Diamond Dragon (Awakened Dragons Book 4) (7 page)

“You’ve seen it,” she said.

“I know, but I couldn’t feel it.” He grabbed the end of her ponytail and played with it. “Can I feel it?”

She pulled back. “I told you nothing is happening between us.”

He kept her hair between two fingers and met her eyes, feeling the heat rising between their bodies.

She felt him. He knew it.

“Fine. Nothing. But you can still let me see your hair free.”

She sighed and pulled off her hairband, letting the hair fall over her shoulders as she ran her fingers through it. “I hate having it in a ponytail anyway. It makes my scalp sore.” She kneaded her head in consternation.

“Let me do that.”

She shot him a glare. “No.”

“Come on,” he said. “Sit in front of me. I can help. It’ll feel good.”

She looked suspicious but finally yielded. This would be the way to deal with her. Slowly wearing her down. She sat on the porch in front of him, leaning back on her hands and looking out at the rain.

He lifted her hair in his hands, feeling the softness of it, and the urge to wrap his hands up in it, to make her his, was overwhelming. But he let the hair rest softly against her back as he began to weave his fingers through it, gently grazing her scalp.

She let out a little gasp and then relaxed, leaning her head back, giving him more access.

Her hair and skin were soft, and he loved working his hands through, kneading, pulling, hearing her breathing increase even as her body relaxed against his legs.

He felt her head tilt against his fingers, seeking more contact, and would knead wherever she tilted and then pull his hands through with gentle pressure.

Her hair was much thicker than he ever would have guessed and it must be heavy on her smaller head.

“Do you want me to do this for you?” she asked. “Your hair probably makes you tired, too.”

“No,” he said. “It’s not as long or as thick as yours. And besides, I have beyond strong skin.”

She laughed. “Diamond skin… or something like that?”

“Something like that.” He agreed, though it was hard to talk with his throat tight and dry with arousal.

He wanted her. He wanted to give her more than a hair massage or a kiss on the forehead. He really, really wanted her, and he had no idea why the desire was becoming so strong.

The rain continued to fall at a gentle, rhythmic pace, and he felt himself slowly soothed as he continued to play with her hair, her body calming against him and his own body relaxing.

They might be in the woods, away from everything, and on the run from dangerous people, but to him, it felt like a little bit of paradise.

“What was that you were saying about kissing in the rain?” she asked.

He snorted, releasing her hair after twisting it a few times so it fell in a roll. “I just think it’s particularly pleasing. Exciting. But I would never suggest something with a brand-new kisser.” Perhaps the pull-away method would work with her.

“Why not?” she asked indignantly, turning to look up at him. Seeing her there, between his legs, made his cock twitch.

“You haven’t kissed anyone,” he said. “It’d be way too advanced for you.”

“It’s kissing,” she retorted. “How hard could it be?”

“Besides,” he said, “you said you didn’t want anything, and I don’t want to be like Galen, stealing a first kiss when it’s unwanted.”

She was quiet then, but her eyes remained heated. Something about the quiet massage had gotten her going. He could feel the want as tangibly as he could see her breath making little puffs in the air.

“What if it isn’t unwanted?”

“You just said you didn’t want anything,” he said firmly, liking how the more he turned her down, the more she seemed to want him.

“I just…” She rested her head on his knee as she thought about it. “I guess I just… can’t fight it anymore.”

He pulled her up on the seat with him. “You’ve been fighting it?”

She nodded. “I mean, you’re hot. I’ve obviously thought that since the first time I saw you. But I’ve been trying to focus on Lana. On my goals. And today, on keeping us safe.”

“I’m going to keep us safe,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about it.”

“I know,” she said. “But I’m the one who knows this world. I’m responsible.”

“Yeah, but I’m a dragon, and while I’m around, no one is going to hurt you.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Who protects you?”

That stunned him, but he recovered quickly. “I do, obviously.”

She reached up a hand to stroke his cheek. “I think you deserve someone to watch out for you, too.”

“But you don’t want to be the one to do it.”

“I didn’t say that,” she said. “It’s all confusing. We barely know each other. And we’re both in trouble.”

“Yet the world isn’t closing in on us right now,” he said. “We’re all alone. No shifters around. No cages.” He looked out at the forest. “And it’s beautiful.”

She nodded. “I guess so.”

“And when you came down to see me, didn’t you ever wonder? Didn’t you ever fantasize about me, lying up there in your bed?”

She averted her eyes, but her flush deepened as she made a quick nod. “I couldn’t help it.”

He grinned. Maybe it was just the food or the beautiful scenery or the closeness brought on by the touch between them, but everything seemed possible now. She wasn’t pushing him away.

“So maybe just a kiss, then?” he asked. “You could do worse than to have your first kiss from a dragon.”

“Just a kiss, then.” She submitted.

“I should warn you a kiss usually leads to more.”

She shook her head, her pretty blond hair shaking around her, becoming fuller and a little wavy with the humidity. Between that and the hot look in her eyes, there was a sultry feel to her that made him instantly ready.

“I haven’t kissed anyone because I think that should happen with feelings. But I guess a kiss isn’t so much. And if I hold off too long, it could happen with someone awful, like it almost did. But any more than that I feel should only happen between people who have feelings for each other.”

“Feelings?” he asked. “What do you mean? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“I mean like serious feelings. Like getting married kinds of feelings.”

“I can see why you haven’t kissed anyone.”

“It honestly hasn’t seemed that appealing with anyone, and I’ve been busy. And then, you know, when you’ve waited so long, you just think,
I might as well wait for the right one.
But then something like what happened with Galen happens and makes you realize it’s stupid to place so much importance on it.”

“Okay,” he said, standing and stretching. “Just kissing, then.”

“One kiss,” she corrected, taking his hand and standing as he pulled her in against him and tilted her chin up. “Don’t you want to go in the rain?” she asked, her warm breath teasing him, making steam against the cold air around them.

His arm snaked around her waist. “No, I want to kiss you right here, sheltered from the rain, with the sound and feel of it all around us.”

She nodded, biting her lip and pulling it through her teeth slowly enough to make him ache.

This was Bridget. His escape partner. His friend when he’d been in captivity.

Why did it feel so important that he be the first one to kiss her? The only one to kiss her?

He didn’t know, even as his lips slid over hers, fitting them together perfectly, filling his empty heart with a warmth he’d never known.

What he knew was, now that he’d had a taste of her, he was never going to get enough of this woman.

B
ridget closed
her eyes as pleasure washed through her unlike anything she’d imagined, and she relaxed into Alistair’s iron-strong, supportive grip.

Her hands came up to press on his chest, and she loved the feel of his arm around her.

She was still so embarrassed to admit she’d fantasized, but after how good he’d made her feel just touching her hair, she couldn’t hold back anymore.

He was hot, and she might not have another chance to take her first kiss on her own terms.

And this was one she’d always remember, with the rain falling around them, cool breeze swirling but unable to reach them, and the soft shelter of the trees and the cabin.

But the biggest shelter was in his arms.

In his kiss was a promise, gentle and tender and nothing like she’d pictured. But then he coaxed her lips open, and the kiss grew hotter, more urgent, his tongue seeking access to her deepest spaces.

When she recovered from the sheer pleasure of it, she met his tongue with hers, stroking tentatively as he let out a low groan against her mouth.

Her hands moved down over his hard waist to his trim hips, tempted to go even lower as he grinned against her mouth and reached for her hands to stop her.

His palms were slightly rough against her hands as he captured them and brought them up to his shoulders again. “Ah-ah, princess. You do that and I won’t be able to stop at just a kiss.” He took a deep breath, resting his forehead against hers. “I don’t know if I can anyway.”

She reached up, trying to start the kiss again, but he pulled back slightly, handsome features hesitant.

“I want this. You know I do. But you said one kiss, and if we go much further, I’m going to lose it.”

“Lose it?” she asked, feeling her heart thrumming in her chest and an odd, heated pleasure moving through her.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never felt like this before. Like a single kiss could own me.”

Her heart thumped at that. She would never tell him, but that sounded an awful lot like having feelings.

And why shouldn’t they? They’d been seeing each other for some time, even if it hadn’t been in the best of circumstances.

The only thing she wished was she could have freed him sooner. But she also knew she couldn’t have betrayed Lana.

It was a tough situation.

“Don’t think about that now,” he said, running his hand gently over her hair and cupping her face. “I’m not kissing you well enough if you can think like that.”

Then he lowered his lips for another kiss, and she luxuriated in how soft they were, the masculine feel of them, the strength of his arms.

Being kissed by a man like this was worth any wait.

She wrapped her hands in his hair, surprised by how it was coarser than hers. He was so impossibly tall that she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach him, but he lowered to meet her, and she thrust her tongue into his mouth, urgently wanting more.

His tongue fought with hers, soft and hot and skilled, making her hands curl tighter into his hair, her center growing tight and achy, her legs feeling weak and light.

He picked her up in his arms and sat on the swing, turning her and pressing his hands into her back to lift her so he could keep kissing her.

She felt like she couldn’t stop this, no matter what she did, as her hands released his hair and ran over his body, under his jacket, until in frustration, she shoved it off his shoulders, leaving him in his tee shirt.

He growled and pulled her jacket off in response, and she noticed his eyes were like a sunset. Beautiful, changing, and focused on her like nothing else mattered in the world.

She couldn’t question it anymore. Her body wanted what it wanted, and it wanted it now.

She tugged at his shirt, and he laughed before finally pulling it over his head, leaving him shirtless.

It felt naughty, doing this out in the open, but with the rain and the woods all around them, it also felt private and safe. She loved his chest, the solid, carved muscles. Its broadness.

Dragon or not, Alistair was all
man
.

She could feel his bulge against her, and despite a quiver of fear at how she could accommodate it, she also felt excitement rush through her.

“I’ll go slow,” he said. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”

She nodded against his shoulder, no more able to stop this than she could stop a freight train.

She was surprised when he picked her up and set her on the ground just below the stairs and then walked her back into the rain, undressing her as he went. He pulled off her dampening tee shirt, leaving her in a bra, and then curled his body around her, kissing her harshly as rain swirled around and over them.

The wetness was erotic, cool, and stinging as it bit down on her bare skin, but it awoke her, contrasting the heat burning inside. The heat that would burn until he took her.

She bit into the skin of his neck as he leaned down to put his arms around her. He picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, which was hard as iron. He held her up easily, kissing her neck and bare shoulders with abandon as she squealed and held on.

His hands gripped her ass, squeezing, and then his lips were back on hers, kissing her hard, biting at her lower lip, licking her as the water ran down between them, making their kiss that much hotter and wetter.

She gasped against his lips and then bit him back, and he let out a little growl, carrying her to the side of the clearing where there was a patch of soft grass. He laid her there and came over her, his hair dark and soaking wet, streaming over his strong shoulders. Like he was some kind of warrior about to claim her.

She looked around them, seeing nothing but nature. She couldn’t even hear the road. They were totally alone.

He put his hands on either side of her, straddling her. Then he ran a hand over her cheek and down her shoulder, sending a gentle thrill through her. “No one is going to see you. Only I can. I’ll kill anyone else who looks.”

She felt a thrill of pleasure at that. The possessiveness of it. The protectiveness. It was something she’d never expected to see from Alistair.

After all, he’d never pretended to feel anything for her.

But that was different now. As his hands stroked over her wet arms, she enjoyed the slick, cool feel of skin on skin. He ran a hand over her stomach, grinning as he gently squeezed. “You’re so gorgeous,” he uttered, gracefully cupping her hip in his large hand.

“I’m not,” she said. “I’m painfully average.”

His eyes shuttered with anger. “You’re not. You’re beautiful. But you’re like a flower, only showing its beauty when it’s treated with enough care to open. I’m glad you’ve guarded it for me.”

She gaped at him. “I wasn’t guarding it…”

But he didn’t care about the particulars. He was holding her like she was something precious, something breakable and protectable, and it was an addictive feeling to have a man that beautiful looking at her like that.

“You intoxicate me,” he said, moving his hands down over the button of her pants, rubbing softly over it.

She squirmed against him, wanting him to keep going, but he paused, his eyes thoughtful, rain running over his handsome features and between his powerful muscles.

“Are you certain?” he asked. “Here, in the grass? With no protection save what I can give you?”

She nodded.

“I can’t impregnate you or give you diseases. At least that’s how it worked with the humans in my day.”

She nodded again. She didn’t really care. She just wanted him inside her. Right now. Wanted to feel everything.

“I’ll be careful,” he said. “I’ll make it feel good. I promise—”

“Alistair, just shut up and take me,” she bit out, writhing under him as rain continued to fall around them.

It felt as if it were cleansing everything around them, washing away the painful past months they’d shared together. Washing away the bad feelings.

He caressed her bare shoulders again and then nodded. He pulled off his sweats, revealing a pair of boxers they’d bought that he’d changed into at the store.

His tall, muscled body was so sexy that she took another look around, not wanting anyone to see it.

“Possessive, aren’t we?” he teased, and she nodded, not caring as she reached for his package.

His eyes widened, long lashes fluttering as he caught her hand. “Not yet, princess.”

“I’m no one’s princess,” she argued.

“Bridget,” he murmured. “I guess it’s more intimate to use your name. I’ve never been good with intimacy.”

She snorted. “No kidding.”

His eyes narrowed, but then he was distracted as she went to work on her own pants. She unbuttoned them, trying to wriggle out, and then he helped, pulling them down, his eyes going fiery as he looked at her panties.

“I like your underwear,” he said with a grin, slipping a finger along their edge, making her shudder. His hand dipped lower, feeling her where she’d never been felt. She’d touched herself, sure, but it felt nothing like this, with his masculine, strong, slightly rough fingers moving over her. Testing her.

“So wet, so hot, so soft,” he said. “Ah, Bridget, what are you doing to me?”

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. “Now.”

He glanced around them, and then, satisfied, ripped off his own boxers.

It was her first time, yet she was having sex outdoors. But she felt utterly safe.

“You should,” he said. “I would be able to sense someone from miles away. There is no one here with us.”

She nodded.

“Just us. Do you trust me?” he asked, playing at her entrance with one finger and then two. Even that made her feel stretched, tingly, slightly sore.

But she wanted more. The ache inside her wouldn’t stop until she got what she wanted.

He tore away her panties like they were nothing, and she felt another rush of wetness. She bit her lips as his hands slid over her, and he grinned, knowing how ready she was.

He kept his fingers on her as he leaned forward, kissing over her shoulders. With every swirl of his fingers, every little touch, she felt tension building inside her.

“Wait, what are you—”

He caught her protests with his perfect lips and then kept playing with his hand, testing her sensitive spots, teasing inside her and then over her folds, and pressing down lightly and then hard on her clit, until she felt herself poised at the edge of a precipice.

“I still want sex,” she declared.

“I just want you ready,” he said against her lips. Then he flicked his finger and took her over the edge, holding her tight, kissing her through her cries of pleasure, making her whole body shake in response.

He kept the rain out, the world out, and when she opened her eyes, body still convulsing in pleasure, she looked up at the beautiful cloudy sky and the tall pines all around them and knew she’d never have anything as wonderful as this moment.

“Yes you will,” he said. “This is only the start. We have days together.”

She closed her eyes in rapture and then felt him between her legs, silky and strong and so large. Her eyes flew open, but she was reassured when he was there, expression patient and careful, so handsome she could barely breathe at the thought that he was about to be inside her.

“I’ll protect you, Bridget,” he said. “I promise.” And then he pushed inside, inch by exquisite inch, and she took deep breaths as she tried to convince her panicking body to relax.

“Hold on.” She gasped, and he waited a moment as she let her legs relax, let out all her breath, and got used to the foreign sensation of having him inside her. “Okay.”

And then he pushed all the way in, and something broke inside her. Her reservation, her fear, everything, and it was all pleasure. Just hot, tight pleasure tingling through her, stronger than anything before.

How had a simple kiss in the rain led to this?

“It’s dangerous,” he murmured, kissing over her shoulder as he began to move inside her, setting off shockwaves of emotion. “Touching a dragon.”

It was, she knew, but she couldn’t help it anymore. She gripped his shoulders, loving the feel of the cool, wet grass beneath her, the sounds of the forest around her, his warm body covering her, protecting her, as he stoked the pleasure inside her, taking her higher and higher.

She knew she was high enough that falling would scare her, but she couldn’t bring herself to come down. She was like Icarus, flying high and not wanting to think of the consequences.

He drove deep inside her, pulled out, and then drove again, and she felt the pressure growing unbearable. She had to come soon, and she didn’t know what it would feel like when she did, with him consuming her so fully, filling her so completely.

But he wasn’t about to stop, and with a few more strokes, he pushed her over the edge, both of them free-falling into pleasure so intense she couldn’t remember how to breathe until his lips covered hers urgently.

Then a scream escaped her as she jerked away from him, burying her face in his shoulder as his body went rigid, and she felt him coming inside her. Warm, strong pulses that only heightened her pleasure.

It was amazing, the best feeling ever, the way their bodies rocked together, the sound of the rain on his shoulders, the feel of his cool, wet skin, and the heat of their hips pressed together. The perfect way they were joined.

She finally fell back against the grass, and he propped himself over her, still inside her, looking down at her with as much shock and awe as she felt.

It was more than she’d ever imagined. It had gone further than she’d ever hoped.

“I… I…”

“Shh,” he said, flopping down over her, covering her with his body and pulling his shirt back over them to cover their hips. “Don’t say anything. Just let me recover.”

She blinked. Why did
he
need to recover? Hadn’t it been as wonderful for him as it had for her? She’d seen the rapture in his expression, seen his entire powerful body tense with hers.

But she said nothing, simply put her hand in his hair, stroking, as the fire in her continued to slowly burn, and watched the blue sky above them.