He kissed me again, and then he walked away from me, putting some space between us as he moved back toward the middle of the yard. I wasn't sure what he expected me to do … follow him? But then I forgot to wonder. My vision blurred, and I blinked to clear it. Maks's body seemed to ripple, so I took my glasses off, cleaning them on the edge of my shirt.
When I put them back on, he was gone.
"Oh … my … God."
"Devin," the dragon said, lowering its huge head down to rest on the ground in front of me. "Let me take you home."
My heart was pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to bounce right out of my chest. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. Dragons didn't actually exist, and yet … I was looking at one.
Maks had turned into one.
He looked just like every illustration I'd ever seen of the mythical creatures. Except, real. He was silvery white, the color of moonlight, with wings and scales and … he was really, really big. Exactly as he'd told me in the car.
"Oh, my God," I whispered, finally remembering to breathe again.
I stepped closer. Reached out to touch him. Watched the fire whirl in his eyes, exactly as it had when he was driving. He was amazing, and suddenly it burst out of me, relief and excitement and sheer joy cascading out of me in peals of laughter as I doubled over and tried to catch my breath. Every doubt I'd had was wiped away, because he'd been telling the truth. He was real … and that meant that everything I'd felt for him was real, too. I was in love with him, and he loved me back. I didn't hesitate when he told me to climb onto his back. I would go anywhere with him. He was a dragon, and I was his.
Forever.
17
~ Maksim ~
My mate was happy. I could feel it through the connection we shared, and it was intoxicating.
I'd flown through the night, and after a while he'd slept, kept warm by the fire that always heated my otherself. Kept safe because he was mine, and I would never let him fall. As I led him into the house I'd lived in for the last ten years, I realized that for the first time, with Devin here, it really did feel like"home."
Anywhere that he was would feel like home to me.
"Are you tired?" he asked as I closed the door behind us. "You just flew across the country."
His eyes sparkled as he said it, and a warm flush spread through me at the sight. Yes, I wanted him, but this wasn't that. His happiness made me happy, and I grinned down at him as I pulled him into my arms, where he belonged.
"Not tired," I told him, holding him close enough that he could feel the hard evidence of just how awake I still was. "And done waiting."
"Good," he said breathlessly, molding himself against me. "Because now that you've told me your big secret, I'm done waiting, too."
"There's more. It will change you, love, when I claim you."
"Okay."
"Don't you want to know how?"
"No. Not right now," he said, pulling his shirt over his head and then reaching for mine. "I just want you inside me, Maks. The rest can wait."
He was right, my dragon agreed. My otherself reached for Devin through our bond, the heat rising in me so hot and fast that I could actually see his body flush as it passed into him.
"Yes, that," he moaned. "Maks, please."
He pressed himself against me again, making it impossible to say no. Not that I wanted to. I pushed him away just long enough to finish getting his clothes off, and then mine. I'd been gone for over a month and the house was cold, but neither one of us felt it. I meant to take him into the bedroom, but the minute we were both naked he made that impossible.
"Maks," he whimpered, his hands moving over me as I tried to walk him down the hall. "I want … God, I don't know exactly what to do," he said with a sexy little laugh. "I've never … you're the only one … "
I groaned, his eagerness slaying me. I gave up on the idea of getting him to walk out of the living room and picked him up instead. He wrapped his legs around my waist, trapping his leaking cock between us and rubbing his ass over my straining erection. The slickness of my own desire lubricated his crease, and I pretty much stopped walking too, sliding him over my shaft until he started begging.
"Please fuck me," he gasped into my mouth. "Oh, God, Maks. Please."
I could feel his hole quivering, and even though I'd meant to take my time, he felt so fucking good that I just couldn't. I flipped him around and bent him over the back of the couch. He arched his back-fucking beautiful-and looked back over his shoulder at me.
"Your eyes," he whispered, grinding his ass against me. "I can see the fire in them. Oh, God, Maks. I can feel it. Is that … is that weird?"
"No, baby," I groaned, barely stopping myself from driving my cock all the way into his virgin ass. Instead, I spread him wide and slid it over his pucker, rubbing against him until his head fell forward and the sounds spilling from his mouth forced me to stop before I spent my seed too soon. "You should feel my heat. My dragon is giving it to you. It's how I'll claim you. It will make you fertile. It will make you mine."
I don't think he even heard me. I reached around him and lubricated my fingers with his pre-cum, his sweet cock jerking in my hand. He whimpered when I let it go, but then gasped as I pushed my slick finger against his hole, circling, circling, and then easing my way inside. He tensed at the intrusion, and then he was pushing back against me, letting me stretch him, letting me know how good it felt as I worked him open. I added another finger, bumping his prostate, and then, when he asked for it, another.
I groaned, wishing he was facing me so I could see his face when he made sounds like that. As much as I wanted to be inside him, watching him enjoy my attention had me transfixed. I wanted to make him moan again. I wanted him to forget everything except my name. I wanted him to ask for …
"More," he gasped, fucking himself against my fingers. "God, Maks. Please … more."
Just like that. I couldn't resist when he begged so prettily. The head of my cock was already shiny with precum, and I'd have to trust that that plus my heat would be enough for him, because I couldn't wait any longer. I slicked it over my length and pushed inside him.
"Fuck, baby," I groaned. "You're … so … tight." It took everything I had not to drive forward and bury myself completely. It was more than how good his hot channel felt as it gripped my shaft-being inside my mate was right. The rush of emotion was just as strong as the rush of heat, and it had me digging my fingers into his hips to slow myself down. I didn't want to use him too hard.
"Oh, God, Maks," he whimpered. "That's what I … needed … you're … don't … don't hold back. Please. Fuck me, already."
His words scorched through me, burning away the last shred of my resistance. I wrapped an arm around his waist and thrust into him, giving him what he'd asked for.
"Ahhhh," he half screamed-half gasped, arching his back.
I pulled him upright, sliding my hand around his throat so I could turn his face toward me, holding him tightly in front of me as I started to fuck him, hard and fast, all thoughts of holding back gone as he panted into my mouth. His body was perfect. He was perfect. And as I pounded into his sweet, tight ass I let the fire blaze inside me, forgetting everything except the feel and sound and taste of him.
My heat moved through him, readying him, and I wrapped my hand around his cock as I felt my own balls start to tighten. I was going to fill him with my seed. I was going to breathe my fire down his throat. I was going to claim him. But first-
"Come for me, love," I ordered. Or begged. Or maybe I didn't even manage to get the words out-but he knew what I wanted anyway.
"Maks!" he shouted.
With a shudder that moved through his entire body he spilled over my hand, his ass clamping tightly around my throbbing cock and pushing me over the edge. I swallowed his shout as I came-a hot rush of pure bliss as I emptied myself inside him.
This time I could finally give him everything. I let my dragon's fire pour down his throat, the flames shooting out of me like a second orgasm, filling every part of the man I loved with my essence, changing him forever. Finally making him mine.
18
~ Devin ~
I woke up alone in Maks's bed, warm from the inside out. I could tell by the frost on the window and the visible plume of my breath in the air that it was cold in the room, but I could still feel his heat inside me and the cold didn't bother me at all. Maks had said that claiming me would change me, and now I wondered what exactly that meant. Was this inner warmth part of it?