“I’m going to bed,” she announced, though it was early. There was no reason to stay awake and they needed to adapt to this new routine. Kei nodded but didn’t look up.
Tielle St. Clare
Dragon’s Kiss
60
Lorran pulled the curtain around the bed, isolating it from the rest of the cabin. The fire glowed behind the material. She took a deep breath and pulled a sleeping gown from the closet. Her nipples poked up against the light cotton material as she drew it over her head. Unable to resist, she cupped her breasts and rubbed her fingers across the tight peaks, remembering the heat of Kei’s hands and the wet warmth of his mouth sucking her.
It only served to increase the ever present hunger between her legs. With a deep breath, she dropped her hands and willed herself to ignore the ache. She crawled onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, her body humming with need. A long time later, she heard Kei bank the fire and move across the cabin. She blinked away silly tears that threatened because he wasn’t climbing into her bed. She had to focus on the future. And that meant banishing Kei now.
She closed her eyes, determined to fall asleep. She would sleep, she
wouldn’t
think about Kei and she wouldn’t think about how empty she felt. She would learn to do without him.
* * * * *
Kei stared at the curtain and emitted a low, predatory growl. He crushed the sound. It was too much like the growls and snarls of the beast that clawed at his insides. He wasn’t that beast. He never would be. He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. It was a nice sentiment but it wasn’t true. He would turn into the beast. Lorran said no one had ever been able to stop the transition. Some claimed to have slowed it but in the end, he would turn into the creature. The thought didn’t frighten him perhaps as much as it should. The end was moving closer. He just had to maintain his sanity for a while longer, keep the beast at bay. Kei drew in a deep breath, expanding his chest and holding it. As the breath escaped, he relaxed and allowed himself to drift into a light sleep.
The rustle of cloth against cloth snapped his mind awake and his body immediately began to harden. She was near, just on the other side of a thin slice of material. Unable to resist, he looked across the room, trying to penetrate the curtain. His night vision had always been good but now, the room looked no darker than morning. The dragon’s instincts and abilities were starting to show.
He’d have to tell Lorran. She’d write it down and make that humming noise she made when she turned new information over in her quick little mind. It was a softer version of the groan she released when he entered her warm body. He’d grown used to the strangled pleas that broke from her mouth. It made him want to push harder, deeper—push her until she couldn’t hold anything back, until she would give him everything. Then she made the most delicious sounds, the tiny gasps turned to screams and demands that he fuck her.
His hand slipped across the skin of his stomach to the hard erection that pressed up against the single blanket he used. His flesh jumped at the first touch of his own hand.
Mine.
Tielle St. Clare
Dragon’s Kiss
61
He wanted her, needed her. His fingers slid up the hard length, pretending it was her hand. He bit back a low moan. It was so easy to recall the light touch of her fingers on his cock and a shudder ran through his body. He grew even harder. Why was he tormenting himself like this? He couldn’t come this way. Not once he’d been inside her pussy. He’d tried, those first few nights when he’d been driven to mount Lorran over and over again. Unwilling to use her in such a fashion, he’d tried to satisfy his lust alone but though he stayed hard, nothing but Lorran’s touch could bring him to climax. That was another little tidbit he hadn’t shared with her. He probably should. She’d find it interesting.
Interesting.
That’s all he was to her. An experiment and maybe a charity case. And now she considered the experiment completed. Unable to stop the sound this time, he growled toward the curtain. She thought she could block him out. For almost a week he’d slept beside her, loved her body. He’d held himself inside her, felt her wrapped around his cock, holding him. And tonight she’d put a wall between them.
Mine.
The word pulsed through his head.
Mine.
He moved, rolling out of the bed and starting toward her sleeping alcove. She belonged to him. The urge was overwhelming. As he neared, the sweet scent of her pussy reached him. Kei stopped for a moment. He absorbed the lovely smell and licked his lips, remembering the alluring taste.
His hand landed on the curtain, ready to rip it open, rip it down, and crawl over her, plunge inside her.
Yes, the beast urged.
Mine.
Kei felt the control of his body fade.
He jerked back the partition. Lorran’s eyes snapped open as she lay curled on her side. In a brief moment of clarity, he realized she hadn’t been asleep—there was no disorientation from being suddenly woken, but even as the thought came to him, it was replaced by a hunger that crushed rationality. Instinct ruled and his instincts told him she belonged to him. The line between his urges and the dragon’s blended and at this moment he couldn’t tell who was in charge—just that he needed her, needed to be inside her.
The dark haze that perpetually lurked in his mind swamped him as he stared down at Lorran. The crisp sharp senses of the dragon picked up every nuance of her skin, the soft curve of her cheek, the plump swell of her breasts. She rolled onto her back and moved like she was going to sit up. Her eyes glowed with unasked questions.
Kei watched as if from a distance, feeling the dragon’s desires break free inside.
The woman was there. He could smell her, almost taste her.
He crawled onto the bed, adapting to the strange musculature of this human body. The faint
memory of her taste and the soft clasp of her sex around his tongue drove him forward. He placed
one hand on either side of her hips and straddled her. She would be wet and waiting.
Tielle St. Clare
Dragon’s Kiss
62
Lorran stared up as Kei crouched over her, his movements slow and deliberate, as if the muscles and bones were alien shapes.
“Kei?”
He slowly swung his head left then right.
Nekane.
The word entered her mind, never crossing Kei’s lips. The voice was deep and gravelly.
“Nekane,” she repeated.
The dragon had a name.
Tielle St. Clare
Dragon’s Kiss
63
Chapter 6
She reached out, placing her hand on his chest.
“Kei,” she called again.
The light press of her fingers on his skin combined with her soft voice and eased the dragon’s grip on his mind. He tensed. His first reaction was to back away, to tell her not to touch him. The desire was too close to the surface and his control was thin. This was a need beyond the desire to fuck—he wanted to possess her, consume her, climb inside her until she could never escape.
She moved toward him. She was closer now. “Take a deep breath. Fight it. Don’t let him win.” She whispered to him. The words blurred, barely distinguishable, but the sound of her voice soothed the rough edges of control. She was near. That’s what he needed. He took a deep breath and inhaled her warm scent. Her hair hung down around her shoulders wild from the press of the pillows. He lost track of where the dragon’s needs ended and his began. He only knew he needed her. She could keep the fog at bay—she could hold him to this earth. Kei pulled Lorran to him, covered her mouth with his own. Her taste entered him like an arrow, sharp and clear—opening his heart. The tiny gasps and groans he’d craved earlier were his reward as he sank his tongue in the wet warmth of her mouth. She met him, her own tongue tangling with his.
Through the haze of desire he realized she was accepting him, welcoming him. The dragon drew back but didn’t disappear. Kei could feel him, hovering just beyond this world. Images and flavors flooded his mind as the dragon urged him on with memories of her cunt, the full mounds of her breasts.
Kei slid his hands around her back and pulled her hard against his body. The hard line of his erection was pressed against the wet slit of her sex. Through the thin material of her nightgown, he could feel her moisture. The beast roared inside him, as if knowing that she hungered for him pleased the creature. Kei clenched his teeth, trying to maintain control but the sights and smells of Lorran’s passion along with the dragon’s influence pushed him to the edge. He had to have her. Lorran gasped as Kei moved. His strong hands spread her thighs and scooped her forward. The heavy weight of their bodies tilted them backward onto the cushion of the bed. He ripped the long line of her nightgown. The high neck tore in his hands baring her breasts. She only had a moment to react before his hands covered the soft mounds.
“I need you.”
The hopeless glint in his eyes called to her. She opened her legs. He looked down, staring at her thighs spread open before him. He drew in a sharp, tense breath.
“Come inside me.”
Tielle St. Clare
Dragon’s Kiss
64
Immediately, he was there—plunging deep, ravaging her pussy. She was wet but the deep sudden penetration stung. She bit her lips together to hide the startled gasp that threatened. She wanted this, wanted to ease him with her body. Her passage quickly adjusted to his entrance and grew wet, openly accepting him inside. Lorran held him, whispering softly as he thrust into her. She ran her hands along his shoulders and chest, loving the tension in his strong muscles as he moved above her. Each time he’d pulled back, her cunt would tighten, clinging to him, wanting to hold him. Wordless pleas slipped from her lips, the need for more, the need to feel him deeper inside her.
“Mine.” The word slipped from his mouth almost unnoticed. As much as she’d tried to reject it, she couldn’t. He needed her. At least for now, he needed the comfort of her body, and she couldn’t deny him what he needed.
Her heart throbbed deep in her throat. No one had ever truly
needed
her before.
“Yes,” she agreed. “Whatever you need.” She knew she was committing herself to him, even if he didn’t understand.
“I need you. I need this pussy.”
“Yes—all that you need.” She repeated her vow from the first night. Kei growled and seemed to swell inside her. Lorran fell back on the bed. He was hard between her legs, pumping into her with the strength of a madman. He slid home and Lorran gasped.
Kei pulled out, stopping at the rim of her sex, as if he knew he should stop but couldn’t bear to leave the warmth of her cunt.
“I’m hurting you.”
“No.” She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him down, using her strength to slide his cock back inside her, back where he belonged. “Please Kei. Fuck me. Please.”
His eyes grew dark and he reared up before thrusting forward again and again. He held nothing back, giving her all of his strength and power as he slammed his cock into her. She lost her ability to speak or even think coherently. Her last clear thought was it was too late—she’d given her body and her heart to a dragon.
* * * * *
Kei silently paced the far side of the room, stopping every few steps to stare at Lorran’s sleeping form. He’d dragged himself out of the bed knowing if he stayed beside her—she’d never get any rest. He couldn’t seem to stop. The urges that had moved through him before seemed minor to the overwhelming desire to stay inside her. In the Dark Hells, what had he done to her tonight?
Everything. Anything.
And she’d allowed it.
Or maybe she hadn’t. He hadn’t given her much opportunity to protest. She’d been frightened when the dragon had pounced on her but she’d helped him control the beast—and in return, he’d fucked her to oblivion, using her body to ease the fierce ache. What had he done?
Tielle St. Clare
Dragon’s Kiss
65
The creature was getting stronger. There was no doubt about that now. Kei walked the length of the cabin. Even now, after hours of fucking, he wanted her. The jutting spike of his cock was evidence of that. From across the room, he could track her, smell the sweet scent of her arousal.
There was so much he hadn’t told her. How his eyesight was better, his sense of smell stronger. He’d kept those secrets back. There was so much he
should
tell her, but saying the words aloud made it too real. The beast was growing in him.
Nekane.
He tensed at the mental growl, recognizing it as the voice of his urges. He closed his eyes and willed the creature away. He was still strong enough that the beast quieted after a few moments.
Kei shook his head. Would this be what his life would be like until the end? Voices in his head and a rock hard cock?
Tonight brought his death one step closer. He couldn’t wait much longer to return to the Castle. He would not allow himself to become a dragon, a beast that terrorized the people he’d spent his life protecting. He would ask Riker to kill him. He hated leaving his death on his brother’s young shoulders but the dragon was rising quickly. He looked at Lorran.
Dragons had long memories. If the unimaginable happened and Kei made the transition, would the dragon come back for her? There was only one way to protect her—he had to take her back to the Castle. Riker would look after her, guard her. Kei took a deep breath. Maybe then, she’d drop this strange obsession with dragons. It was going to get her killed.
And by the Gods, he didn’t want to be the dragon who did it. He knew that once the change took place he’d be unaware of anything but his own rage, but there was the fear, the lingering dread that the human being he’d been would recognize her and mourn her loss.
“Kei?” Lorran’s sleepy voice was like a spike into his soul. “Come back to bed.”
And the woman who a week ago would have flinched at the thought of walking around without petticoats, pulled back the blankets and bared her body to him. “I need you,”