Noelle could see right through Marc. He tore at his clothing, all too ready to free of them so their bodies could touch, skin to skin. His hands gripped her, pulled her close so she could wrap her legs around his hips. His hand found her hair and tugged her head back. The pain alighted through her in a way she liked far too much. It mixed with the sensation of his teeth on the exposed skin of his neck.
He bit her and left his mark upon her. She didn’t mind if it told him she was not going anywhere. It would heal by morning. By then, hopefully, Marc would understand she only had eyes for him. She’d been dumb to ignore their bond as long as she had.
The addition of another male dragon in her life was not going to change that. She wasn’t stupid. She’d known what’d been gnawing on his heart, the small voice lingering beneath the louder fears for her safety. Noelle was confident she was safe, confident she was doing the right thing despite the risks, at the very least.
She spread her legs wide for him, their twined scents rising to make her stomach tighten. She couldn’t get enough of that smell. It made her reach for him and drag her nails down his muscled arms. Marc growled in response as he lifted his ready cock to her opening.
He spared a moment to tease her, drawing small circles around her opening, around her most sensitive place. Her head tipped back once more and a small groan left her. She couldn’t deal with it. She wanted more.
Noelle gripped his arms and pulled him forward so the head of his cock slid inside. He laughed, a gruff sound that said his beast was close to the surface. She greeted it with her own beast, gold sliding over her eyes while his gleamed like oil on water. She smiled, her beast making it toothy and predatorial. Noelle could feel him steadily fill every available inch of space inside of her.
This was what she’d been missing out on.
She began rocking her hips back and forth. Marc groaned, momentarily caught in the sensation of her wrapped around him. She raked her nails down the front of his chest, loving the way her pale skin looked against his darker skin. She wanted to lap him up like molten milk chocolate.
Unable to resist, she leaned forward and let her lips graze his skin. Marc took control now. He gripped her hips and began pumping, slowly, steadily building the pressure inside her core. She tried to hold onto it while her lips and tongue made a trail across his chest. He tasted like nothing she’d ever tried before. She let her teeth drag over his muscle and felt him shudder beneath her touch.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she promised, her breath playing over his skin.
His grip tightened on her, his strokes deepened. Noelle couldn’t focus enough to tease him much longer. She leaned back and gripped the edges of the stone counter. It began cracking beneath her hands, but she didn’t have enough sense left in her to pull back. It crumbled beneath the force of her orgasm.
The sensation, the pleasure shook her. She shuddered around his cock and it only made him smile. He wasn’t finished. Which meant he would bring her again and again. He would make it so that she would scream his name in pleasure. Noelle smiled, wide and unabashed. She would gladly scream his name.
The tight, heavy feeling began to build inside of her again. His hands travelled up her hips to cup her bare breasts. Thumbs flicked over her nipples and she trembled at the sensation it sent through her.
“You were meant to be mine,” Marc growled as his grip on her breasts tightened. He punctuated his words with a sharp thrust that took her breath away. “And, I was always yours.”
His words… they moved through her and settled in her very core. She knew them to be true, heard them spoken only once before, although they were spoken in a different language. Could it be? Was it the same across every culture, this forgotten binding?
Noelle reached up and gripped Marc’s shoulder so she could look him in the eye. “You were meant to be mine,” she said from between gritted teeth as she fought to keep from falling into the well of pleasure that threatened to suck her down. “And, I was always yours.”
She let go of her control and felt her climax rush to the surface. It made her mouth open, made her opening tighten. Marc reached for her and slammed himself to the hilt just as he shuddered with his own release. Noelle forgot about the words and their origin while she rode the waves of pleasure washing over her.
Together, they collapsed, heads bowed as they fought to catch their breath. They clung to one another, Marc still inside of his mate. The sensation was too much as he slid free and it sent a shudder through both of them. Unable to completely part just yet, Marc linger between her parted knees. Noelle didn’t mind as she looked up at him.
Her fingers trailed over his bronze skin, twirling in the dark chest hair as she created swirling designs. His words slowly came back to her. She’d heard those words repeated throughout her childhood. Never again had she thought to hear them again. Her native tongue was almost lost to her after spending so many years on American soil, surrounded by those who only spoke one language, but those words…
“What you said, before you climaxed,” Noelle began, not mincing words before she found herself fumbling to explain what they meant to her. “My parents…. They used to say that to one another before my father left for work each day.”
Marc looked down at her, brows furrowed. He breathed, slowly, trying to get his body under control again. Noelle felt her beast stirring. It purred, pushing her closer to the man already between her legs.
She spared a thought to feel bad for whoever might move into the apartment next.
“My father told me those words when Luc and I were young. He taught us both those words and said to only use them when we’d found our mate.” Marc leaned in to nuzzle her neck. The fuzz of his new beard tickled her skin. “I think my brother forgot them. He let the world distract him from his pain by inventing new ways to drive everyone around him insane.”
Noelle snorted. He wasn’t wrong. She’d nearly killed the man for his silly pranks.
“But, when I realized you were my mate, they were the words I repeated to myself every day, like a charm that might draw you closer to me.”
She laid her head against his shoulder, feeling guilt bite down on her stomach. “I’m sorry for pushing you away. I know I was being an ass, but that’s definitely no excuse for forgiveness. I wish I’d realized sooner what we could be together.”
His hands played up and down her back as he held her. She reveled in the way his fingers danced along her skin.
***
Marc lifted his mate off the counter and carried her over to the oversized sofa. It was plush and she bounced, her breasts jiggling, when he set her down. She reached for the napkins on the table to clean herself up with before pulling a blanket over her lap. He watched snuggle into the teal colored couch, feeling pride and love rise through him.
Their stomachs growled in unison and Marc spared no time in turning toward the fridge. His brother was the cook. Marc could make simple things, like fried eggs and toast, but beyond that he was useless. The best he could do was pull a handful of items from the fridge and carry them over to the table.
He set down a basket of strawberries, a package of deli wrapped meat slices and a jar of olives. It was a strange array of foods, but Noelle wasted no time in reaching for the jar of olives, popping one past her plump lips.
“We cannot do this forever,” Marc mused as he leaned back into the couch. Between his fingers, he rolled a sliced of deli meat and bit the end of it. “Sooner or later, our luck will run out. We need to figure out a plan so we can end this quickly.”
Noelle nodded. She looked into the depths of her olive jar, lost in her own worry and thoughts.
“You now have your… ally. What do you think he can do for us?”
Noelle’s brow furrowed as she looked into her jar, into the brine, as if it held answers. “I don’t really understand why he hasn’t given me up, yet. When he looked at… When he saw what they were doing to Lucia, he didn’t look happy. If anything, he looked green, like he hated what he saw.”
Marc wondered if another one of GOE’s enhanced dragons had turned on them. His own friend, Isaac had turned away from GOE years ago. No one knew why or how, only that he was part of their family. He suddenly ached to call his friend and dig for answers, but they both knew Isaac had nothing to offer. The man had no memories of who he’d been while in the hands of the Guardians and their scientists.
“Let’s try to figure out a plan without him, then. If anything, we’ll count him as an adversary.”
Noelle glanced up, her eyes wide, before processing his proposal and nodding. That was the best they could do. The new dragon in the picture was a wild card. Marc couldn’t bank on the man acting one way or the other without more information and their time was quickly running out.
Noelle had access to the lower levels, however tentatively it was. Marc wished he did so that he would not have to risk his mate, but they would have to go with what they had. Sitting across from him, naked save for the blanket pulled over her small frame, Noelle looked fragile. Her arms were thin and her legs were short, dainty. It was hard to imagine what kind of beast was trapped inside of her, but the beast would not matter.
Not when the lower levels were surrounded by enough traces of silver to make dragons sick. He reached out and pulled Noelle’s feet into his lap, his hands working at her arches while he thought. The clock was ticking down. He would have to remove himself from the tangle of limbs they were and head into the facility for his shift.
Was there enough time to make a plan? Noelle laid out what needed to happen. She described how they needed to get into the lower levels, find Lucia Avila, get her out of her bindings, and out of the lower levels. Someone would have to run interference, Marc realized. Another person had to hold back the rush of people once they realized there was a breach in their security.
“I wonder if I could ask Oliver,” Noelle mused.
Marc’s lips pursed together. “Can we trust him?”
“I honestly have no idea. He’s the only other free-range dragon I’ve seen down there. And he doesn’t seem as sick as I felt when I was in the lower levels. I wonder if they found a way to bypass our reaction to silver.”
“That would be… miraculous and terrifying.”
Noelle nodded. They were still a long way from a plan, but Marc forced himself to remove himself from the comfort of his mate’s presence. He would learn more on his shift, he told himself.