Chapter 18 #3
Of all the terrible decisions I had made since Elena’s arrival at Nova Cal, perhaps the worst was believing finding my true mate took away my choices when in fact it was proof of the power of choice.
All my choices had led me to this place, this moment, when Elena gazed into my eyes and asked what I wanted.
Gods above, she was everything I had ever wanted and more.
“Dr. Husiorithae.” Frowning, Elena pinched my chin none too gently to draw my attention. “I said, let’s examine your instincts togeth—”
I rolled us over, pinned my mate to the grass with most of my weight on one knee and elbow and my wings draped over us, and let my eyes glow.
“My instincts tell me I am your dragon,” I rasped, and kissed her.
Her lips parted to welcome my hungry mouth.
With a satisfied moan that ignited my blood, she arched up against me, hooked her leg over my thigh, and ran her hands through my hair, pulling hard enough to make me growl.
She even sank her little teeth into my bottom lip and licked the bite. Delicious pain. My chest rumbled.
A shudder of desire rolled through me. My cock hardened, beading with lubrication and throbbing with need, ready and aching to please my mate. My tail lashed back and forth through the air like a whip, its tip quivering.
Licking blood from my lip, I rose above her, captured her hands, and pinned her wrists into the grass above her head.
A few drops of my blood landed on her mouth. Her little tongue darted out to lick them off. She moaned, her chest heaving. “You taste so good,” she gasped.
“Did you bite on instinct?” I asked. Even to my own ears, my voice sounded an octave lower than normal.
“I’m a scientist.” She pulled at my grip, but not as if she really wanted to be freed, so I did not release her. “I did some research earlier while you were packing to come to the roof.”
I dipped my head to inhale her scent near the nape of her neck. “And what did your research indicate?”
“I didn’t have much time, so I have only preliminary findings.
But I did read that male equatorial dragons enjoy biting and being bitten during mating.
” She raised her hips to grind against the hard length of my cock, where it strained the fabric of my undershorts.
Gods above. “And as it so happens,” she added, “so do I.”
Wonder and hunger for my mate battled for supremacy in my soul.
I nudged the strap of her top aside and closed my teeth on her shoulder. Not hard enough to draw blood—not yet. The scent of her desire intensified.
“Any other preliminary findings?” I murmured into her ear. “Regarding the mating practices of male equatorial dragons?”
She whimpered. The scent of her arousal threatened to push me beyond all reason.
“The most significant variable,” she gasped as I laved the mark my teeth had made with my tongue to heal it with my saliva, “is which traits the genetic engineers preserved when they combined dragon DNA with human genetic material and other sources. I’m forced to say further research is required.
This could take the form of a verbal interview with the subject in question, or empirical study. ”
My quivering tail traveled up the inside of her thigh and brushed the hem of her little shorts. Her sharp intake of breath matched the sudden increase in the scent of her arousal. I did not need to see it to know beneath the thin fabric, her sweet pussy dripped for me.
I kissed my way along her shoulder to her jaw, where I bit her lightly again. My bodily fluids had healing capabilities for my mate—a trait I planned to put to use thoroughly should we continue playfully biting.
“Which method for further study do you prefer, Dr. Regis?” I made my tone businesslike despite the roar in my ears and the throbbing in my cock. “Interview? I pledge to answer all questions thoroughly and honestly.”
“Very admirable.” Unlike mine, her voice was breathless and ragged. “But I’ve always preferred field research and empirical study.”
She turned her head to give my teeth better access to her delicate jaw and throat. So trusting, my mate. When I bit her throat ever so carefully, she groaned. She truly did enjoy biting and being bitten, perhaps just as much as I.
The roar in my ears grew. My muscles clenched and relaxed in what felt like a full-body spasm that ran from my shoulders down my back and chest and through my legs to my feet, where my toes curled and dug into the grass. I huffed in an almost beastly way.
“Beyond the spirit of scientific inquiry, I must admit I’m extremely and very personally curious about the prospect of you experiencing a mating frenzy,” Elena continued, moving against the hard length of my cock as my tail quivered.
Gods, the fabric between us was so thin.
“It’s a common trait among dragons, but not one that Fortusian genetic engineers always preserve when their genetic material combines with human and other DNA. ”
Was that what my desperate hold on reason was holding back? A frenzy? Was that why she had brought up the topic?
Another shudder ran through my body, making my feathers ruffle and skin blaze with heat and need.
With effort, I raised my head and released one of her hands so I could cup her face. Her eyes were wild with desire. Mine must look much the same.
“I do not know if I possess that trait,” I said, my voice strained. “But I believe I might. I am…holding something back.”
“I can tell.” Her smirk made my hearts flutter. “You feel taut, like a trigger half-pulled.”
Unable to resist any longer, I slipped the tip of my tail inside the hem of her shorts. She moaned and widened her legs a little more, whimpering for me to touch her, to delve inside her, but I hesitated—still afraid of losing myself, afraid of doing anything she might regret later.
“Don’t tease me, Ardruc,” she said, her eyes suddenly fiery. “Pull the trigger or don’t, but do something. I don’t like to be emotionally edged. Physically edged…well, maybe that’s something we can do later.”
Visions of bringing her repeatedly to the brink of release only to draw back and let her need build to almost unbearable levels before giving her what she craved conjured the most powerful wave of heat and need yet.
I drove the madness—the frenzy—back once more with force of will.
“I need to know what you want,” I grated. “My hearts are unshielded now. You could hurt me, break me beyond repair. I cannot bear to make a wrong decision when it comes to you.”
“I understand that kind of fear.” She took advantage of her freed hand to run her fingertips over my lips as she held my glowing golden gaze with her own breathtakingly and so-human blue one.
“I will tell you very plainly what I want. I want to know who you are, dragon. I want to see and hear and feel you when you’re not lost in your head, without bad memories or all these fucking masks hiding you from me.
I want you to know I am the one person with whom you must drop all pretense. ”
Since early childhood, I had not been able to be myself with anyone, even my family. Elena was offering me a gift beyond price—no, many gifts beyond price. More than I could begin to count.
“I want to feel you inside me in all the ways a dragon man can take his mate,” she added, and now the roar in my ears drowned out everything but her voice. Another wave built, rising more quickly and more powerfully than any before it.
“I want to know I can be myself with you,” she said. “I need to know I’m right about the kind of man you are, so I know what I’m feeling is real.”
“What do you feel?” I asked, my voice barely more than a growl. “That you hate me less?”
Her gentle smile nearly undid me.
“After hearing and seeing you play and thinking about what you’ve revealed to me, I think I understand you now.” Elena stroked my cheek with her fingertips. “Honestly, I barely hate you at all,” she whispered.
The wave inside me began to crest. I shuddered and bent my head, muscles straining as I fought to hold it back. Elena startled me by grabbing my hair and yanking my head down to hers so our noses touched.
She stared directly into my eyes. “Let go, damn it,” she commanded. “Break free. Be my dragon.”
Gods above, I would never be anything else.
Finally, finally, I dropped the last of my resistance to the siren call of my mate. The roaring wave swept me away.