Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
Ash’s heart thundered like it wanted out of her chest. She bit her lip to keep from smiling at her riled dragon who was watching her with narrowed eyes. Then he vaulted the back of the couch and caught her mid-squeal, taking her down to the carpet, his body cushioning her fall.
“What are you doing?” she laughed, breathless on top of him. “I thought we were practicing?”
“Really?” he rumbled. “This is what your little trick does to me.” He caught her wrist, guiding her hand to the hard length straining against his trousers, and she curled her fingers around his cock. “You should know better than to run from a predator.”
“Stop talking.” She fisted his hair and claimed his mouth, kissing him with every ounce of pent-up need.
His tongue slid into her mouth, and he ground his shaft into her core. He slipped his hand under her top, cupping and squeezing her bra-covered breast. He thumbed her nipple, and she moaned, rubbing herself harder against him. “Race—”
With a low growl, he pulled her to her feet. “Clothes off. Keep the shirt on. Wall’s rough.”
Her heart hammering, Ash unlaced and kicked off her boots, followed by her jeans and underwear. Before she could ask him why he hadn’t undressed, he cupped her core, his thumb sliding through her folds, circling her throbbing flesh.
Oh, lord. She clutched his biceps.
“You’re already so wet.” He hunkered down, grasped her hips, and put one of her legs over his shoulder.
His gaze met hers as he swept his tongue through her folds and over her clit.
Ash shuddered, sensation swamping her, and she grabbed his hair.
His other hand squeezed her bottom as he suckled, working her with such precision, driving her to the edge.
Christ. So close.
She pressed into his mouth, but he rose, leaving her adrift. “No—”
His mouth curled into a wicked smile. He unbuttoned her blouse and palmed it open, tugging the cups of her bra lower until her breasts spilled into the cool air. “Perfect.”
Oh no, she wasn’t about to let him have all the fun.
She undid his button and slid his zipper down, and his cock sprang free. Ash closed her fingers around him—loving the feel of him—hot, slick, impossibly thick. His jaw clenched, and his eyes burned like living flames as she stroked him from root to tip. She reached up and bit his chin—
A low, sexy groan ripped free. He picked her up, and her legs tightened around his hips.
“Put me inside you, heart-fire.”
She positioned him, and with one sharp thrust, he seated himself within her. Ohhh, a gasp caught in her throat at the incredible stretching.
“Christ! I keep forgetting just how enormous you are.”
His answering laugh vibrated through her. “Should I pull out?”
“Not if you want to keep breathing—”
His mouth back on hers, he carried her across the room, each step driving him deeper into her. He braced her against the thick hanging tapestry and thrust hard, each stroke demanding—grinding his pelvis against her throbbing clit. And her body coiled tighter and tighter.
Ash clawed his shoulders, lost in the steady slap of skin on skin, his cock setting alight every nerve ending. She moved with him, faster now, her nails digging into his shoulders as she chased after her orgasm.
“That’s it. Mark me, heart-fire,” he growled, his fingers biting into her hips. He gave her no quarter, plundering into her. A whimper broke free. Her inner muscles clamped around his dick. His heavy-lidded stare shifted to hers. “Watch your sweet body swallow me…”
His words dragged her gaze to where his thick cock impaled and retreated from her core, gleaming wet. “You feel so fucking good—”
He angled his hips and thrust up. His thumb found her swollen nub and rolled it.
“Race—oh, God!” Pleasure exploded as her orgasm crashed through her, her thoughts scattering, hurling her into blinding sensation.
He pumped once, twice, and with a roar, he followed, his release breaking free, his heated seed flooding deep into her…
Chest heaving, he rested his brow against her shoulder.
She huffed a breathless laugh. “I’m not sure I’ll walk after that.”
He licked his mate mark on her, his touch slow and possessive. “Didn’t I promise you wouldn’t?”
“What?” She blinked, her pleasure-filled mind a little slow to follow. Then she remembered him telling her in the cave that she wouldn’t walk for days when he truly fucked her. And this…this had been right out fucking.
She shot him a sultry look beneath her lashes, heat tangling through her. I wouldn’t mind if you did that again.
Growling, Race closed his mouth over her nipple, tonguing the peak while his free hand squeezed the other. A tremor swept through her.
Her heart thudded. Then she frowned as something else registered. “You…you don’t knot again after the first time?”
He gave another firm tug of her nipple, and her body clenched around him. Ash groaned.
Smiling, he lifted his head, his lips damp, eyes molten. “We knot the first time we claim our mate. It seals the bond.”
“So, it won’t happen again?” she asked, unsure whether it was disappointment or relief fluttering in her chest.
A low laugh rumbled free as he nuzzled her throat. “Only when the rut takes over, and I put a young in you.”
“No, no. No, babies. Yet.” She gripped his hair. “I want more time with you.”
“As do I, heart-fire. As do I.”
She glanced down at where they were still joined. “Okay, so I understand about the knotting, but why, may I ask, are we still joined?”
“Because being inside you is my favorite place.” The low growl in his tone caused her toes to curl.
“How could I forget?” she huffed, trying to stem another surge of desire. “Put me down. I need to freshen up.”
“No hot water. It’s quite icy.”
“You forget, I lived in England,” she said dryly. “Ice water’s a way of life there.”
“Okay then. Bathroom’s back there.” He pointed past the enormous bed. “Behind the overlapping wall. It’s basic. Another thing to fix, along with building a hearth for you.”
He eased out of her and set her on her feet. Her knees promptly gave way, and she grabbed his shirt for balance. “Seriously, no legs.”
He chuckled, pulled off his t-shirt to clean himself, then zipped up. “We’ll practice fighting and weapons again when you return. And when we’re done, you can choose where you’d like to be fucked next.”
She snorted and shuffled toward the bathroom, then spun back, smoothing her shirt over her bare thighs. “You said rut. Does this mean you go into heat?”
He looked up from dropping more stars into the pouch. “All male dragons do. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of time before that happens. For now, we need to get your skills a little more honed.”
Right. And her wariness of the upcoming battle returned. Heck, it stayed in her mind like an enormous bruise—the innocents to save and evil to destroy.
In the dark hours of early morning, in the abbey courtyard, Ash watched her mate, dressed in his usual black, as he checked their backpack, then slung it over one shoulder.
His tied-back hair gleamed like polished silver in the cold moonlight. He glanced up, his expression sharp, deadly. “Ready?”
Ready? She would never truly be ready for something this terrifying. Nor was she about to let that bloody usurper win. She’d do everything in her power to help Race.
Hands raised, he opened a swirling portal—
“Race, wait.” She grasped his arm. “This rut you mentioned, what happens to you?”
For a heartbeat, surprise flickered across his face. Then his expression softened, and his warm fingers cupped the entirety of her chilled left cheek. “Stop worrying, heart-fire. There’s time for all this to be over before it becomes an issue. Come.”
He grasped her hand and leaped through the portal—
Into heat. The stench of iron and smoke hit, and Ash gasped.
Chaos erupted, and ear-splitting yells rang out.
Race scooped her into his arms and ran, the scrape of his boots skidding across glassy ground echoing around them.
The warded black basin blurred beneath them.
Her heart in her throat, Ash pressed her face into his chest, then the air crackled, and they left the brutal, ravaged place behind as Race dematerialized them.
When they eventually reformed, the chill of Kraevyr Peak enclosed her, even though sunlight filtered through the treetops. She couldn’t feel her legs as Race lowered her to her feet, and she grasped his arm for support.
Breathing harshly, Ash frowned. The air felt different—thinner, stretched, as if the atmosphere itself were being pulled taut. A faint ringing built behind her ears, the same pressure shift she always sensed before a storm broke, long before her powers manifested.
Wonderful. Just what they needed on top of everything else.
Race grasped her hand and headed for the narrow entrance, their boots crunching over gravel. He entered the cave, the smoke vent above letting in only a dim wash of daylight.
“Seriously, next honeymoon, I’m picking the Maldives.”
Race chuckled, dropping the pack on a rock. He summoned a ball of fire in his palm, its glow licking over the faded carvings of wings and flames along the walls—remnants of a lost era when the crown still sat on the true king’s head.
She groaned, sinking onto a stone seat near the firepit, her pulse still hammering from escaping the portal guards.
Race circled the perimeter, lighting the wall torches, brightening the place. “They should be here soon. It’s best to keep our mated status quiet.”
Her heart tripped. She wanted to blurt it out to the entire world that this immortal was hers. But he had a point. “Yeah, I don’t want to become a target for bloody Flaeron or any of his goons.”
“Not while I breathe,” Race muttered.
He gathered wood from the stack against the cavern wall, piled some in the firepit where the old peat still smoldered days later, and coaxed the flames higher. Smoke curled upward before escaping through the hole in the ceiling.