Kiss of a Dragon(43)

But she seemed to understand. At least, she nodded. It was difficult to parse what a slayer knew, what they sensed, and what they didn’t. “You are spelling Leksander’s patrol, are you not? I wish to stay. I’ll hunt with you now.”

Lucian winced as his brother struggled to keep the hurt off his face. Lucian really needed to have a talk with him—and soon—about the futility of this crush. He’d gone longer than Lucian in not partaking in human female company. It was time. Perhaps Leonidas could help find someone to capture Leksander’s attention, if even just for a short while.

Lucian sighed. “Why don’t we split up?” He threw a meaningful glance at his brother, whose eyes had sharpened. “You and Leksander take the southern half of the city; I’ll take the northern part. I won’t slay anything without you, as long as you promise the same in return.”

“Deal!” she exclaimed, the smile wide on her face. She was truly, breathtakingly beautiful, just as all children of angels were. It wasn’t much of a mystery why his brother was smitten. It was just terribly unfortunate.

Erelah’s wings unfurled, and she lifted from the ground in a gliding way that spoke of her power, not her wings’ ability to beat the air into submission.

Lucian watched her go, seeking out more demons to ecstatically slay. She must be as drunk on that as he was leaving Arabella at his lair. Then he dropped his gaze to his brother, whose look of longing was almost painful to see. “Chasing angelfire will only get you burned, my brother.”

He lingered on her quickly rising form until it cloaked. “You’re right.” Then he brought his gaze back down to earth and smirked. “But it will be glorious while it lasts.”

Lucian shook his head, stepping back as Leksander shifted into his silver dragon and went after her, cloaking a half heartbeat later. And in truth, he could hardly blame his brother—Lucian had his own tempting angel back in his lair.

And loving Arabella just might burn him to ash as well.





Thank God, she was on the pill.

She’d been on birth control ever since that night with her ex, regardless of the status of her relationships. Not that there were any. But she didn’t want to accidentally end up carrying the spawn of some asshole, and rape happened way too damn often in the world. This thing with Lucian was anything but that… but it had come on so suddenly… and Arabella never had a man come inside her so much in a single day.

Twenty-four hours of sex and sleep and sex and more sex. After the fourth or fifth round—she’d rapidly lost count—Lucian had explained that dragon libido was enhanced like every other ability. Holy shit, he wasn’t kidding about that. And the things he did to her… she was still buzzing from all those orgasms hours after he’d flown off to patrol Seattle, leaving her alone in his lair. Somewhere in the middle, he’d also explained she didn’t need to worry about pregnancy or disease—that pregnancy could only occur after sealing, and shifters didn’t have diseases, not ones that were communicable to humans, anyway. It was part of the whole immortality thing. Of course, he could totally be lying. But she was inclined to believe him—if it were that easy to get pregnant, he wouldn’t be searching so hard for a mate.

A mate. Was that where this was headed? She was so dazed by their time in bed, by the sweet caring of a man who felt the pain of her trauma then helped her get past it—not just once, but again and again and again—it was like he was making up for all her lost time. And all that sexual energy bottled up inside her came spilling out… right along with her heart.

It was possibly the most intimate and kind gift she’d ever received, and dammit, she could feel it—she was falling in love with him. Because Jesus Lord, he was hot and kind and an incredible lover. What was not to love? Except for that whole dragon thing. And the fact that she’d just met him. And, hello, that he had basically kidnapped her and was still holding her prisoner. Maybe. She wasn’t really sure about that part anymore, given she had free run of the House of Smoke in his absence. Presumably, she could bop down to the garage, snag a car, and leave.

Only that was the last thing she wanted to do.

Her head could argue all day about how falling in love with Lucian Smoke was the height of irresponsibly crazy foolishness… but her heart was already long, long gone. And her lady parts were in some kind of nirvana they didn’t even know existed. Like literally. She had no idea her body could feel this sated.

Not that she wasn’t sore. She hurt in parts of her body she didn’t know she owned—like she’d been possessed by someone who tried to win an IronMan Extreme Decathlon where all the events were staged in Lucian’s circular bed. Her legs and arms and everything were one big limping soreness… all except the parts between her legs. Or anywhere else Lucian’s magical-healing wet kisses could reach. He said all his bodily fluids had restorative powers—like he literally leaked immortality—and she believed it. Her lady parts were already raring to go again, even as her back was considering traction. But the buzz of uncountable orgasms won the day with a resounding worth it! finishing any and all arguments.