyn sighed and closed her eyes, savoring the pleasure and comfort of being held. With sudden insight she realized how much she wanted to be able to let worries about Carolyn go, once and for all. She wanted to mark
paid
to the debt she felt she owed her cousin for helping her survive the school years when she was so painfully shy.

“Our relationship is complicated,” Jazzlyn murmured against the crook of Kirill’s neck, finding she wanted to say out loud the things that had been lurking in her mind for a long time. “If we weren’t related, if we didn’t have a history together, I doubt Caro and I would be friends.”

Pain slashed through Jazzlyn’s heart as she remembered Carolyn calling her a loser, someone afraid of her own shadow, after first dredging up Jazzlyn’s failings from the past and tossing them at her. Being reminded of them had cut so deeply she hadn’t even been able to share what had happened with Alexandria.

“We had a fight the last time we were together, about her choices when it comes to boyfriends. I told her why I thought she did what she did and suggested she see a counselor. She got mad. Really mad. Before she stormed out of the restaurant she said she was cutting me out of her life.

“That was six months ago. Then out of the blue she called me and said she wanted to meet for lunch. Only she didn’t show. And she didn’t show for Nana’s birthday party. Even if she was still mad at me, she wouldn’t have taken it out on Nana.”

A hot ball of fury formed in Kirill’s chest. He heard the suffering beneath Jazzlyn’s words and wanted nothing more than to remove her from this realm and leave Carolyn to the consequences of her own choices. But such a course of action was impossible.

He knew what Jazzlyn was going to say even before she said, “I want to go to Mark’s house.” And he choked back a roar of denial because he knew he’d start a fire with the force of his frustration if he didn’t.

The thought of her putting herself in danger was unbearable. But the thought of separating from her and leaving her unguarded in order to see to the task himself was equally intolerable.

For the first time, Kirill understood how it was Xanthus and the men he’d descended from found it possible to share a mate with another male—not that
he’d
ever share Jazzlyn. She was his, wholly and completely his. But he could definitely see the advantages of having someone who could be trusted to sacrifice everything if it meant keeping a chosen female safe.

Of course, keeping Jazzlyn safe wouldn’t be an issue if he’d accomplished what he set out to do—come to this realm, collect his mate, then return immediately to his lair.

Frustration got the better of him. A small burst of flames escaped when he exhaled.

Because he already considered her his mate, his dragon fire shimmered over her like an erotic kiss rather than a deadly assault. Her scent deepened as she felt it on her skin, telling him the petal-soft lips of her labia were parting in invitation for him to slide his cock or his tongue inside her again. Her nipples hardened against his chest, but when he would have lifted her and carried her back to bed, she resisted, saying, “We can’t. We need to go to Mark’s house.”

There was no suppressing his growl, though he did manage to keep from setting the carpet on fire. “You will stay in the car while I question Mark if he is there, or enter the house and search if he’s not.”

Her thoughts on the matter were evident in the way she stiffened her spine and pulled from his arms. Thankfully she didn’t speak. His control was shaky at best, and made more so by her nakedness as she stalked away, then bent to gather her clothing, the view of her rosy slit so provocative his cock wept where its tip touched his belly.

She strode toward the bathroom and Kirill followed. He could no more let her out of his sight than he could resist the urge to get in the shower with her when he heard the sound of it being turned on.

Not all dragons loved water, but he did. There were hot springs in the neutral territory of the portal. He would take her there and mate with her in the water and on the smooth rocks, both in his first form and his human one.

The shower stall was tiny. And though her expression didn’t welcome him, her body did. It softened as he crowded her, grew flushed from more than the stream of hot water striking their skin.

“It’s my nature to protect and guard,” he said. “I can’t allow you to put yourself in danger, especially when you believe your cousin warned you away.”

“
Might
have been warning me away,” Jazzlyn said, warmth and amusement returning to her face as her gaze slid to the dragon above his nipple. Her hand followed, and the combination was a sensual caress that traveled straight to his cock.

She lightly traced the silvered wings with their blue undersides, stroked the dragon’s tail and underside before moving downward to grasp Kirill’s cock with soapy fingers. Mischief danced in her eyes, causing desire and love to explode in his chest.

“I’ve never thought about it before,” she said, nearly driving him to his knees as she measured his length by moving her fist up and down on it, then released him to cup his testicles and weigh them, “but I’ve never seen a picture of a dragon that is obviously male.”

Kirill braced his hands on the wall as she continued to fondle and explore him. The unseen rings beneath his cock head throbbed. He wanted to drop the magic and let her see the full truth of his penis. More than that, he wanted to urge her to her knees and have her pleasure him with her mouth as a mate should.

Somehow enough of his sanity remained to allow for rational thought, prompting him to use her torment to his advantage, to use her remarks to help prepare her for a reality he was forbidden from revealing until she was his mate in truth.

He leaned in, nuzzled and kissed her neck on his way to her ear. “Dragon cocks are sheathed inside their bodies. They emerge only during coupling, something you’d discover very quickly were you to enter the dragon world without already having a mate. No unattached male would be able to resist you. They’d battle for the privilege of claiming and mounting you while in their primary form.”

“Even though I’m human?”

“Especially because you’re human,” he said, the answer purring out of him.

“How is it even possible?”

Her scent told him she wasn’t repulsed by thoughts of being mounted by a dragon male. But he didn’t dare tell her more, not when only a sliver of control kept him from doing the very thing they were talking about. “Magic. I’ve got ancient tomes detailing it. I’ll show them to you in the future if you wish.”

She laughed. “Are there pictures?”

“Yes.”

“Very kinky.” She brushed her lips over his. “You’ve done a lot of research on dragons.”

“I think it’s safe to say I’m an expert on them.”

“Hmmm, is that so? Are you sure a dragon’s cock never emerges for any reason except to couple?”

“Positive.”

Her eyes held challenge and disbelief. “I think you’re mistaken. Tell me if this would work in getting a male dragon to show himself.”

She knelt before he guessed her intention.

Lust held him immobile, as did the sultry image of her gazing up at him through her lashes. Every drop of blood roared to his penis, scorching through veins and arteries as it went.

Like prey ensnared, he was trapped in the moment and the vision of her. His heart thundered in his chest, first in anticipation and then in sheer panic as her lips closed around his cock head and he realized the magic holding him into a human form was only a beat away from shattering.