Chapter 5
Mack helped Miracle stand, wrapping an arm around her waist to steady her. She’d nearly drowned because her dragon was being an idiot. She couldn’t believe that she was walking next to her mate. The mate chosen by her dragon, not chosen by her king. She picked up the small bag that contained her flip-flops and her keycard, and held his hand as they walked toward the hotel. When they reached the end of the beach, he swung her up into his arms and carried her the rest of the way.
She swiped her card at the security pad, and he held her close with one arm and pulled the door open with the other.
“I’m on the third floor, with the other females.”
“I’m on the fourth.”
“You need fresh clothes.”
“So do you,” he said as he climbed the stairs.
“Are we at an impasse already?” she asked with a chuckle.
“How about you first and then me?”
“Fine, be all noble.”
He laughed as he carried her down the hall to her room. She swiped her key card through the reader, and he pushed it open. He set her down but kept his hand on her hip, his palm warm against her. She wasn’t normally so chilled, but the stress of shifting so rapidly had left her feeling cold. Except when Mack was holding her. She felt downright toasty with him.
She looked up at him, aware she was ogling him, but she couldn’t bring herself to do anything but stare. He was so gorgeous; she was certain she’d never seen a more handsome male. His gray eyes were stormy with emotion, swirling with the amber of his beast. His thick dark hair was just made for grasping in the throes of passion, and his broad shoulders and tapered waist were the stuff of female fantasy.
He spun her, pressing her back against the door. Lowering his head, he kissed the side of her neck, his lips making a slow path from her shoulder to her ear. He grasped her hair, wrapping it around his hand and tugging it gently to the side. Her whole body lit up as he inhaled deeply against her neck and then growled as he exhaled. “I could eat you up,” he said gruffly. “You smell amazing, like the mountains and sunshine.”
She fisted his shirt with both hands and said his name. Her brain was misfiring. The sexy male pressing against her, doing wicked things to her neck, was everything she’d ever wanted and never had. Strong, considerate, commanding. And to know that he was hers now…she didn’t want to waste a moment.
He released her hair slowly and pressed his hands against the door. Gazing down at her, his voice was a little lower and rougher when he said, “Go clean up. I’ll be here when you’re done.”
She rose onto her toes and kissed him, then ducked under his arm and hurried to the bathroom. Flicking on the light, she turned on the shower and then stared at herself in the mirror. She’d suspected she looked like a nightmare, but seeing the reality in the unforgiving mirror was enough to make her cringe. Then she changed her thought process. Just because the better part of her adult life had been spent listening to an asshole dragon describe her as everything from ‘too fat’ to downright ugly, didn’t mean that she was any of those things. Her ex was a terrible person, rotten from the inside out. She’d learned very early on that he rarely spoke the truth, especially when he was stinking drunk. Which, toward the end of their mating, had been practically twenty-four seven.
Since she didn’t believe him, she decided that his words wouldn’t have any effect on her anymore. She’d successfully broken the bonds of their mating, and she never had to think about him again. And with the sexy wolf in the next room, she was certain she’d never think of anyone else, ever. She looked at herself with fresh eyes. She wasn’t ugly, she was lovely. Her eyes were bright, and her cheeks were flushed with passion. Her curves were highlighted by the white bikini. Mack had accepted her immediately, and the attraction between them was undeniable. It wasn’t just physical; it was everything.
Stripping off the damp fabric, she placed the bikini over the shower rod at the corner and stuck her hand into the water to test it. Discovering it was deliciously hot, she stepped under the spray and closed her eyes as the warmth flowed over her, washing off the salt and sand. She picked up the body wash from the ledge and wished Mack was there now. She bet he looked even more amazing wet.
As if he had read her mind, she saw a shadow on the other side of the shower curtain, and then it was tugged back to reveal her new mate, wearing nothing but a hopeful smile.
“I want to say something witty, but all I can think about right now is how you’re in here, naked and wet, and I should be in here, too,” he said.
She almost giggled, but she bit her lip and said, “I was just thinking the same thing.”
He stepped in, tugging the fabric curtain closed, and looked down at her. In the shower, with the steam surrounding them, she felt like she must be dreaming. That she couldn’t have been lucky enough to find her mate on the first day of a singles’ vacation. But here she was. And here he was. Wet. Hard.
Holy shit.
He took the small bottle of shampoo from the corner ledge and opened it, dumping half into the palm of his hand. The scent of coconut and vanilla filled the air, and her dragon purred as he sank his fingers into her hair and began to lather the strands.
“My wolf is being really vocal in my head,” he said as his fingers worked magic against her scalp. “I want to do a million things to you.”
She poured body wash into her hand and rubbed his chest, soaping up his muscles and feeling them tense under her hands.
“What kinds of things?” she asked.
He lifted his hands from her hair and rubbed his own with soapy fingers. She rinsed her hair and then squeezed the strands, switching places with him so he could rinse off. Filling her palm with more body wash, she let her fingers trail down his stomach, not bothering to hide her curiosity at his erection. She’d only been with two males before in her life. Her first had been a clumsy encounter when she was sixteen, with a dragon male who hadn’t known anything at all about how to please her. And then her ex, who’d thought of her as his personal sex toy, in a bed where only his pleasure was important.
He took the body wash from her hand and emptied the contents into his palm, then rubbed his hands together and stroked her slowly from her shoulders down both arms. He circled her wrists and trailed his fingers up the inside of her arms before smoothing them across her chest. Playing his fingers over her nipples, he covered her breasts with suds, and then gently pinched the sensitive peaks.
“I want to know what you sound like when you fall apart,” he said, gruffly. “I want to taste every inch of you.”
Her knees threatened to turn to jelly at his sexy words.
“Tell me if we’re going too fast, and I’ll stop. Your happiness is paramount to me.”
“Don’t stop,” she said, rising onto her toes and wrapping her arms around his neck. His hands slid around her back and he pulled her flush against him, his erection trapped between their bodies, hot and hard.
Their mouths met, tongues sliding together in a way that was exciting and new, but also felt familiar. He kissed her like he could climb down inside her, stroking her tongue and touching every space inside her mouth. His chest vibrated with a constant growl, and her dragon was purring right along with him. She traced the muscles in his arms and then slid her hands down his back to rest them against his butt, squeezing lightly. He chuckled as he kissed down her throat, nipping her skin, and then he lifted her and pressed her against the wall. Her legs went around his waist, but he didn’t lower her onto his dick – he trapped it underneath her, so she could feel the hot length of him against her pussy but not inside it. He wrapped his arm around her back and pressed her against the wall, his arm protecting her from the cold tile.
She anchored herself to his waist by linking her ankles at his lower back. Sliding his hand between their bodies, he pressed his thumb against her clit. She let her head fall back against the wall as he rubbed her clit, slowly at first. Her body heated and her pussy clenched as he stroked her. His thumb moved faster, his shoulders tensing under her hands as a low growl built in his chest. Pleasure bloomed inside her, and it was so amazing she wanted it to last forever. She wanted to stand on the edge of the mountain, her body tingling and her senses on fire, for all eternity.
“Ah, Mack,” she said, groaning as her toes curled and heat blasted through her.
He lifted her enough for him to grasp his length and position it at her entrance, and then he lowered her slowly onto him. So slow, so full…she felt every inch of him. He fit inside her perfectly, and she felt so complete that she would’ve cried if she’d had a moment to think about the significance of their joining.
Their bodies were wed tightly, linked in the most intimate of ways. And then he canted his hips and slid from her, just until the thick head of him was the only part inside. She urged him forward with her legs, tugging on his hips as she dug her nails into his shoulders. His eyes were completely amber, and she could see his fangs through his parted lips as he began to move inside her, fucking her slowly.
Her dragon trilled, and the sound spilled from her lips. Her beast was finally happy after so many years being tied to the wrong person. Mack was exactly what she needed, and the thought passed through her mind to mark him. Wolves marked, but they bit. Dragons only marked when their mate was a match born of fate – not arranged. She bore no marks from her ex, and was thankful she didn’t have a single reminder of the years under his thumb. But what she did have was the knowledge that Mack was chosen by her dragon.
Mack moved faster, stroking into her fast and deep, their bodies moving together as if they were old lovers. He knew exactly how to touch her, how to hold her so tight and fuck her so perfectly. The rumble that had been building in his chest since the moment their bodies touched was growing louder, his chest vibrating as she slid her palms against his smooth skin.
“Give me your neck, Miracle,” he said, his voice low and deep. “Let me make you mine in truth.”
She tilted her head and began to move her hips more earnestly, meeting his thrusts and rolling her hips so his body rubbed her clit just right. She didn’t think it was possible to come a second time, so soon after the first; but she was heading right for another height of pleasure, anxious to come while he was inside her.
“I’m yours, Mack,” she whispered, her voice rough and her heart pounding. He snarled as he lowered his head, his lips rubbing lightly up and down her throat before he fit his teeth in the place between her neck and shoulder, and bit. She let out a sharp cry at the pain as his fangs broke through her skin and sank deep, but the hurt eased immediately and was replaced with a tingling warmth that spread through her. Her dragon roared in her mind, demanding to mark him as their perfect mate, so she did. Her claws emerged, and she curled them into his left bicep, slashing in a smooth arc and flexing into the meat of his arm as the venom in their tips marked him permanently.
Mack lifted from her throat and began to fuck her even harder, slamming into her, holding her so tightly she could do nothing but relax and take every inch of him, again and again. She fell quickly toward climax, her pussy clutching him rhythmically. He faltered in his fast pace, and his cock thickened. He roared as he came. She felt the heat of his come as he climaxed inside her, and it set off her orgasm. She threw back her head and screamed his name, releasing her claws from his arm and grasping the shower rod for leverage as she rolled her hips and hugged him close with her legs.
He pressed his head against her shoulder, kissing the place where he’d marked her. “You’re amazing,” he said hoarsely.
“You are too,” she said, kissing his temple and then his cheek. Releasing her hold on the rod, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “Damn it, Mack, you rocked my world.”
“That’s not a bad thing, right?”
“Not at all. If round two is anything like round one, we’re going to have a very good time.”
He eased her off his cock and set her on the floor outside of the tub. She grabbed the towels off the rack as he turned off the water and joined her on the rug. “You don’t mind that I marked you?” he asked, rubbing his hair with the towel she gave him.
“Of course not. I know what we are. It felt right. You don’t mind that I marked you?”
He looked down at the mark on his arm. It reminded her of a single flame, the way it would curl and twist. “I’m glad you did. If I’d had any blood left in my brain, I would have asked you what dragons did to mark their mates.”
She rubbed her hair with the towel and turned to face the mirror so she could see the mark at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Mack set his palm on her shoulder and rubbed his thumb along her skin. “This will scar. It will tell anyone who sees it that you’ve got a wolf for a mate. I feel like you’re my second chance at happiness, Miracle. I want to do everything right and be the best mate to you.”
He’d saved her life, made her come twice, and then he’d claimed her.
“You already are the best.”
“Aw, babe,” he said as he swung her up into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. “I promise that was just the tip of the iceberg of how good I’ll be to you. In a moment, we went from being strangers to being marked mates. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to make you happy.”
He laid her down on the bed and she grinned as she spread her legs. “You could put your face here for about an hour.”
He chuckled. “Just an hour?”
“As long as you like.”
“As long as you like,” he said, his voice rumbling with his wolf as he prowled up the bed between her legs.