Chapter Thirty-six
When she’d first met Calidum in that mall, Evangeline had been overrun with emotion. When she chose to be honest with herself, she realized that most of the pain she’d felt was the pain of duplicity. Because she’d been attracted to him – fiercely so – when she shouldn’t be.
But everything she’d once held to be true was false, and things were not always as they seemed. She was on fire right now. The blood moving through her veins and pumping through her heart was hellishly strong, burning her up in a way that could not be ignored. He straddled her, holding her down in her descent into madness, grounding her in the magic he had given her. He was so tall, larger than life, his revealed body the very essence of male domination. In another lifetime, he was the monster in her mind. And he looked every bit the part right now.
A beautiful, alarming monster.
All was not as it seemed. And the truth was, the strong, sculpted, dark angel of a man above her was terrifying and magnificent – and she was utterly lost to him.
She always had been.
She had never mated with a dragon. Not in all her many years. But she’d been around long enough to know how it was done. Arach’s marks still pulsed sorely at her throat; Calidum had left them alone, allowed them to continue to hurt, and even to bleed. But she knew why.
They ached for a new set of teeth; they were a slightly cruel reminder that she could either keep the holes that throbbed there, or allow another pair of fangs to claim them as their own. In the end, he’d known what she would choose. He had her.
Again, he always had.
Claim me. It was a simple thought, two short words. They were breathed through her mind, a surrender of absolute submission, and they were a plea. For his blood ran through her veins, and the longer it did – the closer she came to a kind of oblivion. That, too, he had planned. She had needed sustenance, true. She’d desperately needed to replenish the strength her battle and Arach’s torture had taken from her.
But the Dragon King had thoroughly detailed her demise when he’d chosen to give her that much needed sustenance in the form of his blood. From the moment he’d laid her atop his sheets and opened up his vein, he’d executed his ultimate plot with a single-minded and calculated ruthlessness. Like a Legendary would.
Eva knew he’d heard her two simple words, her basic surrender, when he went completely still above her and she felt his power swell around him so strong and so thick, it was nearly physical where it brushed along her damp skin. She shuddered.
And then he was releasing her wrists to run his hands down along the lengths of her arms and finally place his hands on either side of her face. He held her lovingly, leaned in like the angel descending, and Eva held her breath. Her heart raced painfully.
“Are you certain, little one?” he asked across her lips, a mere hair’s breadth away. His voice rolled over her, sexy as hell, deep and rumbling, and fanned the flames his blood had ignited within her. It was hopeless, and he knew it, and he was only rubbing it in. His control over her was like a blissful delirium Eva could not, and would not, fight.
She parted her lips to answer, but he touched them with his thumbs, ever so softly, just a brush of his fingers, controlling and promising. And when he moved, his cock grazed her inner thigh, so hot and so hard, it felt like an iron brand. Eva’s only response to his question was a helpless moan.
Calidum moved in and swallowed that sound with his kiss. He parted her lips impatiently, opening her up once more for him, and delved deep. Eva couldn’t help but arch against him, wanting to be nearer as his tongue laid waste to her own and claimed her mouth as his. It was hard and deep and driven by so much passion, her head swam. He kissed her like he was hungry, like he planned to eat her, as if there was simply not enough of her to satisfy the need riding him hard.
And when she was beginning to feel light headed from the lack of air, he drove into her, his thick, firebrand of a cock piercing the tight, slick core of her like a battering ram.
Eva screamed against his lips and felt him once more take hold of her wrists to secure them to the bed. He was immense, and she was so tight. She broke their kiss, tossing her head to the side, her hair flying, teeth clenched in wanton suffering. Once he’d breached her defenses, he slowly pressed into her, relentlessly claiming her inch by tight, hard inch, until the world threatened to explode behind Eva’s eyes.
Oh gods! It hurt so much – and it felt like heaven, like candy from the devil. He was a terrible, wonderful dream that could rip the last shreds of your humanity from someone with mind-blowing ease and leave them quivering, stripped down and empty and only wanting more.
He was splitting her apart, she was sure of it. What felt like an eternity later, he lay within her to the hilt, and she felt him there, like solid fire lodged in her core. She could feel his pulse, every slight throb adding to her own ache and making her crave more despite the insanity.
Eva’s teeth released her lip, and her breathing, though ragged, began to even out. Calidum held her tight beneath him, waiting. Tenderly, he kissed her earlobe. Then the side of her face, then her chin. He moved over her ever so slightly, eliciting a gasp from her as he lowered his head to her throat and placed a kiss there too.
Eva knew what was coming. It was a dark blessing.
She had only a moment or two, precious and fleeting, to catch her breath. If she’d wanted to, she could have told him then and there to stop. He was giving her this, this final respite. She could hear Calidum breathing, feel the heat of his breath at her neck, teasing the four pinpricks of pain already left there. She closed her eyes and let out a ragged sigh.
And then Cal’s grip on her wrists tightened. It was the warning that came just before, the promise that she would be struggling, and that there was now no escape. She’d had her chance.
He rose above her, regal and perfect, each muscle rippling like a sculptor’s dream, each movement so strong, so graceful, she was transfixed. He caught her gaze for a moment, heated and hungry, and then he bent again, and Eva cried out once more as his wondrous mouth closed over her right nipple.
He sucked, his teeth pricking deliciously, as his cock pulled out of her inch by breathlessly slow inch, sending Eva spiraling toward some unknown and forbidden destination. When it seemed he’d been doing this forever, he stopped, and she had no time to brace herself, could not even think to do so – her mind was fevered, her thoughts lost in yearning. She never could have imagined such bliss.
Calidum bit down on her tender bud, not quite breaking the skin. Delicious pain raced along her nerves throughout her body, fracturing Eva’s concentration, and as she ached for him to do it again, Calidum drove his hardness back into her with decisive fury, plunging every last hot, hard inch of himself into her tight core.
Another scream ripped from Eva’s throat, and Cal released her wrist to cover her mouth with his hand, silencing the outcry even as he once more began to retreat. Eva sobbed into his hand, a sound of absolute defeat and absolute longing, for everything he did was exactly right – even this. His hand against her mouth felt comforting somehow. It would have been impossible to explain, and she didn’t care. She only knew that the man taking her was in control, and she couldn’t have been happier that it was him.
Cal released her tortured breast and kissed his way to the other, blazing a trail of promise with each scorching touch of his lips. He pulled out of her below as he did this, and those stars were back in Eva’s vision. When he closed in on her nipple and pulled hard on the rose colored nub, she inhaled sharply, and he moved his hand, allowing her to do so. He grazed the tender flesh with his teeth, threatening the taut, hardening skin with penetration – and once more, just as Eva was losing sight of all her lover was doing to her, the Dragon King drove his rock hard bulk all the way into her.
This time her cry was laced less with pain than mounting need. She ached where Calidum drove into her, but she ached worse when he began to pull back out once more. The blood that raced through her veins was like a second lover, adding to her need, meeting Calidum’s every move and pushing Eva inexorably closer to something unknown. Something that was hers alone.
Mine.
It was a thought planted in her mind, and one that brought Eva’s now free hand to Calidum’s hair. She ran her fingers through the thick black locks, suddenly only wanting to see his eyes.
Cal released her breast from his ministrations and lifted his head, meeting her gaze. He was a movie star, a model, a man unlike any other, and right now he was a beautiful monster, hair darkened with sweat, his eyes burning, his teeth bared beautifully. There, in that moment, trapped in his ravenous gaze, held down by his driven body, tortured and pleasured by his every move, Evangeline understood what it meant to be claimed. To belong to someone like this.
To be a queen.
As if he’d read her mind, Calidum the Great Gray slowly smiled. His long, sharp fangs flashed in the dim light.
They weren’t finished yet. Far from it.