shift happens 03 - no were to run (22 page)

His grin was huge and I laughed despite the fact I felt like I would implode any second. My need to be connected to him, both physically and spiritually was indescribable. I pulled at him so hard he fell forward on top of me. The weight of his body made it difficult to breathe, but it was so good at the same time.

“I need you,” I hissed as I bit at his lips in desperation. “If you don’t help me put this fire out I will zap your ass to hell.”

“You’re idea of foreplay is a little violent, but I like it,” he said with a sexy smirk. His voice was even, but I could feel he was getting as desperate as me. “When you feel it coming, kiss me. The flow will be less painful.”

“It’s going to hurt?” I asked and felt my eyes go wide.

“I have no idea, but if it’s anything like what’s boiling up inside of me it’s going to be explosive,” he said as he pushed the head of his cock into my writhing body and groaned. “You feel so good—so fucking perfect.”

Ready or not I was going to do this. I was fearful of the pain from both the Dragon Fire and Nicolai’s sheer size, but that didn’t stop my body from wantonly inviting both in.

With a thrust of his hips Nicolai buried himself to the hilt inside. I cried out at the initial invasion and then cried out again as an orgasm much more intense than the first ripped though my body and brought the Dragon Fire to the surface.

“Kiss me,” Nicolai shouted as he crushed my lips with his and rocked his hips with such speed I was sure I would pass out.

My body undulated beneath his and I met him thrust for thrust with wild and joyous abandon. I never though anything would compare to the freedom of flying, but making love with my true mate beat it hands down.

I felt my fire leave my body and flow into his as he plowed into me like a freight train. The pain was outweighed by the surreal feeling of becoming one with him. I couldn’t tell where I began or where he ended. I was Nicolai and he was me. Our auras blended and meshed as one. It was sexual, emotional and right out of this world.

As his fire raced through my veins, my body bucked wildly, begging to be even closer. There was no way I could get close enough.

“Deeper, I need to be deeper,” he mumbled almost incoherently as he pulled out of me and flipped me to my stomach.

Yanking my hips up off the bed, he plunged into me with such a ferocious need it left me breathless. His body hammered at mine and we had sex like the animals we were. It was perfect, frightening and life changing. I felt the beginnings of another orgasm grip me as Nicolai bent forward and planted little bite-kisses all over my neck and shoulders.

“I’m going to come. I want you to come with me,” he instructed in a hoarse voice.

“Yes,” I said roughly as I pushed back against his strong thrusts.

Using one hand to hold himself up, he pressed the other to the same spot where his mouth had been only a short while ago. I felt him grow larger inside me and my desire spiraled to a point I didn’t know existed. My scream echoed in my ears as if it had come from someone else and Nicolai’s roar of satisfaction rang in my ears.

It was if I was floating above my body and I closed my eyes as the orgasmic aftershocks continued to make me shudder. Nicolai stayed buried deep within me but rolled us to our sides so we were spooning.

“Are you alive?” he asked as he worked to catch his breath.

“No. I don’t think so,” I replied with an exhausted giggle. “Are you?”

“No, but death was fucking great,” he said.

I could feel his heart beating like a machine gun pressed against my back and his chest still heaved to take in enough air. However, the most shocking thing was I felt him grow hard again within me.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I muttered on a laugh.

“Um…nope,” he said with an absurd amount of male pride. “You do it for me like no one in my life has ever done. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get enough of you.”

“You can really go again?” I asked as I peeked at him over my shoulder.

“And again and again. You up for it?” he asked with a lopsided grin and a thrust of his hips.

I was surprised at how fast my desire for the insane Dragon ramped up again. Thankfully it was different than the painfully hot lava feeling I’d had before we’d mated, but it was no less intense.

“Is that a challenge?” I asked as I ground my backside against him.

“It is,” he agreed readily. “I hear a Dragon can’t resist a challenge.”

“You heard right,” I purred as I began to rock my hips in earnest.

“God, I love being a Dragon,” Nicolai shouted.

I did too.

And I accepted his challenge again and again and again because far be it from me to run from a dare.

Chapter 19

“Do you want to tell us anything?” Maria asked with a wide smile she couldn’t hide and didn’t even try to.

My suite was filled with Dragons and a Wolf. I’d slipped away when Nicolai fell asleep. I realized he’d lied a little about the snoring thing. I just hoped he hadn’t exaggerated his prowess with putting the toilet seat down.

“Um…no?” I said as I popped open a bottle of water and downed it.

Sex made me thirsty. A marathon of sex made me feel like the Sahara Dessert.

I was not about to give a blow by blow to my niece, my mate’s brother and mother, the nutty Warlock Dragon and an Alpha Wolf—pun kind of intended. It was very clear they knew what happened by the embarrassingly enormous grins on their faces. I didn’t need to add to their fun.

“I’m so happy,” Maria screamed and tackle hugged me. “Can I call Nicolai Uncle Nicolai now?”

“You’ll have to take that up with him,” I grunted as I crawled out from underneath her with the tiny bit of dignity I had left.

“Welcome to our family,” Elaina said with outstretched arms and tears in her eyes.

This was so wildly uncomfortable for me. It was bad enough that Elaina knew I’d boffed her son for a few hours, but it was even harder for me to accept that I had a family who didn’t want to kill me.

“Thank you,” I mumbled as I hugged her back.

“I saw all of this, my sister,” Seth said as he took my hands in his and squeezed them tight.

“A heads up might have been nice,” I said with a laugh and a wince.

“That’s not how it works. Fate has to play out on its own terms,” he said as he kissed my forehead and smoothed back the hair that I was sure was far more out of control that usual.

“Essie is downright beside herself with joy, little Dragon. And I am too,” Junior crowed as he picked me up and swung me around the room like a rag doll. “We’re gonna have a big dadgum party when all this shee-ot is over. And by the way, I think that call you made to Sandy is helpin’. She talked on the phone for a full seven minutes before she got pissed and hung up on me. I should probably quit comparing her ass to the moon and stars. I figured that crap was poetic, but she thought I was sayin’ she had a big butt.”

As usual, Junior left me speechless, but I’d come to expect that and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Lenny was the most sedate of the group. He touched my face and then turned his back on me and lifted his shoulder length hair. I was confused by his bizarre action until I saw what he wanted me to see. Thankfully I was near a chair because my knees buckled and I gasped so loud the entire room quieted.

Lenny’s mark matched mine. It matched Daniel’s and it matched Maria’s. Who in the hell was he?

He let his hair fall back into place and turned back to face me. He tilted his head to the side and was silent as he watched the plethora of emotions cross my face.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

“My name is Leonardo and I’m of your line.”

“No. I mean who are you to me?” I asked a bit louder.

Maria slowly walked over and stood next to me. She’d seen the same thing I had and was just as confused.

“I suppose you would call me your grandfather,” he said with a small shrug. “I’m your mother’s father.”

“Wait,” Junior said trying to piece the puzzle together that had so many missing pieces it was ridiculous. “Why in tarnation aren’t you the King?”

“We’re a matriarchal society,” Lenny answered quietly. “My mother ruled for thousands of years and then my daughter should have ruled next. However, this did not happen.”

“Because my father killed her,” I finished the horrid tale. “And you’re the Dragon Warlock that he imprisoned.”

Lenny nodded.

“Is your voodoo handed down?” Junior asked a question I hadn’t even thought of. “Is that why Dima can poof places?”

Again Lenny nodded and watched me carefully.

“Wait,” Maria said as she sat down beside me with a thud. “Can I poof too?”

“You can and so can Daniel,” Lenny said.

“Well, this certainly explains why you knew Maria was my brother’s child.”

Lenny shrugged and smiled.

“So are you just going to answer the questions we come up with or are you going to shed some real light here?” I asked getting frustrated. I was still digesting that Lenny was my grandfather and his cryptic ways were driving me nuts.

“For now I’ll answer questions. You’re very much like children at the moment. You’ll ask the questions when you’re ready for the answers,” Lenny explained.

“Oh my God,” Maria gushed. “Can I call you Great-Grandpa?”

“If that is what you wish,” Lenny said with a chuckle.

“This is fucking unbelievable,” Maria shouted, clearly forgetting we were all right next to her. “In just over a week, I got an aunt, a cousin, an uncle and a great-grandfather. I mean who in the hell would have guessed that?”

The door to my suite flew open and a half dressed, wildly upset Nicolai burst into the room. “Where is she? Did she leave?” he roared as his eyes scanned the room in desperation.

As soon as they landed on me, he calmed. He ran his hands through his hair and audibly sighed with relief. My company slipped quietly from my suite and closed the door behind them as Nicolai and I stared at each other.

“You thought I would run?”

“Yes…no. I didn’t know,” he answered honestly.

I’d never seen him so vulnerable and it made my heart hurt.

“I’m still here,” I said and grabbed two bottles of water. I tossed him one and he downed it in one sip.

“God, I was thirsty,” he muttered and he stood in the middle of the room, still unsure what to do with himself. “I just thought…”

“Thought what?”

“I thought I might have scared you with the renegotiation of terms thing. I swear to you I’ll honor the deal we made. You’ll be free to go when your father is dead. I was just kidding about making you come until I got what I wanted—well, kind of. I mean I did make you come…” His grin was all kinds of sexy, but his eyes belied his bravado.

“What if I don’t want to go?” I asked as I popped open my water and chugged it. I knew the mature adult thing to do was to maintain eye contact, but I was putting it all on the line and I chickened out. It was so much easier to kill stuff than it was to talk.

“You want me to go?” he asked, now completely confused.

I rolled my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Did I have to spell it all out for him?

“Noooo,” I said slowly as if I were talking to Daniel. “What if I wanted to stay and I wanted you to stay too?”

“Would we have separate living quarters?” he asked still not following.

Clearly, I had to spell it out.

“Um, no. I was thinking maybe we could live together.”

“Like
together
-together?”

“Is that a problem for you?”

Oh my God, had I misinterpreted all this? Did he
want
me to leave?

“Hell no, that’s not a problem,” he said in a voice better suited for the outdoors. “Are you sure?”

I looked at the half clothed Dragon standing in my room taking up most of the air and space and I sighed. He was beautiful when he was in control and just as stunning when he was unsure of himself. I knew he didn’t he loved me the way I loved him, but that didn’t matter. I’d been so deprived of love my entire life I had enough for both of us.

Fate had handed me several gifts—Daniel and now Nicolai. I was certain she expected me to cherish what she’d bestowed and I accepted her challenge. I
was
a Dragon after all.

“I’m sure.”

Before I could utter another word, his lips crushed mine. I wrapped my arms around his huge frame and moaned happily into his mouth.

“I promise to make you happy,” he whispered as he planted little kisses all over my face. “And I will love Daniel, too.”

“Too? You mean you love me?” I asked, startled as I pulled back and searched his face for a sign he was lying.

“Um…yes. Is that okay?” he asked cautiously, trying to gauge if he’d said the wrong thing to the crazy woman.

Tears filled my eyes and I dropped my head into my hands.

“I swear to God I’ll never say it again. I’ll only think it,” he bargained, totally at a loss on how to handle the sobbing Dragon who was now on the floor. “Oh shit,” he muttered as he sat down on the carpet next to me and took me in his arms. “I’m in new territory here. My mom—whose ass I’ll kick later—said I was supposed to be honest with my emotions. I didn’t even know I had any emotions until you came along.