Chapter Eight
Arabella awoke to the feel of Lucian entering her from behind.
She pulled in a breath, rising from the deep, dreamless sleep she’d fallen into. What a glorious way to wake up, was the only thought in her head. He was spooned behind her, cuddling her. His thick, long cock eased into her, stretching and filling her as if that were the most natural thing in the world. As if he belonged inside her, just as she belonged by his side, in his arms. When he’d filled her completely, he eased out again, a slow, seductive lovemaking that was as natural as breathing… only her breathing was decidedly unnatural, hitching a little as he left her body and then slowly pressed in again.
“Are you awake, my love?” he asked, whispering teasingly in her ear. He had to know, given the way her body was reflexively arching to give him better access. Damn, he felt good. She’d already lost count of how many times they’d coupled, and even more, how many times he’d brought her to climax. It was just like that first night, an endless haze of lovemaking and ecstasy. The room was still dark around them, so they hadn’t literally fucked until dawn.
Yet.
He bottomed out inside her, then slowly started to withdraw again. “God, Lucian,” she said, squirming against him and reaching behind her to keep him inside. “What you do to my body…” But her efforts were futile—he was slow and relentless in his pace, completely in control, and if she was honest, she loved that teasing part of him. The lightness and love of it. And she sure as hell couldn’t argue with the result—the orgasms just got more mind-blowing with each new peak.
“Do you like what I do to your body?” he asked, the teasing even more arched.
Oh, God, what was he planning now? She was getting to know his rhythms in bed. He was a tremendously gracious lover, not to mention hot as hell. But he had his moments when he liked to draw it out, make her suffer in her need for release, make her beg while she was on the edge of that precipice, hanging and hanging and hanging… until he finally made her come.
And then it knocked her straight out.
She figured that was why he did it—to pleasure her more—but it could be that he simply enjoyed the torment. He got off on getting her off. It made her smile, and her heart swell, all at once. It was so like him… this brave, bold, strong man she was hopelessly in love with.
Lucian plunged deep inside her, then rolled her on the bed so that she was face down on the mattress. The pillows and sheets were long gone, tossed over the side by the turbulence of their lovemaking.
“You’re not answering me, my love.” There was wickedness in his voice. Then he pulled out only to plunge deep inside, still taking her from behind but now at a new angle with her legs held together and him driving straight down into her.
“Holy fuck!” she gasped as he hit a spot inside her that squealed its delight.
He chuckled lightly. “I’ll take that as a yes. And a more please.”
“More… please…” she panted. He had her pinned, but it wasn’t like she was complaining. Quite the opposite. And then he abandoned that leisurely pace and started pounding, long and deep, banging that spot again and again. She flat-out shrieked and cried for more. His hands found her hair and held her head down, not that she was in any danger of going anywhere. Her arms were sprawled to the side. Her legs were held tight together by his on either side. She was completely at the mercy of his unrelenting dominance of her body, pile-driving into her hard and fast and deep. She floated on the complete submission of it, the knowledge that he would take her as far as she could go and push her over the edge into bliss… and when the orgasm came, it rocked her, body and soul. She heaved off the bed, screaming and clenching the mattress in her hands, white-hot pleasure ripping through her in wave after wave after wave.
When he growled his release and stayed buried deep inside her, covering her body with his, fully and completely, it was the closest and most bare she had ever felt with him. She had given herself over to him, and he had wrenched out unbelievable pleasure for them both.
It took long minutes for their breathing to calm. For their bodies to settle. But he stayed buried in her, whispering sweet things into her ear, nuzzling her face and her hair and her neck.
God, she couldn’t possibly love this man any more than she did. Like, it literally wasn’t possible to feel more love than this without dying of it. If this wasn’t True Love, she didn’t think such a thing was even possible. Because this was everything. He was everything. Her entire universe wrapped up in a hot, manly body that was melded in pure bliss with hers.
Eventually, and with a long, low groan, he left her body and rolled next to her on the bed.
“Holy mother of magic,” he breathed.
She grinned and lifted up on her elbows to see him. He was sprawled on his back, arms loose at his sides, the picture of complete satiation.
“Did you like that, my love?” she asked, the grin about ready to break her face.
He pulled a breath and blew it out like a sigh. “No man has ever loved a woman more thoroughly than I loved you just now, Arabella Sharp.”
The happiness threatened to make her heart burst. “Well, we might as well stop now, then. We’ll never top that.”
He picked his head up and looked her like she was insane. “Bite your tongue, woman.”
She licked her lips instead.
He groaned. “Never mind, that’s my job.” Then he leaned over and kissed her thoroughly, nipping at her tongue and her lips along the way. Then he moved his small love bites to her chin and then her neck, then her shoulder, and damn… if that wasn’t sending a thrill straight to her core again. Everything this man did turned her on.
As he nibbled his way across her shoulders, a rough hand alternately gripping her bottom and caressing it, she wondered if this would be the night. Would he seal her right away? Would they start trying to make a dragonling right here in the dark of night in his bed? It occurred to her that she had no idea what that even entailed.
“My love?” she asked, twitching a little as his kisses tickled her back.
“Mm, hmm.” It wasn’t really an answer. He was busy exploring her body with his tongue.
She almost didn’t ask… but she needed to know. If it was tonight, she needed to prepare, at least mentally. “What is involved in the sealing?”
Her words were quiet, but he froze mid-kiss. Then he hovered there, lips close to her back, his breath still hot on her skin, a long moment before answering. And when he did, the answer was in the form of his tongue painting a long, hot, wet line up her back, until he reached her shoulder. Then he kissed it and leaned back to look in her face.
“It’s not unlike what we just did.” His hand squeezed her bottom then drifted up her back, following that wet line.
“There’s lovemaking involved?” She lifted her eyebrows. “This is even better than I thought.”
He brushed the hair back from her face and caressed her cheek with his thumb. He stayed quiet so long, just gazing into her eyes, searching them for what, she had no idea… she didn’t think he was going to say any more.
Finally, he ran his hand down her back again. “Yes, lovemaking. And much more than that. Although the lovemaking is the best you’ll ever experience, so there’s that.” He was suddenly quiet, reserved, even as his fingers danced a light trail along her skin.
“Well, I guess we can top tonight, then.” She peered at him, but he wasn’t meeting her gaze.
He leaned forward and kissed her shoulder, then he lingered there, his naked body cuddled against her as his hand traced some intricate pattern on her back. “The sealing begins with lovemaking,” he whispered. Quiet. Reverent. “The first time is just… ceremonial. An affirmation of the love between them. Some say it’s essential for the female to be prepared. To open her heart to receive the magic. It may just be that the sealing is easier to endure when you’re riding in the afterglow. Cara said it—” He stopped, both his words and the slow tracing on her back.
She twisted to look at him, but he was still avoiding her gaze.
He leaned forward to brush his cheek against her shoulder. Then he kissed it again. And then another. Then he was tracing a line of kisses across her back, between her shoulder blades, climbing up on top of her again, in the same position he had just used to make love to her. He swept her hair clear of her back.
“It starts here.” He tapped a spot on her back, dead center between her shoulder blades.
She couldn’t see what he was doing, so she didn’t even try. Besides, her heart was hammering in her chest. He hadn’t mentioned her—Cara, his previous mate—since that one time when Arabella feared he might jump off a cliff because of it. Her heart was telling her this conversation was just as dangerous.
“What starts there?” she asked, not looking back at him.
“The dragonfire seal.” He leaned forward and kissed her back in the spot he just tapped. “I breathe a special fire, a mating fire, and it sears a magical rune into your skin.” He was saying the words between kisses as he worked his way down her back. “It marks you as mine. It seals your body against the travails of carrying my dragonling. It changes you deep inside. The magic touches every cell of your body. Makes you as immortal as any dragon.” His final kiss landed at the small of her back, just above her bottom. He pulled back, sitting lightly on her legs and caressing her curves with both hands. “Cara said the pain wasn’t bad. But she always said things like that. Always said what I wanted to hear. What my heart needed.”
Arabella held absolutely still. It felt like a magic spell had settled on them, loosening his tongue, getting him to speak about this. She didn’t want to shatter it.
When she spoke, it was quiet, barely above a whisper. “What happens next?”
He kept caressing her bottom. “The dragonfire leaves a rune on your body. This is true for all dragons, but because I have fae blood, the runes are even more powerful in protecting you. They enliven my runes, and together, that brings all the magic to bear during the lovemaking that follows. That is when the dragonling is formed, crafted literally from the love and magic of its parents, formed in a womb that’s bathed in ancient, immortal power.” He leaned forward, sliding a hand up her back and hovering over her. He brushed her cheek with his lips, then whispered in her ear. “That time, when the dragonling is formed, the pleasure is indescribable. The sealing is finished with that, and then every time afterward, you’re connecting with the same magic again. Mated lovemaking is ecstasy in a class all its own.”
She could feel his erection pressing into her back, and she was likewise heating up with his words. He was leaving unspoken the things they both knew—that it was dangerous. That the dragonling might not survive. That she might not survive. But her love for him was already so intense. She couldn’t imagine how mind-blowingly lost in him she would be after the sealing. Carrying his child. Helping him fulfill his duty and his destiny.
She wanted to say something, but words were clogging up in her throat.
Then he grabbed hold of her hair and pressed her forward, face down in the mattress again. He slid his hand down to hold her back, right at the point where the sealing would start, and his cock plunged into her, sudden and insistent. She gasped at the fullness of it. Always, every single time, it was like the first time with him. He was taking her hard and silent, plunging deep and holding her tight to keep her still. The pressure of her orgasm was growing fast, but the closeness with him was gone. He was distant—inside her but far from her—and she worried that she had pushed him too far, too fast. She opened her body to him, pushing back against his pounding, letting the sounds of her pleasure escape her mouth as he drove himself harder and faster into her.
He would finish this lovemaking with a mind-blowing orgasm, just like all the rest. And, knowing Lucian, he would wake her five more times between now and dawn for more rounds of pleasure. But she wouldn’t ask him any more tonight about the sealing.
It was still a raw wound for him, and she had to be careful about how to open it.
But they would have time for all of that later.
Then her mind was taken over by the screaming orgasm that was rippling through her, and all thoughts fled into white-hot pleasure and the darkness of night.