Chapter 14
Holly held out her hand to him. “Let’s go inside.”
Dylan hung back. “Are you sure about this? I know the original plan was for you to stay at my apartment tonight, and because of Gayle’s absence, we would have been alone there, but I’m really not sure I can be alone with you anywhere and not make love to you.”
She lifted her chin. “Did I ask you to?”
His jaw tightened. “I’m not sure if I make love to you that I won’t give you the mating bite too.”
“Did I ask you not to?”
Dylan tensed. “Do you know what you’re saying?”
“Do you know what I’m saying?”
“Well, it sounds as if you’ve decided to mate with me, but—”
“I have,” she put in quickly before she lost her nerve.
His throat moved as he swallowed. “One flight with my dragon and you’ve decided to be my mate?”
She gave a shake of her head. “I’d decided that before I flew with your dragon.”
Dylan looked even more surprised. “You had?”
“Yes.” She chuckled self-derisively. “I wanted to tell you before you shifted into dragon earlier this evening that whether you shifted or it was just a figment of your imagination, I still wanted to be with you.” She was still a little uncertain about telling him she was in love with him. What if he didn’t want her love but only to mate with her? “But then Garrett arrived,” she continued determinedly. “And I realized you’d been telling me the truth about dragons all along. I know I said I needed time, but… We can continue this mating dance for the next couple of weeks, or we can just put an end to it here and now. Because the decision will be the same. I’m ready to be your mate.”
“And I always thought human women required romance,” he muttered. “Flowers. Chocolates. Romantic evenings together.”
Holly laughed. “We do. And don’t think my decision is letting you off giving me any and all of those things. I just don’t see the point in waiting. In putting us both through the agony of that uncertainty when I already know my answer will be the same in two weeks’ time as it is now.”
His eyes glowed an unearthly blue. “And that answer is yes?”
She nodded. “It is.”
“Are you sure?”
Her mouth firmed. “Very.”
“You don’t need more time?”
“No.”
“What about your sister?”
Holly had momentarily forgotten about Gayle. Not that it changed her decision in the slightest. Holly would always be here for her sister, no matter whether she lived for another fifty years or five hundred. “I’ll explain the situation to her when I think the time is right.”
So many emotions filled Dylan’s chest, he didn’t know which to deal with first. Relief that Holly was agreeing to be his. Pride in her as his mate. Happiness, ecstatic happiness, he corrected, at the thought of having Holly at his side—beneath him, above him, in any position she wanted!—for the rest of their long lives together.
Then came uncertainty of a different kind. Holly, by her own admission, was a virgin still, and a dragon mating was fierce as well as physically exhausting. The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt Holly in any way. But once the mating began, he might not be able to control himself.
“Dylan?”
His head snapped up at the caution he heard in her voice. “I’m frightened of hurting you,” he admitted. Once their mating was established, Holly would be able to discern all his moods anyway, as well as knowing some of his thoughts.
Holly’s smile looked relieved. “I’m much stronger than I look. And if you’re worried about…about being my ‘first’”—a blush appeared on her cheeks—“then don’t be. I was always a little self-conscious about the fact I’d never met anyone who appealed to me in that way.” She stepped forward and placed the warmth of her palm against his cheek. “Now I know it was because I was waiting for you to find me,” she added huskily.
Dylan melted from the inside out, his shout of laughter carefree as he lifted Holly into his arms and swung her round and round.
Holly’s nervousness returned the moment she came back from the bathroom after showering and securing a robe over her nakedness, and saw Dylan waiting in her bedroom for her. He was completely naked and lying on her single bed, his arousal long and thick against his abdomen.
She averted her gaze from all that naked glory as she spoke nervously. “I don’t think that bed is big enough for us to both sleep in.”
Dylan moved up to lean on one elbow. “I doubt we’ll be doing much sleeping.”
Color burned in her cheeks. “I feel a little… I’m a little…” She drew in a deep breath as she realized she was behaving like some Victorian virgin rather than a twenty-first century woman. “I’m a lot nervous,” she admitted ruefully.
Dylan moved to sit on the side of the bed before standing and crossing the room until he stood inches in front of her. “Don’t be.” He placed gentle fingertips against her flushed cheek. “I promise I’m going to make this good for you, Holly.”
She looked up at him. “I don’t doubt that. It’s me I’m unsure of. You’ve been alive for centuries, and there are bound to have been hundreds of women during that time, whereas I—” She was silenced by Dylan’s fingertips moving to rest against her lips.
“There’s only one woman for me, will only ever be one woman,” he said huskily. “You were born just for me, Holly, as I was created just for you. From the moment I first looked at you, no other women existed. Will ever exist,” he added with emphasis. “To me, you are perfection. That you’re a virgin still is the greatest gift you could ever give me.”
Holly’s vision blurred from the tears welling in her eyes. “Really?”
“Goddess, yes,” he assured with feeling. “I am in complete awe of you. Your beauty. Your strength. Your purity.”
She gave a choked laugh. “Well, let’s not go too far. I haven’t lived the life of a nun. I’ve just never—” Again, Dylan’s fingertips silenced her.
“You are my mate,” he stated emphatically. “The woman I will cherish and adore for the rest of our existence.”
Was “adore” the same as love? It was close enough, Holly decided as she moved into Dylan’s arms and raised her face for his kiss.
She could actually feel the effect of the mating aphrodisiac this time, that surge of lust as it entered her system along with those overwhelming feelings of love for both the man and his dragon.
Dylan eventually broke the kiss, his lips a sensual caress across her cheek and down the length of her throat. “I’m going to make love to you now.”
Holly blinked. “Not mate me?”
“Not initially, no.” He slipped the robe from her shoulders. “Your first time should not be a dragon mating. It’s too fierce. Too primal.” He gave a firm shake of his head. “No, before we mate, I want to kiss and caress every inch of your perfect body, to worship you, to claim your innocence with the care and reverence it deserves.” His hands ghosted over her breasts and down to her waist before resting on her hips, his eyes darkening to a stormy blue as he swung her up into his arms and carried her to lie her on top of the bed. “I never want to hurt you, Holly,” he murmured as he moved to kneel between her parted thighs. “Not in this or any other way.”
Dylan didn’t hurt her, but he did drive her to distraction over the next hour or so, giving her climax after climax as he kept his promise and slowly kissed and caressed every part of her body.
By the time he knelt between her parted legs, Holly was a melting mass of longing for more. “Now?” she groaned with an enticing undulation of her hips.
Dylan’s hands tingled from touching Holly’s skin. His senses were saturated with the delicious taste and aroma of her pussy. His cock was rock hard and throbbing between his thighs. He wanted to mate Holly so badly, he was trembling with the need to maintain his control.
“Now,” he echoed gruffly, hoping and praying he could hold back his dragon just a little longer to ensure Holly felt only pleasure as he took her virginity.
He drew in a deep and controlling breath as he placed the bulbous tip of his cock against Holly’s wet nether lips before slowly breaching them. He watched with heated eyes as they parted and then stretched about his fullness, freezing in place when he heard Holly’s gasp as his cock breached her virginity. “Do you want me to stop?” He looked at her.
She looked thoroughly debauched; her red hair was a wild tangle about her shoulders, her face flushed, her lips red from the kiss and bite of his mouth and teeth, the curls damp between her thighs. “Can you?”
Take.
Claim.
Dylan exerted all his willpower and shut down the demands of his dragon. This wasn’t about them; it was about and for Holly. It didn’t matter that Dylan’s every instinct, every particle of him, wanted to thrust in hard and deep through that barrier. To take and claim. But Holly was his mate, the woman he revered above all others. She deserved his care and control, not to have him rutting in her like a wild beast.
Like a dragon.
“Yes,” he answered her through gritted teeth.
“And if I don’t want you to?”
“Don’t tease, Holly,” he warned gruffly. His cock might only have breached her nether lips but her heat was driving him to the edge of his control.
“Make me yours, Dylan,” Holly pleaded. “Do it!” She arched her hips up as he still hesitated, her breath hitching in her throat as she thrust upward and finished breaking through her own virginity.
Dylan grasped tightly to Holly’s hips as he gave her time to catch her breath before pulling out slowly, the sight of her blood on his cock taking the last of his control. He thrust in deeper, then deeper still, stretching her pussy to accommodate his thickness and length, until he was seated to the hilt.
Instinct took over, and he began to thrust in slow and measured strokes. Until he heard Holly’s breath hitch in her throat, and knew she was about to reach another climax. He allowed himself to go with her this time, his release seeming never-ending as his seed pumped hotly inside her until he finally collapsed onto her damp breasts.
“Wow,” Holly breathed shakily, her hand trembling as she ran her fingers through the darkness of Dylan’s hair.
“Wow, indeed,” he murmured huskily against her breasts.
“If I’d know how good it was, I would have done it—”
Dylan once again silenced her by placing his fingers over her lips. “Mine,” he growled as he lifted his head to look down at her.
At least, she thought Dylan growled it. There was a feral glitter in his eyes that told her his dragon was very near to the surface.
Never poke a barely leashed dragon, Holly, she told herself ruefully. “I was teasing again,” she grimaced. “Sorry.”
“You’re forgiven.” He gave a contented sigh as he lowered his head to once again rest against her breasts. “You will always be forgiven,” he added ruefully.
“A dragon mate really has that much power?”
He glanced up at her beneath dark lashes. “She can also expect to receive a spanked ass if she abuses that power.”
“Oh.” Holly gave the idea some thought.
She didn’t approve of physical abuse in any shape or form, and the concept of a Dominant and a submissive was beyond her comprehension. Why would anyone want to have their partner deliberately inflict pain? But the thought of being over Dylan’s knee and having him spank her backside made her pussy feel hot rather than the revulsion or indignation she might have expected.
“You like that idea.” Dylan did some teasing of his own as he felt Holly’s pussy tighten about his still-hard cock. It would remain hard through the mating and beyond. Days and nights of claiming Holly again and again, with his barb latched on to that bundle of spongy nerves inside her pussy.
“Well… As long as it isn’t too often or too hard,” she conceded, her cheeks ablaze with embarrassed heat.
He nodded. “We’ll experiment after the heat of the mating has passed.” It would be his pleasure to give his mate whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it, and if that included spanking her ass, then he would happily comply. “Your nipples are extremely sensitive, so perhaps we could experiment—” He broke off as a knock sounded on the bedroom door before it opened without further warning.
“Oh good grief!” Gayle gasped disgustedly. “I went to Dylan’s apartment and couldn’t get in. Now I’ve come back here and find the two of you are at it again!”
Dylan moved to completely cover his mate’s nakedness the moment the door started to open. He now turned to glare at his future sister-in-law as he felt Holly trembling beneath him. “Get out,” he growled.
Gayle crossed her arms in that stubborn way that was starting to annoy the hell out of him. “How long have the two of you known each other?”
Dylan felt Holly’s trembling increase. “Long enough, obviously.”
“Oh, obviously,” Gayle snapped disgustedly.
“Get out,” he rumbled. “You’re distressing your sister and—”
“She isn’t distressing me.” Holly could no longer hold back the laughter she’d been suppressing.
She laughed so much and for so long, tears rolled down her cheeks. By the time she sobered enough to draw in a deep, controlling breath, both Dylan and Gayle were looking at her as if she had gone slightly insane.
Slightly? The man she loved was a dragon shifter. She was his fated mate and would live for centuries. Her sister had stolen money from the most dangerous man in London. And every time she and Dylan were intimate together, that same sister walked in on them and behaved as if she was the parent and Holly was her wayward offspring.
There was also the little fact—or rather, the long and thick fact—Dylan’s cock was still buried inside her very wet pussy.
She glanced across at Gayle. “Maybe you should wait in the other room.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m going,” her sister snorted. “But perhaps when the two of you have finished, maybe you would both like to join me in the sitting room, and I’ll tell you who stole Gregori’s money.”
Holly’s eyes widened. “You and Adam discovered who it was?”
“We did.” Gayle grinned her satisfaction. “More importantly, Nikolai is probably having a nice little chat with her right now.”
“Her?” Holly frowned, sure that Nikolai Volkov was doing much more than talking to this other woman.
“Mr. Markovic’s assistant, Sybil Rider,” Gayle confirmed.
“The woman who was supposed to take us to his office but didn’t?”
Gayle nodded. “According to Adam, she foolishly made a pass at Gregori a few weeks ago and was given a month’s notice. She probably stole the money to get back at him. But then tonight, she must have realized what Adam and I were doing and left while she could through the front door of the club. Nikolai and a couple of his men have gone to get her. Oh, and Mr. Markovic has offered me a full-time job working alongside Adam,” she added excitedly.
“Absolutely not.” Holly decided that Sybil Rider had known what she was doing and would now have to fend for herself. Her priority was to deal with Gayle. “No way are you working for the head of the Russian bratva,” she told her sister firmly.
Gayle wrinkled her nose. “I haven’t decided yet whether I want to tie myself down to one job. I did like working with Adam, though, so maybe. It will be my decision, Holly,” she added stubbornly before she could put forward another argument to the idea.
“Um, ladies…” Dylan interrupted pointedly.
“Oh God,” Holly groaned again as she realized they were still in a compromising position. “Will you just leave the room, please, Gayle?”
“Fine. Join me when you’re both decent. Nice ass, by the way, Dylan,” she added cheekily before she left the room and closed the door behind her.
“Dylan?” Holly appealed to him for help.
He gently eased his length from inside her before rolling to the side of the bed and standing up to begin pulling on his clothes. “She’s your sister.”
“And you’re my mate.” She scowled. “Sworn to protect me.”
He raised dark brows. “No sane man or dragon shifter would ever attempt to step between two sisters as stubborn as the two of you. Besides, I know how this works. By the time I’d finished admonishing Gayle for even thinking of working for Markovic, the two of you would be friends again, and I would end up as the bad guy.”
Holly gave a disgusted snort. “I’ll join the two of you in a few minutes.” She had no intention of getting out of bed until she had cleaned herself up after their lovemaking, and she wanted privacy in which to do that.
Dylan groaned. “Don’t leave me alone with her for too long.”
Holly chuckled at his hounded expression, that humor fading once Dylan had gone into the other room.
Their lovemaking had been everything she could have hoped for. And more. Dylan had literally worshipped every inch of her body, and her cheeks flamed with color at the memory she had been the one to dispose of her virginity.
She felt a little sore between her legs, and a soak in a hot bath would have been nice. But it would have to wait until after she had dealt with Gayle.
Because there was no way, absolutely no way, she was allowing her sister to work for Gregori Markovic.