Flare of Promise (Asylums for Magical Threats #3) (17 page)

With a flick against her bundle of nerves, Petra moaned.
 

Sucking her tight bud hard, Petra closed her eyes. The pressure was building. Just a few more licks...

Will pulled away.

Snapping her eyes open, Petra met his gaze. “I was close, Will.”

He took his erection into his hand and stroked slowly up and down. Petra’s gaze zeroed in on the action. She couldn’t help but notice the tip glistening.

Will’s husky voice filled the room. “I want your first orgasm on that table to come because of my cock.”

Licking her lips, Petra met his eyes again. “Then what are you waiting for?”

Will rushed forward, encircled her wrists and held her hands behind her back with one hand. With the other, he slapped his dick against her swollen flesh. “I know you like both gentle and rough. But right now, I want to take you hard.”

Petra placed her feet on the table. With her knees up, she widened her legs. “Then take me, Will.”

Will lowered his head and kissed the corner of her mouth. “I love you, Petra Brandt, for so many reasons.” He kissed the other side. “But I think I love you most for accepting me, faults and all.”

Before she could do more than open her mouth, Will thrust into her core and she cried out in pleasure.
 

Will took her lips in a rough kiss and swiped his tongue between hers. With her arms trapped behind her, she was at the mercy of Will’s kiss, his light caress of her breast, and his cock between her thighs.

Yet he didn’t move his hips, so Petra wiggled hers. Growling in her mouth, Will pulled out and pounded back in. He repeated the action, each thrust increasing his pace.

He broke the kiss to command, “Keep your hands behind your back,” before releasing them and taking a better grip on her waist.

Never breaking eye contact, Petra’s breasts bounced in time with Will’s hips. The love, heat, and intelligence in his eyes caused warmth to flood her body and touch her heart.

If she had any say in the matter, Petra was going to keep him for the rest of her life. How she’d nearly given him up, she couldn’t understand.

Will growled. “I love your brain, but stop thinking right now.”

“Maybe I just want to make you work for it.”

Keeping one hand on her hips, he moved the other to her clit and flicked. Still sensitive from his mouth earlier, Petra sucked in a breath. As he stroked again, Will murmured, “Now I have your attention.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but Will pinched her tight bud and Petra moaned. The dual stimulation on her clit and between her thighs felt delicious, causing heat and pressure to fill her body.

Will pressed his thumb hard and it sent her over the edge. Lights flickered behind her eyes at the same time she grabbed and released Will’s cock.

A few second later, Will stilled and roared as he came, the sound echoing in the room.

When he finally slumped forward and drew her body close, Petra wrapped her arms around him. Snuggling against his chest, she was content to listen to the rhythm of his breathing and his heartbeat. The sounds reminding her she was loved.

Sometime later, Will kissed the top of her head and broke the silence. “Petra Brandt, will you marry me?”

Her heart skipped a beat. After a second of shock, she pulled back to meet Will’s eyes. “Yes.”

He grinned. “Maybe I should add a caveat—will you marry me and promise not to fake your death to run from a drug lord?”

She grunted. “That’s hardly romantic, William.”

Laughing, he cupped her cheek. “But it’s the truth. Never hide things from me again, Petra.”

She softened at the fierceness in his eyes. “Never.”

“Then kiss me, woman, to seal the deal.”

She brought his lips down to hers. As they kissed slowly, savoring each flick and swipe, Petra could barely believe she had found her happy ending after all. Despite years of heartbreak, fear, and anger, she and Will had found one another again. It was as if they were meant to be together, no matter what happened.

*~*~*~*

Did you enjoy this story? Then please consider leaving a review. :)

The next book in the AMT series should be longer than this one and will be about one of the Talents (either the Earth Talent or the Wind Talent). We’ll also learn a lot more about the Collector. My goal is to get it out sometime in 2017, but I don’t have any more details than that right now. (The AMT books take me a lot longer to write than my other series!)
You can join my newsletter on my website to keep up-to-date on all of my newest releases.
Turn the page for an excerpt from one of my other series.

Sacrificed to the Dragon

(Stonefire Dragons #1)

In exchange for a vial of dragon’s blood to save her brother’s life, Melanie Hall offers herself up as a sacrifice to one of the British dragon-shifter clans. Being a sacrifice means signing a contract to live with the dragon-shifters for six months to try to conceive a child. Her assigned dragonman, however, is anything but easy. He’s tall, broody, and alpha to the core. There’s only one problem—he hates humans. 
Due to human dragon hunters killing his mother, Tristan MacLeod despises humans. Unfortunately, his clan is in desperate need of offspring to repopulate their numbers and it’s his turn to service a human female. Despite his plans to have sex with her and walk away, his inner dragon has other ideas. The curvy human female tempts his inner beast like no other. 

———————

Sacrificed to the Dragon: Complete Edition
is now available on all major online retailers.

———————————

Excerpt:

Chapter One

Melanie Hall sat in the reception area of the Manchester Dragon Affairs office, tapping her finger against her arm, and wishing they’d hurry the hell up. She’d been sitting for nearly an hour, and with each minute that ticked by, she started to doubt her eligibility. If she didn’t qualify to sacrifice herself to one of the British dragon-shifter clans, her younger brother would die; only the blood of a dragon could cure her brother’s antibiotic-resistant CRE infection.

A woman dressed in a gray suit emerged from the far doorway and walked toward her. When she reached Mel, the woman said, “Are you Melanie Hall?” Mel nodded, and the woman turned. “Then follow me.”

This is it.
Mel rubbed her hands against her black trousers before she stood up and followed the woman. They went down one dull, poorly lit corridor and then turned left to go down another. The woman in the gray suit finally stopped in front of a door that read “Human Sacrifice Liaison” and turned the doorknob. Rather than enter, the middle-aged woman motioned for Mel to go inside. She obeyed, and as soon as she entered the room, the door slammed shut behind her.

A man not much older than her twenty-five years sat at a desk piled high with folders and papers. The room couldn’t be bigger than ten feet by ten feet, but it felt even smaller since every available space on the walls was decorated with different maps of the UK. Some were partitioned into five sections, while others had little pins pushed into them. She had no idea what the pins stood for, but the map divided into five represented the five dragon-shifter clans of the United Kingdom—two in England, one in Scotland, one in Northern Ireland, and one in Wales.

One of which might soon be her home for the next six months.

The man cleared his throat and she moved her attention from the walls to his face. When she met his blue eyes, he said, “Take a seat.”

Mel sat down in the faded plush chair in front of his desk and waited in silence. She had a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, and while she usually didn’t mind, right now it could end up costing her brother his life.

The man picked up a file folder and scanned something inside with his eyes, and then set it down. She wanted to scream for him to tell her the results, but she bit the inside of her cheek to hold her tongue.

The man’s almost bored voice finally filled the room. “Ms. Hall, the genetic testing results say that you are compatible with dragon-shifter DNA and should have no problem conceiving one of their offspring. You also cleared all of the extensive psychological tests. If you’re still interested in sacrificing yourself, we can begin the final interview.”

Mel blinked. Despite her chances being one in a thousand that she could bear a dragon-shifter child, she qualified. Her younger brother would get the needed dragon’s blood and be able to live out a long life free of pain; he now had a future.

Tears pricked her eyes and she closed them to prevent herself from breaking down.
Pull yourself together, Hall.
Crying was the last thing she wanted to do right now. She couldn’t give the man any reason to dismiss her as a candidate.

“Ms. Hall?”

Mel opened her eyes and gave a weak smile. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m just relieved that my brother will live.”

“Yes, yes, the exchange. But we have a lot to cover before we get to the contract specifics, so if you’re quite composed, I’ll carry on.” Mel sat up straight in her chair and nodded. The man continued. “Right. You are healthy, genetically compatible, fertile, unattached, and not a virgin, which are the five requirements needed to qualify. Sacrificing yourself means that you will go to live with Clan Stonefire for a period of six months, and be assigned a temporary male. You will consent to his sexual attentions, and if you become pregnant, you understand that your stay will be extended until after the child is born. If you have any questions, any at all, now is the time to ask them.”

She had heard the basics before, but now that she’d passed all of the tests, panic squeezed her heart. As much as she wanted to save her brother—and she would save him—being assigned to have sex with an unknown male dragon-shifter was more than a little scary. Especially since many human women died in the process of birthing half dragon-shifter babies.

If the death-by-baby aspect wasn’t bad enough, she was putting her life on hold to do this. Mel was one thesis away from earning her PhD in Social Anthropology. If she became pregnant and survived the delivery, she wasn’t sure she could just give up the child and walk away. Most of the women sacrifices who lived past the delivery did abandon their children, but no matter how different the dragon-shifters were from humans, Mel wouldn’t be one of them. Family meant everything to her.

And if she didn’t give up her child, she would have to give up her dreams in order to spend the rest of her life with Clan Stonefire.

She took a deep breath and remembered her brother Oliver, pale and thin in his sickbed, and her worry dissipated to a manageable level. Even if she became a mother before she’d planned, she would do it three times over to give Oliver a chance to see past his fifteenth birthday.
 

Still, she wasn’t about to pass up this opportunity to ask some questions. The dragon-shifters were extremely private, rarely sharing anything that happened on their land with the public. “I understand consenting to sexual activity, as my main purpose is to help repopulate the dragon-shifters, but what guarantees are in place to ensure I’m not abused or neglected?”

The man leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of him. “I understand your concern, but the UK Department of Dragon Affairs conducts routine inspections and interviews. Childbearing-related mortality aside, over the last ten years, only one sacrifice has ever reported harsh treatment out of hundreds.”

With colossal effort, she managed not to think about her fifty-fifty chance of surviving childbirth. “And what about my friends and family? Can I communicate with them?”

“Communication is forbidden for the first six weeks. After that, it is entirely up to your assigned male as to whether you can communicate or not. From experience, the women who made the greatest effort to conceive were awarded the most privileges.”

Right. So if she became a sex goddess, she could talk with her family. How she was going to accomplish that since her previous boyfriends had told her she was “good enough” but never fantastic, she had no idea. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it. “And lastly, when will my brother receive his treatment and when will I leave for the dragons’ compound?”

“Once our legal representative has gone through the contract with you and it’s been signed and witnessed, a copy will be sent to Clan Stonefire. They should approve it within a matter of days and deliver the vial of dragon’s blood to your brother’s physician. Normally, you’d be expected to arrive within a week. However, in the case of dying relatives, you’re given two weeks to set your affairs in order and to be assured that your brother is recovering. Our office will notify you of the particulars within the next five days.”

The man picked up a pen and signed something inside the manila folder on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper and held it out to her. “Since you’ve had a rational conversation without breaking down or bursting into tears, I think you’re mentally sound enough to be sacrificed. If you have no further questions, you can proceed to the legal department.”

Even at this late stage of the application process, she now understood how some candidates might be scared off. Hearing about no communication with the outside world as well as how giving birth to a half-dragon baby might kill you was a lot to take in. But Melanie wasn’t doing this for herself. Oliver had had a shitty last few years fighting off cancer only to beat it and end up with a drug-resistant infection that was slowly killing him.

Her funny, clever brother deserved a chance to live and enjoy life.

She reached out and took the paper. She said, “Thank you. I’m still interested. Please tell me where the legal department is located, and I’ll go there straightaway.”

He gave her the directions. Mel thanked the man before leaving his office and making the necessary turns. As she approached the last turn, she glanced down at the paper in her hands. Toward the bottom of the sheet, the man had checked “approved” and signed his name. Seeing it in black and white made her stomach flip.

In less than two weeks, she would go to live with the dragon-shifters and be expected to have sex with one of their males.