Chapter Eleven
Bernie
“I can’t believe it. You’re actually here, in my arms.”
Bill tried to smoosh her tighter against his body, but Bernie kept her elbows rigid, forcing distance between them. If she had known that he was immediately going to start going all doe-eyed and clingy, she wouldn’t have accepted the dance. Still, she managed a polite smile at him. Even if this felt like it was the start of something she’d end up regretting, it was too ingrained in her to be nice and calm. To avoid saying the thing that would set off his temper.
Tyler’s not like this, she thought as they danced. He doesn’t trigger these old fears of violence. The way my dad always did, the way most of my boyfriends did.
“I knew the moment that I saw you on that auction site, you were my mate. That’s why I bid such a high amount for you. Because I knew I’d have to tear apart anybody that laid their hands on you—”
“You do realize that I was forced into that, right? That the people who were ‘selling’ me would have kept all the money and if I had tried to escape they would have killed me and my baby both?”
Bill opened his mouth, then closed it. A slightly abashed look came to his eyes, but then he shrugged. “I didn’t know that,” he said as though that made him completely guiltless. “And if I had known it, I would have tracked them down. I’d have made them pay for doing such a vile thing to you, my dear. You deserve to be clothed in gold and jewels–and nothing else.”
Creepy! The lustful look in his eye made her shiver. Tyler didn’t have that effect on her. “Look, I—”
“I would have burned down that place. I’d have slaughtered everybody in there who wasn’t you.”
He pulled her again. This time her elbow buckled, making her yelp in pain. He didn’t seem to register that he had hurt her as the hand on her back moved downwards. She caught it and returned it to her upper back. Part of her wanted to look out and find Tyler, to beg him for help but she couldn’t take her eyes off Bill, for fear he’d kiss her or something if she let her guard down.
“You would have slaughtered everybody in there who wasn’t me?”
“Yes. I would have rescued you and—"
“And apparently killed all the other women who had been coerced into that. Look, I don’t know too much about dragon culture but if there is one thing that I’m pretty sure is the same with humans and dragons, buying women as though they’re property isn’t the way to start true love.” How much did she dare say? “I am grateful that you would have rescued me if you had known my situation. But I think that you and I—”
Bill cut her off once more. “Don’t. We still have the rest of this dance.”
The song ended and another started but he didn’t release her.
“The song is over—”
“But we’re still dancing. I don’t know what Freeman told you about me but he’s got it all wrong. He’s just a little jealous mama’s boy. As soon as I saw you, I knew. You were meant for me, Bernice. Bernie.” Bill made a face. “Bernie is a boy’s name. I don’t like calling you that.”
“I don’t like being called Bernice.”
“You’ll like it when I call you—”
“No.” Bernie shoved her arms between them so her elbows were pressed into his chest. “No, I won’t. Look, I’m sorry if it upsets you but I am not your mate.”
Bill stopped swaying on the spot, which apparently counted for dancing in his book. For a long moment, he stared down at her. Then his eyes glittered and he curled back his lips. “You are my mate. Freeman might have brainwashed you against me, but don’t worry. You and I belong together and I will make sure you see that.”
He seized her wrists and yanked her arms away from where they were keeping distance between them. He moved in to kiss her. Bernie reacted on sheer instinct. Before she even realized what she was doing, she let out a high-pitched scream right into Bill’s face.
The dragon jumped and drew back. Bernie extradited herself from him and stumbled back. Everybody stared at the two of them. Embarrassment and, for some reason, shame welled up in her. The tears started to pour before she even realized her eyes were burning. Bill backed away from her, jaw hanging slack and eyes wide. Several people put themselves between the two of them.
A hand touched her shoulder and she jerked before she saw it was Tyler. Then she leaned into his arms as he hurried her away.
“Bernice!” Bill called over the heads of the crowd.
Bernie did not respond.
***
Her tears had stilled by the time they got back to the Freeman mansion. Bernie wasn’t entirely certain what to do as Tyler paid the babysitter. Xavier was sleeping, and as much as Bernie wanted to hold him, she wasn’t about to wake him. She quickly changed, leaving the dress on the back of a chair. She should never have agreed to dance with Bill. She had thought he’d be reasonable, she thought she’d be firm. Instead, that old fear of explosive tempers had come back.
“Thank you,” she said to Tyler when she found him in the kitchen. “I guess I was a real damsel in distress tonight.”
Tyler shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Bill’s a jerk.”
“Yeah. I don’t know what it is about me that attracts the possessive type. I’d much rather have a guy who lets me do my thing but steps in to save me when I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Like you.”
Crap. She shouldn’t have said that.
But Tyler only gave her a small, pained smile. “We were really hot together, weren’t we? And I don’t just mean that we were beautiful. The intensity that was between us… it was hard to handle at times.”
An echo of that heat pooled in her core just thinking about it. She held her breath for a moment as it washed over her. Memories flooded her mind. In the forest, in the jeep, leaning over the desk in the camper. At times they’d be like animals, going at it for hours and hours in a hotel room. Other times, they ripped off their clothes and then just laid together, naked skin to naked skin, talking softly about unimportant things like books and movies for a couple hours before deciding that they didn’t really feel like sex at that moment.
Both were hard to handle. The explosive sex and the calm, intimate moments. It was unlike anything Bernie had ever experienced before.
She sighed and shook her head. “I’m doing a terrible job trying to think of you as just a friend. Maybe it’s impossible.”
Tyler took her hand and it was like electricity jumped between them. Bernie gasped. How had she forgotten that? Before it was like a shock every time he touched her. Maybe having a baby didn’t lessen her desire after all. If it had, things were coming back in a breathless gasp of passion.
“What are we going to do about it?” His voice was husky.
“Well… after that trying encounter with Bill…” She wished she had kept on the dress now, rather than changing into these old sweats. “It would be very nice to reclaim my femininity.”
“I’ll help you.” Tyler’s grin could have broken his face. “It’s what friends would do.”
He didn’t waste any more time. His mouth was on hers in an instant. The heat already inside flared up as his hands cupped her buttocks and pulled her tight against him. She had missed the feel of his hard muscles squashing her breasts, his strong fingers probing her backside, his tongue thrusting into her mouth. Her skin tingled all over as she threw her arms around his neck.
Tyler leaned her into the counter, his hips rolling in time with hers. Fire roared through her veins, as though it was her and not him who was the dragon. As she hurriedly undid the buttons on his dress shirt, her fingers grazed his smooth skin. He was so hot and when he kissed her again she tasted smoke on his tongue. It was always a sign of how excited he was. Almost more of an indicator than the hard bulge in his pants.
“You must have been thinking dirty thoughts all night to be like that already.” She massaged him through his clothes, her breath hitching. She’d forgotten how big he was. “Dirty, dirty thoughts.”
“Only about you.”
“As a friend, of course.”
Tyler chuckled as he pulled her shirt over her head. Her breasts were a little swollen but not so much. It meant that she didn’t have as much milk for Xavier as she used to, but she wasn’t going to think about that right now. Sexier thoughts were required. Like how excellently Tyler’s chest was carved. She ran her hands down it, moaning in her throat.
“Wow. You are magnificent. Are you sure you’re not a god?” She arched a brow at him. “All this muscle and sinew.”
“I am a god.” Tyler stripped her pants off before lifting her out of them. “I’m the god of making you feel good. A god dedicated to you and your body. You’re the only one who will ever see my godhood and—”
“And your ‘godhood’ is stabbing me in the stomach.” Bernie giggled at her own joke. She was breathless, eager, and her face was overly warm but she didn’t care. “I will have to make a sacrifice to you on your altar. God of making me feel good, I ask for your blessings.”
Tyler moaned. He delved into her neck, making shivers run all over her body. He moaned into her again, rubbing himself between their bodies. He lifted one of her legs over his hip and found her with his fingers. She gasped as something coiled tight inside of her. She pushed herself to her toes, trusting Tyler to balance her, giving him better access to her.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and he had her body trembling within a few moments. Tyler lifted her onto the counter so she was balanced there as her toes curled. With one deep, hard kiss on her mouth, he entered. Only a couple of inches at first. Then a few more. It was an agonizingly slow process but it allowed her to be fully lubricated by the time he was fully seated in her.
Perhaps it was a year of desire crashing down on her. Perhaps it was the leftover pregnancy hormones. But while there was that tightness, that heat inside of her, she didn’t experience the same explosive pleasure that she had before she had given birth. She held Tyler, watching as his face turned red as he controlled himself. She cried out with his thrusts but she saw in his eyes frustration.
He pulled back, using his thumb to build her higher. That helped and she leaned back on her elbows. Her eyes shut as everything tightened to a point of pain. When it broke, the orgasm washed over her like ripples in a bathtub. Not the ocean she was used to.
Tyler finished moments later. He dropped over her, kissing her bare skin, before letting out a moan. “I’m sorry.”