CHAPTER 10
Anais wasn’t sure how to respond when Loke slid his hand around the back of her neck and dragged her up to him, claiming her lips with his in a kiss that drove every thought out of her mind and left only feeling behind.
His mouth fused with hers, the hard press of his lips as they swept over hers enticing her into opening for him. She did it without hesitation, her lips parting to welcome his invasion and a kiss that rocked her right down to her soul.
It had been too long since she had been kissed like this.
Thoroughly. Passionately.
It burned away every shred of reservation and shattered her inhibitions. It destroyed every thread of resistance.
She melted into him, her palms pressing harder against his bare chest. His heart thundered against them, the wild beat matching the one in her ears and against her breast. His arm tightened around her and his groan made her shake inside, trembling with a need for more.
She shoved her hands up his chest and broke free of the confines of the small gap between their bodies. His hold on her tightened further, squashing her breasts against his chest, and she moaned as she clutched his shoulders, drowning in the heat and passion of his kiss.
Fire burned through her, as if he breathed it into her with each sweep of his lips across hers. His fingers tangled in her hair and tugged at it, forcing her head back and making her open further for him. He plundered her mouth and all she could do was cling to him and ride the storm of his passion, as lost in her own need and desire as he was.
Loke moaned against her lips and the fire blazing in her veins burned hotter, stirred into an inferno by the sound of the pleasure he took from their kiss. She responded by pressing her fingertips into his shoulders and unleashing a soft gasp of pleasure. Need swirled within her, growing more intense and powerful by the second, with every brush of their mouths and every touch of their tongues.
That need consumed her. It owned her. She could do nothing but surrender to it.
Anais pressed against his shoulders and rose onto her knees, bringing her face up level with his and seizing control of the kiss.
He groaned and grabbed her backside, hauling her closer to him, and grunted as he fell backwards. She landed on top of him and immediately pushed herself up, speared by awareness of his injuries and how her weight would hurt him. He didn’t seem to give a damn. He growled, a sound born of pure frustration, and pulled her back down on top of him.
She tried to edge her weight away from his left hip at least, but he refused to let her move. He wrapped both arms around her, settling one hand between her shoulders and the other on her backside, and pinned her to him. His mouth claimed hers again and pleasure blasted through her, obliterating her concerns for a heartbeat of time before they came rushing back.
“Loke,” she breathed against his lips and he kissed her again, as if he could silence her that way.
Hell, she wished that he could, but the concerned voice in the back of her head wasn’t going anywhere and it was ruining her mood.
“Let me move,” she whispered and he snarled this time, the feral sound shocking her and making her heart skip a beat. She pressed against his shoulders and fought his hold. “Loke, let me move!”
His answering growl made her go still but she braced her hands against his chest, stopping him from pulling her back down to him.
“Loke.” She softened her tone and he finally gave up trying to tug her back down to him and loosened his hold on her.
Displeasure etched darkness onto his handsome face as she raised herself off him and his aquamarine eyes were as stormy as a violent ocean. She hadn’t meant to upset him, or make him feel she was going to run away from him and what was happening between them. She wanted—needed—him to know that.
Anais lifted one hand to his face and swept her fingers across his brow first, feeling his temperature without alerting him to what she was doing. She traced those two fingers downwards, over the sculpted curve of his cheek and then down the straight strong line of his jaw. Dark blue whiskers dusted it, scraping against the sensitive tips of her fingers. She smiled as she stroked his lower lip and his mouth opened, revealing a hint of white teeth. His gaze bore into her but she refused to look at him as she explored his face, feeling as if she was looking at him with clear eyes at last and seeing him properly for the first time.
He was more than handsome.
He was beautiful.
She had never liked it when men dyed their hair outrageous colours, but the bright cerulean of his suited him and she couldn’t imagine him with dull brown, black or blond instead. It was a trace of his dragon showing through, a reminder that he had another form, a majestic and incredible one that still seemed more fantasy than reality.
Anais ploughed her fingers through his hair, enjoying the contrast of the rich colour against her milky skin. It was damp from his fever. A fever that seemed to have finally broken. He’d had her worried. She wasn’t sure how many hours had passed since he had lost consciousness, but it felt like more than a day’s worth. She had been startled when she had gone to fetch a fresh pail of cold water to bathe him and had heard him yelling her name.
She had been afraid when she had seen him crawling towards the ledge and had reacted on instinct to stop him, fearing he would fall over the edge again and she wouldn’t be able to save him this time.
“Anais?” he murmured and she pulled her eyes away from his short wild hair and dropped them to his.
They were soft and calm again, bright with flecks of gold fire that seemed to shimmer and swirl.
They sought an answer to his unspoken question from hers and she sighed as she feathered her fingers down his cheek.
“I’m crushing your wound.” She decided to say it straight and not dance around the truth. She had wanted things to continue, but not when it had been in danger of hurting him.
He loosened his hold further and she slid off his right side. His eyes rolled back in his head and he groaned, and she realised with dismay that she had forgotten something else in the heat of passion too.
He was naked.
Anais glanced down and fire flashed through her. His cock jutted proudly from a nest of deep blue curls, thick and long, and Heavens she wanted to run her hand down it and hear him moan again.
She dragged her eyes away instead and avoided Loke’s fierce gaze. He breathed hard, his chest pressing against hers, tempting her gaze down to it. She couldn’t let it lure her eyes there to roam over his muscles as they strained, because those same eyes would want to drift down the hard ridges of his stomach and from there it was barely a leap to his cock.
“Come back,” he murmured and tried to pull her back on top of him, but gave up when she resisted. “You felt good pressed against me.”
Hell, he had felt good pressed beneath her too but she had been putting weight on his wound. She drew in a deep breath, steadied herself, and then focused on the bandage around his waist. She needed to check the wound and make sure she hadn’t reopened it.
Anais reluctantly pulled herself away from him and kneeled beside him. He huffed and propped himself up onto his elbows, his gaze on his left hip. She focused there too, refusing to let the way his entire torso had tensed, revealing every muscle, sway her into looking at his body. He didn’t flinch as she untied the strip of black material and unwound it, revealing the wound.
The ragged line where she had cauterised the wound was still pink and raw, but there was no blood.
Loke prodded it. Hard.
“What did you do?” His deep voice echoed around the cave, a touch of irritation in it.
“I cauterised it.” When he frowned at her, she realised he didn’t understand and put it in terms he would. “I heated your knife on the fire and used it to seal the wound shut.”
Loke looked less than pleased and she folded her arms across her chest.
“Would you rather have bled to death?” she snapped and his frown eased.
He shook his head. “No. Dragons heal quickly, Little Amazon. There is a chance I would not have bled out.”
“A chance? You’d rather bank on a chance over being certain?” She frowned now. He made no sense at all. He prodded the scar again and she grabbed his hand. “Stop that. You’ll open it again.”
“No, I will not. It is healed… and now I am left with this scar.”
Thanks to her.
He didn’t say it, but it was there in his tone and his eyes. She glared at him and pushed his hand away from his left hip before he could prod the scar again.
She pointed to his chest and the scars on it, long slashes from the claw marks that had littered him. “You would have scarred anyway.”
“But it would have been less noticeable.”
Anais resisted the urge to roll her eyes and box him around the ears.
She sighed and stroked her fingers over the wide scar that darted over his left hip, her gaze locked on it as she tried to think of something to say that would make him shut up about what she had done and appreciate it instead of complaining about it.
His gaze left her face and she glanced at him, finding his eyes following her fingers as she caressed his skin, one finger on either side of the three-inch line of the scar. The fascination was back in them again, making them almost glow and the golden flecks burn.
“Some girls like scars.” She let the words tumble from her lips and his eyes slowly lifted from her fingers to her face, the fire in them growing hotter as they met hers and held them, rendering her powerless and under his command.
“A girl like you?” he husked and her fingers stilled against his hip.
She nodded.
His expression turned pained and he groaned as he frowned at her.
He rocked his hips upwards, tearing a gasp from her throat as his hard length pressed against her forearm. His nostrils flared and his eyes darkened further, flooding with need and rekindling the embers of her desire.
“Touch me,” he groaned and rolled his hips again, thrusting against her arm, rubbing the head back and forth across her skin. “I need it. It has been too long and you drive me to the edge of despair… I need you, Little Amazon. Gods, I need you.”
And gods, she needed him too and wanted to give him what he desired, but part of her was stuck on what he had said.
It had been too long.
“How long?”
He cast her another pained look and rubbed himself against her arm, and she thought he wouldn’t answer her question. She opened her mouth to say it again and he spoke over her.
“Centuries… one… two… a long time. I am not sure. Will you touch me now?” He groaned and bit his lower lip as he rocked his hips again. “Please, Anais. I fear I might burst or die if you do not.”
A little melodramatic.
But he hadn’t been with a woman in a long time. Longer than she had been alive. For some reason, she found that pleasing. Appealing. She liked the fact that it had been centuries since he had last taken a lover, because it wasn’t as if he hadn’t had the opportunity. The red female dragon acted as if she would leap on Loke given the chance and other females had admired him too.
He didn’t want them.
But he needed her.
Anais twisted her blonde hair into a thick strand and knotted it at the back of her head. If she was going to give him his first touch from a woman in centuries, she was going to make sure he roared the cave down and never wanted another woman again.
She was going to blow his mind.
She hooked her leg over his and sat back, pinning them beneath her. He stared down the length of his incredible body at her, his eyes narrowed and hot with hunger and his teeth still buried in his lower lip.
Anais held his gaze and feathered two fingers down the length of his rigid cock.
Loke tipped his head back and growled, his sexy throat working on a hard swallow and his lips parting as his eyes slipped shut. If he liked that, he was going to love what she had in mind.
She danced her fingers up and down his length, giving him time to grow used to her touch. It jerked beneath her, pulsing with need that made her want to press her thighs together and wriggle. It was all she could do to resist crawling up his body, settling herself over his shaft and rocking against him. She battled that need and stroked him, up and down, from root to tip and back again. When she dipped to the base, she let her fingers drift over his balls and he shuddered and moaned, the wanton sound filling the thick silence.
“Anais,” he murmured, his expression half-mad already, and she smiled as she leaned over him and decided to drive him all the way to full-crazy.
She lowered her mouth and stroked her tongue over the length of his cock, flicking the head when she reached it. He jerked hard against her and moaned as he shook all over. She didn’t give him a chance to grow accustomed to things this time. She swirled her tongue around the sensitive blunt head of his length and ran it over the slit, ripping a feral grunt from his lips. He rocked, a desperate edge to his actions, and she pressed her hands to his hips and pinned them.
Another groan escaped him.
Anais set about earning another one as she stroked her tongue over his flesh and then wrapped her lips around him. He thrust upwards, driving his cock into her mouth, and growled. His hand clamped down hard on her head and he tried to push her away but she refused to let him. She curled one hand around his length and began sucking him, taking him deep into her mouth before withdrawing and swirling her tongue over every sensitive spot he had.
He bucked and groaned, and she opened her eyes and looked up the length of him. Delicious. Every inch of him was tensed, taut and pronounced, on display for her to devour. The man was a god. Wicked perfection. A warrior who she swore was going to war on her heart and wouldn’t stop until she surrendered.
Maybe she would turn the tables on him and not stop until he surrendered to her.
She smiled wickedly and sucked him again. Each moan he loosed stirred her desire, sending her passion and need soaring to new heights. She swayed her hips, feeling the moisture as it pooled between her thighs, her need as it burned through her, and she found herself thinking about taking him inside her or finding release in some way.
He had said that he wanted her, but Hell, she wanted him too. Needed him just as he needed her.
“Anais,” he whispered, hoarse and strained, and then muttered something in his beautiful tongue.
He pushed against her again, harder this time, and she couldn’t resist him. He was too strong. He easily lifted her mouth away from him and she relented when she looked up at him and saw him breathing hard and fighting for control. Hunger burned in his striking eyes, calling her to him, beckoning her in a way she didn’t want to resist.
She needed him.
“Gods,” he muttered and dropped his hand to her shoulder. He tugged at the strap of her bra and eyed the garment. “Take this off… before I tear it off you.”
She appreciated the warning and the chance to save her bra from being torn into pieces, and tamped down the urge to tell him to take it off her so she could see his expression sour and hear him confess that he didn’t know how. She didn’t think he would like her teasing him, not when he was so far gone, on fire with need and mad with desire.
Anais sat back on his knees, undid her bra and slipped it off her breasts.
Loke’s gaze instantly zeroed in on them and he swiftly sat up. His left arm snaked around her back and he grabbed her bottom and hauled her up onto her knees. His lips descended on her right breast and she gasped and clutched his shoulders as he pulled her nipple into his mouth. The exquisite feel of his teeth rolling the sensitive bead between them tore a moan from her lips and had her tossing her head back and trembling against him.
He groaned against her breast and pulled her closer, sucking harder on her nipple, sending hot sparks shooting outwards from it and blazing across her overheating skin.
“Loke,” she husked and he groaned again and wrapped his other arm around her, pinning her to him.
It wasn’t enough. She needed more.
Anais couldn’t stop herself from flexing her hips. The need to feel his hands on her was too fierce, controlling her and sending her out of her mind. She needed some relief.
She tore at the button on her trousers and shoved the fly down, and reached around her back to grab Loke’s right hand. She seized it, pressed it flat against her stomach and then guided it downwards into her underwear.
Loke stilled, breathing hard against her breast, his hand trembling as she nudged it between her thighs. A groan left him and she echoed it as she began to move his hand against her, rubbing his fingers over her sensitive bud. He growled and she gasped as he took control, his hand no longer shaking as he caressed her.
Anais grabbed his shoulders again, steadying herself as pleasure rocked her, promising sweet relief. She was so close already. On the precipice just as he was.
Another growl left his lips as he tried to dip his hand lower and her trousers hindered him. She shoved at them at the same time as he did, trying to get them down her hips. They refused to budge while she had her legs spread to accommodate his between them.
Loke found a solution to that.
He pulled them so hard she ended up on her back with her bottom in the air. It didn’t stop him. He saw his chance and he took it, yanking her black trousers down her legs together with her underwear. The ground was cold and rough beneath her back, but she didn’t care, not when Loke edged her knees apart and wedged his shoulders between them.
The first brush of his tongue over her flesh was bliss.
The second tore a moan from her throat that startled her. She couldn’t remember ever sounding so wild and abandoned, untamed and lost in the pleasure of a man’s touch.
He groaned and lapped at her, teasing her sensitive nub with the tip of his tongue before laving it with the flat, sending her soaring higher towards Heaven.
She reached down with one hand and grabbed his hair, twining the blue lengths between her fingers, and threw the other one above her head. Her hips rocked of their own accord, rubbing her against his wicked tongue as he mastered her body. He moaned and she balanced on the edge, flexing and reaching for her climax. It refused to come. She still needed more, that extra push.
The feel of him inside her.
She wanted to know what he would feel like as he eased into her, joining them and completing her.
Damn, she needed that.
“Loke,” she whispered and then bit her tongue, her cheeks heating as her courage faltered.
He lifted his head and she cursed him for stopping. When he showed no sign of going back to his work of driving her mad, she risked looking down at him. His dark blue gaze locked with hers, sending a blast of heat through her. She had never had a man look at her as he did, as if he wanted to eat her whole. Devour her.
“Touch me.”
His eyes darkened further as she issued that command, not with anger but with passion and need, hunger she had awoken in him with a simple but brave request. She had also never dared to tell a man what she wanted before, but as Loke lowered his head and stroked his tongue over her nub, harder than before, and eased two fingers into her sheath, she decided that it was worth the risk of embarrassing herself.
Anais threw her head back, arching off the ground as she rode each thrust of his fingers and each swirl of his tongue. Heat blasted through her, ebbing and flowing, bouncing around inside her until she was on fire. She clutched her own hair with one hand and his with the other, moaning and writhing, seeking a release that seemed so elusive, forever coming within reach before slipping beyond her grasp.
“Loke,” she husked and he slid his other arm beneath her, raising her backside off the ground, and stroked her harder with his tongue as he thrust deeper with his fingers.
The heat pooling within her reached boiling point.
Loke swept his tongue over her nub and she shattered, her entire body jolting upwards as fire and lightning shot through her, a million sparks that cascaded down her legs and over her torso. She quivered around his fingers, moaning with each thrust as he brought her down from her climax, adding to her pleasure.
He pulled his fingers from her and licked her, lapping at her entrance and tearing another hazy moan from her lips.
He growled and she gasped as he was suddenly above her, his hands pressed against the black ground on either side of her head, bracing his body away from hers. His eyes glowed blue fire and she trembled under his intense gaze.
She knew what he needed, because she needed it too.
Anais pressed her right hand to his chest and slowly drifted it downwards, feeling his heart hammering against it and how tight his muscles were, coiled strength beneath her palm. She twisted her hand when she reached his hip and swept across, towards his length. It flexed and pulsed when she cupped it, and he moaned, his eyes turning hooded as his breath left him in a rush.
“Little Amazon needs,” he murmured sexily and she nodded as he looked at her.
“Loke needs too,” she whispered and stroked him, eliciting another groan from him as he frowned, his nostrils flaring and eyes closing.
“Gods.” He lowered his head and his arms visibly trembled.
Anais stroked him one more time and then pushed down the length of him, encouraging him to move backwards. He did so without hesitation and she didn’t hesitate either. She wanted this—him—and she was going to have it.
He lowered his hips and she brought him to her, guiding the tip down to her sheath.
He froze and pulled away, his expression fierce and icy, and his lips flattening into a thin line.
Cold swept through her as he sat back and she sat up and covered herself with her arms, unsure what she had done wrong.
Frustration etched deep lines on his handsome face. “Someone comes.”
Relief filled her for a split-second before what he had said sank in.
Someone was coming.
And she was naked.
Anais leaped to her feet and Loke groaned, drawing her gaze back to him. His pained expression spoke to her, telling her that he wasn’t happy that they had been interrupted. She was plenty pissed about it too and she was going to make sure whoever was coming knew it.
She tugged her trousers on and quickly donned her bra, making sure she was covered before their intruder landed.
She presumed it was a dragon anyway. She hadn’t really thought to ask.
Loke gripped the black rough wall of the cave and pulled himself onto his feet, and she paused and frowned at him. Someone had been pretending to be in better shape than they really were. She would have words with him about that later. The last thing she wanted was Loke hurting himself.
“I am fine.” He gave her a look that warned her to hold her tongue and his blue leather trousers materialised on his legs.
If fine was another way of him saying wobbly and paling, she might have agreed with him.
“You need to rest.” She took hold of his arm and he shot her another look, this one dark with passion and hunger, fanning the desire that still burned within her.
He opened his mouth to answer her and quickly turned away, giving her his back and coming to face the mouth of the cave. He caught her hip and shoved her behind him, and she peered around him, wanting to see who had come to visit and fearing it would be Zephyr or the irritating red female dragon.
It was neither of them.
An incredible violet dragon landed on the ledge.
Anais stared at it, stunned by its colouring. She hadn’t realised that dragons could come in twin colours. The violet scales gave way to white down the front of its throat and its chest. It flapped enormous wings that were two-tone too, with purple scales over the muscles and bones, but white membranes, and settled them against its back.
She remained behind Loke as the dragon transformed.
Into a beautiful woman with shoulder-length violet-to-white hair and the most amazing eyes Anais had ever seen. Her irises were deep purple around the outside, but white around her pupils.
A very naked beautiful woman.
One who Loke clearly knew as he released Anais and walked towards her, speaking to the woman in their native tongue.
Anais folded her arms across her chest and remained where she was, refusing to move, even when Loke looked back at her. He frowned and canted his head, a flicker of confusion in his eyes as she glared at him. How many beautiful female dragons did he know?
Had he slept with this one?
They seemed close as Loke gestured towards the fire, smiling at the woman, and she finally made an effort to dress. Unlike the redheaded bitch in the village, this one covered herself in both violet leather trousers and a white top.
It didn’t change how Anais felt about her.
She wanted the woman gone.
Damn, didn’t that make her sound and feel like a jealous little bitch?
Loke wasn’t hers. They barely knew each other, no matter how differently she felt on that front. She hadn’t known him for months or years, and definitely not for centuries, but she felt as if she had.
She felt as if she had always known him.
But she hadn’t.
She looked back at the beautiful woman and Loke as they approached. How long had the woman known him? Had they been lovers?
Anais dragged her gaze away from them and tried to quieten that vicious voice, stopping it from raising questions that only hurt her. She went to the fire and sat on the furs near it, staring at it and paying no attention to Loke or the female.
Or how her heart caught fire in her chest and felt as if it was burning to ashes.
She felt Loke’s gaze on her but couldn’t bring herself to look at him as her thoughts weighed her down. Just minutes ago, she had been filled with light and something akin to happiness, and now she had plunged into darkness and it was cold, chilling her to the marrow.
She wrapped her arms around herself, drew her knees up to her chest, and kept her eyes on the fire as the reason for her jealousy dawned on her.
She was falling in love with a dragon.