Rhyndor’s heart cracked wide fucking open. He held this precious, fragile female in his arms and wanted to weep. He loved Callum. Loved him fiercely. But really, when it came down to it, Callum took care of their lives. He wanted Rhyndor, but he didn’t need him. This beautiful female, however, needed someone. She needed taking care of. Protecting. Callum would protect her physically, but the male was brash, quick to act. He didn’t think things through.
Rhyndor tightened his hold on her and breathed in the warm vanilla scent of her hair. He never wanted to move. To always have her in his arms. Something about her size, so petite compared to his, made an elemental part of him stir and stretch. A long dormant part he’d honestly believed dead. His protective, warrior instincts awoke, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt, he’d kill anyone who tried to harm her.
It terrified him. It also exhilarated him. The door opened quietly, and Callum snuck into the room. He held a steaming mug in his hand, but he took one look at the two of them and raised an eyebrow.
“Looks like she won’t be needing this anytime soon,” he whispered. “You staying with her? Make sure she doesn’t have nightmares?”
There was no snark to Callum’s tone. He meant it. And Rhyndor loved him more than usual in that moment. Callum didn’t act butthurt or left out in any way. He simply seemed happy to see the two of them drawing comfort from one another.
“She asked me to stay. Why don’t you join us?”
Callum shook his head. “She’s warier of me than you. Which is hilarious when you think of who has the more power out of the two of us. Of course, you don’t let yours out anymore, but I’m thinking it might change.” He smiled then. A one-sided twitch of his lips, and Rhyndor realized Callum wanted this. Wanted and hoped for a change in him.
“You manipulative bastard.” He couldn’t be angry, though.
Callum shrugged. “I didn’t manipulate anything, I merely took advantage of what nature offered. An amazing chance not only to experience having a mate, but to get you to come fully back to me. I’d do anything to get you back, Rhyndor. And I’d do anything to have her. She thinks this Zach idiot is the one for her, so we have to change her mind.”
Rhyndor listened to her breathing, tuning in to her emotions to check she still slept. “Oh, and how do you plan on doing so?”
Callum gave a blinding grin. “You’ll see. Leave the plotting to me.”
Rhyndor shook his head, but he couldn’t stop his smile. Callum might be insufferable at times, but he loved him. Completely. The male saved his life when all was said and done.
The door closed behind Callum, and Rhyndor turned back to Lilly. He wanted to take off his jeans and the sweater he wore and get under the covers with her, wearing only his boxers and T-shirt. To feel her warmth through his clothes and to let her scent wrap itself all around him. He wouldn’t, though. It would be violating her trust to do such a thing while she slept. Instead, he pulled her in closer to him and let his eyes drift shut.
He didn’t sleep but dozed on and off, his thoughts muddled and fleeting. He experienced brief flashes of dreams of the three of them together. Him, Callum, and Lilly all walking in a field full of flowers, laughing and chatting. Then came darker images, of someone threatening to hurt her and to hurt him. He jerked awake with his jaw clenched and calmed his racing heart quickly. He didn’t want to disturb Lilly if she sensed his distress.
Once he’d gotten himself under control, he let his eyes close again. Lilly stirred in his arms, disturbing his dreams once more. She moaned and rolled over, facing him now. Her lips were only centimeters from his. Her eyes were still closed, and her mouth parted gently as she blew soft little puffs of breath against his cheek. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her so bad it hurt.
She wiggled in closer and pressed her face into his neck, her arms coming around him. She moaned again, and this time it sounded different. Seductive and needy. Her lips pressed against his neck, and he couldn’t contain his own groan in response. Lilly sighed and pushed her body right up against him. Her curves tormented him even with the thick layers between them.
Shit. He ought to move. He felt himself grow hard. And he didn’t want to be pressing that thing into her stomach. He moved to one side and tried to ease himself away from her, but she followed his movements. Still asleep—her breathing and heart rate told him as much—she chased him in her dreams, following his movements and wanting to be close. Her body wanted him in a way she didn’t allow when awake and overruling her natural desire with her mind.
She gave a soft whimper through parted lips and nuzzled his neck. Then she stilled, and her eyelashes fluttered against his skin. She woke and took in a deep breath. He waited for her to panic. To move away from him or to get angry at him, but she didn’t. She remained stock-still, breathing in deep and fast.
“I’ve never wanted anything in my life the way I want you right now.” Her voice came out low and husky. “Is it some sort of magic? I mean, you can do magic, right?”
What she suggested was heresy. The worst insult one could give a dragon. That of using magic to make someone yours. Of trying to bond them to you against their will, but she didn’t know this. So he calmed his initial response of anger and answered her. “No, honey. It’s not magic. Or at least, nothing more than the natural magic of a matched male and female. Right now, there are hormones galore pumping around your body, and it makes you want to be with me.”
“It feels more like a need than a want. Like I need you in the same way a thirsty person needs water. Is it the same for you?”
He bit back a groan and instead forced himself to use his words. “Yes, honey. It’s the same for me.”
“Will you… No, sorry. Forget it.”
“What?” Suddenly, what she’d been about to say became the most important words in the world to him.
“I get that we can’t do anything…you know…naughty. I’ve got a life to get back to, and you said doing…stuff might cause us problems. But will you kiss me? I want to find out what it feels like, even a little, to be kissed by your mate match.”
He shouldn’t. He ought to tell her to get out. To go home right now, back to Nathan and Dom’s. But he didn’t. Instead, he played with fire and tipped her chin up with his index finger. He looked into her aqua eyes and saw arousal but also fear there. And Callum wasn’t with them, which made him feel like shit for contemplating it. Also, it made him consider something. Their society said the dominant male should be the one to initiate something with their female match, but there wasn’t a dominant male in his bonding with Callum. Who should be the one to initiate something with Lilly?
“I’m sorry. You don’t want to. I didn’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable position. I don’t understand what came over me.”
Lilly started to move away, and something within him snapped. He stopped worrying and thinking. Instead, the idea of her leaving when he had not taken the chance to taste her became all he could focus on.
His hand snaked out before he knew he was going to reach for her, and he pulled her into him by the nape of her slender neck. Her eyes went wide, and her lips parted.
Once, twice, he touched his lips to hers, tentative and wary. He ran his tongue over his lower lip, and her taste exploded in his mouth. He groaned and pulled her in closer and pressed his lips to hers firmly this time. She moaned into the kiss as their lips explored one another. He felt the moment their desire ratcheted up a notch, flowing back and forth between them in an exquisite feedback loop. He wanted inside, so he stroked the seam of her mouth with his tongue, and she opened for him like a beautiful flower unfurling for the sun. The moment his tongue licked its way inside, he was a goner.
He needed to own her, to possess her, and to let her possess him. All his vows of peace and abandoning his magic fell by the wayside. He’d conquer fucking galaxies for her if it would keep her safe—and Callum by his side.
Needing more, he rolled her onto her back and climbed on top of her, deepening the kiss, taking it further than they should ever go. But rational thought didn’t live in this room, in the space between them now. Nothing but the need to be with this amazing, tantalizing female got through to Rhyndor. The house could burn down around them, and he wouldn’t notice.
She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer, mashing her mouth to his. His dominance roared to life, and he nudged her thighs apart with his own thick leg and pressed himself against the core of her. She gasped and arched up to meet him.
The door opened, and he pulled out of the kiss. Lilly groaned and tried to follow his mouth, but then she turned, too, to see Callum standing in the doorway. His expressionless, masklike face didn’t give away his feelings on the matter in front of him. Rhyndor didn’t care. He wanted Callum and he wanted Lilly—with a burning need he hadn’t experienced in…forever.
“Get over here,” he grunted and crooked a finger at Callum.
The male strode to the bed and looked down at them both, and then the mask broke and he grinned. “Well, well, well. Aren’t you two naughty?”
Lilly giggled and flushed, and Rhyndor worried the moment between them might break, but she squirmed against him again and arched into him once more.
Callum clambered on the bed and crawled to them both. First, he took Rhyndor’s mouth in a punishing kiss, and then he turned his attention to Lilly.
“May I?” He asked Rhyndor for permission. Showing he believed Rhyn the dominant male, even if Rhyndor himself didn’t. “If Lilly wants it.”
“I do want it.” Her face was flushed, too flushed, and her eyes bright. A tiny, sensible, moral part of his brain screamed they ought to stop this. After all, she’d basically gotten high on them. The hormones addled you until you couldn’t think straight. But Rhyndor was dealing with his own hormonal overdose and didn’t have it in him to be all decent and sensible. So he let Callum take her mouth in a kiss, which started soft but turned hungry and hard within moments. She almost clawed at his broad back, and she began to pull his shirt off his shoulders.
Rhyndor stood and tugged his own sweater off and then got back on the bed. She wore the fleecy top she’d put on to practice her magic, and he tugged at her sleeve. She got the picture and put her arms up as he pulled the damn thing from her. Underneath, she wore a simple black strappy top with a lacy edge and no bra. He swallowed, mouth dry at the sight of her breasts, nipples already hard, and only covered by a thin strip of cotton. Not able to wait, he dipped his head and sucked one pointed tip into his mouth.
Lilly gasped and thrust herself farther into his mouth. Holy hell. He’d never in his life experienced a need as all-consuming as this. He wanted to devour her. Callum clearly did no better, as he groaned and fumbled with the zipper to her jeans. Once he’d managed to get it down, Callum pulled the thick material down her legs and flung the item on the floor.
Her simple black cotton panties turned Rhyndor on way more than any lacy concoction might have. Her long, tanned legs were utterly gorgeous. Her soft belly and flared hips made his mouth water.
Callum stepped off the bed and took his own clothes off with quick precision until only his boxer briefs remained. Then he got straight back onto the bed and trailed his fingers down the side of Lilly’s waist, over her hips, and down her thigh to her knee, then back up again.
She wriggled on the covers and sighed her pleasure. Dainty fingers reached for him, and she looked up at him with those big eyes of hers before she tentatively pressed her palm against the bulge in the front of his cargo pants. Oh gods, the feel of her touching him there. It set him aflame.
Rhyndor grabbed her wrist and pressed her palm harder against him. She ground against his hard dick and squeezed her own thighs together, another small whimper escaping her parted lips.
Callum swore under his breath and dipped his head to her navel where he pulled the cotton of her top up to kiss her on either side of her belly button. He dipped his tongue into her neat little innie, and she giggled. He peppered kisses across her stomach and down her right hip. Then back again across the top of her panties to her left hip.
“I want to taste you so bad it’s killing me,” Callum breathed against the cotton.
“Do what you want,” she gasped.
Not pausing, Callum pulled her panties down roughly, throwing them behind him as he spread her legs, and with a grunt, dove right into tasting her pussy.
Oh, fuck him. Rhyndor needed her hands on him for real, right the fuck now. He pulled on his zipper and pushed his pants down, taking his boxers too. Lilly didn’t wait for an invitation; she immediately grabbed him and moved her hand up and down his aching length. He leaked a clear line of precome all the while.
She shocked the shit out of him when she lowered her head and took him straight into her mouth. She sucked him deep and swirled her tongue around the head. He was going to lose it any moment.
He glanced down and saw Callum had pulled his own dick free from his briefs and worked himself hard and fast.
Lilly cried out, letting Rhyndor fall from her mouth as she arched her back and came hard, grinding against Callum’s face. Rhyn had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life. And he needed to taste her too, so when she sagged back against the covers, limp as a rag doll, he pulled Callum in and kissed him.
Their tongues battled for dominance, and they almost ate each other each alive. They had good sex. Great sex. But they’d never, not once, been this desperate for each other. The taste and scent of their mate, their mate, on Callum’s mouth nearly made Rhyndor lose his mind.
He needed to fuck someone before he exploded. Lilly writhed about on the bed as if she’d gone mad. She pulled at his arms and scratched his forearm with her nails as she did.
“I want you to fuck me.”
Holy shit! Their mate wasn’t shy when truly turned on. She’d be all hesitant and stumbling for words, but when her blood was up, she spoke her mind. For a moment, he wondered how many men she’d been with—and wanted to kill them all—but he pushed the idea away. He’d been no angel in the past, so he didn’t have any right to be jealous of her previous lovers.
“I mean it, Rhyndor. I need one of you in me. I’m so empty.”
He didn’t hesitate, not stopping to wonder if Callum minded. He crawled over her and hovered above her and then began to push his way inside. Heaven. He’d died for sure and entered Neffee because no way could anything in the mortal realm feel this good.
Not wanting to hurt her, and aware he wasn’t small, he tried to take it slow. But she moaned and gasped and pushed her hips up. He found himself in her to the hilt. Buried where he wanted to be forever. Her slick walls gripped him in a velvet vise, and she flexed her muscles. He saw stars and focused on not coming straightaway like a teenage human with no control.
“Don’t come in her.” Callum’s voice wrenched him out of the fog of lust and brought him down to reality with a thud.
Oh, shit. What had he done? He’d started to fuck her. If he carried on, they might activate the mating process. It shouldn’t happen, but it could. He pulled out, and she cried out in disappointment.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t.” He wanted to sob at the loss of her around him.
“Why?” Her eyes were almost wild, and that alone was a good enough reason they should stop this completely right there and then.
“He can’t come in you, Princess. It’s a dragon thing and to do with him being the dominant male. But I can.”
Callum kissed her and then pulled Rhyndor in for a savage kiss before positioning himself between her legs.
“Wait.” Rhyndor wanted to see Callum and Lilly fucking. It would be almost as good as taking her himself, but he didn’t want to bind them together when she might not want it. “We don’t know I’m the dominant male here.”
Callum laughed softly. “Trust me, I do.” And he pushed inside Lilly, who let out a long sigh as if she’d been given oxygen for the first time.
This bond was scary strong. Fuck, if she decided she still wanted that Zach prick, they were done for.
Her nails raked Callum’s back as he thrust into her, setting up a punishing rhythm. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him in so deep they looked like one.
“Oh my God.” She chanted the words repeatedly. “What’s happening to me? I’m too hot. Really hot.”
“It’s okay. It’s the way with Dragonea when we match. Let it happen, baby. It will be so good.” Callum kissed her hard and took a nipple into his mouth and laved it, using his teeth as he elongated the tender flesh. She screamed and came, humping up against Callum like some mindless animal. He humped her right back and swore as he lost it, too.
After it ended, Callum turned to Rhyndor and grabbed his cock, taking it and guiding it to Lilly’s lips. “Here, Princess. Finish what you started like a good girl.”
His words shocked Rhyndor, but Lilly flushed and did the little thing he’d noticed, where she pressed her legs together. She obviously liked being talked to in such a way.
“Yes, Callum.” She batted her lashes at him and smiled.
Callum still held on to him, and the moment her lips touched Rhyndor, Callum moved his hand farther down his length and began to move it in time with Lilly’s lips.
Holy hell. Rhyndor’s eyes rolled back in his head at the sensation of his bonded male stroking him as their mate sucked him in deep. He wanted to take them both and fuck them one after the other, but he knew he couldn’t. Not yet. He would, though. First Lilly, then Callum.
Fuck, he couldn’t last. He felt his orgasm barreling toward him. His spine tingled and his balls tightened. He tried to pull away, but Lilly sucked him in deeper, and then he was coming in great spurts down her throat. She took it all and swallowed every drop. He realized she’d been rubbing herself between her legs as he came back to reality, and she sighed and leaned into him as she came all over her own hand.
Finally, she fell back against the pillows. At first, a look of utter bliss lay across her features, but then something different, something darker began to take hold as her face tightened and her eyes clouded.
She put a hand over her eyes, and for a moment, he couldn’t see what she thought at all. When she moved it, her tears scared him. “What was that?”
“Dragon sex. It’s always this way when there’s a strong match, and ours is super strong.” Callum grinned at her, but he didn’t seem as sure of himself as usual.
“I can’t believe I’ve done this.”
Panic hit him. Had they pushed her? Made her somehow? “Didn’t you want it?” He reached for her, but she pulled away.
“Yes,” she snapped. “Of course, I wanted it. That’s what makes it so bad. I hardly know you. It’s all so…intense, unreal. I need to go.”
She started to climb out of the bed and swore under her breath. “And Zach is going to go crazy.”
Callum laughed. “You mean the piece of shit who cheats on you left, right, and center? The guy you’re not even with anymore? That Zach?”
“He’s never cheated on me. We have always been on breaks when he’s gone with other girls.” She sounded as if she was trying to convince herself.
“Breaks he’s organized when it suits him. And surely, you’re on one now, right? And you must have messed around with other guys before. This is no different.” Callum shrugged.
“No. I’ve never been with anyone but Zach. And I could have slept with a thousand men while we were on a break, and this would still have been different. It was…breathtaking.”
Callum laughed. “Princess, you say it like it’s a dreadful thing.”
“It is! You’d no right. No right to make me…feel…so much. I can’t deal with this. It’s all too much. I need to go.”
She shot off the bed and Callum made to stop her, but Rhyndor stayed his arm. “Let her go.”
She grabbed her clothes, pulling them on haphazardly, and shot out of the door, slamming it behind her.
“What the fuck?” Callum exploded. “You’re letting her walk away? Now, after this? I’ve never felt anything like it. Never. And you’re letting her go?”
Rhyndor nodded. “For now, yes. She needs some space. I sense she’s scared because what happened between the three of us has blown her mind. She isn’t from dragon culture. She won’t know how strong matches are. How intense the sex is. This is all new to her. We’ll give her some time and space and go see her tomorrow. Let her sister take care of her tonight. She’s in safe hands.”
Callum grunted, but he nodded.
Rhyndor hoped to hell he’d made the right choice.