Page 59 of Tempt the Dragon
Chapter Sixteen
This wasn’t how Mel had thought the night would turn out. When she’d suggested dinner she’d been thinking maybe some candlelight, a walk along the path by the river and then back to the room to do some more planning before climbing into bed, making love and then falling asleep in each other’s arms. That’s the way she wanted to remember this time with Aiken.
The insatiablebeast inside her obviously had other thoughts.
He filled her so completely, the feel of his dick buried so deep inside her, easing in and out of her until she was dizzy with pleasure, was more than she could ask for, and something she knew she’d never forget. She wrapped her arms tight around his shoulders. “Damn, this feels so good.” It was the absolute truth and she whispered it again andagain. “So, so good.”
Aiken continued those deep, slow thrusts, slamming her against the wall of the restaurant with such force that she should be sore from the concrete rubbing against her back, but she wasn’t. Instead she was so aroused, her legs trembled, her breath hitched each time she tried to talk, and the beast begged her not to walk away. Not again.
She held on tighter.
“Notgoing anywhere, baby. Never gonna get tired of being inside you. Fuck!” His yell was buried in the side of her neck, her ass cheeks in the palms of his hands.
She’d never get tired of having him inside her, or of her breasts rubbing against his strong chest or her fingers digging into his back. But none of that mattered.
He lifted his head to kiss her again and as their tongues slid sinuouslyover one another, she thought with a start—this was all that mattered. At least for now.
Rotating her hips, she met his thrusts, gasping with the rush of passion sifting through her veins, the feel of their two beasts joining once again pummeling her with the fierceness of their kind. “Aiken, baby, please don’t stop.”
Don’t stop loving me. Wanting me. Needing me. Please.
None of thosewords could be spoken. They were all useless. He thought everything was going to be fine, that they’d win this battle and possibly live happily ever after. He had no clue that the destiny he’d always hoped for just wasn’t meant to be. No matter how hard she wished it weren’t so right now. She couldn’t ask him to wait another second longer than the eighty years he’d already waited for her and shedidn’t know when or if she’d ever be able to return to Burgess to be with him.
She yelled out the minute his sharp teeth scraped along her shoulder. The pleasure/pain prick of his breaking her skin pushed her over the edge and she bucked against him as her release tore through her body. He held her so tight she thought he might crush her bones, but instead he let his release join hers untilthey were both heaving and clinging to each other in that narrow walkway outside of the restaurant.
After a few moments she thought she heard him whisper something in her ear but then there was a loud noise on the street, perhaps a bus driving by, a horn blared. The reminder that they were outside yanked them out of the sexual abyss and they broke apart to get dressed in silence.
Hourslater when they lay in the bed at the hotel, his arm wrapped around her, her face pressed against his chest, Mel listened to him breathe. She felt the up and down motion as each breath was taken and imagined his beast inside doing the same. She’d seen that beast, rode on its back and had flown alongside it. Her hands had touched its scales, and her dragon had stared into his dragon’s eyes. They wereone. At this moment her heartbeat matched his, her skin responded to the touch of his, her beast called to his knowing it would be answered. There were no questions in these seconds, no recriminations, no regrets.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you. Please forgive me.”
Because by tomorrow night at this time, she would leave him again. She had no other choice.
Rain peltedAiken’s face as he walked away from the line of twenty-three tourists. They’d been following the tour guide for the last thirty minutes, seeing too many types of flora for him to count. He hadn’t been paying attention to a word the guide said and instead had been focused on the navigation system of his communicator. Mel walked a few steps ahead of him. She seemed to be mildly interested in the tourand only looked down at her communicator periodically, but she’d known when it was time to drift back and turn off the trail with the others.
Now they both walked faster, trying to reach the point where there would be a boat to take them across the river to where the Schenek village was.
“We’re a step ahead of them.” She spoke loud enough that he heard her over the rain as he stepped overthe exposed roots of an Okoume tree. He knew the name of that one because it was in the brochure he’d pretended to be reading while they were on the bus this morning, instead of talking to Mel.
They’d had a great time last night, both on the pathway by the restaurant and once they arrived back at the hotel. But this morning he had to keep his mind focused on this mission. It was the only wayto keep her safe. That thought jolted him and he returned to her comment.
“Ziva didn’t report any of the Royal Blood had left Burgess last night and all I heard from Bleu this morning was that everything was a go.” He’d heard from Theo, as well, asking if they were both alright. What the emperor really meant was had Aiken calmed down after his freak-out over Mel volunteering to come here.The answer to that question was no, but after his conversation with Shola and Ravyn, he’d at least had the good sense to not say anything about that to her again.
“Does the owner of this boat know who we are?” She would continue to ask questions to mask her nervousness and because she never liked the idea of him knowing more than her when they worked together.
“He knows we work for a securitycompany and that we’re looking for a client that was sent here for work. He doesn’t know we’re Drakon or that we plan to sneak onto the burial ground.”
“Maybe he’s a witch too? Or are they called wizards? Did we consider that? What if he’s working with them and we’re walking into a trap?” she asked.
He touched her shoulder and she spun around to face him. “What? What’s wrong?” she asked,her tone full of concern.
Her eyes were wide with excitement, her reflexes quick and ready. Still, she seemed a little off. “Nothing’s wrong,” he told her. “Are you having second thoughts? Is that what’s going on? If so, just tell me and we can leave.”
They both wore ponchos they’d purchased from the hotel gift shop when they realized it was raining. That word didn’t seem to accuratelydescribe the heavy sheets of water pelting them. Normally the canopy of the rain forest kept rain to a slower trickle, but not today. It seemed the floodgates had opened especially for them. Mel’s was red and his was an unappealing royal blue. Her hood was big and covered a good portion of her face, so she tilted her head back to peer up at him.
“I’m fine. Just thinking out loud. Consideringall possibilities.” He wiped away a drop of rain that had just splashed over the tip of her nose.
“Cool. Let’s keep going. If we’re late this guy’ll probably leave us. I’m sure he knows the Schenek are the only inhabitants of the area where we’ll be dropped off.”
