Page 14 of Emergence of Fire

Cordelia grabs a huge towel from the shelves near the door and begins to strip out of her pajamas. I look down, desperately trying not to look at her body. I can be a gentleman for her right now because this is about her comfort and security, not lust. I immediately find the toilet and sit on the seat, making sure I look away from her. After a moment I can feel her approach me and I am greeted by her bright neon pink pedicured feet.

“Adrian, I’m not shy or modest. You don’t need to look away from me.” She places her finger under my chin and lifts my face up to hers. “I appreciate you for wanting me to feel comfortable about all of this.” She leans down and I feel my heart rate spike and my cock is rock hard the instant her lips touch the corner of my mouth. It is a sweet, chaste kiss but I can’t control the emotions I’ve been feeling since the moment she woke up on the couch downstairs. I am supposed to just sit here but fuck it. I turn my face slightly, fist her towel to keep her in place, and grab her bottom lip between my teeth. Cordelia squeals in surprise as I practically pull her down on top of me. Her mouth opens for me willingly. I kiss her gently, allowing my tongue to explore her mouth, to taste her. I love the taste of honey even more now. I suck on her tongue. I can’t get enough; she moans in approval. My cock is straining against the zipper of my jeans and I shift on the toilet seat to give myself some room. My hand inches underneath the towel, her soft skin is like silk against the contrast of my rough fingers. I find her hard nipples eagerly awaiting my attention, I pinch one between my fingers and she groans into my mouth, pressing herself further into my hands. I want to claim her right here and right now, but this is not the time or the place. Although, to have a shower together would be fun. I break off our kiss, both of us are breathless.

“Cordelia, I think you need to get your sexy ass in that shower before I bury my cock so deep, we’ll be locked together for hours.” Her mouth drops open, her eyes widen slightly, I know she hasn’t got a clue what I really mean. This is not the time or place I tell myself as I lean my forehead against hers and take a deep breath.

“What if I want to.” I look up and I am met with the glowing eyes of her Dragon. She will lose control soon if I don’t stop this.

“Get in the shower, gorgeous.” I let go of her towel and pat her butt for good measure. “We can’t have your aunt hear you screaming my name now, can we.” I wink and she groans.

“No, we don’t. That’s too much, for even me.” She walks into the shower and tosses the towel to me as she closes the door. I can see the outline of every curve and I am mentally screaming at my cock to behave.

“Adrian.” Cordelia calls me after a few minutes into her shower.

“Yes, gorgeous.” I am trying to focus on anything but the fact that only a thin layer of glass separates my mate from me. All I want to do is join her. This is torture.

“When you said locked together for hours, what did you mean?” She asks innocently with genuine interest. She has a lot to learn about Dragons and this topic is one I just couldn’t get into at the moment. I’m already about to come in my pants, and all I did was kiss her.

“Ah, I think you should ask Gale. He will be happy to explain knotting to you.” I raise my voice over the water and I can hear her gasp.

“What the fuck is knotting? Is that some form of Dragon kink?” I can’t see her but I can imagine the confused look on her face. I can’t help myself; I laugh hard. It feels good to feel like this. Carefree, and dare I admit to myself, happy.

I say nothing for the rest of her shower, I refused to answer her question. Her silhouette stills behind the glass and I can see the hands on her hips as she looks out at me.

“Fine. Ignore me then. I won’t be kissing you again anytime soon.” Cordelia huffs and I just sigh.

I am sure we will be doing a lot more sooner than you think. I adjust myself again on the toilet seat cursing myself for taking the high road. My dick and balls ache.

CHAPTERTWELVE

CORDELIA

“Oh, we have so much to teach you. A female Dragon goes into heat every six years. Babies are rare in our Realm because of this. Pregnancy is not always the end result of a weeklong heat either, so it is something mating pairs, or in our case, groups, take seriously. It’s almost ceremonial, we adhere to tradition and lock ourselves away in a cave. I’ve heard it’s quite the event.” Gale laughs and I can’t help but laugh back. His smile makes me feel giddy, butterflies flutter around in my stomach as I look around the room. All of them make me feel. This is what it’s supposed to have felt like during all my failed attempts at relationships. I just met these guys and they don’t feel like strangers, they make this thing between us so easy.

“So, heat as in an animal type of heat? Knotting, as in making sure that the female receives the male's sperm?” I lock my hands together to demonstrate, and they all frown. Little do they know I paid attention in biology class, so I understand. “A sex cave where you lock yourselves away to fuck and make a baby.” I can’t help but laugh as I try to make sense of it all. “So, there is no way for me to get pregnant now?” I quirk my eyebrow and look at Adrian. He gives me a wink. These men are already leaving me in a constant state of horny.

“Well damn, Cordelia. You make it sound so clinical.” Gale laughs. “No, you can’t get pregnant at the moment. You are not in heat. You haven’t shifted so we won’t need to worry about that. So, that’s the sex talk out the way.” Gale can’t help the smile on his face as he brushes his hands together like the conversation is done and dusted. Torin groans and drops his head onto my desk.

“How in the hell did you get on the topic of knotting?” Torin asks from my desk. He hasn’t taken his eyes off me since I returned with Adrian from the bathroom. I look over at Adrian who has taken up his post by the door and raise my eyebrows at him again. I guess I’m on my own. When he shrugs, then gives me nothing but a smirk in return, it makes me huff in exasperation. I can feel my face flush from the memory of our kiss. He surprised me. I was all for rough handling, the way he grabbed my towel, his hands on my breast, has me longing for more. I am just glad I could use the shower head to relieve some of the ache between my legs. Not quite a release but it helped. I can still feel his lips on mine, the way he sucked on my tongue, just the thought makes my knees weak. I cross the room, practically running to my walk-in closet but Gale steps in front of me blocking me from my destination.

“Were you being naughty in the bathroom, Cordelia? Did Adrian take advantage of that body of yours? There are no secrets here, beautiful. We can smell how turned on you are.” His eyes will be the death of me as they roam over my body. I grip the towel tighter around my body and look up at him, I gasp before I can catch myself, my mouth gapes open like a fish in shock.

Smell me. Oh hell. “I don’t know how I feel about that,” I say to them all. “You can smell me?” I look over to Torin, at least he has the decency to look apologetic. “The whole time?” I just want the floor to open and swallow me now. I will not be embarrassed. I will hold my head up. I will not be ashamed. I’m a woman with needs that haven’t been met in—I don’t even know how long. No wonder they were so attentive downstairs, they can smell my attraction. Ugh.

“You guys are animals.” I huff and step around Gale.

“Well, technically, we are animals.” I hear Torin say behind me. I can hear the mirth in his voice, it just makes me walk faster. I can feel three sets of eyes on me as I make my escape into my closet. I just need a small reprieve. Closing the door behind me I lean against the door and take a moment. I can hear them speaking beyond the door but I don’t pay attention as I hurry to get dressed.

Thank goodness Aunt Twyla managed to wash the smoke from my clothes while I laid here in a stupor yesterday. The last thing I want to think about is the mess I left behind in my apartment. I blow out a breath. Nothing like putting on clean clothes. It’s the little things. It’s nice to feel normal for just a few minutes. Even though nothing about three men in my childhood bedroom is normal, I will take that over the thought of shifting into a Dragon at any moment. There’s still so much I don’t know, so much I need to learn. As much as I try to put on a brave face, I am terrified. “You’re not alone, Cordelia,” I whisper to myself as I pull my combat boots out of my bag and put them on. They’re my ready for anything footwear of choice, they make me feel like I can take on the world. What’s the saying? “Clothes maketh the man,” well these boots maketh Cordelia. I smile as I tighten the bright yellow laces, standing up I run my hands over my well-worn jeans and check my reflection in the mirror behind the door. I am the same woman I was three days ago—I am still me.

I suddenly hear shouting beyond the door and I open it quickly to my aunt calling my name frantically. I run past the guys who follow right behind me. I am moving so fast, I clumsily stumble over my feet. I almost go face first down the stairs, strong arms grab my waist and steady me just as I was about to go flying. Torin holds me tight, my back to his front, the smell of woodsmoke and pine of a warm winter night hits my nostrils. It’s comfortable and it eases my frantically beating heart. I turn my head slightly and look up, his eyes shine with the glow of his Dragon. Beautiful bright bronze with just a hint of gold, my mouth parts in surprise at seeing it on someone else for the first time. I squeeze his arm and pull out of his grasp and continue my descent slowly this time. I can hear my cell phone ring before I round the corner and walk into our burned-out kitchen. Aunt Twyla holds my phone out to me and I can see that she has found time to change and clean up after the mess I made this morning. I almost cry at the sight of my melted laptop on the table as I grab the phone from my aunt's hands.

“This is the second time it rang. I didn’t mean to frighten you and have you all come running,” my aunt says apologetically. The guys all stand around the kitchen surveying the damage my fire caused. I look down at my phone and see it’s Ms. Banks calling.

“I forgot to tell Ms. Banks I made it here, she’s probably about to fuss at me. No worries,” I say to my aunt as I tap the speaker phone button.

“I’m so sorry Momma Banks I—”

“Cordelia!” She whispers down the line. The sound of her voice as it echoes around the room makes my heart lurch in my chest. She sounds afraid and we can all hear her shuffling on her end.

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