Page 40 of Tempt the Dragon
Chapter Eleven
“Stop staring at me.” She still stood close to the pool sticks, but she hadn’t grabbed another one. He took that as a good sign.
“I can’t. And I’m sorry. I’ll say it a million times, Mel. I’m sorry for not totally understanding your conflict.” He wanted to touch her again, wanted to cup her cheek in his hand and feel her lean into him the way she used to, but he refrained.“I’ve never stopped thinking about you, Mel. Not for one minute.”
“Even when you were sleeping with all those other women.” Now she decided to circle back to her question at the Diner. He had no doubt she’d heard about his dating routine from a member of his clan.
“I won’t insult us both by saying they were distractions.” They’d never actually distracted him from wanting her, they’d simplyhelped pass the time.
She looked away, still blinking those beautiful eyes. “You had to move on. I did too.”
“Those are just words, Mel, because you know what? We didn’t move on. Neither of us. We’re still feeling all the things we were feeling before, only kicked up a notch because the beasts are pissed we took so long to get a clue.” He wanted to bite his own tongue for bringing it upagain.
A pregnant pause filled the air while the combined warmth from both their Drakon bodies filled the room. She may not want to accept it, may not even be fully aware of what was happening, but her beast was wide awake now, moving inside her and shifting the way her body worked.
“I don’t understand.” She sighed and dropped her head. “Why won’t it stop? Why can’t I make it go away thistime?”
Was she talking about him or her beast?
“Do you want me to go away, Mel? Do you want me to stop wanting you?”
He didn’t believe he’d ever stop wanting her. Could he live without her? Well, he’d proven that before. It wasn’t a one hundred percent happy life, but he’d managed to move on. As painful as the thought of her finishing this assignment and walking away was to conceive,if that’s what she wanted, he wouldn’t try to stop her. Just as he hadn’t before.
Taking a tentative step to close the distance between them, he waited until she looked up at him again. He’d never forget her dragon eyes. They were luminous, reflecting a golden light that appeared as intense as her building body heat. He inhaled deeply, letting the sweet scent of honey mixed with a more primalaroma tickle his senses. His beast exhaled with such force his nostrils warmed. It knew her scent, had been waiting for its return for eighty years. “Tell me to stop wanting you, Melody. I’m not talking about anything else, just this. Just you and me. Tell me to stop remembering the softness of your body beneath mine. The whisper of my name on your lips when you came. The touch of your mouth onme. You’re gonna have to tell me, Mel.” Because damn if he could do it by himself.
Another deep inhale from her and she shocked him by closing the small distance left between them.
“I can’t.” Those two little words, spoken so quietly, stopped his breath. But then she lifted a hand to cup his face in the same way he’d wanted to do hers. He leaned into her touch, closing his eyes as comfortingmemories continued to float through his mind.
“I can’t tell you to stop,” she whispered as he recalled them standing this way before. On the balcony of a hotel they’d been staying at. It was the middle of the night then too, and they’d just finished a job. They’d decided to stay another night at the hotel just to have some private time together.
“I don’t want you to stop because I’ve neverstopped wanting you either.” Her voice seemed so small, so delicate and vulnerable. All things Mel fought hard not to show to anyone. “I wish it would go away, Aiken. You have no idea how many nights, I wished all of this would’ve never happened. I was fine before I met you. But since the first time, I’ve never been the same. I don’t know how to go back to being the same.”
And that hurt hermore than anything her parents had ever done. His entire body ached with that thought. “I’m sorry,” he whispered even though he’d really had no control of his beast selecting her. Nor did he have anything to do with her birthright.
“It hurts.” Those two words came on a whimper. “Some nights the need hurts so bad.”
He nodded. “I know. But it doesn’t have to hurt tonight, Mel. We can feelbetter, if just for tonight.”
With an easy shift of his face, he kissed the inside of her wrist, then eased forward to kiss her neck, where he could stroke his tongue over her delicate skin. He slid his hands over her back, up and down to inch past her waist and over her ass where he cupped healthy cheeks and then groaned.
His name fell from her lips in the softest whisper and her handsclasped his biceps. That touch sent desire streaking through his body, reaching out to his beast with an urgency that he had no choice but to match. The most important thing at this moment was to get her naked. She’d removed her jacket before he found her in here, so his hands worked quickly to pull the turtleneck she wore up and over her head. When she helped by taking the shirt from him and tossingit somewhere he lowered his head, opening his mouth before he’d even reached the high mounds of her breasts. With one tug he ripped the bra free and covered a nipple with his tongue. She arched into him, her hands slapping against the back of his head as she moaned. Sucking seemed like a lifeline. He wasn’t going to live if he didn’t taste every part of her again.
One breast and then the other,kneading them in his hands, sucking each hardened nipple into his mouth, none of it was enough. He walked them back to the pool table, yanking at the button of her jeans and dragging the zipper down.
“Hurry,” she whispered before moving her hands around his to push at her jeans and panties in one effort.
“Your wish is my command.” A hungry rumble started deep in his chest. Bending, helifted one of her legs, undid the laces of one boot and pulled it off. The other foot was a repeat and he yanked the jeans and panties all the way off.
Inside of her, he had to get inside of her right now. But he couldn’t, not just yet. On his way up he stroked his hands over her long, toned legs, inching toward the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. He kissed her there, ran his tongue alongthe smoothness, while his nostrils flared at the rich, dewy scent of her arousal.
“This, Aiken.” She sighed, her fingers shaking as she eased them down the back of his head. “This is what I missed.”
Taking her hips he lifted her off the floor, setting her on top of the pool table before spreading her legs wide.
“Me too, baby.” The sight of her folds already damp with arousal made hismouth water. Sharp teeth pricked against his lips and he fisted his hands. The beast wanted it all—for him to take her, claim her and then to shift so the dragons could be together. It would be complete then, the Selection would have totally claimed them. But Aiken wouldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t force her to choose, not again.
Dipping his head quickly, he licked her in one long slowstroke. Her body bucked up off the table and he resisted the urge to roar in victory. His mouth was on her again, this time with his tongue moving over her clit, down the silky smooth path to her entrance, where he plunged, thrusting his tongue deep inside until she began pumping against his ministrations.
