Chapter 22
Magma
My mate is screaming. It’s shrill and hits me deep.
“Sage!” I roar.
I’m running but don’t seem to be getting anywhere, even though I am pushing hard.
Security Central is burning. I am too far away, and the distance stretches longer with every stride I take, the ground sliding under me.
Her screams kick up a notch and adrenaline courses through me. I’m frantically searching and running, yelling for her.
I’m sweating; every part of me is tense. I finally make it to the building and hurry inside. It’s a mess. When I find her, Sage is buried under rubble. My mate is crushed and dying.
This isn’t right.
I wasn’t there when she passed, and she didn’t die like this.
She calls my name, blood trickling from her mouth. I scent the acrid smell of burning. It feels real. It can’t be!
She’s pinned under a fallen beam, blood dark across her stomach. Her eyes find mine, and there’s no fear in them. Just tired relief, like she’d been waiting for me and is glad I finally showed up, even now, even like this.
“You’re late,” she says, and tries to smile.
Late.
Why would she say that?
I drop to my knees beside her. I get my hands on the beam, and it doesn’t matter how hard I pull. It doesn’t move, and some part of me already knows there’s nothing on this earth that’s going to save her.
It’s because she’s already dead.
No!
Fresh hurt courses through me.
“I’m sorry.” The words come out of me before I can stop them. “I’m so sorry, Sage. I wasn’t there for you. I couldn’t save you. I still can’t save you.”
Her hand finds mine. Her grip is weak.
“I know,” she says.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” I say, and I am begging her now; I can hear it in my own voice, this need for her to understand, to forgive me. “I wasn’t there when you needed me.”
“I know,” Sage says again, and her eyes are closing, and the beam is getting heavier. “There was nothing you could have done, my love.”
“Don’t go.” My voice cracks down the middle. “Please don’t leave me.”
“I have to,” she whispers.
The fire is getting closer. I can feel the heat of it on the side of my face.
“Magma.”
That’s not her voice.
“Magma!”
Hands on my shoulders, shaking me, and I come up out of it with my fists raised. Then my mind catches up to where I am, and I stop an inch from contact because some part of me, some buried and still-functioning part, recognizes her scent and remembers where I am.
Carla is crouched in front of me in the dark with both hands raised, her eyes wide.
I’m breathing like I’ve run for miles. My heart is slamming against my ribs hard enough that I can feel it in my throat.
She blows out a heavy breath.
“You were dreaming,” she says, her voice low. “You were having a nightmare. I woke you.”
I drag a hand down my face.
“I’m fine,” I say, even though my hands are not steady and my chest still feels too tight.
She reaches for me. Just her hand, coming toward my arm, meaning nothing but comfort, and something in me recoils so hard and so fast that I pull away.
“Don’t,” I snap. “I don’t need… Just don’t. I can’t right now.”
She freezes. I watch the hurt cloud her eyes, and she pulls her hand back into her own lap.
“Okay.” Her voice has gone flat. “Sorry. I was trying to help.”
She gets up and moves back to her side of the overhang, putting distance between us. I should be relieved, but I’m not. I feel like an asshole instead.
I sit there with my back against the stone and try to get my pulse back under control. The dream is already fraying at the edges, but the weight of it stays lodged behind my ribs regardless. Sage’s voice lingers in my mind.
I’m shaken. I have terrible dreams about my mate from time to time. I guess I feel guilty for not being there on that terrible, awful day.
“I’m sorry you had a bad dream.” Carla’s voice comes out of the dark a few minutes later, quieter now, some of the heat gone out of it.
“But you don’t get to snap at me for trying to help and then act like I’m the problem here.
” There’s an edge back in her voice now, sharper this time.
“I get it, Magma. You regret what happened. Fine. I can live with that. But you’ve been treating me like I’m contagious ever since we had sex, and I’m sick of it. ”
“That’s not—”
“Isn’t it?” She sits up. Even in the dark, I can feel her looking at me.
“You won’t look at me. You barely talk to me unless you’re giving me an order.
You moved your bed six feet away, like sleeping near me might be catching.
So yeah. I’m starting to think you regret it.
I’m starting to feel like you think less of me now. ”
“I don’t think less of you.”
“Are you sure? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks a hell of a lot like you think I’m some kind of slut who jumped you the first chance she got, and now you can’t stand to be near me.”
“That’s not what I think.” My voice comes out rough. “Not even close.”
“Then what is it?” She’s not backing down. I can hear it in the steadiness underneath the anger. “Because I’d really like to know, Magma. What exactly is going on in your head that makes you flinch every time I get within three feet of you?”
I should give her something easy. Tell her it’s about the mission, about staying focused, about the danger of getting attached to someone I might not be able to keep alive.
None of it would be a lie, exactly. None of it would be the truth, either.
“I still want to fuck you,” I say instead, and the words come out low and rough. “That’s the problem. I haven’t stopped wanting to get back inside you since we had sex, and it’s gotten worse instead of better, and I don’t know what to do with it.”
She goes very still.
“So that’s it.” Something shifts in her voice, gone quiet now too. “You’re not avoiding me because you regret it.”
“No. I’m avoiding you because I want you so damned badly. I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
“Then stop.” She moves before I can finish whatever I was about to say, crossing the gap between us on her knees. She stops right in front of me…waiting. “Just stop because I want you too.”
There’s a beat where I could still end this.
“Fuck it,” I grind out.
I get a hand into her hair and pull her mouth to mine.
She makes a small sound against my lips, surprised and pleased all at once, and her hands come up around my neck.
I deepen the kiss because there’s no version of this where I could have stopped.
I get my other arm around her waist and pull her into my lap, careful of her feet, careless of everything else.
This time I make myself slow down.
I get my hands on her face and just hold her there for a second, my forehead against hers, both of us breathing hard already.
I pull away a little, looking at her.
“You’d better not be second-guessing this. I’m not going to tell you to stop. I want you inside me,” she tells me.
I laugh, low and a little broken, and kiss her again, slower this time, learning the shape of her mouth instead of just taking it. She melts into me the way she did the first time, but there’s none of the urgency of the river.
I unclasp her bra and cup both her breasts in my hands and just look at her for a moment. She’s so damned beautiful.
“You’re staring,” she whispers.
“I know. You have great tits. They’re big and bouncy.”
“They’re not that big.”
“They look pretty big to me. They jiggle and bounce and make me so fucking horny I don’t know what to do with myself.”
She giggles softly. “That’s because I’m overweight by a good ten pounds.”
“You are not.” I kiss her and fondle her breasts, feeling their weight and stroking her nipples. Her breathing goes uneven against my mouth.
I lay her back on the bed of fronds.
I take my time untying her skirt and pulling off her panties, and when she’s bare, I just look at her again, every inch of her from the curve of her hip, to the soft swell of her stomach, and the dark thatch of hair between her thighs.
“You have a pretty pussy.”
She giggles softly. “You really need to get laid more often, Magma.”
The thought of fucking someone else gets my beast all riled up. I know he’ll calm down once we’re back on Draig.
The thought of anyone else touching her makes me see red.
Easy! I tell my beast.
I kneel between her legs and press a kiss to the inside of her knee.
Then higher. Then higher still, until I reach her pussy.
I put my mouth on her, suckling on her clit, working it gently until her hips start to roll against my mouth on their own.
I slide one finger inside her, then a second, and I keep my rhythm patient, even as her hand fists in my hair and her thighs start to tremble around my head.
Then I lave at her clit with the flat of my tongue before suckling it again. Her breath goes all ragged, and her hips jerk harder.
“Magma.” My name comes out broken.
I don’t stop.
I lave and suckle, working my fingers in and out of her until she comes apart under my mouth, her back arching, her hand pressed hard over her mouth to keep the sound contained.
I stay with her through every shudder of it, gentling my tongue as the waves ease, until she goes soft and loose beneath me.
“Damn, but you’re good at that,” she whispers.
“I’m rusty.”
“That’s rusty?” she pants.
“Yep.”
I crawl over her, taking my weight on my forearms.
“Hi,” she whispers, and there’s a smile in it now, small and a little dazed.
“Hi.” I brush a strand of hair off her face. “Put your legs around me. I want your knees by your ears.”
She does as I say.
“I didn’t realize I was this flexible.”
I notch myself at her entrance and watch her face as I push in, slow, giving her time to adjust around me. Her mouth falls open on a silent breath.
“I also didn’t think I could take a cock as big as yours.”
“You take me so good,” I grind out, sweat beading on my forehead as I keep pushing into her, inch by agonizing inch.
Her breath is ragged. Her eyes are hooded.
I go still once I’m fully seated. I want to roar and to pound into her, but I’m not doing that again. I’m going to be a gentleman if it fucking kills me.
“You feel incredible,” I tell her, my voice rough.
She whimpers, her nails digging into my back.
I start to move. Slow, at first, moving in deep, deliberate strokes. Her body opening for mine, just the quiet drag of pleasure building between us in the dark.
Her breasts are mashed between us. The slick, tight feel of her pussy has my balls pulling tight.
She makes these ragged little whimpers. Her mouth has dropped open, and her eyes are glassy.
I keep one hand braced next to her head. The other slides between us, the pad of my thumb finding her clit again, working it in slow circles timed to my own rhythm. Her breath catches every time I hit the spot that makes her squeeze tight around me.
“Magma.” She says my name like a question this time.
“Carla,” I groan.
I pick up the pace and watch her face the whole time, the way her brows draw together, the way her mouth falls open, the way her eyes find mine and hold on like she needs something to anchor to. There’s a desperation in them that matches my own.
My dragon stirs low and insistent, wanting more than this, wanting things I have no intention of giving him. I push him back down without much trouble this time, since I’m inside her.
Her hands clutch at me. Her pants turn ragged and broken. Her eyes squeeze shut as her pussy starts to flutter. Then they open wide as she tightens around me.
I have to hold back a roar when she presses her face against my chest, her little teeth biting into me.
I don’t so much come as detonate. My orgasm hits me everywhere and all at once, my seed pulsing from me.
I thrust harder as I shatter. I groan deep, having to work to keep from shouting as I keep pulsing. Every nerve ending tingles as I finally come down.
Carla is whimpering softly with each hard thrust. Her mouth is still clamped down on me. It feels so fucking good that I have to force myself to slow down. I ease in and out of her…going slower and slower, until I finally stop.
I stay inside her longer than I need to.
Then I ease out and pull her against my chest. I want her again. My dragon wants me to put her on her knees, but I ignore him.
I ignore his pleas to mate her even more, because what the hell!?
She may have bitten me, but it didn’t mean anything. She’s a human. Her teeth didn’t even break my skin.
“You’re a great lover, Magma.” She gets this shocked look and sucks in a breath. “Not that we were making love. I mean, you know what I mean. You’re good at fucking,” she quickly says.
“I know what you mean, and I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should, because it’s true.”
“We should get some sleep. Good night, Carla.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard.” She looks up at me even though she can’t see much in the dark.
“No, it wasn’t so hard. I don’t think any less of you.”
I think less of myself, but not her.
“Okay, well, sleep well.” She yawns.
I should go back to my own side of the cave, but to hell with it. I don’t want to upset her. At least, that’s what I tell myself. I let myself drift away with Carla in the crook of my arm. It feels good.
It’s the first time I’ve slept next to a female after having sex with her since I was mated. The first time I’ve held someone close in a lover’s embrace since Sage.
I try not to give the thought too much airtime, or it might freak me out.
I soon fall into a dreamless sleep.