Chapter Seventeen
Nessa had never been with anyone this passionate before. When she’d first met Kyle, he’d been uptight and closed off. Now, he could joke one second and be vulnerable the next. The combination was intriguing and sexy as hell.
Nessa leaned over, and Kyle took advantage of her new position by nabbing one nipple between his teeth and cupping the other breast. The dual stimulation almost made her lose it. With an expert touch, he teased and tormented her at the same time, making her blood pressure shoot so high her talons started to grow.
Be careful, or I might escape, her dragon warned.
You better not. Nessa had to block out the ecstasy thrumming through her veins in order to keep her dragon at bay.
She wiggled her pussy, letting her juices flow over his cock, and her scent ripped through the air.
“Nessa. I need you. Ride me, please.”
“Then hold on tight as this could get wild.”
Lifting up on her knees, she reached between them and guided his cock straight into her. At the first contact, her inner walls contracted and spikes of need impaled her. Her breath lodged in her throat, and when she completely dropped down onto him, waves of pleasure nearly toppled her.
Kyle grabbed her waist, withdrew, and drove up into her. Holy realms. Sparks flew, and waves of delight swamped her. It was so damn hard not to explode.
Wanting more, Nessa dipped her head and kissed him. When their tongues collided, she was sure her wings would sprout. Even the green grass below glowed purple from her body radiating her own light. With each swipe of their tongues, their hips matched the heady rhythm. They had started out fast, then slowed for a bit, and finally picked up the pace again.
With her breasts pressed against his chest, his hands grabbed her ass, and she delved her fingers into his hair. It was total sensory overload. Love speared her, but she wasn’t ready to tell him about her feelings—at least not right now. Their lives were already too much out of control.
On the next thrust, Kyle’s grip on her ass bordered on painful. He lifted his head and looked her in the eye. “I’m about to burst,” he panted.
“Me too.”
As if someone punched a hole in their dam, their passion exploded. He pummeled into her and kissed her even harder, and it was as if Nessa needed him in order to breathe.
She finally raised her head and gulped in air. Their bodies were in such perfect sync that they reached their peak at the same time. Her climax came fast and furiously, and her sight dimmed while her hearing shut off for a moment. Kyle’s cock expanded and then exploded, stretching her wide and taking her to a new place.
It seemed like forever before their pulsing stopped and reality returned. Out of energy, Nessa dropped onto his chest and begged her muscles to regain their strength.
The sweet odor of the grass calmed her, and the babbling brook created the perfect reason for not moving.
Finally, it was Kyle who nudged her. “As much as I’d like to stay here, we need to clean up. It’s getting dark.”
How was that possible? Hadn’t they just arrived? Maybe this magic forest had altered time.
Kyle helped her off him and then guided her to her feet. Once they took a quick dip in the water to clean up, they redressed. Nessa then moved to the edge of the stream where she’d have enough room to shift. “Ready for your ride back?” she asked.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
This time she believed him. In a flash, she was in her dragon form. After wrapping Kyle safely in her talons and making sure to support his legs this time, she took flight.
Nessa hadn’t given a second thought to flying by herself on the way to the eternal flame, but now that it was growing dark, a hint of fear trickled through her. Fighting someone with Kyle in her grasp could cost both of them their lives. She hadn’t thought ahead. Damn.
To lessen the chance of anything happening to her precious cargo, she flew lower to the ground than usual. She also searched the skies constantly for any sign of another dragon shifter. Hopefully, she’d be able to sense any. She’d failed to detect their attacker when he’d followed her to the SinCas building and then stolen the rock used to harm Kyle. That scared her.
Kyle had become her world, and she couldn’t let any more harm come to him.
After a rather tense hour-long flight, they arrived in town unharmed. Once she landed on top of the SinCas building, she set Kyle down and let the security of the building encase her. She’d been careless this time, and Nessa wouldn’t make that mistake again.
He leaned against the wall and rubbed his torso.
“Is something wrong?” she asked once she’d shifted into her human form.
“It’s nothing.”
“Something is wrong. Tell me.” She didn’t need any magic to see that.
“Your grip was a bit intense.”
Oh, shit. “I am so sorry. I was worried about flying alone. I must not have been paying attention to how tightly I was holding you.” Nessa should have listened to her brothers and not been in the air by herself, but her need to find answers cut short her ability to think.
“That’s okay. Maybe we should postpone any more flights until things settle down,” he said.
She appreciated his concern. “I agree.” Nessa smiled, trying to erase her unease. “How about I take you to dinner as a thank you for putting up with me?”
“Only if you let me pay.”
“Done.” She smiled, appreciating how readily Kyle was to forgive.
As they headed into the middle of town to find food, what sounded like fists smacking flesh echoed down one of the alleys. Nessa’s first instinct was to make sure some innocent person wasn’t being attacked. While her dragon persona wouldn’t come out in the narrow confines of the alley, a few sprays of fire often stopped the fisticuffs. “Wait here,” she told Kyle.
Nessa took off at a run. Instead of staying put though, Kyle followed. She inwardly smiled at his manly attitude. Halfway down the alley, she spotted one man beating another. She might have let them continue had one of them not been Safford DeLeon, the mine owner Kyle was investigating. What the hell? The victim didn’t seem to have the strength to fight back. In another few punches, the mine owner might kill the man.
Before she had the chance to interrupt the brawl, Kyle charged past her and grabbed Safford’s arm.
Jerking out of Kyle’s grasp, DeLeon shouted, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
As much as Nessa wanted to interfere, she decided to wait and see how Kyle handled the hothead.
“Trying to save you from a murder wrap, you jackass.”
That seemed to stop DeLeon in his tracks. He abruptly shoved the victim away from him. “Jerk isn’t worth it anyway.”
The man DeLeon had hit rose to his feet. Bloodied lip and bruised face, he turned around and staggered off. Nessa rushed after him to see if he needed help. “Hey, wait up,” she called. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He touched his lip and spat.
“You should go to the cops and report this.”
He shook his head. “I work for him—or rather I did work for him. I quit, and DeLeon got mad.”
She doubted that was all that had occurred. Nessa checked out his face. His lip would heal. “You still should report it.”
The man nodded. “I just might. If you’ll excuse me, ma’am, I need to clean up.”
Once she saw him exit the alley, she returned to Kyle. “Where’s DeLeon?” she asked.
“He huffed off. When I asked what the altercation was about, he said the guy was spreading rumors about his company and then quit.”
“So he just hit him?”
“Apparently,” Kyle said. “I told him he needed to show a bit of restraint. I also asked him about the accidents at your mine. He swore to me he had nothing to do with any of it.”
“It’s not like I expected him to confess.”
Kyle slid an arm around Nessa’s waist. “Neither did I, but DeLeon looked surprised. I don’t know. There was something about his demeanor that made me think he was telling the truth.”
“It’s possible. Only one of the four people we suspect will actually be guilty.”
“I’ll talk to Tom tomorrow to see if he knows what really set DeLeon off. You ready to chow?”
“Yes.” Nessa rubbed his arm. “Thank you for helping me.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to let you tangle with that guy alone.”
She could have handled DeLeon. “You might be right. So what are you in the mood to eat?”
“Can I have you?”
She punched him lightly. “We are not having sex in an alley.”
Kyle snapped his fingers. “Damn. Okay, how about sirloin steak and onion rings for dinner and then sex for dessert.”
She laughed. “You are incorrigible.” Just the way she liked him.
Because it was between the early crowd and the late night eaters, they scored a table at the Highlanders’ Steak Restaurant. Wanting to forget the altercation between DeLeon and his former employee, she ordered a bottle of red wine.
Once the waiter brought their glasses and the bottle, they ordered their meal, and Nessa leaned back and sipped the pleasantly dry drink. “You know, for all that we’ve done together, I really don’t know that much about you,” she said.
He tucked in his chin. “Sure you do. You’ve seen me in action.”
Nessa waved a hand. “Other than knowing where you work and that you have a sister, your past is a blank to me.”
“My life isn’t that interesting.”
“It is to me.”
Kyle sipped his wine. “Okay. I’ll tell you since I don’t want any secrets between us.”
Nessa smiled. “Me neither.”
“Where to start? My mom was a very hard working woman who grew up dirt poor. When she was seventeen, a dashing man with big dreams swept her off her feet. She believed he was the answer to her prayers. My dad appeared to have it all—a nice car, a good job, and best of all, he didn’t hit her.”
“I hear a but coming.”
“When I was about three, Mom got pregnant again with Lily. I think the pressure was too much for him. He started to drink and spend too much time at the racetrack. Long story short, he left us when Lily turned one.”
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up without a dad.”
Kyle polished off the rest of his glass, but he didn’t pour another. “It was hardest on my mom. To make ends meet, she took a cleaning job on top of working at the food store. When that became too much, she turned to drugs.”
Her heart broke. “How sad. What about you? How did you handle not having a dad or a mom who wasn’t…reliable?”
“I didn’t know any better. When we were young, my aunt watched us during the day, but by the time I was twelve, I found my way into the streets.”
His voice had lowered, and she could guess what happened next. “Did you hang out with the rough crowd?”
Kyle reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Rough crowd? I take it that’s a euphemism for thugs and gangs, right?”
She didn’t want to believe it. “I guess, but if you were involved in illegal activities, how did you turn yourself around?”
He leaned back and said nothing for a moment. It was almost as if he was debating whether to tell her. “My best friend at the time got mixed up with a group that loved to steal from the rich. Only they didn’t give the money to the poor. They kept it for themselves. Richie was their flunky and did whatever they told him to do. I wasn’t there, but one time, they stole from the wrong people—shifters. Since we humans can’t tell a shifter from a human, it ended in disaster. I don’t blame the panther who attacked Richie, but I was angry that he killed my friend.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too. Up until then, I didn’t think about consequences. After that, I pulled away from those friends and threw myself into work.”
Her heart ached for him. “What about Lily during that time? How did she cope?”
He blew out a breath. “Lily was always shy but she had a good heart. During the time I was sowing my wild oats, she continued working hard at school. I’m guessing she didn’t want to end up like our mom. To say the least, Lily and I butted heads a lot. My biggest regret was not recognizing that my sister needed me more than anything when she was growing up. I just wasn’t there for her.”
“I think you’ve made it up to her.”
His chin quivered. “I hope so.” Kyle managed to paste on a smile. “Enough about my sordid past—time for you to share.”
She knew she shouldn’t have started this soul baring experience. “I was the fourth of six kids.”
He whistled. “I can’t imagine taking care of that many children.”
“My mom didn’t work outside of the home. She loved having and taking care of us.”
“If my mom hadn’t needed to work, she would have enjoyed raising more too. Of course, she’d have needed a great husband who stayed and loved her,” Kyle said.
“Where is she now?”
His expression turned dark. “She passed away three years ago.”
“I’m sorry.” That seemed to be her refrain.
“Her life was hard.” He leaned forward. “I don’t think I’ve met your mom or all of your siblings yet.”
“You’ve met most of them. Griffin, who you haven’t met, is the eldest. He’s the even-tempered one of the group, which might be why he’s head of sales. His job takes him all over the realm. Next there’s Logan, Birk, me, Greer, and finally Camden. He works in the SinCas lab, experimenting with cutting the gems, as well as combining metals into new compounds.”
“What an amazing family.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”
His brows rose. “You sound serious.”
“I am.” She inhaled and then let out a long breath, trying to figure out the best way to do this. “I’m not sure how it works in the human world, but in my world, Fate lets us know who we are best suited for.”
“You mean fated mates.”
Her heart beat hard. “Yes.” He’d grown up in Tarradon, so it shouldn’t have surprised her that he was aware of them. “A shifter knows when he or she finds their mate because of the incredible draw between them.”
“Like instant lust?” Kyle looked around.
“Yes. Have you ever experienced something like that?” she asked.
“From the moment I saw you, I knew there was something special between us—a bond if you will.”
Nessa couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Me too!”
His brows rose. “That’s hard for me to believe. You were a little pissy toward me when we first met.”
She chuckled but was unable to tell if he was teasing her or not. “Seriously? You had just shut down our mine! Besides, I’d nearly been buried alive and wasn’t in my right mind.” She didn’t need to be coy. “Truth was, even before I saw you, when you were in the hallway talking with Birk, this wave of lust washed over me. It didn’t take me long before I knew you were my mate.” She sucked in a breath, waiting for his response.
Kyle grinned, and relief rushed through her. “Well, I’ll be damned. I wish you’d told me sooner.”
Nessa laughed. “I thought you would freak. I mean, mating is a lifetime commitment. It’s not something you can walk away from.”
“I know.”
“Do you also know that if we mate, you’ll become an evil dragon?”
“I don’t think all dragons are evil. At least I don’t anymore.”
“What about Lily?”
“Nessa, Lily will have to deal. I don’t want to hurt her, but I think she’ll come around to my way of thinking eventually.”
Nessa wanted to slip over to Kyle’s side of the table and kiss him silly, but she would refrain for now. She’d do that just as soon as they finished eating and had some privacy.