Fire Rising

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Sammi had never done anything so impulsive in her life, but it had felt … right. There had been no second-guessing herself, no wondering if she was making a mistake. There was just a certainty she had never experienced before.

She turned when she reached the bed and found Tristan already inside the room. Earlier she’d lit four candles and set them about the room to give it a golden glow. This was a night of magic, a night of dreams.

A night where she put aside all her fears and insecurities and let herself go.

Tristan’s gaze gradually raked down her body and back up again. Her skin heated from the fire in his eyes, and desire pooled low in her belly.

“Beautifully perfect,” he said in his deep voice. “I’ve wanted to tear your clothes off for a while.”

“All you had to do was ask.”

He stepped to her and lifted her hand until their palms were against each other. “I’ll remember that next time.”

“There’s going to be a next time?” she asked as her stomach fluttered in excitement.

“Oh, aye. I suspect many more next times.”

His fingers spread and then laced with hers. Only then did he tug her against him until they stood flesh to flesh. She had felt his wonderful body before, but just like watching him shift into a dragon, she wanted more.

She set her hand at his narrow waist and once more felt his dragon tattoo heat beneath her palm. “Does every Dragon King have such a tat?”

“Aye. Each one is different, just as we are different dragons.” He used his free hand to push her hair away from her throat before he bent his head and nuzzled her.

“Why the tattoo though?” she asked as her eyes slid shut from the exquisite pleasure of his lips.

“It represents who we are. We are dragons,” he murmured, “who can shift to human form.”

She clung to him as his mouth kissed and licked to her ear. “It warms beneath my hand.”

“Hmm. That’s no’ all that’s hot for you.”

Sammi shivered as he took her mouth in a possessive, dominating kiss. His hand slid sensuously down her back to cup her butt and bring her against his thick arousal.

He then brought both of her arms above her head as he leaned back, their eyes locking. Sammi couldn’t pull in a breath because her body ached for him. With one kiss he had her trembling, needy.

Utterly infatuated.

His hands caressed down her arms leisurely, leaving a path of heat in his wake. Dark eyes, fathomless and full of promise, held her pinned, daring her to give in.

As if she had any choice. They had been on this road since she imagined she dreamed him. Now he was standing before her, his lips wet with their kisses.

“So damned beautiful,” he whispered.

Sammi sucked in a breath when his hands traveled to her breasts and lightly stroked the underside before cupping them, as if testing their weight.

Her nipples hardened, an ache settling low in her belly. He continued teasing her while he learned her by following her sides to her waist and then her hips.

For several seconds they simply looked at each other. Sammi had never felt such desire, such overwhelming hunger for another before. She reached for him the same instant he grabbed her.

They came together in a tangle of limbs and lips as they kissed frantically, madly. Senselessly.

Desire, fierce and savage, consumed them. Nothing mattered, nothing existed but the two of them and the ever-growing attraction.

The kiss deepened, pulling her further and further down into his seduction, into the passion. Into the pleasure that awaited them.

The back of her legs hit the bed, but before she could fall back, Tristan tightened his arms and lifted her off her feet as he kneeled on the bed. Then, slowly, all the while kissing her senselessly, he lay her down.

His weight atop her was a heady thing. She barely had time to enjoy it before he shifted down her body and closed his lips around her nipples.

Sammi gasped, her hands flying to his head to hold him as he teased and tantalized until her breasts were swollen and her nipples aching points.

Only then did he lift his head and kiss her. She rocked her hips against him, needing the contact to ease the need pushing her.

He slid a hand between them and spread her legs to expose her sex. The cool air washed over her. She fisted the covers in her hand when his fingers delved between her legs and parted her curls.

Her back arched when he dipped a finger inside her. Desire tightened, coiling with each touch, and bringing her closer to the edge.

Then he touched her clit. Sammi let out a low moan when he circled the swollen nub. The pleasure was unlike anything she’d ever felt. No one touched her like Tristan.

She whispered his name when his tongue flicked over her clitoris. Time stood still as he brought her higher and higher as his tongue licked and laved.

When the climax struck, Sammi wasn’t prepared. She screamed at the intense impact as it swept her, seized her, taking her to a place she had only dreamed existed.

Tristan watched the flush cover her skin as the orgasm claimed her. He had never seen anything so stunning, nor had he ever held anyone so amazing in his arms before.

With her body still trembling from her climax, Tristan wrapped her legs around him and gathered her against him as he sat up.

Her powder blue eyes were glossy, her lips parted as her chest heaved. But she looked at him as if he was everything she could ever want.

The worries of his past, of his future, and what he was meant to do were forgotten as he sank into her gaze. She erased all his doubt, all his burdens.

And in their place was her.

Sammi.

She filled every empty space inside him, spaces he hadn’t known existed until she had come along and pierced him with her beautiful eyes.

“Tristan,” she said in a voice husky with passion.

He pulled her onto her knees as she hovered over his throbbing cock. Tristan hissed in a breath when she rubbed her sex across the tip of his arousal. Electric currents of need and desire sparked through him, setting his already heated blood to blaze.

His hold tightened and he claimed her lips in another kiss. He couldn’t stop touching or kissing her. She was like a drug, and once he’d had a taste, he needed more.

All thought halted when she gradually slid her tight, wet sheath down his cock. He didn’t release his breath until she was fully seated.

Then the only thing that filled his mind was imprinting himself fully and unconditionally upon her. He wanted her mind wiped of any other man that had come before him—and any who dared to come after.

Tristan held her hips as he shifted his body. They stared wordlessly into each other’s eyes as he rocked his hips slowly. Her hard nipples grazed his chest, causing him to moan. Unable to hold off, he pinched a nipple and heard her suck in a breath before she groaned and rotated her hips.

That’s all it took to push him past the point of no return. He flipped her onto her back and set his hands on either side of her head. He pulled out of her, and then gave a hard thrust as he sank deep.

She whimpered, her nails digging into his arms. Again and again he filled her, taking them higher, pushing them further. A sheen of sweat covered them, desire consumed them.

Her body was pliant, giving, eager. He tried to hold back a wildness that rose up in him for the first time, and each time he pulled back, she held tighter.

The rhythm increased as he plunged inside her tight body again and again, going deeper, driving harder. The wildness, a madness that seemed to be centered around her, took him again.

He wanted to pound into her, marking her as his for everyone to see. The ferocity of it caught him off guard, and he once more pulled back.

“No,” she begged as she held him in place.

She couldn’t understand the part of him that wanted to break free, a part he had never encountered before—a part that could hurt her.

Her hips rose to meet his thrusts, her soft moans turning to cries as she called his name over and over.

Tristan was powerless to deny her or his body. He gripped her hip with one hand and plunged mercilessly. The harder and deeper he thrust, the more she took.

The first convulsion of her body around his cock as she climaxed sent him spiraling into his own orgasm. He filled her once more as his seed poured inside her and her tight walls milked him.

A bubble of peace, of pure bliss surrounded them as they fell in a tangle of limbs, content to be in each other’s arms.

Banan strode wearily into the manor. He hadn’t taken two steps inside when a form blocked his way. He looked up into Con’s enraged face.

“You went to see Ulrik.”

It wasn’t a question, and Banan didn’t treat it as such. “I did.”

He walked around Con into the parlor and poured himself a serving of whisky. Before he put the stopper in the crystal decanter, he poured himself more.

Then he lifted the glass and drained the entire thing.

“I take it things didna go well,” Con said from the doorway.

Banan glanced at him to see his arms crossed, his face set in a neutral mask of indifference. Banan knew better. He knew the efforts Con had gone to in order that no Dragon King had contact with Ulrik.

And frankly he didn’t care how pissed off the King of Kings was.

“I forbade any of you from seeing Ulrik.”

Con might be the King of Kings, but he didn’t make decisions for individual Dragon Kings. He tried, and some even listened to Con most of the time.

Other times, the Kings did as they wanted.

The only exception was when it came to protecting Dreagan and their secret. In that, all Dragon Kings were united.

“Con, I say this with the deepest sincerity. Fuck off.”

Banan didn’t wait for a reply as he poured more whisky.

“What did he tell you?” Con asked.

Banan wasn’t distracted by the soft tone. That’s usually when Con was the angriest. He looked up at Constantine and raised his glass in salute. “He refused to help.”

“I could’ve told you that.”

“You could’ve, but I had to try. I know you can no’ possibly understand that.”

Con dropped his arms and pushed away from the doorway. “I understand perfectly.”

“Do you? I doubt it. And it doesna matter. Sammi is still in danger, which means so is Jane, and I’ll do anything to protect what’s mine.”

Con’s black eyes grew cold. “As will I.”

“Have you seen Ulrik?” Banan asked as Con started to walk away.

Con jerked as he halted and then faced Banan. “Of course.”

“Nay. Have you really seen him?”

“If you mean have I spoken with him, that would be nay. I doona bother to get close enough to exchange words.”

“He’s no’ the same man,” Banan said as he set down his empty glass and walked to the doorway next to Con. “He’s … hard, cruel. Fierce.”

Con lifted a blond brow. “Your point?”

“He wants revenge. And I think he’s going to get it.”