Page 30 of A Celtic Vow
“Not the way I went,” Constance murmured more to herself than him. She handed him the torch and gestured at the rock wall she was so fascinated with. “Hold it as high as you can so I can see better.”
So he did only to narrow his eyes at the same time as her when he saw something he’d never noticed before. Something he never saw because he’d never taken the time to study this tunnel so closely.
“You see it, right?” Constance pointed out the faded outline of an archway. “It looks like an entranceway might have been here at one time.”
“It does, doesn't it?” His vision flashed red with his inner dragon. “An entranceway to what, though?”
“And who sealed it?” She touched the rock and closed her eyes. “Come feel this. I swear it’s vibrating.”
He rested his hand next to hers, only for the ground to tremble.
“Get back,” he roared, quick to protect her with his body against the opposite wall when rocks came crashing down. The ground kept shaking, and stone dust filled the air before all went eerily quiet.
“Are you all right, lass?” He cupped her cheek in fear when she went strangely silent. When she didn't even cough from the dust. He would throw her over his shoulder and have her out of this tunnel in a heartbeat if she couldn’t breathe. If her inner dragon hadn’t surfaced enough to protect her.
“I’m fine,” she said softly, shaking her head no to the skin of water he manifested. Her dragon eyes flared in response to his dragon eyes. “I really am. I have no trouble breathing in here when I probably should.”
“Not if you’re half dragon.” He wiped soot from her soft skin, surprised he could still feel such acute arousal when mere seconds ago, he’d feared for her life. “You should be able to breathe just about anywhere.”
Seemingly more affected by his proximity than anything else, she blinked and swallowed hard. “Thank you yet again.” Her gaze rose to the ceiling before dropping back to his face. “This could have been bad.”
“Ta, should have been.” He was about to chastise her but wasn’t quite sure for what. Not when her lips parted as he brushed the pad of his thumb over her mouth to clear it of any dust.
Something about that, about seeing her vulnerable yet caught in the feel of him touching her, made all the lust he’d felt since meeting her dwindle into something so heartfelt and intense there was no ignoring it. No escaping the moment as he wrapped his hand around the side of her neck and jaw and kissed her as gently as she deserved to be kissed. Tasted where his thumb had just been.
“No,” she whispered, cupping his cheek before he could pull away. “More.”
Not needing to be told twice, he pressed his lips more firmly to hers, determined to stop there but unable. Not when the tip of her tongue flicked against the seam of his lips. Not when her mouth opened to his, and he had no choice but to take. Deepen the kiss. Feel what he had never felt before.
Not when it came to a kiss.
While tame, it was still hungry. Eager as their tongues danced with one another’s before twisting. Even though he was tempted to kiss her harder, then toss her up against the wall and take her, something about this,her, made him slow down and simply enjoy the moment. Relish it like he never had before with such a simple kiss.
Then again, tasting her was nowhere near simple.
Her mouth was sweet yet dangerous. Smoky deep down where her dragon resided. Delicate yet ferocious. A bite away from bliss. In fact, when she nipped his lip, then deepened the kiss, he knew a bite away was an understatement. Her inner beast wanted to eat him alive in the best way possible. Open herself to him.
Take everything he had to offer.
So, not thinking, he nearly gave in to his true nature and dug his hand into her hair roughly, only to stop short when he felt a gust of cool wind at his back.
“What is it?” she murmured hoarsely when he pulled back abruptly and glanced over his shoulder in confusion.
“I’m not sure,” he managed, trying to transition from the violent arousal he felt to seeing something he never anticipated. “Other than to say you might have been on to something.”
Constance peaked around him and widened her eyes at what had appeared. “That’s what I sensed, isn’t it? That’s a way to King’s Fall?”
“Not that I knew of.” He felt the loss of her warmth acutely when she moved away. “Butta, it seems you might be right.”
How else could it be when the stones that had crashed down revealed another sizable tunnel. One, ironically enough, a dragon as big as his might be able to fit down.
“C’mon.” She pulled him after her. “We opened this somehow, so let’s see where it leads.”
Equally curious, he agreed under the condition he led her. “There’s no knowing how safe this is, so I should go first.”
It seemed she knew better than to argue when it came to him protecting her because she nodded. “All right. Lead the way.”
So he did, and carefully at that. Where a dragon could navigate this easily enough, the rocks had fallen in such a way humans needed to proceed with caution.
