The Dragon in the Stone (8 page)

While Rhonda had tried her best to block out the
hideous details of the attack on her person, the newspaper article she’d read
that very morning had brought it all back. Tucked away in the local section, it
had been no more than a few lines, marked
Tragic Motorbike Collision,
but she’d read the body count. Four youths dead, another two seriously injured,
because of her. Or rather Drorgan’s defense of her.

While she did not blame him one little bit for his
actions, she couldn’t stop blaming herself. Had she not walked home that night,
none of this would have happened. It all seemed so long ago now on one hand,
yet it wasn’t, not really. Caught in this bubble of magical existence here at
the castle, she had almost forgotten about her life back home. Only twenty-four
hours had passed in her realm, compared to the weeks she’d been here, and
Rhonda wasn’t ready for it all to end. Not that any of that would matter soon,
for the way she was slipping down another inch she would soon be fish food at
the bottom of the cliffs. It was a sobering thought, that, should she die here,
no one would truly miss her, apart from little Geva. She had grown incredibly
fond of the bright little girl since she’d gotten to know her, and it was for
that reason that she hung on tighter. The woman she was attempting to save
might be a bitch with a capital B, but she was the only relative Geva had.

Cheryladna flapped about like the proverbial fish
out of water, further ensuring their downward descent, while screeching like a
banshee and clawing Rhonda’s wrist to pieces with her long fingernails.

“
Stop
struggling for heaven’s sake, you daft cow. You’ll make us both fall.” Rhonda’s
murmurs were drowned out by the almighty roar of Drorgan’s dragon self, and
Rhonda had never been so glad to feel the heat of his fiery breath as she was
now. Thank goodness, he was close by. In the next instant she lost her hold on
Cheryladna, as her very own fierce dragon protector scooped the woman up and
unceremoniously dumped her back on the path. Cheryladna erupted into a stream
of curses, not that Rhonda was listening, because the grass verge under her
gave way, and she screwed her eyes shut against the sickening feeling of
falling, before strong hands grasped her round the middle and she found herself
hauled up against the length of Drorgan. Back in his human form he looked
murderous, as confirmed by the shake he gave her.

“
Damn
it, woman, what were you thinking? These paths are slippery when wet, and you
don’t know your way around. If I hadn’t been here…”

Teeth chattering together with the force he used,
Rhonda couldn’t form a reply, and his dragon roared when Cheryladna intervened,
or tried to anyway. Drorgan spun Rhonda around, pushed her up against the rock
side, and snarled at Cheryladna.

“
Give
me one good reason why I shouldn’t throw you off this cliff right now. I told
you to stay away from my woman.”

Rhonda’s heart beat a little faster at the
possessive words. He sounded as though he meant them, which shouldn’t come as a
surprise, but still was. After all he’d done his best to avoid her, choosing to
hover close by in his dragon form only, as though he didn’t trust himself around
her as a man.

To be fair, Rhonda wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have
thrown herself at him otherwise. That incredible kiss they’d shared still made
her lips tingle in remembered pleasure. As unexpected as it had been
passionate, it had only cemented her belief that Drorgan and she belonged
together, and come what may she would ensure they would break this spell.

Cheryladna’s pain filled cry shook her out of her
lust fueled imaginations of a future with her dragon. Right now, Drorgan looked
indeed ready to throw Cheryladna off the cliff, and Rhonda couldn’t let him do
that.

“
Drorgan,
let her go. You can’t. Think of Geva. She needs her mother.” Rhonda grasped
hold of Drorgan’s huge biceps in an effort to pull him off the other woman, and
dread curled around her spine at the poisonous look Cheryladna threw her way.
Whatever had she done to her to earn herself such hatred?

“
Yes,
do
listen to your new whore.”

Rhonda gasped at the insult, and Drorgan pushed the
woman away from him. Cheryladna ended up in a heap on the dirt, flashing her
pale, thin limbs in the process.

“
Get
the fuck away, and stay away. My patience with you is at its end. If I see you
again, I will kill you, woman.”

“
You
wouldn’t dare. Who would look after your deformed offspring then?”

Drorgan reared back as though she had slapped him,
and the air sizzled around him as his dragon roared his anger.

“
Geva
is not mine, you said so.
 
I would have
known…”

Cheryladna simply smiled and shrugged her bony
shoulders.

“
And
like the fool you are you believed me. Of course she’s yours. Fucking little
half-breed. Why else do you think she survived being exposed to your fire? She
should have gone up in smoke, but she didn’t. That’s when I knew she was yours,
and I was just waiting for the right moment to tell you. You harmed your own
daughter,
Lord
Drorgan. And you think this pathetic little human is
going to save you? Don’t make me laugh.”

She struggled to her feet and brushed the dirt off
her skirts.

“
You’re
nothing but a monster, and you always will be.”

Drorgan’s shoulders slumped, and he shook Rhonda’s
arm off him with a low growl. Before she could say or do anything, he stepped
off the cliff, changing into his dragon mid-fall. No matter how many times she
had seen the transformation now, the shift into his dragon still took her
breath away. Seeing him soar through the skies was just utterly magnificent.

“
Yeah,
fly away. Go, not that you’ll get very far. That stone is waiting.”

Rhonda tore her eyes away from Drorgan and glared
at Cheryladna.

“
He’s
not the monster, you are. How could you keep his own daughter from him like
that? Have you no heart?”

Cheryladna spat on the floor and sneered.

“
It’s
what he deserves. Do you think I had a choice in becoming his mistress? The
great and all powerful Lord Drorgan demands, he gets. My own husband handed me
to him like mere chattel, when the high and mighty Lord took a shine to me.”
She glared up at Drorgan circling above them. “Still, I had the last laugh.
Neither one of them had any idea how many lovers I had along the way. Anyone
could have been Geva’s father, and the fucking stable boy would have been
preferable to
him.”

A stream of fire erupted over their heads at her
hateful words, and Rhonda jumped as burning foliage rained down on them.

“
In
truth I had no idea who the father was, but I made them both believe that she
was my husband’s. It helped that she was born early, and sickly, so no one
suspected, apart from me. She shouldn’t have lived, but she pulled through
anyway, and everyone, every fucking one doted on her. Miss Geva this, Miss Geva
that. Well, I couldn’t have that, could I? I had to do something, so when he
was due to visit that night, I made sure he would find me in bed with one of my
lovers. He was furious, of course, threw that fool off the tower, and when her
nursemaid sent Geva to me as she was instructed to…”

Another howl of the huge dragon above them shook
the ground, and Rhonda knew just how he must feel at this moment.

“
No,
you didn’t … you…” Rhonda couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The woman had engineered
her own daughter’s accident? Drorgan’s furious shriek trembled through her, and
the ground shook as his massive form settled on the cliffs above them,
dislodging stone and earth which fell between them, as the whole cliff shifted
underneath their feet. Heedless of the imminent danger Cheryladna laughed.

“
What?
Shocked you, have I? It all worked out in my favor. He’s paid me in gold ever
since, until he got himself cursed into that stone he’s about to be sucked back
into. Oh, I know you think you can save him, but it’s too late now. I knew
eventually he would find someone stupid enough to break the spell. That’s why
I’m telling you all this now, because he’ll spend the rest of eternity doomed
to know that he harmed his only daughter. You’re his only way out of the curse,
and with you, poor deluded thing, gone, he’ll be stuck in eternal hell, just
like he deserves to be, while the rest of us are finally free of him.” In the
blink of an eye she pulled out a lethal looking dagger, but before she could do
more than wave it in the air, the narrow path they stood on collapsed.

Run, little dragon.

The deep voice in her head compelled Rhonda to act,
and taking her skirts in her hand, she turned to flee, even as the ground gave
way under her feet, too. She screamed, and Drorgan’s long tail wrapped around
her waist lifting her up in the air as he took off again, while Cheryladna fell
into the sea surrounded by the collapsing cliff. Rhonda screwed her eyes shut
against the sight of her broken body bouncing off the rocks, while Drorgan took
her higher up the cliffs, until he dropped to the grassy ground at the top. The
wind knocked out of her, Rhonda took a moment to realize what was happening, as
Drorgan shifted back to human. Naked, curled up on his side he looked in pain,
his usually so healthy glow diminished to an ashen, stone like grey, and Rhonda
rushed to his side.

“
No,
you don’t, damn it, you can’t do this. I won’t let you. This isn’t fair.” Her
tears fells on his skin, leaving trails of normal color behind, and not caring
who might see them, and acting entirely on instinct, Rhonda straddled him,
while yanking her clothes off of her.
 

“
Don’t
you dare leave like
this.
You can’t let her win. We
all need you.”

Chapter Eight

Through the pain threatening to tear his soul in
two, one voice held him in the here and now. Hot tears scolded his skin, and
the most delicious scent invaded his nostrils. Blindly he turned toward the
voice of his little dragon, as he fought the pull away from her. His claws ran
out, his dragon struggling to break free from the dark magic pulling him back
into stone, condemning him to another generation spend in living hell. The
coppery scent of blood roused his dragon further, and when soft, feminine lips
touched his, whispered words of love and hope, he allowed his beast to guide
him, to take, to conquer, as soft flesh yielded to his touch, drew him into the
forgiving warmth of his mate’s body.

Every touch of her skin on his, every shared kiss
made it easier to fight the pull to the stone, and flipping them both over,
Drorgan roared, and opened his eyes to find a wide eyed Rhonda staring up at
him. Her hair had come loose and fanned out around her like a chestnut blanket,
as she ran her hands over his shoulders and brought her legs around his waist.
The move brought her bare cunt in direct contact with his cock, and that organ
reared to life between them. Rhonda gasped, and Drorgan flexed his hips to run
the thick tip of his shaft through her pussy lips. Delicious wetness greeted
him, yet, still he held himself back, taking in the woman underneath him. With
the sun dipping behind the horizon, basking them both in their eerie orange
glow, it drew dappled shadows over her ample curves. He wanted to take his time
to suckle the stiff nipples, to see her skin flush in her arousal as she came
apart under his tongue, and fingers, but he didn’t have time for any of that.

Dipping his head and with a muttered apology he
caught her scream in the kiss he gave her, while he thrust into her dewy heat
in one hard move. Her internal muscles clamped around his cock like a warm, wet
fist, and deepening the kiss he pulled out only to slam back into her. There
was no finesse to this coupling, just heat and need, and the urge to claim and
possess. When Rhonda mewled into his kiss, her fingernails scoring his back,
while she dug her feet into his calves and lifted her hips into his thrusts,
Drorgan lost control completely.

Dimly aware of Rhonda writhing underneath him,
while the rhythmic ripples around his cock signaled her impending release, he
gave himself over to the ruthless speed he needed to appease his dragon, to
chase the orgasm building at the back of his spine, as he slammed into her soft
body over and over, until the sweet oblivion of release claimed him. His dragon
took over, flames engulfed them both, and Rhonda screamed his name as nothing
else existed, but heat and desire which would surely kill them both.

 
The barely functioning rational part of
his brain screamed at him to stop this. He would kill her with his fire, yet
that part wasn’t in charge right now. As his body bucked in painful ecstasy,
pulled between the two worlds he’d straddled for the last few centuries, it was
his dragon ancestry that took over. His inherent magic surged, making his fire
shine brighter than ever, as it obliterated everything in its path. The smell
of burning hit his nostrils, and with it came the horrified realization of what
he had done. Struggling for breath, he pulled his fire back in, channeled his
dragon back inside his skin, and collapsed on the soft floor. Since when was
burned earth soft, and breathing, or rather struggling to breathe?

“
Can’t
… get off.”

Locking his arms he lifted himself up slightly, and
Rhonda pulled several rapid breaths into her lungs, before she offered him a
tremulous smile.

“
You
weigh a ton, Drorgan. First you try to incinerate me, then you almost suffocate
me. I heard it called the little death before now, but I didn’t really want to
snuff it.” She wriggled underneath him, which meant his cock, still hard, and
firmly lodged inside her body twitched in answer, and she bit back a moan as he
flexed his hips automatically.

“
God,
don’t do… oh…”

Still not quite believing his fortune at having
this incredible woman not only underneath him, but unharmed, and seemingly only
too ready for round two, Drorgan swallowed hard, as she grew even wetter around
his dick. Her breathing sped up, and her eyes widened, as he withdrew slightly
and then slowly sank back into her welcoming heat.

“
Don’t
what, little dragon?” he asked, inwardly wincing at the tremor of emotion in
his voice. He barely sounded like himself. Then again it wasn’t every day that
he mated in true dragon fashion. In fact, his losing control like that had
never happened in his lifetime, and his heart beat faster as he instinctively
recognized what that meant. Not only that, but raising his head, he saw the
last few rays of the sun dip behind the horizon. He should be back in his
stone, not here, making love to the woman who gasped his name as he flexed his
hips again, and grinned down on her.

“
Don’t
you dare stop … I … God, please … not again … I can’t.”

Rhonda tensed and shook, when grasping her ass
cheeks he rose to his knees between her legs to give him better leverage. Her
hands slid off his shoulders, and she fisted the burnt grass surrounding them
instead, as their gazes collided.

“
Oh,
yes, my sweet little dragon, again, for me. I want to see you fall apart this
time.” He shifted the angle of his slow thrusts, and Rhonda mewled like a newborn
kitten, while the ripples along his cock told him how close she was to coming
again. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she bit her lips, her bountiful breasts
shaking with every thrust into her, as she gasped for breath.

“
Eyes
on me, little one.”

****

It was official. He was determined to kill her.
Every slow, measured thrust of his huge cock into her channel forced
oversensitive tissues apart as he grew bigger still inside of her, and despite
having had one of the most forceful and bizarre orgasms of her life mere
moments ago, Rhonda was poised to pitch over that cliff again. In the growing
darkness around them his eyes glowed with the heat of his dragon. The same
fierce, all-encompassing flames that had engulfed them the last time, stoked the
slow embers between them, and Rhonda forced her eyes to stay open this time.
Try as she might she couldn’t have looked away from the intensity of his gaze.
It held her pinned in place as the flames licked across her skin this time,
leaving flares of pleasurable pain behind.

This shouldn’t be possible, yet it was happening
again. Gentler, and altogether more loving than their last frantic coupling, as
Drorgan bent his head and kissed her. More heat traveled along her skin, and
through her now closed eyelids she could make out the bright flames surrounding
them, as she kissed him back, while her orgasm raced through her in seemingly
never ending waves of contractions that made thinking impossible. Caught up in
the sensations he evoked in her, she moaned her denial when he withdrew from
her body.

“
Shhh
, I’ve got you. I need to taste you.” The heated words
delivered between kisses made her reach out to him, but he caught her wrists in
his, and pushed her arms above her head, while he kissed a fiery path of need
down her throat, along her collarbone and finally down toward her breasts.
Drorgan blew a small stream of fire over her nipples, and Rhonda whimpered as
the heat scorched her skin. Flames licked along her sensitive nubs. It made
them harden further, and she barely recognized the needy, incomprehensible
sounds that were spilling from her mouth, when he licked the flames off of her
and pushing her breasts together suckled both of her nipples into his mouth.

Every suck and nip shot straight to her clit, and
that bundle of nerves contracted, sending shivers of delight across her skin.
With her legs spread wide around his thighs and her ass off the ground, she had
no leverage to rub her greedy pussy against his cock.
 
The tip of his thick shaft slid through her
labial lips, taunting her with the promise of his possession once more. Drorgan
lifted his head and, grinning at her, replaced his mouth with his hands. His
fingers continued the erotic torture of her needy breasts, kneading the tissue
and rolling her nipples between his fingers while he kissed his way down south.

Drorgan abandoned her breasts, flung her legs over
his shoulders, and Rhonda gasped as a blast of hot air blew across her exposed
pussy. It made her clench in nee
d
,
and Drorgan chuckled, and repeated the action.

“
That’s
my girl. So wet and eager for my cock again. So ready to be consumed by my
fire.” She winced when he found the marks his claws had left behind on her skin
earlier, and Drorgan licked across the scratches again and again, until she was
once again squirming underneath him. Her pussy muscles clenched and released in
a desperate bid to be filled, pushing out his earlier cum, until the air
between them was heavy with the scent and sounds of sex. It only served to
pitch her need for him higher, and grasping hold of his hair she pushed his
head down to where she needed him most.

The first lick of his tongue made her eyes roll
back in her head, and jerk her hips closer to his talented mouth. When he
growled and rolled his tongue again it was the forked, rough edges of his
dragon’s tongue that lapped at her clit and hole at the same time. Using either
end of the forked tips, he drove her insane as he took her right up the point
of no return and then withdrew, before he sent a flame of heat across her
quivering abdomen to lick at her breasts.

Drorgan laughed at her resulting plea for more, and
repeated the action time and time again, until Rhonda lost all sense of where
she was, and simply floated in a space where pain, heat, arousal, and need all
rolled into each other, as her body convulsed under his talented ministrations.
When he pushed what felt like several fingers deep into her channel, and curled
them in just the right spot, Rhonda screamed and shook, as another intense
orgasm turned her inside out. Only when the last of those aftershocks had
subsided, did Drorgan replace his fingers with his cock, and slowly, inexorably
push into her, until his heavy balls slapped her ass, and his pelvic bone hit
hers. He ground his hips, causing the most delightful friction against her
clit, and framing her face he started to move.

Through the roaring in her ears, and the
overwhelming sensation of being stretched she heard the words she longed to
hear, and thought she never would.

“
You’re
mine now, little dragon. All mine.”

At her whimpered affirmation, Drorgan roared.
Flames engulfed them both once again, and as he set a ruthless pace between her
legs, Rhonda flew again. Heat filled her insides. Fire licked her skin, and a
kaleidoscope of color exploded behind her closed eyelids, as Drorgan stiffened
and jerked above her. Their sweat slicked bodies came together in a release so
intense she couldn’t be sure they didn’t lift off the ground.

When she could breathe again with any sort of
normal rhythm she opened her eyes to find Drorgan watching her with such a
tender expression in his rough features, she wanted this moment to last
forever.

“
Back
with me, little dragon?” he asked, and Rhonda managed a grunt in response.
Drorgan laughed and slowly pulled his softening cock out of her. Rhonda winced
as her muscles protested, and Drorgan frowned as he straightened up next to
her. With his arms behind him on the burned stretch of grass, and his long legs
stretched out in front of him, naked as the day he was born, he made a formidable
presence in the moonlight. Heat and strength poured off him, encompassing
Rhonda, too, so that she hardly felt the cold breeze that now came in from the
sea.

It was the first time she had seen him completely
naked, and the sheer raw masculinity of this man took her breath away. There
was nothing soft about him, and after what they’d just shared she was certainly
under no illusion about him harboring a tender side, but that just fueled her
fascination with him, and meant she wanted to know all there was to know about
him. His muscles flexed under her fingertips, when she traced the myriad of
scars on his back.

“
What
happened here?” she asked, and he tensed. Rhonda was half expecting him to take
off again. Only this morning he would have certainly done so. He always did if
she asked him anything remotely personal, and Rhonda held her breath as he
tensed.

“
You
did.” He smiled grimly at her gasp, and pulled her effortlessly across and onto
his lap. When she shivered in the cold breeze his dragon’s wings emerged and
wrapped around her in a comforting cocoon. “Better?” he asked, and when she
nodded against his chest he rubbed his chin over the top of her head.

“
You
mean me as in humans, right?”

Again he tensed, as he drew her closer into his
body. He lifted her hair off her neck and inhaled deeply next to her ear. The
action seemed to relax him, but it had the opposite effect on Rhonda. Her heart
rate kicked up, and she felt him smile against her skin, before he withdrew.

“
No,
little dragon, I mean humans on the whole. You’re very much the exception to
the rule. I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.” He paused, tipped her head up,
and Rhonda lost herself in his azure gaze. A myriad of emotions crossed his
irises, before the flames of his dragon took over. They seemed to flicker in
time with the steady beat of his heart under her fingertips, and when he
finally spoke his voice had dropped to a deep, growly whisper, which meant that
Rhonda was all but ready to jump again.