Scorched (6 page)

Oh wow!
It felt so good. The water was cold and refreshing. The plunge pool was shallow on one side and became deeper toward the waterfall. Tristan said that the stream that fell from the rock cliff originated from an underground artesian line, and it seeped back into a crack deep in the earth that actually became the source of water for the city of Oak Hollow. Legend had it that the waterfall itself wasn’t a natural occurrence. Millennia ago, a long-forgotten deity had bent the flow of the water far beneath the surface to create a special bathing place for her own amusement. She disliked the ground water in Oak Hollow because it was rather sulfuric. The artesian line she tapped was pure and refreshing.

Oak Hollow became a tourist attraction from being situated in geothermally heated underwater resource, which emerged natural hot spring. Many came to relax and indulged in its health benefits. There were at least five luxury spa resorts in town, tapping the town’s natural resources.

Molly paddled near to her bag and reached for a bar of soap she’d placed on a rock. She washed her hair, face and body and felt a bit guilty about polluting the pristine water with soap suds.

As she swam back near the waterfall, a big object leapt on a huge boulder and took an epic dive into the plunge pool.
Eeep!
Water rolled over her like a tide.

Tristan.

In his dragon form, he’d decided to join her.

She didn’t think she’d ever seen Tristan like this before. He filled the pool with his beastly body—wings, tail and all. Dragon Tristan was intimidating, but she appreciated his beauty. His scales reflected the setting sun with an iridescent kaleidoscope of colors: teal, moss green, red and gold.

Molly waded toward him and touched the dragon’s head. The shiny scales made him look slippery, but his skin actually wasn’t. The dragon eyes were the same color as Tristan’s, only with a reptilian slit. She caressed the beast and crooned, “Goodness, what big eyes you have.”

Dragon Tristan snorted.
The better to see you with
, he spoke in mindspeak. All shifters had the ability to project conversation into people’s mind because their beastly form couldn’t accommodate an ability to speak in conventional manner.

She ran her hand along his mandible. “What a big mouth you have.”

The better to eat you with.
Tristan shifted into his human form and pulled her toward him.

Molly squealed.

Tristan wrapped her body in a tight embrace, and her heart raced. Her naked body pressed against his—skin to skin. Nothing in between. Molly rested her head on his broad chest. Strange, but at the same time, it felt so right. Who’d have known she’d find the ultimate solace with the most unlikely person from her past? Tristan kissed the top of her head, and comforting warmth soon melted into her bones despite the spring’s cold water.

“I’ve longed to hold you like this. You were my first crush,” he whispered.

“Too bad you had a funny way of expressing it.”

“I was a stupid kid.”

Molly placed her palm on Tristan’s chest. His heart thundered, like hers. His skin was also feverish. They said full-blooded dragons were very passionate during lovemaking. She was curious to find out whether it was true.

She gazed straight into his eyes. “What about now? Do you still have that crush, or did you help me because you’re feeling guilty?”

“I’ve always had a thing for you. I don’t indiscriminately sleaze my way into a woman’s panties if I don’t have a romantic interest in her.”

His erection felt hot on her belly as a testament to what he’d just said.

Molly slipped a hand down his belly and touched his cock. Good lord! He was bigger than she’d expected. Way bigger. Long and thick as well. He could kill a woman with that. She bet the woman wouldn’t mind, though.

She encircled her hand around the base of his cock. Thumb met forefinger. Almost. His sweet cock pulsed. Once. Twice. It became impossibly harder. She started imagining having that cock inside her. Her deranged ex was the only man she’d ever slept with, and he was human. She’d heard sex became a whole new game when one was making love to one’s own species. Even though she was only a quarter dragon from her mother’s side, she still had dragon blood.

Could that be the reason she reacted this way toward him?

Her blood was calling for him.

She felt it in every cell.

Hypnotic. Demanding.

Urging.

Tristan lowered his head and kissed her. Slowly. Open-mouthed. He licked her lips. Licked her teeth. The roof of her mouth. A hello. An intimate greeting. He placed his hands on her shoulders and drew her body closer, trapping his cock and her hand in between their flesh.

It felt so hot. Throbbing. Mind-numbing. Just like his kiss.

She clasped her hand on his shaft and squeezed him. Gently. Then a little harder. A trumbling growl escaped his masculine throat.

Tristan trailed kisses on the side of her cheek and dragged a sensuous, unhurried wet lick from her neck to the back of her ear. Her breath stalled as a shiver of pleasure rippled throughout her body. She discovered that part of her was very sensitive. Her toes curled when he finished with a slow suck of her earlobe. The pièce de résistance. A cherry on top. That suck alone tugged her heartstrings like a pulse. A subterranean rumble followed. She gasped. Eyes wide. She was ready to crash with him. To the pit of fire. The core of the brimstone.

She clasped his cock and stroked him. Again. Harder.

He swore. In a good way. “You’re driving me insane, Molly.”

He bit her neck. She yelped. The pain burst into another shade of pleasure. He sucked her flesh as if he wanted to put a mark on her that water couldn’t wash. She didn’t mind. She’d be happy to wear those hickies as a badge of honor.

“Tristan,” she breathed out. She was more than ready.
Fuck me, please.
Maybe he’d take her out of the water, lay her on the sandy embankment and claim her properly. But she couldn’t bring herself to ask him that. There was a little hesitation within her. Despite the intimacy of this situation. Despite where this was ultimately heading.

As if he read her mind, he slid his hands onto her ass, arms under her thighs, and lifted her body up. The buoyancy of the water had a heady effect on her. The sky spun momentarily, as if the world had come off its axis, and it was followed by a rushing, sweet, champagne-bubbling euphoric rush to her head. Their skin grazed. Slicked. His cock was no longer on her belly. Its head was on her pussy. On her swollen sex lips.

On her opening…

Molly took it as a cue. She wrapped her arms around his neck and lowered herself onto his erection. The girth of his cockhead felt alarming. Her sexual muscles contracted as if denying the delicious intrusion.

Tristan sighed. She sighed. But she was determined to have him inside of her. Molly tried again, but his cock just slid off. This was problematic. She hadn’t done it in a while.

Tristan let out a sound of frustration. He laughed into the hollow of her throat. “Are you teasing me?” he asked in a hoarse voice. “If you are, please don’t. I can’t take it any more…”

“I’m not.”

“Well then.” Tristan put her back on her feet. He steered her to a nearby boulder, pinned her against it, pushed her thigh up and positioned himself on her pussy. The crown of his cock brushed the hood of her clitoris briefly and nudged her opening. He thrust in, spearing her cunt open with his thick cock.

She instinctively clawed his shoulders, her shrill cry cutting through the open air. He grunted, seemingly half-happy and half-frustrated. The fierce focus and sheer determination painted on his face looked almost scary, but she didn’t want him to stop. No, not ever. “Push. More. Give me more,” she thought, almost deliriously, not realizing that she’d uttered that out loud.

He might have said something, perhaps her name or another exclamation, but all she could feel was that she was almost bursting. Beyond full. Yet it was so damnably good it should be a sin. God! Jesus! Buddha! Tristan had shoved his cock all the way to the base, and she could feel his balls pressed against her perineum.

She let her legs float as he tightened his large hands on her buttocks, pulling her against his body as if he was looking for a deeper penetration. But there was no more to give. His cockhead hit her cervix, and the thrilling sensation momentarily knocked the air out of her lungs. She gasped for breath,
trying to adjust from the onslaught. That was when she noticed his eyes. His dragon eyes.

Luminous. Burning.

“Molly,” he said in a husky whisper. “I want you to be my mate.”

What?
Her thoughts flitted to his family, which came from an unbroken old bloodline. His father would never agree. For a dragon, a mate was even more sacred than being a spouse. Even Tristan’s old man, the patriarch of the family had never taken a mate. Just a wife. And plenty of flings.

“But your dad—”

“I’m not my dad. I want you. And
only
you.”

She gazed straight into his eyes. Very tricky. Asking her such question when he had her where he wanted her. When he was deep inside her and she knew she’d be mad if he decided to stop, ending the intertwined pleasure before it reached its zenith.

It was delicious blackmail.

Molly swallowed hard. “If I say no, are you going to stop?”

He grinned. “No, but I won’t stop pursuing you until you say yes.”

“Well then, Tristan Cadreinth, make me fall in love with you.”

His eyes widened, becoming even more luminous. He kissed her. “Just you see. I’ll fill your head with so much of me that you can’t think about anything else.”

“Ah.” His declaration sounded so unyieldingly sweet. “I’d like to see that.”

His cock pulsed inside her, and she shuddered with delight. She choked the neck of his virile flesh with her feminine muscles.

“Fuck! Christ!” he swore. “Again.”

Molly smiled and tightened her pussy around his rock-hard cock. Tristan visibly shivered as if he were marveling at the sensation.

Then he moved, fucking her.

“Tristan…”

He ambushed her with more dizzying kisses. His tongue in her mouth. Dominating. Plundering. The kiss was as greedy as his fucking. Pleasure built with every stroke. The friction. The slippery wetness. Everything was so good. Wickedly good. Since when did lovemaking feel like this? Oh God. This was insane. The pleasure she’d experienced before was magnified a thousand-fold. She clung on to his shoulder. On to his neck. She fisted his too-short hair.

She didn’t want to come yet.

No. She wasn’t ready.

Please, stay a bit longer
.

This was too mind-bogglingly good.
Yes. More.
But she couldn’t stave it off any longer. Her body tensed.
Tristan, Tristan, Tristan…

A mewl-like noise curled out of her throat. Then, she came. The spark of pleasure struck like lightning. The devastating impact hit her like a hurricane. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She exploded. Her ears rang. It was like an
almost
blackout.

Like dying.

She might have seen Nirvana.

She was enlightened.

“Oh baby, you’re so fucking beautiful when you come like that.” Tristan watched her while she orgasmed. He looked mesmerized. He’d stopped moving to observe her, a hand planted on the back of her head, as if he didn’t want to miss the sight.

Her pussy quivered around his hard cock. She trembled all over. She didn’t think she’d ever experience a climax of that magnitude. That mind-shattering.

It was a revelation.

Tristan, what are you to me? Why did you make me this way? she thought.

It scared her and thrilled her at the same time.

Do you feel the same way too, Tristan? Do you?

Can you explain what this is? This new, alien feeling?

“Baby…” Tristan nipped at her lower lip and breathed out on her mouth, his voice raw. He then fucked her with rapid, short thrusts until she came again. Another blinding pleasure zapped her with ferocious intensity. As her pussy contracted, Tristan also climaxed, inside her, his cock spasming more than a dozen times.

Molly sobbed in a breathless cry.

They kissed and kissed as twilight descended on the mountain, bathing them in an orange glow.

She wished that moment would last forever.

Chapter Seven

Molly woke a few hours later to find she was alone. Tristan wasn’t sleeping beside her. She guessed both of them had dozed off after their wild romp in the spring. She’d taken another dip into the water before changing clothes and retiring into the tent. He did the same thing. Before she knew it, she’d fallen asleep just like that.

Where is he?
she wondered.

She crawled to the tent opening and unzipped the flap. Tristan was right. The night on the mountain was so dark, she could barely see anything. The tree growth on the mountain formed a thick canopy, preventing any light penetrating to the forest floor. And in the clearing where they camped, she couldn’t see the moon because dark clouds completely blocked the sky. Feeling groggy, she fished out a Zippo lighter from inside her flannel shirt. She flicked once, twice before a squiggly flame illuminated her surroundings. She couldn’t see Tristan anywhere. She resisted the urge to call him, afraid her voice would attract unwanted attention. After all, she was the one the madman wanted.