Chapter Ten
Tessa tilted her grandmother’s box, gaping as sunlight bounced off the gem within. It was so beautiful — so impossibly brilliant — she was afraid to touch it. Instead, she fingered the pendant around her neck.
She was just working up the nerve to touch the stone in the box when footsteps stormed over the porch — so loud and insistent that she dropped the box in surprise. It landed in the soft cushion of clothes in her luggage as she spun toward the door.
“Kai,” she whispered as a jolt of electricity went through her.
He’s all right! He’s all right! He’s come to see me! Her soul rejoiced.
She hurried over, touching his arm. “Are you okay?”
Her body lit up with a thousand watts of joyous energy at the sight of him. But, whoa. His eyes were blazing — red, not blue — and his fists were clenched at his sides.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you okay?” he demanded. Demanded without a hint of tenderness.
She took a step back. Why was he angry? What had she done?
“Of course I’m okay. You’re the one who was hurt.”
“You’re the one who took off with that goddamned wolf,” he thundered.
Holy cow — Kai was jealous?
“The airline called. Boone took me to pick up my suitcase—”
Kai closed the distance between them. “You know how dangerous it is out there for you?”
He stood at full height, and man, did his shoulders seem a mile wide. The power pulsing off him ought to have scared her to death, but her confusion became consternation. The warm, happy feeling in her gut turned into a raging anger that threatened to sweep her away.
Count to ten, her grandmother’s words echoed through her mind.
She didn’t want to count to ten. She wanted — needed — to get mad. Mad in a way she rarely did, but when the urge took over, it was like a hidden second soul rearing up inside.
“I decide where I go and when. And you, incidentally, were hurt. Sleeping, as a matter of fact.”
“I wasn’t—” he started, but she cut him off.
“I woke up to you crash-landing on my front lawn. I took care of you.” The rage spun higher and higher, like a tornado just beginning to form, and she shoved him back — hard. So hard, he blinked. “I worried my ass off that you were okay.”
That seemed to get his attention, so she shoved him again, a step back for every statement she made. “What gives you the right to tell me what to do?”
A red haze fell over her vision as a slew of dark memories came back. Of her mother, deciding which friends she could and couldn’t see. Of her older sister, insisting her dreams were nonsense. Of her father, snorting that she’d never make it as a chef. Telling her she ought to go into medicine instead. Insisting on it, in fact, and refusing to help pay for college unless she did it on his terms.
She’d defied her father back then, and she would defy Kai, too. So what if Kai’s body called to hers on an elemental level? She refused to be ordered around by any man.
“What gives you the right to tell me what to do?” she demanded.
She put her hands flat on his chest, pushing him right up against the wall. The thatched roof shook, and the whole cottage rattled, but she didn’t relent.
“You have no right,” she answered before he could. “I don’t care if you’re a big, bad dragon.”
“But—”
She shook her head. “You don’t own me. Never tell me where I can go, when, or with whom.”
Rage, it seemed, worked well on dragons. Fire fighting fire, maybe, because Kai appeared totally taken aback.
“It could be dangerous out there,” he protested. “Last night—”
She couldn’t care less about last night or about the hurt-puppy expression on his face. He was the one who’d pissed her off, damn it, and not the other way around.
“You shouldn’t leave here without—”
She twisted her hands in his shirt. “Without what? Asking your permission?”
For a minute, he was quiet, and she knew she’d gotten carried away by the temper that flared out of nowhere from time to time. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Her nostrils whiffed Kai’s scent, and gradually, it dawned on her how close they were. Whoa — very close. Her breasts were pressed up against his chest, and his breath puffed gently on her cheek. His heart thumped under the palm she’d placed against his chest, and something inside her woke up and purred like a cat stretching after a long winter’s nap.
She stared into his eyes. Every emotion that had been missing when he’d first appeared had rushed back in, turning the glow from red to a warm, pulsing blue. The light, outermost part of the glow was the tenderness she’d yearned for. The royal blue inner ring was respect. And the darkest flicks of indigo near his pupils — well, that looked a hell of a lot like desire.
Her heart beat a little faster. Did her eyes show all that, too?
His thigh pressed against her hip, too, and damn — there it was again. That heat. That primal call. That blinding need.
She’d had to brace her arms and legs to be able to push that hulk of a man, but as the anger drained out of her, her muscles relaxed one after another, going soft and mushy, like her heart.
Don’t, she warned herself. Don’t give this man an inch. He’ll take a yard.
Kai, however, didn’t look like he was about to take a yard. His hands caught hers — gently. And in a tiny, barely perceptible movement, his thumbs stroked her skin.
She took a deep breath. Had he really just chased her anger away?
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she whispered, dipping her chin to avoid his gaze.
That brought her eyes to his chest, which rose and fell with each steady breath. Her chest rose and fell too, and she fought the urge to squeeze closer.
The red filter over her vision softened to a golden glow. The sea breeze stirred the curtains, fanning Kai’s scent closer. He smelled of leather, salt, and the wind, and she couldn’t help but inhale. There was a little trace of the soap she’d used to clean him off earlier, too, and she warmed at the memory.
His chest filled at the same time, making her blink. Was he sniffing her scent, too?
“Tessa,” he whispered. Softly. Hoarsely.
She peeked at his face. Big mistake, because that brought her within an inch of his lips. They were dry but nowhere near as cracked and swollen as before.
“Are you really okay?” she whispered, mesmerized by the swirling fire in his eyes. Was that a dragon trick to entice innocent maidens? She dismissed the thought immediately. Hell, she was no maiden. And part of her longed to be enticed. To be held and cherished the way his eyes promised he would.
“I’m fine. Thanks.” He dipped his chin, bringing his lips — lips that begged for a kiss — right into range. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and he bit his lip.
She leaned closer, tilting her head. Zeroing in on the kiss they both yearned for.
“Don’t kiss me,” he whispered, even hoarser than before. He didn’t move, though. Nothing but his lips, forming the words, which only made her blood pump faster.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she murmured, low and husky, leaning closer, tightening her grip on his shirt.
One corner of his mouth curled up a tiny bit, but his eyes darkened.
“You really shouldn’t kiss me,” he said, though his voice gave him away.
“Not even if we both want it?”
“Especially if we both want it.”
“You want it. You want to kiss me,” she said — not in triumph, but in wonder. She leaned forward, nudging her hips toward his.
“I want more than to kiss you,” he rumbled so low she had to strain to hear.
He wants me. Her soul danced.
“But listen,” Kai whispered. “I’m a dragon, and you’re human…”
She moved her hands over his chest. “What I’m touching feels plenty human to me.”
Kai opened his mouth to add something she was sure she didn’t want to hear, and time slowed down. Way, way down until every second was a minute and a minute was an eternity.
Kiss him. Kiss your mate, a little voice in the back of her mind urged.
She felt time stretch to its very limits, like a rubber band about to snap. Time or fate or destiny was giving her one last chance to act before Kai blinked and pulled away.
He wants this, the little voice said. You want this. Kiss him. Seek your destiny. Fight for it.
Tessa closed her eyes, tipped forward on the balls of her feet, and let her lips close over his. She gripped his shirt before he could pull away. But instead of holding her back, Kai reeled her in.
Kiss me, his body cried. She could feel it in the pressure of his hands over her back, in the thump of his heart. Please kiss me.
She let her lips move over his the way the moonlight rippled over the sea at night. Then she slid a hand behind his head, tugging him closer. Telling him how much she wanted that kiss and how right it felt. Whatever resistance Kai had didn’t come from his heart or soul. It came from some dark, haunted place she had to free him from.
Kiss me, she cried, wishing she could send her thoughts into his mind.
He opened his mouth, inviting her to taste, to explore. So she did, marveling the whole time. He was so gentle. So hungry. So yielding. Not at all dragon-like, or at least, what she expected of a dragon.
But his arms trembled under hers, and his torso was rock-hard. And suddenly, she understood. He was holding back. Warring with himself — perhaps even warring with his dragon. Proving to her that a dragon shifter didn’t have to be bossy and domineering, after all. Not when it counted most.
“Making sure you’re not scaring me off?” she whispered into his lips.
“I want you too much to screw this up,” he said gruffly.
A little chorus of angels sang in her ears. Her chest swelled, and her heart beat faster as she rubbed against him.
“Just don’t stop,” she panted a moment later. “And I guarantee you won’t screw this up.”
His body surged forward, holding her tight. “Don’t want to stop.”
She wove her hands through his thick, dark hair, and dove into a kiss of a reply. A long, wet kiss that visited every corner of his mouth while her fingers mapped every contour of his shoulders.
It was a kiss that tasted like sunrise and rainbows and all kinds of wondrous, promising things, and she found herself whimpering. Squeezing her body closer to his—
Suddenly, she remembered his injuries and pulled back with a sharp intake of breath. “Are you really okay?”
He cocked his head with a dazed expression that said he’d been as submerged in that kiss as she.
“Fine.”
She ran her hands over his shoulders, then over his chest, finding the nub of his nipple. Hadn’t he had a long gash there? She traced his skin gingerly, but all she could find were hard, flat planes of muscle.
“Really fine?”
His shirt was tucked into his jeans, and she tugged the tail out. Slowly, she pulled the fabric upward, revealing smooth, unblemished skin. A hell of a lot of skin, ridged at the six-pack of his abs.
He looked at her, expressionless. Was he afraid she might bolt?
“Shifters heal quickly. See? Perfect.”
She gulped. Yeah, he was perfect, all right. Still, she worked his shirt off for further proof. Kai wasn’t kidding. It was as if his injuries had never been there — except his right shoulder, because he winced when it moved.
“Okay, except maybe that part,” he murmured, reeling her in for another kiss.
Her body heat rose another notch at the sensation of all that hot, hard muscle, and she let her fingers play over the waistband of his jeans. The kiss grew harder. Hungrier. Her blood rushed in her ears as she led him through a turn, until she was the one with her back against the wall and he was the one blocking her in.
“Your turn, mister,” she breathed, arching into him.
“You sure?” he murmured.
She nearly laughed. Yes, she was sure. So sure, she was about to yowl and wrap her leg around his.
Kai lifted her right hand until he had it pinned against the wall, followed up with the left, and then she was trapped. Deliciously trapped and wriggling against his body.
“So sure,” she murmured, reaching out with her lips.
He kissed her with what felt like his heart, body, and soul. His fingers laced through hers as he ground his groin against her hips at the same measured, insistent pace as his tongue. Tessa found herself surging forward, like he was the shore and she was the wave. Or was it the other way around? She couldn’t tell any more. Not with sheer, animal need sweeping over her like never before.
Literally, like never before. As if the couple of men she’d ever slept with were just dreams, and she was experiencing the real thing for the first time.
“So sure,” she moaned as Kai dipped lower, claiming her neck in huge, openmouthed kisses that sucked, licked, and burned.
She tipped her head back, giving him free access, then wiggled when he pulled her shirt over her head and unclipped her bra. A second later, he had her pinned again, his mouth on her neck. The world seemed to tip forward slowly until she realized Kai was moving down her body, inch by inch. He kissed the hollow at the bottom of her neck, the delicate line of her collarbone, then the swell of her breast.
“Oh, yes,” she whispered, stretching upward until her nipple slid into his mouth.
When Kai sealed his lips over the pink nub and sucked, she nearly squealed.
“Yes,” she murmured, giving in to the rush, the high of her dragon.
Her dragon? Was she nuts?
Mine, a deep, growly voice deep in her soul said. Mate.