She didn’t even have to ask. Mateo, the last to return home, and most intimidating of the men she’d met, scooped him off the ground and carried him inside.
SIXTEEN
Three days. That’s how long Jace had been holed up in the great room, and he was going nuts. Charlotte kept him company, which he loved, except she wouldn’t let him touch her, and his dragon was raking at him to get to her. “I’m feeling fine, love,” he told her for the umpteenth time.
“Good,” she said as she smiled at him.
“Maybe we can move up to our room today,” he suggested for the second day in a row.
“Maybe.”
“Now we’re talking,” he said before she could argue. He made a move to stand.
“Not so fast,” she chided. “I’ll get Mateo—”
He growled at her, snapping his teeth in her direction in a playful way, hoping to draw her dragon out a little. “Don’t you dare. I will not be carried around like a child when I can walk perfectly fine on my own,” he told her. It was one thing to be carried while unconscious, and even acceptable to have help when his muscles refused to work for the first day, but he was healed now. Besides, what he had planned certainly didn’t involve Mateo, or any of their other clan mates either.
“I know that look in your eye, mate. Don’t think you can fool me with that sweet smile,” she said even as she took a step forward.
Had he been smiling? He hadn’t even noticed. “Fine, I’ll behave. Why don’t you come over and snuggle with me then if you won’t let me do anything else?” He’d used the same excuse to get her closer on numerous occasions in the past thirty-six hours, and she’d come without hesitation. The first time she had, he’d held her close, and in seconds, she’d burst into tears. The sounds of her crying had nearly torn his soul in two, but he held her as she’d let the pain, and her fear go.
Each time after that, he’d gotten bolder, touching her, kissing her, but always, she put a halt to it before he could satisfy either of them or their dragons. He wasn’t letting her call the shots this time.
When she came within reach, he bolted to his feet and pulled her to his chest. He crushed her lips with his, tasting her as though for the first time all over. She stiffened in his arms, and tried to pull away, but he held tight, delving into her mouth. His tongue stroked hers, and she moaned.
Pulling his lips from hers, he nipped her chin, and down her neck to the spot he’d bitten, and nipped her there, too. She gasped and arched her back. He rained small kisses up to her ear, his hands reaching for the snap of her jeans as he did. “I need you so much, Charlotte,” he whispered into her ear before he stroked his tongue around the shell. “Right now.”
When she tilted her head for more, he slid her jeans down past her hips, taking her panties along with them.
Charlotte grasped the front of his shirt and pulled, sending buttons flying all around them, before whipping her own up and off. Her light blue bra, as lovely as it was, had to go. He reached behind and undid the clasp, not waiting for it to be all the way down her arms before he sucked a nipple into his mouth. Afraid she might change her mind, he pulled away only long enough for her to take her jeans the rest of the way down, before taking her in his arms, kissing her with all the passion he had inside him.
He picked her up, wrapped her legs around his waist, and walked with her to the nearest wall. “Hang on,” he commanded, and she did. She had her arms wrapped around his neck, and her ankles locked at his lower back. Her hard nipples teased at his chest, and it was all he could do to concentrate on what he wanted to do. He jerked his pants open and down. She moaned as he leaned into her, his cock hard, and ready. He kissed her, pinning her to the wall, moaning at the sweet friction as he ground against her slick heat.
“Please, Jace,” she begged, arching her back, pressing herself more firmly against him.
He couldn’t deny either of them. He needed her too much—his dragon—needed her too. With a hoarse groan, he positioned himself and thrust into her.
Charlotte cried out as he hit bottom, the held her breath.
“Breathe, love,” he teased.
She exhaled and opened her eyes, her smoldering gaze making his cock twitch. “It just feels so good.”
“It’ll feel a whole lot better before too long,” he promised as he started thrusting into her. The first stroke was soft and gentle, but she tilted her hips and sank into him, demanding more. Each thrust became harder and harder. Her soft moans and sighs grew louder as he plunged into her. Her nails, a little sharper than before dug into his shoulders as she moved over him, taking him as much as he was taking her. It was wild and frenzied, and exactly what both dragons needed.