Hidden Dragons (30 page)

Unable to argue, Rick accepted Auric’s invitation to rub his belly. “I wish we had a better plan. I don’t like using these little guys as bait. Or involving Cass’s friends.”

“We’ve got manpower,” Nate pointed out. “And firepower. And don’t forget, you and your girlfriend killed that first faerie by yourselves.”

“She’s not my—” Rick shut his mouth and frowned. Maybe Cass was his girlfriend. How the hell would he know?

“What’s the matter?” Nate asked.

Rick considered how to answer. “I’m uneasy about this whole situation. What if we got lucky when we killed Ceallach? This other pureblood is a queen. Maybe she has more mojo than he did. Maybe she’ll want revenge for us killing her lover. Faeries keep secrets from the rest of us. We don’t know what we’re up against.”

“We’ll figure it out. You’ve got the pack with you now.”

He did, and it should have made him feel better. In some ways it did. His wolf was calmer with them around him—or maybe it was just lulled.

“How do you stand Evina being more powerful than you?” he blurted.

“I wouldn’t say she’s more powerful. We each have different strengths.”

“But she’s alpha.” Though Rick knew this had to be a sensitive topic, he needed the answer. “Theoretically, she could order you to do something, and you’d be obliged to obey.”

“Actually,” Nate said, suddenly finding petting Scarlet’s wings extra interesting. “Within Evina’s pride, I am alpha. I’m not sure what about my energy does it, but her tigers recognize me as their co-leader.”

Rick gaped at him. How could Nate not have mentioned this before? If nothing else, his healthy ego should have driven him to it.

Nate let out a breathy laugh. “I know. It’s weird. And sometimes those macho cats do not like answering to a dog. We’re smoothing out the rough spots as we go.”

“No wonder you’ve been mellower since you married her,” Rick said.

“Yeah.” Nate went back to scratching Scarlet’s outstretched throat. “I guess you could say not coming first or second in this pack nettled me. Not that I don’t respect you and Adam. I just thought . . .” He trailed off and let it go. “The truth is, even if I weren’t co-alpha with Evina, I think I’d trust her to treat me as an equal in the relationship. She’s not the sort of person who wants to make anyone feel small.”

Rick wasn’t comfortable with the sympathy in Nate’s eyes. Cass didn’t want to make him feel small. She just . . . well, he wasn’t sure what she wanted.

Everything considered, maybe it was time he found out.

~

When they were younger, Jin taught the half-and-halfers her motto: Everything looks better after a good long soak. Cass intended to test the theory now. One of the reasons she loved her usual guest room was its adjoining bath, which was a spa-like blend of white and black tile, shiny silver fixtures, and a sleek slipper tub.

She saw no reason to follow her father’s reluctant confession to its unpleasant conclusion, not when there were bath salts and plenty of hot water to distract her. She’d distract herself from Rick while she was at it. So what if her own stupidity seemed to have rung the death knell on their romance? Worse, she hadn't done it by accident like with her ex. No, she'd screwed up her and Rick with her eyes open. But to hell with that. She was under-washed and overtired and she was damn well going to enjoy her wallow.

Then again, maybe she’d lock the door and cry.

Clucking at herself in disgust, she dropped the robe Jin had lent her and stepped into the steaming water. The tub was deep enough to submerge her to her neck. The heat was heaven, the lilac-scented oil soothing to her skin. She stretched her arms along the rim and let her head tip back.

Unfortunately, the moment she relaxed, her body remembered how much it wanted Rick inside it.

“Damn it,” she said just as the door opened.

It was him of course.

“Sorry,” he said, starting to withdraw.

“I wasn’t cursing at you, or not exactly.”

He stopped leaving and smiled. “Need help . . . unwinding?” he suggested.

“You don’t have to sound so smug.”
She
sounded petulant, which stretched his grin wider.

“Who’s smug?” he asked innocently. “We did face death together. And you’re the one who looks so delectable lolling there any sane man would sell his soul to have you.”

She sat up and looked at him. “Rick, I don’t want you to sell your soul.”

Her seriousness stole the humor from his face. Suddenly, she feared what he’d say. Thoughts were definitely rolling behind his eyes. In the end, he said nothing. He stepped to the side of tub, grasped both her hands in his, and pulled her dripping onto her feet. The way his gaze slid down her wet body set all her nerves on fire. Her nipples tightened, and her thigh muscles tensed. Her pussy went liquid with readiness for him. She knew he was aroused too. The front of his jeans had stretched as far as it could without his erection actually ripping the worn denim. His cock was thick, his balls seeming to have swelled bigger too. Cass shivered at the sight and grew hotter.

Rick saw her do it. By the time her gaze returned to his, his irises were glowing.

“Cass,” he said. “God.”

Afraid to speak, she slid her hands up his chest to his broad shoulders. He wore the same flannel shirt he had in the cave. The firm path her palms took up it made him shudder and catch his breath. The green fire in his eyes flared higher.

A second later, he kissed her.

He wasn’t gentle about it. His lips and tongue ravaged hers, probing, claiming, his arms tightening around her like steel bands. His hands cupped her bare wet buttocks to lift her off the floor.

The way he squeezed and caressed her said he enjoyed the gauntlet no longer hampering him.

He wasn’t the only one. His kiss made her feel like she was flying, the excitement he stirred in her too powerful for anything earthbound. She clutched his shoulders and sucked his tongue deeper. That inspired a good response. The room spun as his groan burned her ear. He took a step, and her back met the slick black- and white-tiled wall. His hips shoved her into it, the hardness of his erection drawing a gasp from her.

Getting that hard and thick was supernatural.

When he tried to pull back, she didn’t want to let him.

“I just need to get this off,” he panted.

He meant the sword harness. “Oh,” she said, instantly on board with that idea. “Let me help.”

He smiled, and she freed him from it, leaving him to lean the weapon safely somewhere. She didn’t see where he put it. She only cared about having more skin to touch. “This too, please,” she said, speedily undoing his shirt buttons.

She rolled her lip between her teeth as his lovely olive flesh appeared. Feeling greedy, she pushed the sleeves off his arms.

“You move fast when you want to,” he joked.

She would have offered a smart retort, but he kissed her before she could. His warmth was summery, his chest perfect for rubbing hers against. His seriously muscled back absolutely had to be investigated from trapezius to tailbone. He made a noise when her fingers squeezed under his back waistband.

Cass didn’t let the sound stop her from wedging both hands around her goal.

“Such a fine, fine ass,” she complimented an inch away from his ear. “So tight and hard. You really shouldn’t wonder that I want my hands on it.”

“What about what I want my hands on?” he growled.

He slid them up her front to her breasts, kneading them with a possessiveness and a skill that soon had her squirming.

“You’re distracting me,” she panted.

“Really.” Amused, he popped one nipple out between two fingers and bent to suck the tip. His tongue flicked between his pursed lips to tickle it.

Cass’s body jerked. He’d found the exact right nerve to stimulate. An electric pulse streaked from what his mouth was doing to the heart of her clitoris.

“
Rick
,” she said and writhed for him.

He liked having her at his mercy. He moved his head to her other breast, subjecting it to the same sharp delight. Her entire pussy twitched, her hands pulling from his jeans to thread through his soft dark hair. Her hold couldn’t keep him where he was. He switched breasts again, dragging her to the trembling verge of coming.

She hadn’t known her body could do that. Her startled inhalation echoed off the bathroom walls.

“Rick,” she said. “Please.”

His mouth left her. “Stay,” he ordered in his best I’m-the-boss-now voice.

“Stay? But—”

He dropped a hard kiss onto her mouth, his aggression silencing her. She didn’t know why she liked him this way, but she did. He slid his hands to her hips and held them immobile on the wall.

“I want this,” he said, low and rough. “I want to feel you unravel.”

He sank to his knees in front of her.

“Oh God,” she said, realizing what he intended.

He looked up her body, his eyes on fire, his lengthened canines changing his lips’ shape. He kissed her navel, then dragged his face across her thatch. His hands cruised down her legs to her ankles.

“My wolf likes the way you smell,” he said.

He lifted her left foot and then her right, widening her stance for him.

“Keep these spread,” he said.

The order was unnecessary. She couldn’t have closed her legs even if she wanted; his broad shoulders were in the way. His hands came up her thighs again, the smooth caress causing more of her nerves to jump. His destination reached, he parted her labia with his thumbs, watching in fascination as he revealed her sex. Though she couldn’t see what he did, she felt her clitoris standing out and pulsing. When he stroked her gently around it, more cream ran out of her. More than anything, that exposed her: her desire for him, her intense longing for a release.

He looked up into her face.

“This is mine,” he said, increasing the pressure of his thumbs as they moved up and down to either side of her clit. “You’re going to let me do what I want to it.”

What he wanted was to draw the sensitive button into his mouth. Cass moaned with pleasure, her hips bucking close for more. He let her do it, though his position and the lean of his weight trapped her against the tile. The suction of his cheeks created a quick rhythm on the bundle of swollen nerves. His canines were another pressure—and his tongue. Cass’s neck arched, her fingers burrowing into his hair. He growled his approval as she broke into a million pieces of ecstasy.

“Good,” he said . . . and made her do it again.

She was drunk from the second climax, but she still wanted him. He rose, and she needed the wall to hold her up. His hands moved to the bulging front of his jeans, undoing the button and starting to unzip.

“I can help,” she slurred, reaching one arm to him.

“You can watch,” he corrected.

She shivered, just a little reaction but one he couldn’t miss. He pushed the denim and his briefs down his legs. They were hairy and strong and—to her—totally sexy. Even his knees got her going; they seemed so capable and male. Her hands fisted with longing on the tiles. She was half afraid to look at his erection.

He didn’t let her get away with avoiding it.

“Look,” he said. He stroked down abs that gleamed with perspiration, then caught up his thick flushed pole. He stroked that too, showing off how hard he was by squeezing as he pulled. Cass was hypnotized. He ringed his fingers beneath the tip, stopping where it flared out. He held himself out for her, letting her look her fill.

She couldn’t deny he was beautiful. Straight. Full. Throbbing with vigor and impatience. She licked her lips, her thighs tensing at the thought of him pushing that prodigy into her.

“Do you want this?” he said, steadying it with one hand. His voice was so harsh she barely recognized it as his.

“Yes,” she said. “Please give your cock to me.”

He liked when she said
please
. He was on her—and in her—at shifter speed. He cried out as his cock plunged up her into her sheath. Her legs were already spread for entry, her sex fully prepared for his intrusion. He didn’t hesitate to take advantage. The penetration lifted her to her toes. Loving that but wanting even more, she swung her legs up and around him. His fine, fine ass made the perfect shelf for her bare heels to dig into.

Rick let out a low growl for that.

“Take me,” she urged. “Every step I take tomorrow I want to know you were inside me.”

That idea got to him. His lips curled back, showing her his wolf fangs. She didn’t think he meant to do it, but he couldn’t control himself. His grip on her bottom tightened, his claws sliding out as well. The throbbing of his cock increased as he withdrew partway. Like her, this part of him looked forward to what was coming.

He let loose as never before, humping her fast and hard and as deep inside her as he could get. He fucked her like the world was ending, and this was their last chance to be together. Their mingled cries were noisy: groans of pleasure, pleas for each other to never stop. He came, and it didn’t matter. He was just as desperate to go again.

A tile cracked behind her and shattered on the floor.

“Fuck,” he said.

He carried her to the bedroom, hurrying with their groins locked together and grinding greedily. Eagerness made him awkward, along with the kisses he couldn’t stop giving her. He bumped them into a chair and stumbled against the bed. They fell onto the soft mattress together.

Cass was very happily under him.

Directly above her was a headboard painted with a scene of shepherds and sheep grazing. Cass doubted Rick noticed the decoration as he stretched over her to grab it. The coiling of his muscles said he intended to resume what they’d been doing in the bathroom.

“Oh God,” Cass moaned, spreading her legs wider.

As it turned out, he hadn’t been going as fast and hard as he could.

“Am I hurting you?” he panted when she cried out. He couldn’t have been too worried, because he wasn’t easing up. Maybe he couldn’t. She felt that special gland of his swelling.

The headboard rattled epically.

“No,” she promised, meeting him thrust for crazy thrust. Each concussion felt life-and-death important. She clutched the mattress for leverage. “Rub your gland on me. I want to . . . feel you lock us together.”