Chapter 22
The thunder didn’t debatefor long.
Rather than bringing us food, they came to retrieve us.
As we climbed the stairs, our pillows and blanket were in August’s arm and hanging over his shoulder, despite my attempt to convince him that I could carry something since he was the wounded one. He even had the backpack.
He just captured my hand, lacing his fingers through mine.
When we made it up to the living area of the mountain, we ate together. Then, August left me in his room while he gave the other dragons his side of the story.
I took a long shower, scrubbing his blood off my skin and out of my hair. The only shampoo in there was more of the unscented four-in-one stuff, but I didn’t mind.
We’d be back to the cabin soon enough.
August stepped into the bathroom as I started to turn the water off. His eyes moved slowly over my figure through the clear glass of the shower’s door. After a moment, he finally stripped.
He didn’t bother trying to get the bandages off before joining me under the water.
I smiled as he grabbed my hips and pulled me to his chest. His skin felt amazing against mine, and I wrapped my arms around his back as he held me close.
“I don’t think wearing bandages in the shower is sanitary,” I said against him.
He chuckled, running his hands down my back. “I don’t care. They’ll be a pain in the ass to get off.”
“I’ll undo them for you.”
He didn’t let go of me, though.
I rolled my eyes at him, and his lips curved upward.
He kissed my forehead, and my shoulder.
Then, he finally let go of me.
It took me a few minutes to get him completely unwrapped, and my stomach clenched more with each one I exposed.
They were bad.
“Who looked at these in the prison?”
“One of the other guys.” He reached for his crappy soap, but I grabbed his wrist to stop him.
“You can’t just throw that stuff on injuries like this, August.”
“Why not?”
I blinked.
I had absolutely zero medical training, so it wasn’t like I had a good answer for him.
“You just can’t,” I finally said.
He lifted an eyebrow at me.
I narrowed mine at him.
“Alright,” he finally agreed.
But as soon as I let go of his wrist, he pumped some of the soap into his hand and started washing his torso with it.
“August!”
He laughed. “It’s fine, Fireball. I’m fine.”
“We shouldn’t have been having sex when you look like this.” I gestured to a particularly awful wound.
“Like I said, I’m fine. We’re not keeping our hands to ourselves just because I’m bleeding a little.”
“You’re not bleeding alittle. You’re bleeding a lot. And your brothers don’t think you’re fine. Eli said you were on death’s door.”
August continued washing himself.
I huffed at him.
“If I die, you’re going to end up with some other bastard,” August said. “So I’m not going to die. There’s no reason to talk about it. You’re mine.”
I scowled. “This is not how this is going to go, August.” I gestured between us. “We’re a team, remember? If I don’t get to lie about being fine, you don’t either.”
He let out a long breath, but finally dipped his head. “My body hurts. It’s going to be a few days before I’m completely back to normal. Maybe a week.”
I stared at him, my eyes narrow.
“Two at the most,” he said reluctantly. “We don’t need to stop having sex. I don’t want that. Having you here with me, treating me normally, makes me feel a lot less helpless.”
I could accept that as the truth. “So you’re going to let me take care of you?”
“I guess.”
The reluctance in his voice almost made me snort.
“If the demons are giving you sex dreams, we’ll need to head home as soon as possible. I don’t want you making backward progress on recovering from heat. And I don’t want their magic touching you.”
“We can leave as soon as you’re healed enough to fly.”
He growled, but I stared him down, and he eventually jerked his head.
It seemed like a reasonable agreement to me.
He pulled me back into his arms, and I closed my eyes as I hugged him again.
It felt good to be back with him. Even without heat’s magic, we were still a team. And that made me feel better about everything.
Eventually,we got out of the shower. August refused to let anyone more experienced than me touch his wounds, so I slathered him in antibiotic ointment that he grumbled he didn’t need. Then, I wrapped him up in bandages, following his instructions while attempting to make them look as nice as the ones he’d bled through in the prison.
They didn’t look anywhere near that good.
But the wounds were covered, and August wasn’t going to let me do anything else, so I forced myself to be satisfied with it.
After we were dressed, we headed back to the food. We stuffed our faces, then called it a night, and crashed in bed together.
Though I was exhausted, I grabbed my phone and buried my nose in a book on Kindle instead of letting myself sleep.
When the sex dreams started, I’d inevitably wake up August. He needed the rest much more than I did, so that wasn’t an option.
The book would keep me awake and distracted for a little while, at least.
So he slept, and I read.
Two days later,I was reluctantly climbing on August’s back to fly home.
I was excited to go back to the cabin, but he wasn’t anywhere near completely healed.
He just refused to stay at Mate Mountain any longer when I wasn’t sleeping. And not sleeping had become an impossibility. I kept drifting off and waking up with his face between my thighs.
Which was fun—but he needed to stop opening his wounds.
So, we were headed back home.
The flight was long,and relaxing. I fell asleep on August’s back, but he flew steadily enough that I didn’t fall.
We made it to the cabin soon enough, and August carried my exhausted ass right to our bed before we both crashed.
August was sprawledover the top of me when I woke up. He’d pushed the bottom hem of my shirt up to my neck and was snoring quietly, his face resting against my bare breasts. One of his hands was tangled in my hair. The other was under my pillow.
I ran my fingers through his hair slowly.
Almost reverently.
He was gorgeous.
And he was mine.
It was insane. Absolutely insane.
But nothing had ever felt so right.
He kept snoring. One of his black eyes was gone, and the other was on its way to being healed too. The deepest wounds were still in bad shape, but most of the smaller ones were either completely better, or almost there.
He was recovering.
That was what mattered.
I slowly eased my way out from beneath him, replacing my body with a pillow as I did so. After I was free, I stopped in the bathroom, then headed to the kitchen. Though I was still wearing just a pair of his boxers and one of his shirts, I was used to wearing his clothes at that point. There was no need to change.
Turning quiet music on, I set my phone up next to the sink and started making pancakes. It was late afternoon on whatever day we were currently living—I didn’t bother looking at the calendar—but breakfast food sounded good.
Bacon, eggs, and homemade buttermilk syrup went with the pancakes, so I whipped it all up before bringing both plates to our room.
August was still sleeping peacefully, but he needed to eat if he was going to keep healing.
I woke him with a hand on his shoulder. He captured it and kissed my fingertips, then my knuckles.
When he sucked one of of my fingers into his mouth, I laughed.
He gave me a lazy smile as his gaze moved down my figure. “Good morning, Fireball.”
“Good afternoon, Auggie.” My voice was playful.
His eyes landed on the food I was holding, and his stomach rumbled.
When I grinned, he chuckled, accepting the plate I offered. “Thanks for cooking.”
“Any time.” I sat down beside him on bed, and we ate together.
It was perfect.
After a few more days ofresting and recuperating, August was finally healed enough that we headed into Scale Ridge to talk to the Villins about our jobs.
His thunder wouldn’t let him have anything to do with the jail if he worked with them, but they wouldn’t imprison him for it without a sentence from the supernatural government, so he didn’t care.
We spent the morning having informal interviews with the Villin brothers, all three of which August knew well. At lunch time, we ended up at Brynn’s house, catching her up on everything that had gone down. The dragons hadn’t sworn me to secrecy with witch magic yet, so I told her everything August was comfortable with me sharing.
Some things were still taboo, though.
We met up with Vi and Randa for dinner at Vi’s restaurant, and had a good time chatting. They got to know August a bit, and when we finally made it out, both of them admitted they liked him.
I knew they would, though.
How could they not?
When we went home and watched a movie, curled up together on our couch, I decided I would be insanely happy if the rest of my life went like that day had.
…Even if I was quietly a little worried that we hadn’t had the chance to seal our bond. A tiny part of me was afraid August was going to send some other woman into heat every time we were out in public.
I tried to ignore that part of me, though.
The daysthat followed passed in a blur of job training and mundane bliss.
August and I cooked together.
Talked.
Laughed.
Made love.
We spent our mornings sitting on our porch swing, with his arm around me and my hand on his thigh, watching the sun rise.
It was one of my favorite parts of every day.
Two weeks went by quickly. The sun was rising and we were swinging slowly, in exactly that position, when his fingers slipped beneath the t-shirt I had on and brushed my bare hip.
I sucked in a breath at the familiar sting of pain.
And the fire that raced through my veins.
August went statue-still.
Instead of confusion or terror, I felt joy.
Fierce, intense joy.
“It’s starting again,” I whispered.
August’s grip on my hip tightened, but he didn’t say a word.
Warmth rolled through my veins, along with a heady dose of desire.
I wanted him.
Needed him.
And a look at the fire in his eyes told me he felt exactly the same way.
So I lifted myself onto his lap, turning around as I did. Straddling him.
His hands slid down to my ass and pulled me closer, so I was positioned against his erection. “I can’t fight it again, Fireball.”
“I don’t want you to fight it.” I leaned in closer.
He did the same.
His lips caught mine, and he kissed me.
Slowly.
Sweetly.
As the warmth in my veins increased, the kiss heated too, until his bare body was against mine and I was sinking down over his cock.
We moved together until we both had to end the kiss so we could breathe.
He tilted my hips, changing the angle slightly, and it sent me over the edge.
My cry melded with his roar as we climaxed together, and I felt something bigger well up inside me.
Something stronger.
Something far more intense.
My back arched, and the orgasm went on, and on.
When it finally faded, we were both still struggling for breath, but I felt different.
More whole, somehow.
“Can you feel our bond?”August’s voice was in my mind. I felt him there, as much as I heard him. Maybe even more.
The feeling was so intimate, I struggled to wrap my mind around it.
“Yes,” I admitted, trying to reach out to him the way he had reached out to me.
His chest rumbled with something.
Joy.
Pride.
Pleasure.
“All of the above,”he said.
My lips curved upward, and he captured my mouth again.
The kiss was rough, just the way I liked it.
“I love you, Fireball.” Though he didn’t release my lips, his voice was strong in my mind. Confident, too. He knew exactly what he felt for me.
And I knew exactly how I felt about him too. “I love you too,” I admitted. “I have for a while.”
“Let’s make it forever.”
My mouth stretched in a smile against his. “Forever sounds good to me.”
I’d fallen for a dragon…
And I wouldn’t go back even if I could.