Chapter 29 All the Whiskey #3
His eyes brimmed with tears, cheeks bloomed pink, and when we kissed and I caressed his little belly, he giggled sweetly into my mouth.
“I love you, Leo,” I murmured against his lips as people clapped around us.
Then my parents and brothers swarmed us, and to my credit, I didn’t growl at anyone.
The guests were ushered out, the catering service was cleaning up downstairs, and our bags were ready in the atrium, so we’d make the morning flight to Buenos Aires on time. My mate—my husband—closed the door to the bedroom.
He leaned against it and observed me expectantly.
“Are you okay, Davidson?” he asked.
I scoffed, shaking my head. “I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to notice my”—I waved my hand in the air, looking for a dignified word to describe my fucking-up—“flailing.”
Leo chuckled. “Flailing? You smelled of whiskey at the altar. Lucky for me, you can’t get drunk. But I wondered why you’d even try.”
“I’m sorry,” I repeated in a defeated tone. This was Leo’s wedding day, for fuck’s sake! What had I been thinking?
“Wedding jitters?”
Rubbing my neck, I gave a broken laugh. “Some Master I am.”
But Leo didn’t seem annoyed or disappointed. He even looked excited.
“Let me sum up. You think you’re too old for me.
” He pushed off the door and walked toward the dresser where he kept his underwear and socks.
“That you’re bad-tempered, domineering, and that I’ll soon be fed up with it.
” He unbuttoned his shirt, slid it off his shoulders, and cast it over the dresser.
Then he shimmied out of his dress pants.
The briefs he wore were white lace. “You might think I’ll get bored with an aging, cantankerous dragon.
” He opened a drawer and pulled out a large, dark velvet box.
With his back to me, he put the lid aside.
I couldn’t see the contents from this angle. What was he up to?
“I did some research on dragon mates. On the history and rituals.”
When he turned, he held something silver in his hands. He was grinning slyly, the dim yellow lamps making his hair glow golden. I sucked in a breath.
Eyes down, he knelt and offered me the thing on his open palms.
A collar.
My fingers quivered a little when I accepted it and caressed the fine material. It was thin, maybe half-an-inch wide, made from pale leather. The delicate silver buckle was engraved with a little image. I had to look closer to decipher it—a flying dragon.
“They called it claiming,” Leo said quietly. “The alpha would put a collar around his groom’s neck before the marriage was consummated. Among humans, the ritual disappeared centuries ago, but dragon shifters kept the original meaning of collars alive longer.”
“What was the meaning?”
Leo lifted his eyes to meet mine. “It symbolized the dragon mate’s absolute devotion to his alpha.”
“And what about the other way around? How would the alpha prove his devotion to his mate?”
Leo shrugged, smiling. “He wouldn’t have to. The dragon mate would always know.”
He kept looking at me expectantly, his long, graceful neck exposed. I slowly circled the leather around, and Leo lifted his chin so I could buckle it in place.
“What do you think?” he asked in a whisper.
The collar circled the base of his neck, almost blending with the tone of his skin, the buckle gleaming right above the little divot between his collarbones. Dazed, I had nothing clever to say. “Gorgeous,” I murmured.
Straightening his shoulders and lifting his chin, he took a deep breath.
“I imagined this, looked forward to it so much. Kneeling by your feet, naked and pregnant. Vulnerable.” His lips turned up at the corners, and he looked so happy.
“I know you love me, Davidson. But maybe you need a reminder of how much I love you. You’ll see it around my neck every day. ”
Leo took my right hand in both of his and kissed the back.
“You saved me and gave me purpose, and I am so grateful to you for the life you’ve given me. But what’s more, I love you, Davidson. With every cell in my body. It’s not from gratitude or necessity or some unchallengeable law of nature. It’s my choice. My passion. I want to love you.”
If I had tried to speak, my voice wouldn’t have held. So it didn’t matter I was completely lost for words.
“This is my favorite place,” Leo continued, “at your feet.” He placed my hand on top of his head so I could hold my balance while he untied my shoelaces and removed my shoes one after another.
My socks followed. He kissed each of my bare feet before putting them back on the ground.
“There’s always fire in your eyes, but when you look down on me as I kneel at your feet, it burns the hottest.” He stroked up my legs, unbuckled my belt, and helped me step out of my pants.
Then he nuzzled my hardening cock through the underwear.
“Please, Master?”
I gave a jerky nod.
He took my breath away every fucking day.
Leo freed my erection and ran his nose along the length, humming contentedly. Then he leaned away a little, lips parted, and gazed up at me with pleading eyes. I knew what he wanted. I cupped his nape and thrust into his mouth, going deep enough to cut off his breathing.
A claiming, he’d said. But he was already well and claimed.
He tilted his head so he could take more without gagging too much, and his eyelashes fluttered.
With one hand on his nape and the other on the side of his throat, I held him in place and used him like a hole.
My kinky nympho of a mate loved that. His arms hung limply by his sides, and he made wet, gulping and choking sounds between groans of pleasure.
When I felt him getting close to coming untouched, I pulled away. I knelt in front of him and kissed him, and Leo shuddered.
I could have enacted the kinkiest, most outrageous scene on our wedding night.
I’d thought of it plenty. But when Leo moaned into my mouth, looping his arms around my neck and getting pliant in my embrace, I just…
let go. Of everything. He didn’t need me to be his Master tonight.
If anything, he seemed to be the one taking care of me.
We kissed and got rid of the remaining pieces of clothing.
Then I grabbed him under his ass and moved him onto the bed.
We got a little clumsy, trying to find the right angle until we were finally joined.
Leo held his spread legs to his chest, and I lay over him, thrusting into him slowly but deep enough to push all his hidden buttons.
His cock was trapped between our stomachs.
With the pregnancy, his flesh felt soft and supple, his hole flexible enough to take my fist any day. I’d done that to him; his body was changing because I’d bred him. My child was growing in his belly. Was it strange that it made me wildly aroused?
Leo cried out, dragging his nails up my back as he writhed on my cock and stained our stomach with his cum. His orgasm would be the first of many tonight.
I sped up, making him come a little harder. His inner muscles squeezed me deliciously, electricity ran down my spine, and my balls drew up. No idea what sounds came out of me, but it must have been loud. I pumped my husband full of my cum.
My dick stayed hard, and I kept moving leisurely, dragging it through all the cum and slick inside Leo’s loose hole. I tugged on the collar, and Leo groaned.
“It’s like you’re my property.”
He nodded. “I am. It’s the best feeling.”
I stilled, looking at his loving, satisfied expression. “You’re happy.”
Grinning, Leo pecked my lips. “Deliriously so.”
Warm contentment spread through my chest. It had little to do with making love and everything to do with understanding what he’d been trying to tell me.
“You like me grumpy and growly.”
Leo hooked his legs high above my waist, wiggling into a comfortable position under me. He clenched on my dick and sighed, then reopened his eyes. He brushed his fingers through my beard and stroked along my eyebrows.
“Whenever you’re snappy and irritable, I can just open my mouth for your dick or climb into your lap, and your eyes change color. I get such a kick of being able to improve your mood.” Lifting his head so he could talk into my ear. “It’s my superpower.”
I barked out a laugh. “That’s true.”
“I know about your morning freak-out and the whiskey. Juan told me. He was amazed you weren’t taken away in an ambulance before the ceremony. And you know what?”
“What, love?” I breathed.
“I wasn’t worried at all.”
“No?”
He shook his head. “For one, you can’t get drunk. But most importantly, the only reason you ever worry is because you want me to be happy.”
Shifting under me, he pressed up, reminding us both of how deeply we were connected.
“Davidson, I’ve dreamed about you ever since I could remember. You’re everything I could ever want.”
To a certain point, happiness was a choice, wasn’t it? Overwhelmed by the sheer love in my mate’s ocean-blue eyes, I chose happiness.
He pulled me down for another kiss, and with his lips brushing mine, he asked me to half-shift.
I did and fucked him harder, my swollen dick throbbing.
My wings flapped when I came, and I knocked some stuff off the dresser.
When I rolled onto my back, I wrapped Leo up in my wings, and he gently stroked them until they disappeared.
Sighing, he snuggled in my arms with his eyes closed, and I traced the fine leather around his neck with my fingertips.
“Doesn’t it chafe?” I whispered.
“Nuh-uh. It’s made to be worn twenty-four seven.”
“It looks beautiful.”
Leo grinned without opening his eyes. “Audacious and provocative.”
“It suits you.”
He blinked at me blearily. “What do you see when you look at me like this?”
Placing my hand on the base of his throat, just underneath the collar, I took him in. His glassy, sleepy eyes, parted lips, reddened from kisses, cheeks still flushed… And the expression he wore. The collar.
“I own you, Leo. It amazes me still, but I completely own you.”
His smile looked blissful.