He breathed a sigh of relief at her confirmation and gave her one more squeeze before returning her to her seat. He picked up a piece of meat and placed it against her lips. This time she opened without hesitation. Another wave of pride consumed him, without realizing it, his mate had trusted him to care for her. He knew she was independent and used to caring for herself but her care was now his responsibility whether she wanted to accept that fact or not. It was one of the things that was non-negotiable. He was sure the more time they spent together, the more accepting of his care she would become.
Rayne was so lost in his thoughts, enjoying the simple pleasure of feeding his mate that he missed her picking up a piece of meat and placing it against his lips. He glanced at the meat and then at his mate. She raised her eyebrow at him again. Was there anything cuter than her attempts at intimidating him? “If you can feed me, then I can feed you. Fair is fair, Rayne.” She said with just a bit of sass in her tone.
“You are right, mo chroi.” He parted his lips and took the meat from her fingers but not before he sucked her finger into his mouth and rubbed just the tip with his tongue. She gasped and pulled her finger from his lips but not before he saw heat bloom in those beautiful emerald eyes of hers.
He winked and smirked, “Oh, my beautiful mate, the fun we are going to have when time is not an issue.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
They’d been walking for over an hour, she was sure of that. Thank goodness Rayne had convinced her to wear her hiking boots otherwise her feet would be killing her. She had taken up hiking after about six months of working out. Sometimes she just needed to get outside and exercise instead of being cooped up in the gym. Aidan and Aaron, whom she knew to be twins, had packed up the few supplies Royce had used to cook their delicious meal and were leading their merry band of warriors out of the park. Rayne was walking to her right, always touching her in one way or another. Royce was on her left and Lance and Devon were bringing up the rear. She felt well cocooned surrounded by Rayne and his men.
Rayne had left her with Royce while he and the others discussed their plans to get their entire party to The Pointe without attracting any attention. She had laughed when she’d caught that part of their conversation. Rayne had given her a look meant to intimidate her into being quiet. She just chuckled, “Fat chance!” she thought. Then she laughed out loud and thought to herself how crazy it was that these behemoths thought they could do anything without attracting attention. Not only were they all HUGE but they were drop dead gorgeous to boot! But when Rayne looked like he was going to pop a vein in his head, she shrugged her shoulders and went back to helping Royce. She knew Rayne still looked at her often, she could feel his eyes like a caress all over her body. It was the weirdest thing. It really felt like he was touching her. She got tingly all over; an ache grew between her legs that made coherent thought almost impossible. She tamped down her unruly thoughts, afraid one of these dragon shifter men of Rayne’s would smell her desire since Rayne had emphasized how amplified their senses were. She really did not want them to know exactly what their Commander did to her body.
Royce was by far the most easy-going of the bunch. She asked if his dragon was golden red like Rayne’s. He said no but explained that each man’s dragon was colored from their dragon’s original clan. Royce told her his was a great royal blue dragon with green scales woven throughout. If it was anything like she imagined, his dragon was stunning. She told him as much and was immediately embarrassed when he laughed and said, “Stunning? We of the Dragon Guard are not stunning, we are fierce and unstoppable.”
“I'm sorry. I meant no offense.”
“Do not fret, Miss Kyndel, I’m only joking with you. I might be biased but I think our dragons are a true sight to behold. There was a time when we weren’t afraid to fly in the daylight. It was a truly spectacular sight to see our scales catching the sun, glittering like diamonds. But colonization and the rise of the hunters and wizards caused us to go into hiding. Now we fly at night unless there is grave danger to one of our own.”
Kyndel noticed the longer he spoke the more of an accent he let slip. His speech became more formal, from an older time. “Can I ask how old you are, Royce?”
“Physically, I was one hundred and fifty-six my last birthday and my dragon is over 1800 years old.”
She almost swallowed her tongue, “How old is Rayne?” She braced herself for his answer.
“Oh, he is a young one, just turned one hundred and nineteen his last birthday, and his dragon is one of the younger ones as well, only a little over 1400 years.”