Dragon's Flame (12 page)

But possession of some type of magical ability didn’t mean Taine couldn’t be hurt or killed. It absolutely didn’t mean he knew his way around a fire—despite the T-shirt.

And damn it, thinking about him in that
Got Fire?
shirt made her ache and want and worry even more.

She served up a meal to a soot-faced firefighter, felt a twinge at being support, slopping food instead of being on the fire line.

The food hit his plate a little harder than necessary. She flashed the tired firefighter a smile of apology.

This
—these feelings, the ones that didn’t have anything to do with her not being on the fire line—were exactly what she’d tried to avoid.

She didn’t want to worry about a man with a job that took him into danger. She didn’t want to one day be destroyed by a knock on the door and bad news.

Sure, her mother had survived that destruction and found the courage—eleven years later—to date again, to risk her heart with a man who worked as a San Diego County sheriff. But that was totally irrelevant.

Saffron served up more meals.

A little while later another vehicle drove in from the fire. She looked toward the tent entrance, chest tightening, tightening, finally relaxing when Taine entered.

He was fine. Better than fine.

She studied every inch, mentally undressed him and found him perfect.

A little swagger became part of his walk as he came straight toward her.

Saffron rolled her eyes but couldn’t contain the smile. Not when she was heating up the closer he got, not when his gaze promised he knew exactly how to address the fire blazing between her legs.

“Find anything?” she asked, forcing her mind away from what she wanted and onto what might need to be done.

“Nothing to act on. We’re off duty until there’s information to work with. Ready to go?”

With the fire contained, and plenty of other support staff on hand, she wasn’t needed.

“I’ll let them know I’m leaving,” she said and a few minutes later they were in the sedan.

Taine pulled her to him and she didn’t resist. He smelled like smoke, like dangerous Santa Ana winds.

His mouth came down on hers, hard and hungry. And the plunge of his tongue between her lips stroked the fire between her legs.

She answered by cupping his erection through his jeans and stroking. “Your place or mine?” he asked the way he had on the beach.

“Mine,” she told him, a laugh bubbling up and out when he hit the lights and siren and raced toward her apartment.

“Some might consider this an abuse of authority,” she said.

He pressed her hand more firmly against the front of his jeans. Beneath her palm his cock throbbed. “I rate this as an emergency.”

“You’re a guy, of course you do.”

She tightened her grip on his erection. Amusement turned into channel-clenching want with the sound of his sharp inhalation.

His hand tightened on hers to keep her from stroking. The sedan hurtled forward at greater speed.

They made it to her place without either of them combusting spontaneously.

Her apartment was a closet compared to his, but it was what she could afford and still be within walking distance of the beach.

The instant the door was closed behind them, Taine’s mouth was on hers and his hands were pushing beneath her shirt.

She moaned, rubbed her mound against his hardened cock. She was wet, swollen, ready.

She’d been in lust before, but never like this. Maybe this was hours of worry turned into relief. Maybe it was reaction to the fire.

The source of the desire didn’t matter. She didn’t think the flames that’d been caused by the phoenix egg were any hotter than those burning in her pussy.

She pushed her hands between their bodies, but only so they could get to the front of his jeans. Need shuddered through him, making her feel powerful, gloriously feminine.

She opened his fly and grasped his satiny cock. Stroked.

Taine’s low moan was a rumbled growl, a hungry, desperate sound.

She slid to her knees and took him into her mouth.

“Fuck,” he panted. “Fuck.”

His hips jerked. A hand braced against her apartment door while the other grasped her hair.

She swirled her tongue around the tip of his cock and over it. Lapped, reveled in the sound of his ragged breathing and the buck of his hips.

She took him deeper. Bobbed. Sucked. And he alternated, one minute trying to pull her mouth from his shaft before he came and the next urging her to take him even deeper.

Pushing her hand between his thighs, she cupped his velvety sac, stroked the soft skin between balls and ass.

He shuddered. Made a desperate, growly sound.

His hand left her hair. He ripped off his shirt. Ripped his cock from her mouth and stripped with an urgency that had her doing the same.

Their clothes landed in a semi-circle around them. He jerked her against him, his mouth taking hers, his hands gliding possessively over her back.

She hadn’t noticed the rough skin at his wrists before but it was there now. Instead of smooth texture, there was an erotic drag as he caressed her shoulders, swept lower.

Bumps rose along her spine and pleasure shivered into her pussy. His tongue thrust against hers aggressively.

A hand pushed between her legs and satisfaction radiated off him at finding her so wet.

He fucked his fingers into her channel. Pressed his thumb to her clit and it was her turn to moan in between gasps for breath.

Her hips rocked, driving his fingers deeper. She clenched on them. Needed more and the bed was suddenly too far away.

Her nails scraped over his muscled back. “Now damn it. Now.”

Taine kissed his way to her breast, his fingers still inside her, his thumb still pressing her clit.

He captured a nipple. Sucked hard and fast, sending wave after wave of shimmering heat into her pussy.

She canted hips. Widened her legs, still needing more.

He kissed his way to her pussy. Replaced his hand with his mouth and tongue.

Streaks of pleasure shot down her legs and curled her toes. She met each thrust of his tongue with a thrust of hips. Moaned with each stroke of his tongue over and around her clit.

Her hands gripped his hair, and this time she was the one alternating between trying to pull him away and trying to urge him to take more, to go deeper.

Every time she got close to release, he backed off, then immediately renewed his sensual assault. Her heart seemed to have divided and migrated. Or maybe it’d become a thundering fire that’d jumped containment lines and spread. It raged in her sex and her chest and in her head.

Between her legs, Taine lifted his head and that same fire burned fiercely in his eyes. Burned deeper inside her as he kissed his way back to her mouth and shared the taste of her arousal.

Her nails scraped over broad shoulders. Her tongue battled with his, demanding he finish what he’d started.

On a growl he jerked his mouth from hers, turned her to face the door. She bent forward, legs spread and breasts hanging free in a completely primitive offering.

The snow globe in his cubicle, the dragon taking a virgin in this same position flashed into her thoughts but disappeared with the press of his cock head to her opening.

She rocked backward, sheathed him in her channel and nearly came with the hard burn of his shaft against the walls of her pussy.

Protection
, she thought but didn’t pull away. Couldn’t, not with her internal muscles rippling, clamping on Taine’s cock. And then he thrust, and any possibility of insisting on a condom was obliterated.

Pleasure was all that mattered.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized, his cock stroking over the g-spot that no other man had been able to find, his hands cupping her breasts, his mouth brushing her shoulders, her neck.

There was nowhere to go but up and up and up.

Up with each thrust.

Up with each stroke over her g-spot.

And those strokes came harder, faster.

His cock felt larger than it had the night before. Different than when he’d taken her from behind before being called out.

He hadn’t hit her g-spot then. But now…

Vicious pleasure gripped her each time he struck that spot deep inside her. His hands left her breasts and the rough drag of his wrists over her skin had her channel clamping in merciless demand on his cock.

He made a raw, fierce sound, bit the place on her shoulder where he’d left a hickey the night before and catapulted her into a release that whited her mind—tumbled her for surreal moments into a snow globe fantasy of being mounted by a dragon.

Instead of the silver-and-black beast taking the blonde in Taine’s trinket, the dragon was dark blue and silver. And in the afterglow, she basked in that fantasy, couldn’t quite disengage with her channel clamping and releasing, clamping and releasing on Taine’s cock.

He reclaimed her breasts, and she liked the feel of his hands on them, the feeling of closeness, the sense that they’d been together forever. It was so unlike her that she knew she should be struggling to separate, but she was too lethargic, too content, too infused with pleasure.

Slowly their breathing returned to normal. Her heart found a steady beat and his cock pulsed in time to it, still inside her, still without a condom.

Even that shining example of another personal rule violated wasn’t enough to drive her to separate. It was fatigued arm muscles protesting the continued need to brace against the door, especially with Taine’s added weight that forced her eyes open.

Twin scratch marks were on her stomach, exactly where she’d felt the drag of his wrists, though obviously she’d been mistaken and it’d been his nails.

Fair enough
, she thought, given that she’d probably left scratches on his back.

“I think I have enough energy left to make it to bed now,” she said.

Another kiss to her neck and he pulled away, pulled from her channel then made her laugh when he swung her into his arms. “Trying to earn points with me?”

“That’s always a good move if you’re male.”

She smiled against his mouth. “Just so you know, I consider the interest on the shirt loan paid in full.”

“Tomorrow is another day.” He carried her to the bed, lay her on it then dropped down next to her.

She rolled onto her side and snuggled against him, her back pressed to his chest. Outside it was still dark, but dawn wasn’t far away. “Do you think we’ll find the egg before there’s another fire?”

“We’ll do everything possible,” Taine answered, pulling his mate more tightly against him. “Maksim will utilize every resource. Someone saw something and will have posted it online.”

“Good,” she said and drifted off into an innocent sleep, not knowing how thoroughly she’d wrecked his control when she’d rocked backward and sheathed his bare cock.

Even the memory of it was enough to have his shaft stirring against her satiny ass, to have his heart returning to the same fast, hard beat as it had in the aftermath of their frenzied lovemaking.

He’d bound himself to Saffron. Lost control, the spur in his cock heightening her pleasure and the ones at his wrists catapulting her into an ecstasy that’d allowed for the coupling of his soul to hers.

He rubbed his cheek against her hair. Inhaled her scent and didn’t have a clue what to do next.

He could revisit the conversation they’d had after leaving The Deep. He could admit to being a dragon but nothing had changed.

And everything had changed.

He wanted her to want him for himself, not because he was a dragon. And not because he was now bound to her, his time in this realm defined by her lifespan.

We’ve only just met
, he reminded himself and cursed the sorcerer who had kept him busy for the past month. Then cursed the one who threatened San Diego.

Crew’s earlier words mocked him, calling attention to his foolishness.

If I were a betting man, which I am of course, I’d say you’re suffering under the delusion that you can control the course of true love. You can’t by the way.

No. He couldn’t.

But he had no regrets. A mate was the ultimate treasure. And Saffron a treasure worth any sacrifice.

He pulled her more snugly against him knowing that morning would come too soon.

And it did.

Taine woke to find beady dark yellow eyes staring at him, challenging his claim to Saffron.

Instinct had him answering with a hiss though the green lizard on her pillow was hardly a threat.

Saffron woke and mumbled, “Some pet owner I am. I must have forgotten to latch Emerald’s habitat door.”

She stroked the iguana’s head and neck. “But you were a good girl, weren’t you?”

The trespassing creature wasn’t large enough to have developed the secondary characteristics that made it possible for humans to easily determine its sex, but for Taine, it was clear that the lizard wasn’t a
she
.

He swallowed a growl as his mate continued to give the interloper all her attention. He battled against exhaling a well-directed stream of flame that would handle the problem.

It was a ridiculous, irrational jealousy. He knew that intellectually but that didn’t prevent him from wanting to breathe fire.

He occupied his mouth instead by kissing Saffron’s neck and shoulder.

She shivered and her nipples beaded.

See?
He directed at the iguana.
She’s mine
.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Though the claim immediately brought last night’s loss of control to mind.

His heart kicked into a faster beat.
Hers, hers, hers
more accurately reflected the situation.

Bound. He’d bound himself to her with no possibility right now of Saffron reciprocating the bond.

The image of the elderly couple they’d visited the day before had panic edging in.

He fought the panic off. Didn’t have time for it.

The hunt for the sorcerer needed to be resumed. He was surprised there hadn’t already been a summons to IRE headquarters.