SavedDragon (8 page)

Chloe opened her eyes and realized the moon had changed position in the sky again. It was no longer directly above the glass panel over their head. Time had passed, but Saul lacked a clock of any kind to determine how much.

“Saul?” she rasped out. She needed a glass of water. Maybe a gallon.

He dragged his fingers down her back. “Hm?”

“Was I asleep?”

“For a time.”

Oh my god I passed out on him. The sex was
that
good this time, too.
“I’m sorry.”

“You have done nothing for which to apologize.”

“You kept your human form this time…”

Saul chuckled. “I would break this bed otherwise.”

Chloe’s laugh turned into a dry cough. Saul shifted away then returned before she could voice a complaint. “Drink,” Saul coaxed her. He half cradled Chloe against his chest. A tall glass of water waited on the bedside table beside the small lamp. Once he offered it, she guzzled it down quickly.

“Thanks, I needed that.”

“Rest, Chloe. The hour is late and you are deserving of pleasant dreams. Sleep.”

“No. I want to know about you… I want to know about dragons. Why this bite mark on my shoulder doesn’t hurt like… why doesn’t it hurt me?” Chloe curiously raised her fingers to the discoloration left by his teeth. Why hadn’t it broken the skin? “I need to know so many things about you, Saul. Don’t rush me to sleep,” she pleaded gently.

Cold fear seized her. What if everything was a dream after all and she awakened to her boring, dull bed to discover nothing had changed? The sobering possibility shook the drowsiness from her voice.

“Very well. What do you wish to know first?”

“Talk to me more. Anything.” She paused and pressed lightly against the palm-sized smudge of color on her shoulder. No pain. “Maybe begin with this.”

Saul’s warm laughter turned her into jelly. “That is the Dragon’s Brand, a mark of promise betrothing one dragon to another.”

“So… if I wasn’t human, I’d bite you back?”

A quiet nod provided her answer.

“How many humans have you claimed this way?”

A quiet sense of bashfulness surrounded him. His eyes cut away briefly, but they returned with his softly spoken answer. “Only you. I do not know why, but the compulsion overwhelmed me during our mating… You are the first human to ever bring me release at the end.”

Renewed heat pooled at her core, initiated by his admission. No human woman had ever made him come. He’d never reached orgasm with a human until meeting her. It was an honor, a gift, and she would strive to make it happen again and again if she could.

“No other woman?” she echoed.

“I have lived in this world for many years. Sometimes I slumber, passing in and out of sleep from one generation to the next,” he confessed to her as they lay sprawled together in the massive bed. It was comparable to a cloud. “But no woman has ever captivated my heart or lured me as you did in the cave. I awakened two weeks prior to our meeting, after a half-decade’s rest.”

Every answer spawned at least two more questions in her mind. Why had he been in a cave in the first place? “Why do you sleep so long?” she asked curiously, limiting her inquiries for the moment.

“The oldest among us have traveled this world for centuries. Were we to live each day, life would become monotonous. Dull.” He ran his fingers through her hair and toyed with the sleek ends. “I know what you wish to ask. I have lived four and fifty-two years.”

Four and fifty-two… He can’t mean that he’s four
hundred
and fifty-two, could he?
Her startled gasp drew tension between them. Saul stilled again, a telling sign of what he expected from her: horror, fear, and maybe even a change of her mind.

Chloe chose her next words very carefully. “Since you must have a vivid recollection of colonial times… we will watch The Crucible one day, and you can tell me how accurate it depicts their way of life.”

“A decent movie. As far as accuracy, they took many liberties.”

Chloe idly stroked her foot along his calf and snuggled her face between his throat and shoulder. She breathed in the musky scent that reminded her of his dragon body. Earthy with a woodsy aroma that reminded her of the forest after a rainstorm. She shivered.

“Are you cold?”

“No.” She exhaled and trailed her fingers over his chest. It wasn’t as smooth as she previously believed, but the fine scattering of golden blonde hairs were so fair and silky they were almost impossible to see. “Can I ask another question?”

“You may ask anything. I keep no secrets from you.”

“Why do your wings have feathers? Aren’t dragons supposed to be all jewel-colored scales and stuff?”

Saul snorted. “
All
true dragons are adorned with feathers. Of the scalewings, there are two breeds: our distant but inferior cousins, the wyverns, and the great wyrms who are our nemeses. Your mortal legends carry many inaccuracies.”

She yawned into her hand. “Mm… tell me about them.”

“Tomorrow. For now, you must sleep,” Saul encouraged her.

He kissed her brow, tentatively brushing his lips against her skin as if the act were foreign to him. She’d noticed that in all of their time together, Saul had never kissed her once.

“But I’m not tired,” Chloe protested. She struggled to resist the heavy, exhaustive weight anchoring her limbs to the mattress. Between his fingers sliding through her fair hair and the jet lag catching up to her, she didn’t have a chance.

“Saul?”

Chloe jerked up into a sitting position with the sheets pooled around her body. Her eyes opened to a decadent and lavish bedroom. Its unfamiliar walls, opulent interior, and absolute silence warred against the expectations of her own bedroom in a crowded city apartment. Saul lived away from the outskirts of Los Angeles’ concrete jungle, where the green hills rolled into glorious mountains.

“Saul?” she repeated again. Her body ached from head to toe, like she’d spent the entire night out dancing in her high heels.

A crisp note awaited her on the empty pillow bearing script written in an aristocratic hand.

His handwriting is immaculate…
Saul’s note told her that he’d gone to make a few calls and to handle the week’s affairs. He suggested for her to enjoy the amenities provided by his bedchamber and to ignore the maid.

“Okay. Ignore the maid. Why am I supposed to ignore the maid?” Chloe wondered out loud. She stepped from the bed and paid a visit to the stone tiled shower. The hot water poured without limit from an oversized shower fixture dangling above her head. And the water was soft. So very soft that she had to stand beneath it for several minutes to get all of the conditioner out of her hair.

“Huh? How’d he know what kind of conditioner I like?”

A neat row of bathroom toiletries in her favorite brands and scents lined the spacious shelf. Chloe had used each of her favorites automatically. Either Saul had acquired the information, or they shared the same feminine tastes when it came to shower products.

Chloe tucked the little nugget of information in the back of her mind and emerged from the shower. She dried off and shrugged into the cozy, hooded robe dangling from a hook beside the shower.

“That wasn’t there a second ago. What the hell? Saul?” Chloe called again. “Are you playing a game with me?” She belted the plush, charcoal garment, and the color reminded her of Saul’s dragonskin. A glance down revealed a personalized CD, or a possible brand name stitched in gold thread over the left breast.

He better not have given me some ex’s bathrobe,
she thought sourly.

She found cushioned house slippers with memory foam padding just beyond the bathroom door. Once again, they fit her perfectly.

Maybe dragons are also psychics. Chloe neither dwelled on the discovery nor shut it from her mind entirely. Instead, she simply brushed it aside for now and left the bedroom to explore. Saul hadn’t told her to keep to the bedroom, and honestly, she wouldn’t have obeyed him if he had ordered her to stay put.

Like a child on an adventure, she descended the stairs to the lower level, practically tiptoeing as she went. “Hello?”

Hell, I don’t know where I’m going and this place seems huge. I’ll be lost before I know it.

A whiff of something smoky and delicious wafted past her nose. She tried to follow her nostrils toward the aroma of bacon by stepping into a corridor beside the elaborate staircase. It took her farther away from the smell.

“Hello? Well fuck.”

Chloe turned around to retrace her steps, but a tall woman stood behind her. Almond brown skin and glossy black hair were her key features, but her beautiful sapphire eyes were also very striking. She wore a gorgeous headscarf in ruby and black lace. Chloe envied her at once, then wondered who the fuck she was and why a strange woman wandered Saul’s home. It took about a minute to grasp complete understanding.

“Oh! You must be Saul’s maid.” And not at all what Chloe expected. The tall woman brought to mind exotic models with her bronzed complexion, high cheekbones, and ebony hair. His maid belonged in an international beauty pageant.

“Such is one of my duties, yes.”

One of her duties?
“What else do you do?”

“Whatever Master Drakenstone needs,” the woman replied primly. “At this moment, he needed me to prepare a meal for you. Do you have a preference?”

“No, not really. Whatever  causes you the least trouble, Miss… What do I call you?”

“You may call me Mahasti, and it is no trouble. Please, make yourself comfortable in the solarium. The sunshine is at an optimal angle. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Chloe continued down the hall as directed. Artwork ranging from paintings to elaborately carved masks lined the walls, each piece capturing her attention in turn.

Warm sunlight filled the solarium as promised. The large space occupied a top floor room at the front of the mountainside estate, facing out over the long drive and rolling hills. Glass created most of the front wall facing the open world outside. Giggling, Chloe imagined Saul curled up in dragon form like a cat to soak up the sun. The wide room provided more than enough room and the slate tile floor absorbed the heat.

A small wrought iron table with two chairs sat in the room’s center, flanked by potted roses. It was both picturesque and romantic, and yet somehow lonely. She wished Saul were there to share the morning with her.

“I trust you will enjoy this.”

Holy shit, she moves around without a sound!

Chloe spun about with a hand lifted to her heart. “Wow, I guess I must have lingered in the hall longer than I thought.” It was the only explanation behind her meal’s swift arrival.

Mahasti’s lips curved in quiet smile. “If you have need of me, only call.”

“Thank you.”

Chloe’s stomach rumbled at the sight of the food. A large Belgian waffle claimed the entire porcelain plate beneath a pile of sliced strawberries, rhubarb, and whipped cream cheese. A second plate offered buttery fried eggs and crisp bacon. Cran-raspberry juice filled the tall champagne glass beside her plate.

Every morsel could be considered one of Chloe’s favorites, and she had absolutely no idea how Saul or Mahasti had known. She devoured the meal in record time and even scraped the last crumbs from the two plates. Between the food in her belly to ease her hunger pangs, the warm sunshine, and her memories of bliss at Saul’s side, Chloe was in the best of moods.

“You hair reminds me of snow beneath the sun.”

“Saul!”

She leapt up and flew across the room to throw herself in his arms. Saul caught her up and spun her around in a circle. Before her feet touched the ground Chloe grabbed his face and kissed him.

Saul’s startled mumble against her lips charmed her as much as his other qualities. With extreme patience, Chloe guided him through the motions, slipping her tongue past his lips to explore his mouth. Her dragon learned quickly.

In the space between one heartbeat and the next Saul had her back pressed to the wall and her legs around his waist. Their tongues slid against each other in a dance as intimate as their lovemaking had been.

A snap was her only warning and then Saul’s jeans dropped around his ankles. His rigid cock pressed into her wet folds. Her robe allowed him easy, open access to her body.

“Mine. I wish to mate with you again.”

“Yours,” she agreed. “Take me, Saul, take me now. Exactly like this. We’ll fit together this way, I swear.” She was addicted to him, and even if their union was revealed to be only a dream, she wanted to have as much of him as possible before the fantasy ended.

A forward thrust joined their two bodies together as one and Chloe forgot everything else in the world existed. Her ass smacked against the hard wall, saved from the rough and cold stone by the plush robe still clothing her body.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” she gasped.

“Tell me what you desire, Chloe.” Saul nuzzled his face against her throat. “Direct me how you will.”

“Oh god… fuck me harder, Saul. I can take all of you, I promise. Just… just slam in deep.”

She directed and he obeyed, an eager student who abandoned his carefully controlled depth in favor of pounding into her molten core. Exhilarated, Chloe held on for the wild ride.

“Kiss me,” she begged.

“Like this?” Saul’s tongue imitated the in and out plunge of his cock, stroking Chloe’s mouth as thoroughly. She whimpered against him and dragged her nails up his back.

“Yeah, like that,” she gasped after they both came up for air. Saul’s lips dragged across her skin and he delivered little nibbles that sent electric zings racing through her veins. His teeth touched against her branded shoulder and the pleasure of it nearly sent her into orgasm.

Not yet, not yet…! I have so much to show him. So much I wanna do!

“Touch me here,” she ordered him next, a demanding teacher and thrilled lover all in one. He didn’t need both arms to keep her suspended against the wall, so she showed him the small pleasure button between her thighs. Introducing Saul to her clit was worthwhile. His rough fingers glided over her smoothly waxed skin at their joining, gathering the slick moisture needed to fondle and circle her sensitive pearl. Once she showed him the motions, he became an expert within seconds.