Light My Fire (23 page)

I marched out of the room and up the stairs and was al
most to my room when Nora emerged from the bathroom.

“Oh, Nora, I’m glad to see you.... Yes, thanks, it’s
much better. Gabriel looked at it, and you know what a
wonder he is with healing.”

“That is his talent, yes,” she said, tightening the belt to
a bathrobe she’d borrowed from the things Drake had
bought me.

“I wanted to talk to you about the imps.” I paused to
rub my head. I was so tired, I could hardly think. “What
can we do about them?”

“Tonight? Nothing other than what we have done. I’ve
warded the windows, and Drake assures me his alarm
system is sensitive enough to pick up even imps. You
look like you need some sleep.”

I laughed an exhausted laugh. “It’s been a long day. If you’re sure there’s nothing else I need to be doing about
them, I’m going to hit the hay.”

“Nothing more. Jim had its evening walkies with Paco,
so you shouldn’t need to bother with that. I believe it’s al
ready gone to bed.”

“Yeah, the digital cable TV package Drake gets should
keep it busy for a long time. Night.”

“Good night. Sleep well.”

I toddled off to our room, not seeing anyone else. Less
than five minutes later I was asleep, but I dreamt of
flames and destruction, and a river of ice that slowly
wrapped itself around me, consuming all until there was
nothing left but a frigid core of despair.

14

“Brrr. Drake?” I murmured sleepily as the bed dipped behind me. I cracked my eyes open to squint up at the
man barely visible in the dim light. “What time is it?”

“Late. Do you wish to sleep?”

His voice was deep, rich with desire and promise, but it wasn’t that which sent a little shiver of cold down my
body. It was the ice cube he rubbed in tiny little circles on my shoulder. “That depends. Did you see
Nine and a Half
Weeks,
too?”

“I do not often see films,” he answered, using the ice
cube to trace a path down my arm, pausing to swirl it
around the suddenly sensitive flesh of my inner arm. I
shivered again.

“Who needs sleep when there are a lusty dragon’s
urges to sate?”

He leaned forward, his hair brushing my breast as he
licked the path the ice cube had taken, his tongue as hot as his fire. “I have a great many urges, and it takes a lot to sate me. Are you sure you’re up to it?”

I pushed down the blankets and propped myself up to
look at my belly. The wound had closed and healed over,
but there was still a jagged red welt to mark the injury. Gently Drake pressed the area around it. “It doesn’t hurt,
if that’s what you’re asking. In fact, it’s kind of numb
there. I can barely feel you touching me.”

“I believe I can change that,” Drake said with a smile
that never failed to melt me. He rolled over for a minute,
returning to my side with a small crystal bowl filled with
ice cubes. I couldn’t help but notice that he was naked,
and while not fully aroused, was definitely anticipatory.

I reached for the bowl, but he pushed it out of reach.
“No.”

“No? Why don’t I get an ice cube?”

The smile that graced his lips was pure sin. “Oh, you
will have many ice cubes,
kincsem.
As many as you can stand; that I promise. But tonight is for you. Once I have my pleasure of you, then perhaps we will discuss other
situations.”

“You know, normally you getting all dominant and
bossy like that would rile me up, but since I know your
pleasure and mine are intertwined, I’ll let it pass,” I said,
watching with interest as Drake took his time selecting an
ice cube from the bowl. He was on his side, his head
propped up on his hand. He finally found an ice cube he liked, his gaze lifting to mine as he brought the ice to his
lips, his tongue flickering out to taste it.

The look in his eyes was enough to kindle the always-smoldering burn within me. I licked my lips, my body
tingling with the nearness of him. He touched the ice
cube to my lips for a moment before popping it in his
mouth. Before my lips had lost the chill of the ice, he
kissed me, the burn of his mouth on mine sending goose bumps down my arms. My nipples went into overdrive, turning into two wanton knots demanding attention, little
streaks of fire radiating from them as his arm brushed
them when he leaned over me.

His tongue invaded my mouth, a cold shock that
twined around my tongue, encouraging me to taste him as
he was tasting me. I writhed on the bed, my arms going
up to pull him down onto me, but he remained rock solid, his head bent over me while the rest of his body was just
far enough from me that we weren’t actually touching. I
clutched his head instead, wanting to rub myself against him as he continued to kiss me. Inside, the familiar fires
burst into being, consuming my entire body until I was
one raging inferno of love, desire, and passion.

The touch of ice against my collarbone took me by surprise. Drake’s mouth continued to ravage mine while
the ice cube made little swirls downward, between my
breasts. My breasts pleaded with me to put them into his hands, but it was no good. My brain had shut down at the
touch of his mouth on mine and gone into the Drake
Zone, where all I could do was feel, touch, and love.

“You taste like sleepy woman,” he said into my mouth,
allowing me to get some much-needed air.
“My
sleepy
woman.”

“Pushy dragon,” I murmured, pulling his head back into place. I sucked his tongue hard before giving it a
gentle little bite, squirming when the ice cube wandered
down toward my belly.

“You know, my boobs really would like some attention.”

My back arched as if to prove the point, presenting the
now-close-to-hurting breasts to him. “They’re hurt be
cause you’re not touching them. They think you don’t
love them anymore.”

“Silly breasts,” he said, touching my lips again with
me now-mostly-melted ice cube before putting it in his
own mouth. “Your nipples are hard?”

“Serious understatement. Near implosion is more like
it.” I arched again, tugging on his shoulders to pull him down, but the dratted man had other ideas.

“Would you like to wager I can make them harder?”
Drake asked. Before I could answer, his head dipped and
he took the aching tip of one breast in his mouth, the combination of the melting ice cube and the heat of his
mouth causing every muscle in my body to tighten up. It
was an exquisite pleasure, so great it almost hurt, but be
fore I could put the sensation into words, Drake’s now-
icy tongue laved my tight nipple, and all words were lost
to me.

“Yes,” he said a moment later, eyeing my rosy nipple
with satisfaction. He picked up the sliver of an ice cube and placed it on his tongue. “I believe I win that wager,
but if you would like to try it again, to be sure . . .”

“Best to be certain,” I gasped as his icy mouth en
veloped the tip of my other breast. I swear I saw stars. I clutched at his shoulders, twisting and turning with the
sweet torment of his mouth. Every muscle, every sinew was wound tight, leaving me feeling as if I was about to
explode in a million pieces. Drake kissed a steaming path
down to my belly, making me squirm even more at the
combination of fire and ice. I was sure I couldn’t take any
more of it, but just as Drake’s tongue swept in a circle
around my belly button, a burning cold touched the very
center of me.

“Drake, that’s cold!” I shrieked, unsure whether I liked
the sensation of the ice cube on such sensitive flesh.

“Shall I warm you up?” He didn’t wait for an answer,
breathing fire on the part of me that was still tingling with
cold. I went into sensory overload as he alternated flicks
of his hot tongue, the ice, and little blasts of dragon fire
on my quivering parts. The muscles in my legs were tense
as he spread them further, settling down between my
thighs to attend to the business at hand. I whimpered a lit
tle as his fingers joined in the fun, clutching the blanket
in an attempt to keep myself from leaping off the bed.

I thought I would cry with pleasure when Drake crunched a few ice cubes and tormented my burning
flesh. I wanted to scream when he brought me time and time again to the very edge of a climax, only to stop and focus his attention on a nonerogenous zone, tracing intri
cate designs on my skin with the ice cubes. I figured I
was as good as dead when he simultaneously tortured a
breast with gentle nibbles and touches of ice, and let his
fingers do an icy dance in regions south. But I knew I was
in heaven when, with a particularly fiery flash of his
emerald eyes, he slid a small piece of ice he’d been using
on my belly into my body, the sensation of the cold on parts that were literally on fire almost too much for me.
Heaven became nirvana when he lifted my legs onto his shoulders, his penis a burning brand that pushed its way into my chilled depths, the feel of both together pushing
me over the edge and into a climax that triggered his.

Even as we rode it out together, his body shifted, the skin
pressed against me changing from that of a man to yellow-
green glittery scales. The hands next to my head arched, stretching into blue claws. As Drake yelled my name, his form shimmered into an elongated version of his human self, the breadth of his chest filling my vision. My brain
shut down at the thought that I was making love to a
dragon, a real dragon, not just one in human form, and I drifted into a sated, happy cloud of oblivion.

It was probably only a few minutes later that I came
back to my senses. I was lying on top of Drake, supported
on one of his thighs. I kissed the ear that was next to my
mouth and pushed myself up so I could look down at him.
“We have to talk.”

“Now?” His eyes had a drowsy look to them that read satisfied man. I took a moment of pride in that fact, but
there was something I had to know.

“Yes, it’s called pillow talk.”

“Why do women always want to talk after lovemak
ing?” he asked, wrapping an arm around my waist when
I tried to slide off him.

“Because afterwards we feel all warm and fuzzy and
intimate, and we like to share our feelings and thoughts,
and I’ve got to be heavy. Let me go.”

“No. The bed is wet.”

I looked at the bed. “Oh, man, we forgot a condom.
And ... er... is that all me?”

“No, it was the ice cube melting.” He laughed at the
no-doubt horrified look on my face that faded with the as
surance that I wouldn’t need to be visiting my gynecolo
gist in the very near future. “You’re not heavy. If you in
sist on talking, you have to stay here.”

I allowed myself to fall back onto his chest, rolling
onto my belly, resting my chin on my stacked hands.

“Deal. I have a couple of things I want to know, but
first, you get a big gold star and an A for the semester for
the ice cube idea, although the next time it’s my turn.”

“I look forward to that,” he said, a smile in his eyes. I
kissed his eyelids. “What else did you wish to say? If you
want to know what I’m thinking, I’m afraid it’s beyond
me to describe the rapture our lovemaking generates.”

“No, I’m not going to ask you that,” I said smugly,
drawing a protection ward on his chest. It burst into
flames as soon as I gave it a bit of power. I frowned, patted it out, and rested my chin on my hands again. “I want
to know what Dmitri meant by saying you were more
human than dragon. Why did he call you Drake Fekete, and why on earth did he say I should ask you about your
father?”

Drake’s chest rose and fell in a sigh I felt down to my
toes. He was silent for a moment, his hands warm on my
behind. “I suppose you should know my history.”