Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Emma
C onsciousness was a slow caress over my body. I was in that moment of still being in and out of sleep yet slowly rising to the surface.
I was warm. And everything was so soft underneath me. I sighed and snuggled in more, burrowed closer to the very hard but warm thing directly in front of me. I heated and felt fire lick through me, the scent surrounding me so incredible. I knew that aroma. I wanted more of it, wanted to bathe in it and let it take me away from the shit world I lived in, even if only for a short time.
This low vibration started to fill me. It shouldn’t have been comforting, but I didn’t fight the feeling it caused within me. And when I burrowed even deeper against the warmth that surrounded me, not wanting to lose it, not wanting it to ever leave, I felt that vibration increase, grow deeper, louder.
Not a vibration. A purr.
I felt that sound deep in my body… right between my thighs. It caused the most intimate, secret place on me to throb, to grow wet and ache.
This little voice in the back of my head said I should wake up fully, but I was so tired still and was so very comfortable—more than I’d ever been in my life. I had no fear, no urgency to be alert. I felt like I could drift off and I’d be totally protected.
Something big and thick pressed against my belly; then this rhythmic movement started happening. Back and forth. Slow and gentle. A harder, more urgent arousal instantly came awake in my body. I was wet between my thighs, the peaks of my breasts tingled and felt ultrasensitive, and I parted my lips to inhale sharply.
This felt good. It feels right.
I had to be dreaming, because real life didn’t feel this good, not in the world I lived in, not in the Pit. And because I let myself believe this wasn’t real, I moved against the hardness pressing against me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. The very big and thick presence against my belly couldn’t be mistaken for anything but a cock.
More wetness spilling from between my legs.
More heat consuming me.
More need drumming harder and faster in my very core.
I moaned, inhaled that delicious scent, needing the very thing prodding my belly to be buried between my legs, so deep in me that I didn't know where I ended and where he began.
Azar.
I thought of my dragon, how his beast’s form was so fearsome, so beautiful and magnificent. I imagined Azar pressed against me as a living, breathing man, his height, the strength in his arms and legs, in his wide, defined chest, making me feel fragile and breakable, his desire for me rivaling the heat from the dual suns.
I gripped harder onto the body pressed to mine, my head tipping back, the moan spilling from me as I started moving my legs back and forth, sawing them together to add friction to my clit, the slippery feel of my wetness making this erotic sensation in my pussy.
“I can smell your wetness. The sweetness of it saturates the air. It makes my dragon crazy, makes it hard not to lose control.” The deep voice rumbled against the crown of my head.
The motion against my belly picked up, and the man against me held me tighter, his groan of clear pleasure vibrating his chest and spearing right into me. That hardness digging into the soft flesh of my abdomen couldn’t be dimmed by my clothing. I felt every line, every inch of him. I felt the wide, flared head at the tip, even felt the fabric of my tattered shirt becoming damp from the wetness that spilled from the crown. That feels so good, turns me on so much.
He moved back and forth, the very distinct motion a man made with a woman when he was loving her body. And then I really let those masculine words settle in my consciousness. My eyes snapped open, the dreamlike state I’d been pleasantly consumed in suddenly vanishing as the heavy weight of reality seeped into me.
I felt my eyes widen as I pulled back and looked into Azar’s face. His eyes held that hooded quality from the night before, the one that told me he was greedy for me. And his fangs were longer. Those twin white points shouldn’t turn me on the way they did. I didn’t have to feel his tremendous erection to know he wanted me. He was savagely beautiful from the tops of his horns to the bottoms of his feet, even if they were tipped with black claws. Especially beautiful right in the middle.
“My mate,” he rumbled low and dropped his gaze to my mouth. And when he started to lean in, no shame in trying to kiss me, I found strength pooling in me as I pushed at his chest.
Instantly he stilled, let go of me, and gave me my space. I scrambled back on the pallet, far enough to the edge that I felt the unforgiving dirt floor greet my bared toes. I snapped my head down and looked at my feet, then to where my shoes sat just a short distance away. A quick look down said I was still very much dressed.
Azar didn’t move from where he lay, his upper body propped up by one of his big arms, his bicep bunched and flexed, the veins running up and down his forearm drawing my eyes and momentarily short-circuiting my brain. Would it be so bad to just move back to him, let Azar pull me in close… rub all that hardness against me?
I closed my eyes and shook my head, holding my hand out as if to ward him off, even though that was the last thing I wanted.
My eyes snapped open, and I gaped when Azar ran his tongue up the center of my palm, a growl leaving him as his eyes stayed locked on mine.
“If the skin of your hand tastes this sweet,” he said gruffly against my palm, which I hadn’t moved yet, because I was frozen from shock—and yearning, “I can only imagine how that sweet cunt of yours will taste and feel against my tongue.” He gave the center of my palm a soft kiss before pulling back and sitting up fully.
“What is going on?” I mumbled to myself and curled my fingers into my palm before placing it in my lap, as if I were holding on to that kiss he’d given me, keeping it close.
“I’ve finally found you,” he responded as if he thought I’d been asking him the question instead of thinking out loud.
I got up and walked toward the fire before I knew I moved. I stood there, not speaking, and watched as he uncoiled his big body from the pile of furs. I quickly averted my gaze when I saw his erection bounce slightly from the sudden shift of motion.
“Does your… kind not wear clothing?” I asked as I stared at the fire, the flames having dwindled down enough that they hardly gave off much more than a glow. But despite the low but ambient light in the cave, I could see well enough. Maybe too well, judging by what my dragon captor refused to wear.
“Does my nudity bother you?” His tone was nonjudgmental, more curious than anything.
I glanced at him, and the shadows and small flickering light from the fire accented all that hardness under his skin, all that male prowess. I felt that warm, familiar pool of wetness between my thighs just at the sight of him. His nostrils flared, and I felt my face heat, knowing he scented it, knowing he was very well aware he turned me on.
I forced myself to look away into those low flames. “No, it doesn’t bother me.” It was a bold-faced lie, but not one I was going to admit to.
There was a suspended moment of silence; then I heard some shuffling of materials and could picture him fully uncoiling that massively masculine body. I felt another wave of heat that had nothing to do with the fire moving through me. It was starting to piss me off.
“There will be people looking for me, wanting me back.” That was another lie, but he didn’t know that. Only Tilly would give a shit if I never came back.
“You mean the human male who touched what wasn’t his?” His voice was frighteningly cold… and so very close.
I turned around to face him and wrapped my arms around my waist. His words were as hard as the stone that surrounded us.
“Let the humans come. Let a hundred males come to try to take you from me.” Although his tone was even, there was no mistaking the violence laced within the words. “It would please me greatly to kill each and every one of them, to show you how strong I am, how capable I am in protecting my female.” He stalked forward like the predator he was. “And taking their lives would be so easy. Humans are weak.”
Compared to his kind, yeah… yeah, we certainly were.
He kept moving forward, kept crowding me. “There is nothing I hold more precious than you, mate. So let them come, and they’ll see what a Dragao does to those who threaten what’s his.”
I should have been angered, frightened at the possessiveness and proprietary tone laced in each letter he spoke. I should have… but I wasn’t.
I swallowed the lump that rose in my throat.
“Tell me what you’re called,” he coaxed, drawled out in that sexy, deep voice of his.
I found myself answering before I could be stubborn about it. “Emma.”
His eyes seemed to become even more hooded, his desire thicker, surrounding him. “Emma,” he purred my name, and he made it sound so sexual.
He was crowding me, drowning me with his delicious scent. “What’s that smell?” I murmured though I’d meant to keep those words to myself.
“It’s me. It’s the scent of the Cord. It’s an aroma created strictly for you.” His voice was almost too low to hear, and gods, I loved the way it made me feel. “My body created it solely for you, Emma.”
My eyelids fluttered as if they were about to close on their own.
“It’s my pheromones, an aphrodisiac.”
Yes… it certainly was.
My brain was a scrambled mess, and I shook my head to clear it, knowing I had to focus on the important things. “Why did you take me?” I was surprised I’d been able to form a coherent word.
“Because you’re my mate, and that human male was going to hurt you.” He said that last part in a growl, and I did look at him then, surprised to hear the malice in his voice.
“And what does that mean… to be your mate?” Obviously I knew what mating meant, had seen many in the Pit participating in the sexual act as they hid behind darkened corners, sneaking away to shadowed and abandoned alcoves. Is that what he meant? Is that what he saw in me? Did he want me just as a sexual vessel?
And why the hell did that turn me on as much as it did?
I stared into his eyes as he came closer, and closer still, those dark, inky pools so beautiful yet so frightening.
“You understand what that means,” he said deeply, the sharpness to his voice like a tangible touch. “You feel what it means.”
I shivered as those words moved over me. Through me. Yes… yes, I did feel what he meant, even if it made no damn sense.
“You’ve awoken the Cord within me.” He took a step forward and stopped; he was like an animal stalking his prey, and I was the poor creature he was after.
Yet could I really feel sorry for myself when I was anticipating his next move?
“The Cord?” I whispered, realizing I was breathing harder and faster, unable to control myself, because the closer he got, the more that wonderful smell enveloped me.
He lowered his head ever so slightly, his eyes trained right on me, never missing a beat as he moved another step forward. “The awakening every Dragao male has when he finds his mate, when their life is finally complete.”
I realized I’d been backing up as he came closer, as if instinct told me I needed to tread carefully, that I needed to put up a fight. Not because he’d harm me, but because it’s what he wanted.
And yeah, I could admit only to myself I wanted it too.
“You’re mine, and I’m yours. It is the way of my kind. It is binding in all ways.” His voice got deeper, harsher. It sounded rougher, as if it wasn’t just him speaking to me but… something else.
His dragon , a little voice whispered in my mind. His dragon is looking at me, speaking to me. Wanting me.
And as I stared at him, I knew the answer to the question I was about to ask before it even came out. But I wanted to hear this Dragao, this dragon-shifting man, tell me what my fate was.
So I kicked up my chin and feigned a strength I didn’t have at the moment. “And being your mate means you won’t ever let me go, will you?”
He didn’t move, didn’t even breathe as he stared at me, as my question hung in the air between us. And with my back to the stony wall, with his chest so massive it blocked everything else out, I didn’t know if I wanted the truth. But he’d give it to me whether I wanted it or not. I knew that to be fact.
And whatever this Cord was, this bond that tethered me to him, it affected me as much as it did him.
Azar leaned in, his face inches from mine, so close that if I reached out, I’d be able to wrap my hand around his nape and pull him in, let him devour my mouth like I desperately wanted.
“You won’t let me go, will you?” I asked again.
He shook his head slowly and moved in more so I felt the warmth of his breath move across my now-parted lips. I couldn’t stop myself from trying not to shiver for how good it felt to have Azar so close.
“Never,” he whispered huskily. “I will never let you go, Emma.”