Scorch (Dragon's Destiny:Fated Mates Book 2)(24)

 

"Now, Dev," he ordered. I could feel him straining to hold himself back until I did. "Come for me."

I had to, my release crashing through me in an unstoppable wave. I  exploded in warm, wet spurts over my hand, and as soon as I let myself  go he drove in deep, locking his hips against my ass as he gave a  muffled shout and filled me with his seed.

My thighs were shaking, and I started to collapse on the bed, but Maks  was there. He slid a hand around my waist to cup the new roundness of my  stomach and smoothly rolled us onto our sides as we hit the mattress.  He spooned himself around me, nuzzling my neck as he enveloped me in his  arms.

"I love you," he whispered, and I could feel his lips curve into a smile against my damp skin.

But he'd worn me out, and before I could answer, I was already asleep.





21





~ Maksim ~





I'd brought Devin to an island I owned off the coast of Nova Scotia at  the beginning of the summer. It was a small, rocky bit of land that I'd  claimed when Dane and I had first crossed the Atlantic two hundred years  ago. In time, I'd legally purchased it, and I loved the salt air and  crashing waves.

When we'd first arrived, Devin had still been suffering from morning  sickness, and he'd taken to spending time out on the balcony off our  second-story bedroom, claiming that the smell of the sea helped settle  his stomach.

"I can never get enough of this view," he said, standing out there now and watching the sun rise over the sea.

I agreed. I'd always been drawn to the power here of the sea and stone  and waves. It reminded me of where I'd grown up. I didn't realize I'd  said it out loud until Devin turned to me.

"Where was that?" he asked.

"France. A long time ago."

"Why did you leave, Maks?"

I winced, thinking of what I'd left behind. "I had a disagreement with my sire," I told him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Is your ‘sire' your dragon father, or your human one? And is he still back there? In France?"

"His territory is farther east, in what was Russia," I answered,  frowning as memories came back to me. "And my sire is a dragon. I never  knew my human father. He …  died …  when I was born."

Devin blanched, his hands covering the roundness that had changed his  slim form so much over the last few months as he swallowed nervously.  "Is that …  um, does that happen often? That the human father dies?"

"No! That's not something you have to worry about, baby. Not with my  fire in you." I pulled him to me, angry at myself for scaring him. I  knew his emotions were already close to the surface thanks to the  pregnancy. I should have thought before opening my mouth. "The dragons  back in Europe do things very differently. Your life is tied to mine,  you know that, love. You'll be fine."

"Wes told me what to expect," he said, relaxing a bit in my arms. "But …   I'm not sure if it's exactly the same for me as it was for him. I feel  more tired than he says he was, even though I can feel your heat in me,  strengthening me. And I'm huge …  look at me, Maks. I really think I'm  much bigger than I should be. Especially if I still have more than a  month to go. Sarah wasn't-"

"You can't compare yours to a human pregnancy, love," I reminded him, laughing as I cut him off.

Sarah had just given birth to a baby boy, and Devin had Skyped with her  daily throughout her pregnancy. Even though the pregnancy progressed  slightly differently in his male body, many of the symptoms were the  same, and I knew it had been fun for him to compare symptoms and  cravings with one of his oldest friends.

I hated to see him worried, now, and the truth was that we didn't really  know what "normal" was for him. Wes had told us everything he could  about his pregnancy the year before, but even that wasn't the greatest  comparison since Dane hadn't understood what his dragon intended at the  time and had withheld his fire for longer than he should have. Anik's  mate, Mikkel, had also shared his experience, but Mikkel's pregnancy had  been hundreds of years ago-and in the end, two stories just weren't  enough of a baseline for comparison.

My otherself stirred within me in response to my mate's distress, but  only with the desire to comfort him. My dragon wasn't worried, and it  was the thing that gave me the most confidence that Devin's symptoms  were normal, even when they differed from what the other two men had  gone through. He really did seem abnormally large for as far along as he  should be, but my otherself reassured me that our mate was okay.         

     



 

Still, I wanted to make him feel better.

"Do you want me to go get some pistachio ice cream, baby?" I asked,  rubbing his back with one hand and resting my other on the swell of our  child.

His food cravings were adorable, and it made me wish my island wasn't  quite so remote. I hated being away from him. I knew that there was  nothing here that could hurt him, but I missed him when we weren't  together. I know he didn't like it when I left, either, but the  pregnancy had made him a slave to his hormones.

"You'll be gone half the day," he complained, reading my thoughts. I  could already tell he was going to say yes, though, and right on cue he  said, "But we do have a lifetime together, and ice cream …  well, that's  something I really, really could use today, now that you mention it." He  bit his lip, looking sheepish, then added, "With cinnamon, if you don't  mind. Um, we're out. Again."

The sun had barely cleared the horizon, and I knew I could easily make  it to the mainland and back before noon. Missing the morning with him  was a sacrifice I was willing to make to keep him happy.

"I don't mind," I said, rubbing his belly as I leaned down to kiss him goodbye. "But when I get back-"

"Oh, my God! Maks, did you feel that?" Devin interrupted excitedly, the ice cream temporarily forgotten.

I had. A gentle bump against my palm. He was beaming, and I realized I  was holding my breath as we both waited to see if it would come again.  Then …  the lightest flutter, but definite motion. Our child.

My otherself rumbled in approval, and when I finally left, the miracle  of feeling our child move within Devin's body kept me smiling all the  way to the mainland.





22





~ Devin ~





I felt guilty asking Maks to leave the island on such a silly errand,  but at the same time, I had to have it. Had to. Pregnancy was the  weirdest, most wonderful thing.

I puttered around the house for a while and then Skyped Sarah to tell  her about the baby moving. She had been my best friend forever, and  comparing pregnancy symptoms isn't something I ever imagined I'd get to  do with her, but I was loving it.

Before we'd left Washington, Wes and Dane had thrown us a baby shower.  They'd gotten us everything we needed, and then some, and had it all  shipped to Nova Scotia so Maks could ferry it out to the island once we  arrived. After I ended the call with Sarah, I headed to the nursery to  continue one of my favorite pastimes-getting it ready for the baby. I  was hoping it would keep me distracted enough that the time without Maks  would pass quickly, but before he returned I got hungry and had to take  a break. I was always getting hungry.

I made a quick lunch and took it out to the bedroom balcony-my favorite  place-and ate it while I stared at the empty horizon. The Atlantic  stretched before me, smooth and flat today, uninterrupted from here  until it hit the coast of France, where Maks had grown up.

Two hundred years. I couldn't fathom it. He didn't look that much older  than me, and he'd told me that since we were bonded, my own aging would  slow to match his. It was mind-boggling, and I couldn't wait to hear  more about the things he'd seen and done in his long life.

As if I'd conjured him, my eyes picked out a dark speck on the horizon  in the now-familiar shape of dragon wings. He didn't often fly during  the day, but the island was so remote that being seen wasn't much of a  concern here. My heart leapt as it always did when I got to be with him,  and I gathered up my dishes and took them to the kitchen, then headed  out to the beach to greet him.

Except …  my steps faltered. There was no sign of him. The mainland was to  the west, and I'd seen him approaching from the balcony that faced the  opposite direction. I walked around the house to the other side, and  sure enough, a dragon was approaching the island from the east. The sun  glinted off the silvery wings, but these weren't the white-silver of my  mate, this dragon was a silver-blue, almost gray, the color of gunmetal.  Dane's dragon was black, and I thought Maks had mentioned that Anik and  Ben to the north were both shades of red. I didn't know who this was.

My stomach clenched with nerves, and I instinctively reached for my mate through our bond.

He was already on his way back, and the knowledge made me relax. I held  back from actively "talking" to him, trusting that he would be here soon  enough. I could sense the ocean under him, the salt air cooling his  ever-present heat as he winged toward me from the west. He'd told me  that there weren't that many dragons in the world, and it seemed  unlikely that another of his kind would just happen to find this remote  island unless they were looking for my mate. No doubt Maks would know  our visitor.