Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Ash moaned and arched into him, feeling as if she’d been plugged into a high-voltage battery as desire swamped her. “Race.”
“Yes, my heart?” Another slow lick over his claim mark on her neck.
Dear God. Was he really planning to make her come just by kissing her neck? Because it was working. Every nerve in her body tightened, her core pulsing, aching for him.
“Race,” she gasped. “I bloody need you in me. Now.”
He lifted his head, amusement glinting in his passion-darkened gaze. “There she is…” A smile tugged at his sinful mouth. “My beautiful, bossy, impatient, and utterly irresistible—”
“Stop talking,” she panted, spreading her fingers on his mouth. “Just…please.”
Something within him seemed to snap at her plea, surging like a thunderclap between them. He kissed her palm and gently moved it away. “You’re sure?”
“Yes! Because I truly am going to bloody die if you don’t do something,” she breathed, arousal hitting harder. She pressed her feet on the bed, rubbing her core against him.
A muscle jerked in his jaw. “It’s the venom, causing a mating fever in you.”
“Kiss me.” She sucked on his lip.
“Hell, Ash.” His mouth captured hers, tasting and licking before his tongue tangled with hers. Ash kissed him back with the same frantic hunger, her hands sliding down his back to grasp his taut backside.
“Now, Race.”
He pulled back, his eyes burning like crimson fire. He shifted, palmed his massive, straining shaft, and positioned himself at her entrance.
A groan, half growl, rumbled from his chest, and he thrust deeply, filling her completely.
Ash cried out, clutching his shoulders, overwhelmed by the feel of him inside her—the heat and weight, the raw intimacy of it all—and the stretch! God. It was fierce but so, so good, like the missing piece of her finally sliding into place.
“Okay?” he rasped.
She nodded.
“Look at me, heart-fire.”
Her eyes flew open. She hadn’t even realized she’d shut them. “I feel you,” she panted, locking her legs around his hips and meeting the molten stare. “Everywhere.”
“You are everywhere,” he breathed against her mouth. “In my blood, my bones. In every heartbeat.”
He shifted and grasped one of her nipples and suckled—it was as if a cord was attached to her clit, and she groaned as her core clamped around his shaft, and he grunted.
“You’re unbelievably perfect.” He began to move, slowly at first, his rhythm increasing with each thrust. Every motion of his body, pulling back then surging into her, fueled the fever coiling inside her. Pleasure spread like wildfire in her veins.
Lightning danced over her skin, but it didn’t sting—
“That’s it,” he growled, his pace quickening, surging into her. “Let me feel your storm, heart-fire.”
Then he flipped them over, with her on top.
On her knees, astride him, his cock slid deeper into her.
Christ. Ash gasped, her powers gathering momentum.
She moved faster and faster, sweat slicking her skin.
The pressure in her core intensified, sharper.
A vein throbbed on his brow, his eyes glowed a deeper crimson, and his pupils slit.
Traces of black scales shifted and reappeared on his skin—his dragon present.
With a guttural growl, part man, part dragon, he drove into her. Her entire mind focused only on him, on where they were joined—and the pleasure he wrung from her body. He grasped her hips as she dragged her core almost free of his length.
“Godsdammit, Ash,” he ground out.
“Like that, do you?” She grinned while desperate for release.
He bared his fangs, and she laughed and slammed back down on him and started rocking harder on his cock.
His fingers found her clit, and she panted. Then he thumbed her aching flesh, a little tug—
“Oh, yesss!” she cried out, her spine arching, her eyes shutting as her orgasm exploded, hauling her into incredible pleasure…
By the dark stars! She was perfect. So damn beautiful. Her head flung back, her skin slick with sweat, glistening like warm honey in the firelight—lightning arcing all over them.
And his. Forever.
He cupped her breasts, lightly thumbed her nipples, and her body shuddered as her core fisted his dick like a vise. Need garroted him, his entire being desperate to claim her as his own.
He flipped her onto her back, and her eyes snapped open. He kissed her fiercely and deeply, millennia of need tearing through him. More, something primal and ancient clawed within him to claim her body as his.
“Race,” she gasped. “You wanted my storm, now let me feel your wildness. I won’t break.”
He shifted them higher up the bed without pulling free, grasped her hands, and guided them to the bars in the carved headboard. “Hold.”
Braced on his knees, he gripped her thighs and lifted, driving into her. Her core squeezed around his shaft like a living flame. He snarled, his dragon’s ether bleeding through. He grabbed the top of the headboard for leverage and pounded into her—
The wood cracked beneath his strength. He didn’t give a fuck, not with her body clutching, milking, and welcoming him deeper.
Ash cried out, arching into him, her moans mixing with his growls until she shattered again beneath him, her core fisting him like a garrote.
His own release broke. Heat and power roared down his spine, his balls tightening, his body stiffening as his orgasm tore through him—exploding like a geyser. A luminescent white light flooded his entire being with warmth, and all he could do was hold on to her.
“Race?” she gasped, gripping his arm, her eyes wide and blazing a radiant white. “Your eyes—they’re white.”
He couldn’t even respond. His breath ragged, feeling a little dazed, as if all his molecules had erupted into billions of atoms before resettling into him. “So…so are yours.”
Her body trembled, and his cock thickened, grew harder at the base, locking them together. And the truth unfurled like a long-lost secret. Ah, fuck.
“Something’s happening.” Her brow furrowed. “You’re getting bigger inside me. Isn’t that…sort of reverse?”
A rough chuckle. “Half beast, remember? We knot with our true mate—damn. I’d forgotten that part. So here we are.”
She huffed, her kiss-swollen mouth widening into a smile. There was no fear in her eyes, only wonder.
Stars! This female. She undid him.
Finally, ours, his dragon rumbled.
Indeed, she is.
Race couldn’t stop his satisfaction from spilling free as he brushed his lips across her temple, her cheeks, tasting the salt of her earlier tears. His beautiful, brave mate. She shifted a little, the tug where they were still joined sending another jolt through him, and she gasped.
“This is…unusual.”
“Not for my species,” he murmured, still braced on his forearms to keep from crushing her. “The knot will ease soon. Takes about twenty minutes or so, from what I heard.” He gently traced his already healing bite mark on her neck with a fingertip. “Any pain?”
“No. It just feels…warm. But your semen is rather hot.”
Laughter rumbled out of him, the sound vibrating into her where they were joined. “It means you can handle me now.”
“Good.” A languorous sigh escaped her. “I feel different.”
“Indeed, you do. I’m still inside you.” He swept lazy circles around one of her delectable nipples with his thumb.
A smile tugged at her lips, her eyes half shut with drowsiness. “There is that.”
He chuckled and buried his face in the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent tinged with the aftermath of their lovemaking, then stilled.
Something felt different.
Frowning, Race mentally searched within himself when it struck him. There was none of the usual clawing darkness that choked him—no rattle of chains, no tortured screams—only incredible warmth.
Breathing hard, he reached for it with his mind, and like a flood it coursed through him, sunlight thawing every inch of his darkness.
Ash.
It was as if her very essence had been embedded deep into his soul.
A flicker of memory surfaced—Nik talking about the white light during intimacy that had transformed his life. Souls joining, he called it. And his heart hammered.
Dragons didn’t experience soul-joining.
They mated through heat and venom, nothing more. He’d always thought the pull to Ash was just primal instinct, someone he was drawn to on an innate level.
But a soul-joining?
This was the gift from Gaia.
Ash wasn’t just his mate. She was his destiny.
“I know I’m your destined mate,” she murmured, combing his hair away from his face. “You said so.”
He lifted his head and stared at her. You heard that?
“Of course I did. Wait…” She blinked, her irises still glowing a luminescent white. “Did you just speak in my mind?”
“Yes.” He carefully shifted them so she lay atop him, their bodies still joined. He tucked a lock of her hair back behind one ear. “The white glow in our eyes? It was our souls joining. It means now you’ll share my lifespan.”
“I will?” Her eyes grew wide. “I get forever with you? Not just a few mortal decades?”
He nodded, his chest tightening at the thought she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
He caressed her hips, unable to stop touching her. “Being soul-joined opens up our minds and gives us telepathy, too. It means you can talk to me anywhere, no phones required.”
“Oh, that’s good to know.”
He kissed her brow, and she settled on his chest again, a pleased smile on her mouth. Then her stomach rumbled.
“You’re hungry.”
“I know,” she groaned. “And we can’t even move.”
He chuckled. “It should be soon now.”
“So, what’s the reason for knotting?” she asked. “I know why animals do… Oh, no!” Her head shot up. “Please, tell me you didn’t just get me pregnant?”
“I won’t lie, my heart. It’s possible. Mating heat increases the chances.”
She gaped at him, the cutest sight in his mind. “You’re joking, right?”
He shook his head.
“Fuuuuuck!” She flung out her arms and just lay there on him.
“Don’t you want a babe?” he asked, curious, angling his head to see her face.