Chapter Ten
TEN
HUNTER
“No.”
“Aw, c’mon, Hunter. There’s a lovely big bed in there just waiting to be romped upon, and the flight to New York will take at least five hours.”
Hunter fought to keep from doing just as Mabel asked, whisking her away to the bed so he could indulge in all the steamy thoughts he’d had about her.
“I may be many things, but able to pleasure you to the tips of most of your toenails while two people sit outside the room, where they can hear every moan of ecstatic rapture that I fully intend on wringing out of you when we are, eventually, able to make love, is not one of them.”
“That is a complicated sentence,” Mabel replied, currently sitting on the floor of the surprisingly large bathroom that was attached to the bedroom at the back of the private plane.
She had been doing something she called rolling out, which evidently meant stuffing a large pink rubber cylinder under various parts of her body while she rolled back and forth on it.
She pulled the roller out from under her thigh and, to his surprise and delight, slid her legs wide in a split, stretching from side to side.
“You can do the splits,” he said, a sudden vision of her doing them on top of him filling his mind.
“Yup. Is that smoke coming out of your nose? Why did your fire just turn up a couple of notches?” she asked, pulling a tennis ball out of a large bag they’d retrieved when they flew to Beck so she could gather her things.
She rolled first the calf of one leg, then the other over the tennis ball.
Hunter couldn’t imagine it being anything but painful, although there was nothing in her expression to show that.
“It was the thought of you doing them on me,” he answered, then gave her a stern look that she simply laughed at. “Stop attempting to seduce me, woman. I will have none of it. Do that move with your ass again, please.”
“My ass?” She was now on her side with the roller again, sliding it from her hip joint down to her knee.
“Yes. You flexed while you were rolling over that thing. Please do it again.”
She looked confused for a second, then smiled a slow, slow smile that went straight to Hunter’s groin.
Her ass cheeks flexed. Hunter fought down the need to bury himself in her, and said sternly, “I will ravish you once we have returned to my home, where we can have privacy. Until then, please stop attempting to sway me with your legs and ass and hips and belly.”
“No boobs on that list?” she asked, standing up, and, holding on to the sink counter, tucked one foot behind the other heel and started rising to tiptoe before slowly sinking back down. “I’m surprised, Hunter. You said you like small boobs.”
“I like yours, yes. They are perfect morsels of delight that even now my mouth waters for, but that is not the point. I did not leave them off the list—I will allow you to flaunt them in front of me whenever and as often as you like.”
“How gracious of you,” she said with a laugh, switching to the other foot to do the rising-and-falling exercise.
“But like you, I’m not into exhibitionism, so I think my breasts will keep to themselves until we are alone.
Speaking of that—what do you hope to accomplish by dragging Dawn all the way back to Oregon?
Surely we could have found a hotel room and done a video call with your dragon buddies. ”
“We could, but it wouldn’t be safe. She must be guarded at all times,” he said, checking his phone when it dinged.
“The silver wyvern is annoyed that he can’t get to California in time for the meeting without taking a portal, but he will be here.
That makes all the wyverns and tribe masters, and the interested Dark Ones. Excellent.”
“Since you’ve spurned my offer of steamy bunny lovin’, then I’m going to go ahead and give myself barre,” Mabel said, now alternating the rising and falling on both feet.
“This counter is the perfect height, and I’m far too stiff from all the sitting and flights.
Could you hand me my phone? I always have to have music for barre when I’m on my own, or I get distracted. ”
“Would you do this for me one day?” he couldn’t help but ask as he stopped in the doorway, ignoring the sound of yet another notification on his phone.
She looked confused for a moment, turning to face him, her feet pointing in opposite directions as she began to sweep one leg out in a repetitive manner. “What, barre exercises? Sure, if you like. I generally do them every day, although I don’t know how interesting you’ll find it.”
“I will find it infinitely interesting,” he told her with what he suspected was an unduly lascivious expression, then returned to the main cabin to address the questions coming in from the others.
A little more than twelve hours later, Hunter stood at the end of the long oval table that dominated his tribe’s meeting room, on an upper floor of his lodge.
It had been rebuilt after Archer’s mate had exploded it around them, but he’d kept pretty much to the original plan of the building, since he’d designed it himself, and it met his tribe’s needs.
Conversation flowed around the room as the dragons and Dark Ones mingled, although he was aware that everyone but Archer kept shooting him questioning glances.
“—and it’s so interesting that Sally arranged for you to be the one to help Hunter,” Aisling said to Mabel as he strode over to where she was chatting with a few of the mates. “It’s almost like kismet. You don’t ... eh ... happen to like Hunter, do you?”
“She’s a wyvern’s mate, and although she may not be my mate, she most definitely likes me,” he said, wrapping an arm around Mabel’s waist, taking great pleasure in the way she leaned into him. “As I do her. Does that answer your question?”
Mabel elbowed him in the side. “You don’t have to be rude, Hunter. She’s just trying to find out if we’re a couple without coming right out and asking if we’re hooking up.”
Aisling laughed as the blonde Ysolde came over, a speculative look in her eyes.
“I was, although I was trying to be a bit more subtle about it. My apologies for offending you, Hunter. I assure you I have no ulterior motives other than wondering if we should add Mabel to the mates’ chat groups.
But I can see you guys are still working things out, so no pressure. ”
“We couldn’t help but wonder what was up when Hunter texted the men that we had to talk about the blood moon, and that you had helped him find it. So, you two are a thing?” Ysolde asked.
“It’s ... ” Mabel started to say, then hesitated.
Aisling and Ysolde exchanged glances, then, laughing, both said, “Complicated.”
“Definitely,” Mabel said, smiling at him in a manner that made him aware of many pleasurable feelings he didn’t remember ever experiencing before.
Although they had arrived a few hours ago, he hadn’t time to indulge in the lovemaking he desired due to the gathering he’d called, an act he now greatly regretted.
“A fact we’re so happy about, since Hunter has clearly needed someone to take him in hand,” Thaisa said when she joined the mates, sending him a warm smile that took away the sting of her words.
He raised his eyebrows at her, causing her to blush.
“So to speak,” she added quickly.
There was a stir at the door, and a sensation of power entering the room had him turning to greet the last of the arrivals.
“I’m sorry we’re late,” Becket, mate of the Firstborn son Yrian, said as they entered the meeting room. “We evidently have a barn cat we didn’t know we had, and she had a litter in one of the feed rooms, so we had to rush mom and newborns in to the vet to make sure they were OK.”
“That is Yrian, a Firstborn. In fact, he’s the first Firstborn, which seems a bit extra, as Thaisa said, but he is much respected in the kin,” Hunter told Mabel in a volume meant for her only.
“The man in the corner talking to the Dark One is Owain, a thane. His mate is Berry, the woman hugging Becket.”
“Thanks for the heads-up,” she responded, giving him a warm glance. “There’s a lot of people here, and it’s a bit confusing how everyone is related.”
“Poor kittens. I hope they all got a clean bill of health,” Aisling said, looking worried.
“They did,” Yrian said, inclining his head to the wyverns while making a bow to the mates. “We will have the mother cat fixed once she has recovered and it is safe. She has mismatched eyes, and has already made an appearance on our channel.”
“Your ... channel?” Mabel asked, then stuck out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Mabel. Hunter’s told me that you’re the first dragon to be born?”
“My father is the First Dragon,” Yrian corrected. “It is he who made the race of dragonkin, and is the ancestor of all dragons who ever were, and ever will be. But I am his firstborn child. Baltic is my youngest brother. Your mate and Archer are grandsons of my daughter Nala.”
Mabel gawked at Hunter for a few seconds. “The guy who created dragons is your ... what, great-great-grandfather?”
“Why does this matter?” he asked, mildly confused why she looked so stunned. “As Yrian said, the First Dragon is the ancestor of us all. Technically, all dragons are related.”
“Fortunately, not in an incestuous way, since dragons like to keep their gene pool healthy,” Ysolde answered.
“Since we are all gathered, can we begin?” Drake asked. “We left our children two hours away with Aisling’s family, but if there is some new danger, we will take them home immediately.”
“That reminds me, I need to send some thank-you flowers to your stepmom, Aisling. Your folks really went above and beyond by taking Anduin, too,” Ysolde told her.
“Who—” Mabel started to ask.
“Our son,” Ysolde answered, moving over to the chair Baltic held out for her. “He loves Aisling and Drake’s kids, and they are very good to him.”
“That’s because he’s our youngest’s bestie,” Aisling said as she, too, took a seat.