Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
AERO
They barely made it to the cabin.
Aero had spent a week being patient. Waiting for her to heal. Giving her space. Being appropriate. He’d held her every night in the narrow bed at the Siren’s Rest, feeling her warmth against him, breathing in the living warmth of her skin, and forced himself to be content with that.
His dragon was done being appropriate.
The ceremony had been torture—standing before the entire town, declaring feelings he’d spent centuries denying, all while Cassia stood beside him in a dress that clung to curves he’d been forbidden to touch for seven endless days. By the time Sue dismissed them, his control was hanging by threads.
They’d left the Overlook at a dignified walk. Made it to the tree line. And then Aero had Cassia pressed against an oak, his mouth on her throat, his hands sliding beneath the silk of her dress.
“Cabin,” she gasped, her fingers tangled in his hair. “Unless you want to give the seagulls a show.”
He growled against her skin but forced himself to step back. Grabbed her hand. Practically dragged her the remaining distance to his cabin, dignity be damned.
The moment the door closed behind them, he had her pinned against it.
His mouth found hers—desperate, demanding, centuries of restraint crumbling into need. She matched him stroke for stroke, her nails raking down his back, her magic crackling against his skin in sparks of pure electricity.
“I’ve been waiting,” she gasped as he tore at the fastenings of her dress. “A whole week of you holding me and not—”
“I know.” He found the zipper, yanked it down, watched the silk pool at her feet. Underneath, she wore scraps of lace that stole the breath right out of him. “I wanted you fully healed.”
“I’ve been healed for days.”
“I wanted to be sure.” He unhooked her bra with hands that weren’t entirely steady, cupping her breasts as the fabric fell away. “I want you to feel everything.”
She arched into his touch, her head falling back against the door. “Then stop talking and make me feel.”
He lifted her—she weighed nothing, less than nothing—and carried her to the bedroom. Laid her across his bed and stood back to look.
She was beautiful. Wild dark hair spread across his pillows, tangled from his hands. Her eyes dark with want. Body flushed and trembling, wearing nothing but scraps of lace that hid absolutely nothing.
Soon, he promised himself. Let me worship her first.
“Stop staring.” Cassia’s voice was breathless, her hips shifting restlessly on the sheets. “I’ve been waiting a week. I can’t wait anymore.”
“You’ll wait as long as I want you to wait.” He stripped off his shirt, his pants, everything that separated him from her. “I’ve been planning this for days, Cassia. You’re going to lie there and let me take my time.”
“Arrogant bastard.”
“You love it.”
He crawled over her, bracing himself above her body, and kissed her—slow and thorough and nothing like the desperate claiming against the door. This was intentional. Deliberate. The kiss of a man who had all the patience in the world and intended to use every second of it.
She moaned against his mouth, trying to pull him down, trying to rush him. He didn’t let her. Caught her wrists and pinned them above her head, holding her captive as his mouth trailed down her throat.
“Aero—”
“Shh.” He found her pulse point, sucked hard enough to leave a mark. “I told you. My time.”
He explored her body with systematic thoroughness—learning what made her gasp, what made her moan, what made her curse his name in creative combinations.
Her breasts, perfect and responsive, nipples hardening under his tongue.
Her stomach muscles jumping as he traced patterns on her skin.
The curve of her hip, the hollow of her throat, the sensitive spot behind her ear that made her writhe.
By the time he settled between her thighs, she was trembling, her breath coming in desperate pants.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please, I need—”
“Tell me what you need.”
“You. Inside me. Now.” Her hips lifted, seeking contact. “I’m dying, Aero. Please.”
He stripped away the last scraps of lace, baring her completely. She was wet—soaked—her arousal glistening in the low light. He pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, then another, working his way toward the heart of her.
“Not yet,” he murmured against her skin. “One more thing first.”
His tongue found her clit, and she screamed.
He worked her with mouth and fingers, learning the rhythm that made her shatter, the pressure that pushed her toward the edge. She came against his tongue once, twice, her magic surging with each climax, lightning flickering in the cabin’s windows.
“Aero.” His name on her lips was half plea, half demand. “I need—”
“I know what you need.” He kissed his way back up her body, pausing to worship her breasts, her throat, the sensitive spot beneath her ear. “I’m going to give you everything.”
Only when she was boneless and trembling, too pleasure-drunk to form coherent sentences, did he finally position himself at her entrance.
“Cassia.” He waited until her eyes focused on his. “Look at me.”
She looked. And he slid home.
The sensation was overwhelming—her tight heat surrounding him, her magic tangling with his, his dragon roaring triumph beneath his skin. He stilled, buried to the hilt, fighting for control.
“Move,” she breathed. “Aero, please—”
He moved.
Deep, deliberate strokes that built friction and need. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him deeper, demanding more. Her nails scored down his back, leaving trails of fire that made the beast in him keen with satisfaction.
“Harder,” she gasped. “I won’t break.”
He gave her harder. Drove into her with a force that rocked the bed against the wall, that tore cries from her throat, that sent their combined magic spiraling into something wild and perfect. The cabin shook. The windows crackled with lightning. The air itself seemed to hum with power.
The claiming mark built beneath his palms—dragon fire rising, lightning crackling through his veins. He could feel it gathering, the brand that would mark her as his forever.
“Cassia.” His voice came out rough, barely human. “I’m going to—the mark—”
“Yes.” Her hands found his face, pulling him down for a desperate kiss. “Do it. Claim me. Make me yours.”
He pressed his palm to her hip—right at the curve where waist met thigh, intimate and hidden and permanently his. The fire built. The lightning gathered. His dragon roared its approval.
“Yes,” she breathed against his mouth. “Yes—do it—”
He let the fire loose.
The brand seared into her skin—dragon fire shaped by centuries of instinct into something beautiful. A dragon in flight, wings spread, body coiled in mid-launch. Lightning-pattern details branching through and around it, marking her unmistakably as the mate of a storm dragon.
The pain was exquisite—sharp and hot and somehow perfect. Cassia cried out, her inner walls clenching around him as pleasure crashed through her. The climax rolled through her in waves, each one more intense than the last, her magic surging wild and uncontrolled.
Lightning crackled through the room. One of the windows shattered. Neither of them cared.
Aero followed her over the edge, burying himself deep as his release crashed through him. Eight hundred years of control, of isolation, of carefully maintained distance—all of it dissolving in the face of this. Her. Them. The bond snapping into place with an almost audible click.
Just… awareness. The steady pulse of her presence settled into his consciousness like a compass point. She was there—warm and alive and unquestionably his—and he would feel her there for the rest of his existence.
He collapsed beside her, gathering her against his chest, both of them breathing hard. The claiming mark glowed faintly on her hip—dragon fire settling into permanent scarring, beautiful and savage and perfect.
“Well,” Cassia said after a long moment. “That was…”
“Worth the wait?”
“Worth everything.” She shifted to trace the brand on her hip, her fingers gentle on the raised skin. “It’s gorgeous. I can feel it—something warm, right at the edge of my awareness. You.”
“The bond.” He pressed a kiss to her hair. “Not telepathy. Not emotion-sharing. Just… knowing. Where you are. That you’re safe. That you’re mine.”
“Possessive.”
“Very.” His arm tightened around her. “You’re not angry about the pain?”
“I asked for it. I wanted it.” She looked up at him, her eyes soft with something that looked like wonder. “I wanted you. All of you. Even the parts that burn.”
Something cracked in his chest—something that had been frozen for centuries, finally thawing in the warmth of her acceptance.
“What do you want now?” he asked, his voice rough.
“Honestly? A nap. Then food. Then probably more sex.” She grinned up at him. “In that order.”
“I think I can accommodate that.”
She settled against his chest, her hand resting over his heart. He could feel the brand pulsing gently on her hip—dragon fire that would warm when he was near, a permanent reminder of what they’d become to each other.
Outside, the shattered window let in the evening breeze, carrying the salt scent of the ocean and the distant sounds of celebration from the Overlook. The town was still partying. Let them. He had everything he needed right here.
Cassia traced lazy patterns on his chest, her touch light and wondering. “Your heart really does beat differently. Slower. Stronger.”
“Dragon physiology.” He caught her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Does it bother you?”
“No.” She smiled against his skin. “I like it. It’s… reassuring. Like a drum, I can feel even when I can’t hear it.”
“Aero?”
“Mmm?”
“Thank you for not asking me to be less.”
His arms tightened around her. “Thank you for making me feel more.”
She made a soft sound of contentment and closed her eyes. Within minutes, her breathing had evened out, her body going lax against his.
Aero lay awake, holding her, counting the slow beats of his dragon heart. Outside, the sky had cleared for the first time in weeks. The storms had settled. The weather was calm.
For now.
He knew it wouldn’t last. The surge was still ongoing. The supernatural world was still in flux. And somewhere out there, the Deepwater Courts were passing judgment on a siren who had nearly destroyed everything he loved.
All of that could wait. There was only Cassia’s warmth against him and the steady pulse of the mate bond and the knowledge that after all of it—the centuries alone, the silence, the walls he’d built to fill the space where feeling used to be—he was finally, irrevocably, exactly where he was meant to be.
His dragon rumbled contentment, settling into a peace it had never known before. The beast that had paced and raged and demanded for weeks was finally still.
She’s ours, it said. Finally. Forever.
Aero pressed a kiss to Cassia’s hair and closed his eyes.
Not alone anymore.
Never alone again.