B00CGOH3US EBOK (45 page)

God help him, now that she was in his arms, he never wanted to let her go. He kissed her, the soft touch of lips growing more forceful as their tongues danced, their breaths merged, and each fed the hunger of the other. Finally, he broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers, his eyes closed.

"Ah, Jill, you tempt me beyond bearing."

"I certainly hope so."

His eyes flew open and he pulled back to look at her. "But I cannot offer you a bed, nor even a roof over your head."

She smiled and ran a finger along his jaw. "It didn't matter to me the first time. I don't think a little thing like the lack of a mattress will bother me now."

Jill drew her hands down his mail-covered chest, then held her breath as her nervous fingers unbuckled the belt holding his sword. When it started to slip down his hips, his hands covered hers. She froze. Was he going to stop her? Was he going to deny them what she knew they both wanted?

She dared to look up and found herself gazing into eyes dancing with golden flames. He took the belt from her and tossed it to the ground before spinning her around.

"Baelin?"

"Hush." He brushed her hair aside, placing a whisper-soft kiss on her neck. "Since that first night in the cave, I have dreamt of doing this."

She felt a pull at the back of her gown as he untied the laces, tugging them loose. He kissed her neck, her shoulder, the ridge of her shoulder blade, as inch by inch, her skin was revealed.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he peeled the gown down her arms as that wicked dragon tongue of his licked circles down her spine to the small of her back. His touch was so tender for a battle-scarred warrior dragon, his attention to her so gentle. Jill trembled, her legs nearly buckling with need as she stood naked in the ruins of his parents' chamber.

Behind her, she heard the clink of mail, the rasp of cloth. Then his arms came around her waist, pulling her back against the naked, hard length of him before he trailed his hands up her stomach to cup her breasts.

"Know you what you are about, my lady?"

"Yes."

"Then, before we go any further, I must know one thing—do you trust me?"

She only paused a heartbeat to answer.

"With my life."

He spun her back around. Pure pleasure lit his face before a cocky grin crossed his features. His eyes hinted at some deep secret he held just out of her reach. "Then I need you to trust me now, and know that I will never let you come to harm."

Jill shivered. They were about to make love. At least she hoped so. He was making it sound like they were about to do something life-threatening. All she could do was nod.

"Then my lady, prepare yourself to mate with the dragon."

Before she knew what was happening, Baelin wrapped his arms around her waist. He spread his mighty dragon wings and took them up through the opening in the roof, soaring into the darkening sky.

Jill squealed and held onto his neck for dear life.

Higher and higher they soared, until she wondered if they were going to touch the clouds.

All the while, he kissed her, his wicked tongue distracting her from their rapid ascent. He held her tightly to him, one arm firm around her waist, the other cupping her buttocks, his rigid cock pressed between their bellies. Terrified at first, passion gave over to the sensation. Lost in the heat of his kiss, Jill almost forgot that her feet weren't touching the ground.

And then they stopped and hovered in the air, broad sweeps of his wings keeping them aloft as if they were treading water. The cool temperature of the high altitude licked at the skin of her back, making her front where she pressed against his bare skin feel as if it were on fire.

"What are you doing?"

"'Tis the way dragons mate," he whispered in her ear as his hands lifted her ever so slightly, urging her legs around his waist. Jill obeyed, locking her ankles at the small of his back. "Trust me, Jill. I will not let you go this time."

"I do trust you."

"Then hold on to me. Now!"

With one smooth thrust, he was inside her. Then they were falling, tumbling, spinning. In what she would have once thought was an out of control plummet, she knew now by the grip he held on her that he was in total command of what was happening. In the waning light, she could barely make out the ground below them. But it didn't matter any longer. The movement of his body inside hers distracted her until she thought she would pass out into oblivion.

Baelin spun and tumbled them, her stomach turning flips, and all the while he thrust inside her, over and over. As they plunged toward the earth, the building pressure inside rose to a peak she'd never reached before. What should've been utterly terrifying became the most erotic experience of her life.

They plummeted toward the ground, coming closer and closer as they tumbled in the air, two joined bodies falling like a shooting star in the twilit sky. Jill cried out as a burst of sensation shot through her entire body from where Baelin filled her. He roared in triumph as his hot seed shot inside her, pulsing and throbbing, once, twice, a third time. Just when they were only seconds from crashing into the ground, he spread his wings wide and they soared back up into the sky again.

Jill clutched him, wondering how he could still hold onto her when her whole body felt weak and drained of all strength. She hardly noticed as he flew them over what had once been his village, to land softly on the grassy plateau of the fortress mound.

He walked, still carrying her, through the opening in the ruined wall and gently laid her on the ground in the remains of the place he once called home.

The Dark Witch was in her courtyard when the hunting party returned.

If the knight thought it odd that she would sit in a garden of stone in the dead of night, he made no comment.

"What news do you bring of my dragon, Edgar?"

"We have found him, my queen."

"Good. Now that was not so hard, was it?" If the man thought otherwise, he kept it to himself. Isylte smiled. At least this one was learning. "Where is he?"

"The dragon and the maid are passing the night in the ruins of his family stronghold."

"Is he now? How touching. Could it be after all these years, he's grown sentimental, longing for that which he has lost?" She looked up at the moon, hanging high in a starless sky, only the last crescent left in shadow. "Or does he feel his chance slipping away and already mourns the loss of his humanity?"

"Perhaps…"

"Perhaps what?" Isylte shifted to regard Edgar, unease creeping up her spine at the faltering tone in the man's voice. The knight stood there, worry etching deep lines in his brow. "
Perhaps what?
"

"Perhaps the dragon took the maiden there for another reason."

"And what, pray tell, would that reason be?" Isylte's anger escalated when the knight would not answer. "Tell me."

"The maid is…no longer a maid."

She stood, her fists clenched at her sides, her nails digging into her palms, but she ignored the pain. "
What?
"

"The dragon has mated with the girl."

She did not want to believe the words he spoke. "How do you know?"

"I saw it with my own eyes." His gaze darted to the sky and then returned to the ground at his feet. "'Twas hard to miss."

Isylte paced the flagstone path of the stone garden, the air about her crackling with violent energy.

"How could he? How
dare
he?" She whirled on the knight. "Since you were so close, were you able to deprive Baelin of the tapestry or his whore?"

"Nay, my queen. We did exactly as you ordered and did not approach them. But even if we did, we could not remove either without a battle. The dragon guards his treasure well."

"What did you call her?"

The knight swallowed, a fine sheen of sweat erupting on his brow. "His treasure?"

"Well, in that case, take Lorcan and bring his treasure to me. If he values it so highly, the dragon will come here to get it back."

Isylte seethed. All this time, Baelin had refused her, yet he'd taken the maiden. For over two hundred years she had called to him, yet he had not set foot in her realm. He'd never come back to her.

But Baelin would come for the girl. She knew he would.

And for that reason alone, the maiden would die.

"Well, that just gave a whole new meaning to being a member of the Mile High Club."

"My lady?" Baelin sighed, his warm breath tickling the back of her neck.

"Never mind. It's a twenty-first century joke."

Jill stretched, her body limp and satiated in some places, sore and tender in others. Then she resumed her spooning position with him under the blanket they'd hastily tossed over their naked bodies. His arm snaked around her waist, drawing her against him.

"You know, for someone who's been living as a dragon in a cave, you sure have some amazing sex tricks up that chain mail sleeve of yours." As soon as she said it, an odd, creepy thought popped into her head. "Please, please tell me you don't have some cute little she-dragon out there on the side."

He chuckled, his broad chest rumbling against her back. "Nay, my lady. You are my only lover, both of the flesh and of the scale."

"Good to know."

But her relief only went so far. What she'd just done—sleeping with a man who was part dragon—probably technically bordered on bestiality in most states. As kinky as that seemed, she wouldn't be able to handle it if she found out Baelin had been getting his rocks off with some little dragonette all along.

"But if you've never done it dragon-style, how did you know how to do…," she waved her hand in circles in the air, "…that?"

She felt him shrug against her, apparently unconcerned with her probing and totally inappropriate questions. "Instinct, I suppose."

"Instinct?"

"Aye. In human form I should not know how to fly or breathe fire, yet I do. The same obsession that compels a dragon to hoard treasure drives the man in me to amass gold and silver too, though I try to fight the urge. As you recall from the bounty in the cave, I have not always been successful at denying that particular impulse." He shifted, rolling her on her back to lean over her. "And when the lust is upon me, as it always seems to be with you…" He gave her a shameless look that said he was more than ready to prove his point all over again. "I feel I must take you in the air. I almost did that first time in the forest, but did not dare with the wound still fresh to my wing."

At her shocked gasp, he frowned. "I am sorry if you did not find pleasure in the experience. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to me."

Jill laughed. "The most orgasmic experience of my life, yes. Natural, no."

"Orgasmic? I do not know this word."

His hand traveled down her belly to tangle in her curls, still damp from their recent aerial escapade. The look in his eyes and the smile on his face said he had a pretty good idea of its meaning all the same.

Jill shoved him over on his back and sprawled her body on top of his. "Hmmm, as thrilling as it was, I'd just as soon have the next orgasmic experience safely on the ground, if you don't mind."