9Waking The Eternal Dragon
Kaitlyn approached the bed where Raif lay, still, in his comatose state.
He was movie star material. His bronzed skin stretched over a heavily muscled frame, well proportioned for his tall height of seven feet, filling most of the supersized bed. His shoulder length dark auburn hair fell loosely around his handsome face, graced by his strong cheekbones and masculine nose, and enhanced by sensually full lips, parted enticingly by the barest margin in his slumbering state. Every feature blended to make him highly seductive, she thought wistfully.
If only….
She couldn't finish that ridiculous thought.
Mine, a small voice in the back of her mind whispered.
Her heart began to beat wildly in her chest the closer she came to him, sloshing the warm water about in the basin she carried. This was the best part of her day.
His sponge bath.
For eight weeks she had cared for him, watching and waiting to see if there would be any change in his condition. She was after all the logical choice for the job. She was a Druid, familiar with this strange supernatural world that others thought were mere fantasy. And, she was a nurse.
Over the past weeks they had tried everything they could think of to heal him, although they were hampered by the fact that they had no idea what exactly had been done to him.
The Sorceress, Morgan's spell, although intended for her grandfather, Richard, a Druid, had instead struck Raif in his attempt to protect the old man. The spell had been designed to kill a human and trap his soul. It did not have the same affect on the Wyvern, a dragon.
Druid magic had no effect, and Raif's sister's special healing ability and modern drugs fared no better. Electric shock therapy, compliments of Alex, didn't even rouse a single twitch from his motionless body.
They had hoped to find a cure in Morgan's grimoire which gathered dust in their storage room, but as they discovered, not one of them could read it. Morgan had placed a spell on it so the reader will only see the text written in a language unfamiliar to them. Where one person saw French, another perceived it as ancient Sumerian cuneiform and for someone else it was in Chinese. The book was useless to them.
As the days turned into weeks his family's vigil by his side gradually decreased. They had their own lives to live and a kingdom in Fey to run in his absence. His sister had stayed behind but only visited him briefly a couple of times a day. All the while it was her, Kaitlyn, who stayed by his side. As the visitors began to dwindle, Kaitlyn's time with him increased. It didn't take long before she craved the time she spent alone with him. Each day she remained longer and longer by his side, drawn to him. She was quickly becoming obsessed with an irrational need to be increasingly nearer to him, as though she was a compass and he was magnetic north.
At first she only sat by his side reading to him and telling him stories of her childhood, laying a fleeting touch on his hand or face, a lingering caress along his arm. She believed that part of a comatose patient's brain still registered physical touch and a soothing voice. It was essential that they not feel completely isolated in their non-functioning body by giving that part of them which was still conscious, something to focus on.
That is what she told herself, but deep down she knew her need to touch him stemmed from something far more primal within her.
The more she touched him, the more she craved him. Sponge baths became a daily occurrence, her guilt-free excuse to touch him and justify her illogical compulsion to caress every delectable bulge and crevice of him. Softly, slowly…thoroughly from head to toe, encompassing everything in between.
But still he lay motionless.
Raif listened to her approach with anticipatory excitement, the soft tapping of her strapless sandals on the timber floors announcing her approach. However, he smelled her coming long before. A delectable scent of honeysuckle always preceded her.
His dragon once again stirred.
The dragon inside him was the physical manifestation of his soul, an essential part of who he was. Man and beast were so intertwined that one could not function without the other, which is how he had found himself in his current dilemma.
Although Morgan's spell did not kill him, it did succeed in separating the man from his beast, trapping that primal part of him in a purgatory of her design, in a hex induced sleep that left the man conscious, fully aware of everything around him, but unable to respond.
At least, that had been the case until Kaitlyn.
Every day she came, and he looked forward to every minute. The nights were the hardest to bear, trapped inside his body with only the sound of his own breathing for company. Without Kaitlyn's constant presence and touch, his dragon fell more deeply back into its uneasy slumber.
There was no doubt in his mind that Kaitlyn wasn't just any female.
She was his Mate.
His dragon only responded to her. He only responded to her.
He remembered her clearly from their meeting at Brian Harlow's funeral a couple of months earlier. Even then he was mesmerised by her instantly. Her scent teased him, her beguiling dark eyes revealed her gentle nature, while her athletic body, curvy but strong had him awestruck. He was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. He'd wanted to touch her then, hold her, explore her body with more than just his imagination but duty had gotten in the way.
Kaitlyn approached the bed and placed the basin of water on the table beside it. Her hands began to shake as she wrung out the cloth, steam rising from it in the cool air.
And then came that urge again.
Over the weeks that strange urge had grown more and more intense, from merely feeling the need to touch him, to wanting to snuggle up next to him, to wanting to crawl inside his skin.
Kaitlyn drew in a sharp breath, desire curling stridently through her entire body and soul.
She was determined to keep her emotions under control. He was her patient, she was his nurse, she reminded herself sternly taking another deep breath to steady herself. Her eyes however kept straying to all that glorious muscle exposed above the sheet and lower to what was hidden below it. A flaccid bulge between his thighs was clearly outlined.
She was his nurse, she justified quickly. It was her job to take care of him and to do that she had to see every inch of him.
Alright, maybe if push came to shove she would admit she had indulged in more than mere professional peeks. Maybe she had ogled him once or twice, perhaps gawked. Occasionally drooled.
It was okay to look, just not touch, right?
Except when she was bathing him. He was the cleanest comatose patient on the planet.
But, suddenly that's all she wanted to do, run her hands all over his magnificent body, rub his scent all over hers, lick every inch of him from head to toe. Who needed a wash cloth when you had a tongue.
Her heart raced, her breathing became fast and shallow. Squeezing the excess water from the cloth her hand began shaking more fiercely. The need to touch him was overwhelming. Taking a deep breath Kaitlyn stilled herself before laying the cloth on his forehead, stroking it across his wide brow. The temptation was so strong she couldn't resist gliding her fingertips smoothly over his warm skin in the cloth's wake, tracing a finger over his brow, marvelling at his thick dark eyebrows, outlining their dark arches curiously. Her touch drifted over his well defined cheekbones and along his firm square chin.
Kaitlyn sponged his rugged face, his rough whiskers tickled her soft fingers. Her strokes with the cloth became bolder as she moved over his chest. He was all ridges and hollows, the thick bulk of his hard-used muscles beneath the flow of smooth skin.
Goosebumps appeared over his chest.
Kaitlyn paused, stunned by the occurrence. It was the first time his body had responded physically to anything. Reflexively, she touched the small bumps over his chest, brushing her fingers lightly over his small male nipples. They hardened under her touch.
She was torn. Did she run and find someone to share this milestone with, or did she continue her exploration and see if she can elicit any further response?
Logic told her to find his sister but her feet weren't moving,…but her hands were.
Pulling back the sheet, she once again ogled his magnificent body. His flaccid penis lay along his belly, larger than other men's she had seen, not that there had seen many. She was twenty one years old and had only had two boyfriends in that time. Her over protective grandfather had seen to that.
Carefully, Kaitlyn spread his legs apart a little further as she sponged his inner thighs. As her hand climbed higher, only centimetres from his crutch, she once again spread his thighs wider to reach the space between them, the sensitive strip behind his balls.
His cock began to swell.
Kaitlyn touched it tentatively with the tip of a finger to make sure it wasn't her imagination.
It swelled further before her eyes.
Kaitlyn stared, motionless, stunned excitement pulsing through her as he responded to her touch. And, it was her touch that was affecting him, she was certain of it.
Testing her theory, she skirted around the base of his thickening cock with her cloth, her fingers edging closer with every slow pass of her hand.
Raif thought he would lose his mind before she touched him.
Suddenly the cloth slipped from her grip, falling on the bed beside him but her fingers remained touching him tentatively, so light he thought for a moment he was imaging it. Slowly she began to stroke the base of his cock, skimming her nails through the short dark curls at its base.
It continued to grow as she watched, mesmerised at the feel of him, the silky smooth outer skin covering solid steel. She suspected he would be large, considering his overall body size, but he wasn't large…he was huge. She could feel the silky slide of her juices moisten the throbbing folds between her thighs. Her fingers continued to trace the length of the pulsing vein from its base to the flushed head which was now a deep shade of pink. It throbbed and twitched in her hand.
Somewhere in the recesses of her mind she knew she should not be touching him like this, but she felt helpless to stop. At some unknown point, her brain had detached from her body which now seemed to operate of its own accord.
The need to touch him was too strong to fight.
Raif inwardly groaned. With every touch she granted him, the more desperate he was to have it never end.
The beast within him continued to stir, closer to the surface than it had been for months.
More. He needed more. He needed her hands over all of him at once. He needed her full rosy lips wrapped around his cock, licking and sucking him into the moist depths of her hot little mouth.
Just thinking those erotic thoughts sent his arousal skyrocketing. His blood heated and burned in his veins. Silently he begged her to come nearer, to explore his body further, play with him, tease him, bring him the release he was desperate to find, preferably deep within her body.
As if his will were guiding her, Kaitlyn's fingers slipped beneath his balls, cupping them as she stroked the sensitive strip of flesh there, dragging them up, her nails grated lightly over his balls before rolling them slowly between her fingers.
His fingers twitched.
She didn't notice. Her eyes were locked onto the bead of moisture emerging at the tip of his cock.
Kaitlyn couldn't stop herself from running her finger over the smooth weeping head, through the bead begging for her attention. Smooth and slippery. Her mouth watered. What would it be like to taste it? Warm, salty?
Kaitlyn dipped her head, his musky scent filled her nose as her tongue flicked out to lick away that bead. Her previous need intensified tenfold. Where before she felt like she was losing her mind from obsessing over him, now she felt like she would lose her mind if she wasn't possessed by him, so strong was the need to get closer to him, to crawl inside his skin.
His fingers twitched again by his side, but still she didn't notice. She was completely lost in her exploration of his hard body as she took another swipe with her tongue over the head of his steely erection.
Her lips enclosed the tip, slowly, very slowly sliding down until the entire head was engulfed, wet heat sucking him deeper. Her lips tightened around him, stroking him with her tongue, lashing against it and stimulating nerve endings that sent his senses racing. She was pushing him to the brink of madness.
Raif's hands and toes curled in appreciation of her assertive attention as her tongue stroked the underside of his cock with slow, swirly licks, sucking on the mushroomed head, her mouth moving back and forth, forcing his cock in and out of the snug grip of her lips and hands with tender force.
His dragon was almost fully awake now, finally, and Raif's body was beginning to move.
Kaitlyn moaned with delight, oblivious to everything but feel of his warm cock as it pulsed and flexed in her grasp as she feasted on his spicy taste coating her tongue.
Nothing could possibly be this good.
And be legal.
A stab of reality struck her.
With more effort that it should have taken, Kaitlyn released him from her hungry mouth. This wasn't legal, she realised with a horror filled gasp. She had crossed the ethical and moral boundary. He was a forbidden temptation she shouldn't have touched. She was his nurse.
But she couldn't ignore that she was drawn to him in a way she hadn't believed possible.
His dragon fought to regain consciousness, lured back from the dark abyss by the maelstrom of sensation ravaging Raif's mind and body. Kaitlyn's touch, her moist mouth, hot breath and aroused scent acting as an anchor. Disoriented and barely lucid, it clawed its way back.
A growl tore from Raif's chest.
With lightening speed Raif grabbed Kaitlyn pulling her onto the bed, covering her with his much larger body. He simply relished the sight of her stretched across its sheets beneath him.
How many days, weeks had he tortured himself with this precise image?
This was far better than any fantasy.
Her dark hair spread about her with wild abandon, her pale face flushed with need.
Guilt, fear and overwhelming lustful hunger raged against one another within her.
Raif growled again, scenting the arousal that rolled off her in waves. She was even more beautiful than he remembered.
"You're awake. Oh, God. I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I shouldn't have done that. I'm really sorry," she croaked, her eyes wide with shock and fear. She mistook the hunger in his growl for anger.
But it was his eyes that made her forget how to breathe.
They were….astonishing. The reptilian slitted pupil only made his emerald eyes more spectacular.
"Why did you stop?" he rasped.
"What?" That voice. That gorgeously sinful voice. She wanted to weave it into a blanket and wear it wrapped around her naked body.
Dark, intoxicating need threaded through him. Dipping his head to her raven hair, the scent of honeysuckle teased his nose, the warm silk of her rosy lips as potent as the finest wine tempting him to taste them. Never before had he experienced a woman who gave him such sensory depth, made his whole body ravenous for her touch, her scent and her taste.
But before he could wrap her slender body in his arms and quench the lust that had raged through him for so long, Kaitlyn lifted her hands and pushed them against his chest, her face pale, eyes wide with shock.
"What's going on?" Her voice was thin as she tried to drag a breath into her hyperventilating lungs, her heart pounding hard enough to break a rib.
He nuzzled her neck. "I believe it is what people call,…chemistry."
He pulled her closer, although she doubted that the hardness jutting from his groin was chemistry. It was the primal call of biology.
Kaitlyn swallowed. Hard. She couldn't miss the pulsing hard-on currently pressing into her belly, the thick stalk trapped between their bodies making its presence known.
Gripping her hips, his lips curved into a slow, sensual smile that sent a shiver through her system, all the way to her toes and pooling in her belly. Kaitlyn moaned and wriggled beneath him, desperate to feel his heavy erection pressing as firmly between her moist folds as it was against her belly.
Lust, thick and hot swirled in the air around them. The scent of her sweet, female need was like an aphrodisiac, driving him crazy. On a groan, Raif's lips covered hers, his tongue pushing into her mouth to claim the velvety depths demandingly, unrelentingly, stroking and tangling with hers, sending tingles throughout her body. She moaned against him. A whimpering, needy sound that made his body flame. She tasted every bit as good as he imagined, as sweet as honey and just as intoxicating.
His body was burning from the inside out, his blood searing his veins.
Taking a chance and letting her rush of need guide her, she ran her hand down his heavily muscled arm to grasp his hand. Slowly she placed his hand on her leg, bringing it slowly up her body, placing it on her aching breast.
A growl rumbled in his chest as his hand cupped her soft breast more firmly. He rubbed his thumb over her nipple through her shirt, raising it to a hard peak.
When she felt him hesitate, she pulled her lips from his to look him in the eye. "Please, Raif. I need you," she whispered.
"Sweetheart, I don't think you know what you're asking. This won't be just sex. If I take you, it will be forever. I will make you mine," he warned, his voice hoarse from pent-up need and barely leashed impulses. "Do you understand what I'm telling you? There would be no turning back."
He'd felt her gentle touch for weeks, it had driven him crazy that his body refused respond, that he couldn't return her caress with the care she had shown him.
Her brow creased. Somewhere in her hazy mind she understood what he was telling her but she couldn't think straight from the desire tearing at her body. All she knew was one thing. She needed him more than she needed air to breathe. "I don't care what it means. Just touch me, please," she begged. She had never desired a man with such desperation but right now she was beyond caring. Kaitlyn felt helpless to deny what her body wanted. As though fate, destiny or some sort of mad karma had decreed that there would be no chance of avoiding this man.
His large body corded with rippling, tense muscle. He should stop before things got out of hand. She had no true understanding of the consequences, although he did. But he couldn't make his hands cease their caresses, couldn't stop the moan of delight as her beautiful brown eyes pleaded with him.
He could feel his dragon within him coming fully awake at her touch, her musky scent of desire dragging him from the abyss he had suffered for weeks.
Only she could make him whole again.
His hands slid to the hem of her shirt pulling it over her head in one quick tug. His hand then released the clasps of her bra and pulling it free, giving him free access to her full breasts. Her breasts were exquisite. High and round, with perfect delicate pink nipples that hardened further as he watched them. He was in heaven, her soft moans of pleasure urging him on. He loved what that sound did to his own excitement when he heard it and couldn't wait to taste the sweet buds, roll them between his teeth and massage then with his lips and tongue.
With every twist and tug of his fingers, he could feel her body buzzing with need. His body hummed in harmony with hers, his cock hardened painfully, pressing against the only remaining barrier between them, her yoga pants. He swallowed tightly as he tried to hold onto his control.
She wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her, so what was the problem?
The problem was that as a man, his conscience battled against taking her, making her his Mate without her full understanding of everything that entailed. But his beast wasn't inflicted with any such emotional constraint.
Mine! His dragon roared in frustration. The beast paced just beneath the surface, crying out to be free, to claim what was his.
Raif's body shuddered with the force of his dragon's demand. In all his unnaturally long life, his control had never been tested in such a manner. He could not remember a time when he had been so filled with conflicting desires and needs that his body nearly crumbled under the weight.
She stared up at him, her lips parted, her breathing rough and hard. Then she licked her lips. A slow, wet swipe of her tongue, almost brought him undone. Kaitlyn couldn't hold still beneath him, grinding her mound against the length of his hard cock and nipped at his chin with her perfect little teeth.
His will shattered. He went from restrained to dominating male in an instant.
In less than a heartbeat he had her fully naked beneath him, his eyes roving her full length, drinking in the sight of her soft creamy skin that covered her slim, athletic body, from the tips of her delicate toes all the way up, lingering on the newly revealed small patch of hair that glistened with moisture over her glorious mound.
"You're so perfect," he told her breathlessly, his smouldering gaze hooking hers. "I will ensure you know only pleasure, sweetheart," he promised. "Only the most incredible pleasure you could possibly imagine."
His gentle, possessive words murmured against her flesh, soothed and released her tense muscles that bunched with need.
Her whole body quivered as he once again lavished attention on her full breasts, the tips so tight they ached as he toyed first with one, then the other. Raif shifted his weight as he teased, giving him room to insert a hand between their bodies, his fingers in pursuit of the moist heat between her legs.
A finger probed her tight channel, sought out hidden nerve endings deep within, sliding effortlessly through the lava hot cream. She cried out, nearly screamed his name. "Oh, God, Raif!" Gently he began to stroke her from the inside out.
Kaitlyn melted into his hard frame as he pulled her closer, tighter against him. She strained and arched into him, wanting more, needing more. The desperate moan that escaped her lips almost undid him.
He kissed her with far more demand while he stroked and explored her body.
As his thumb rubbed over her sensitised clit, he added a second finger to her tight sheath, stretching her, caressing her. Kaitlyn groaned in pleasure as a third finger joined in the erotic invasion as Raif attentively prepared her for him. Her back arched as he applied pressure to that hidden internal bunch of nerves, her G spot.
"Oh, God. I need you inside me…now," she begged breaking the steamy kiss, lifting her hips higher, driving her aching slit closer to his torturously slow caresses. Her head was spinning from all the sensations overwhelming her. The only clear thought in her mind was the need to get closer to him, skin to skin still wasn't enough. She needed…more.
It should have frightened her, this illogical demand within her. He made her feel things she had never felt before, want things that she instinctively knew only he could give her.
She wasn't afraid. In fact, she was excited, as though she had waited her whole life for this moment. For him. An intimacy existed between them she had never known, with this near stranger who she had so diligently tended to for weeks.
He hardened further at her breathy plea, though he had not thought it possible. "With pleasure, sweetheart," he growled as he shifted his weight above her.
Raif grasped her thighs with strong, gentle hands and knelt between her legs, easing them apart further to accommodate his much larger body. Taking the length of his rigid cock in his palm, he pumped it slowly in his grip a couple of times, his fingers spreading the beaded moisture over the mushroomed head before pressing it against her core.
His erection felt enormous against her, so much so, Kaitlyn wondered if she would be able to take all of him inside her. There were no training wheels with this bicycle. But she wanted him with a desperation that defied reasoning.
She gasped as she felt the head of his cock breach her entrance and begin to stretch her wide. He was so big.
The first, sharp burn of her entrance blazed past pleasure, past pain.
A low throaty hiss escaped his lips as he thrust forward into her tight hot sheath with his thick girth. He stilled for a moment to give her time to adjust to his size, to the slight burning sensation of his dominant entry. "You're so beautiful," he whispered thickly as his hands tightened on her hips, his cock sliding in further by the slightest degree. "You make me hunger for you, Kaitlyn, as I've never hungered before. You have been driving me crazy for weeks." His voice was filled with a need she had never heard in anyone else's and was so rough it rumbled in his chest sending a deeper caress vibrating through her core. Kaitlyn shuddered. "Relax. Watch me, sweetheart. Don't close your eyes. Watch me as I take you, make you mine."
She was incapable of doing anything else. She was mesmerised by his reptilian emerald eyes, caught by the extreme emotions and power that filled his gaze, the grimace of sexual hunger that tightened his face and the gentleness and care in his movements to ease her discomfort. She knew in that moment that her entire life was about to change forever.
With short, slow strokes he worked her slick channel open, the thick length of his cock delving deeper insider her with every thrust. Kaitlyn groaned. It was so good. Her body was on fire as he continued to push forward, filling her with a pleasure/pain so intense it consumed her.
"More," she groaned, her head thrashing on the bed as she became lost to the sensations ravaging her mind, body and soul. "More, Raif. I…need…more," she panted.
His face flushed, his eyelids lowered, his dark lashes casting erotic shadows along his cheekbones. She heard a harsh male growl as he began to fill her. He was pushing deeper, stretching further with each stroke of his hard cock. How could he not? She was driving him crazy with need, and if that wasn't enough, his dragon was bucking at his restraint to mark her, to claim her as his Mate.
Kaitlyn moved beneath him, her hips thrusting rhythmically with his, taking him deeper, deeper, until every inner nerve was exposed to the caress of his hard length moving inside her. It was the most incredible rapture. It was ecstasy unlike anything she had could have ever imagined.
Raif gripped her legs, raising her hips higher to allow for extra penetration. He was big, he'd thought maybe too big for her,…but now…She was taking every inch of him.
"Sweet mercy," he cried. His exultation coincided with an abrupt relaxing of the muscles at her very depths, allowing the final few inches of his cock to slide home, his balls coming to rest against her backside, as his hard shaft flexed and throbbed with surging excitement.
Kaitlyn gasped as he filled her completely, her gaze shifting to where their bodies met. Her clit was swollen and ripe, fully revealed by the folds of flesh parted around his thick stalk penetrating her.
She was impaled, on fire, consumed by the pleasure streaking through her. Raif's body went rigid when she gripped his shoulders and thrust her hips higher against him.
"Don't stop. Please, don't stop," she pleaded, moving against him, attempting to gain that final sensation that would push her past the brink, over the edge into complete ecstasy.
A furious growl rumbled through his chest. He'd tried to take it slow and be gentle with her, he really had. But she undid him with her hot little body and eager pleas. "You may just regret your words," he growled, pulling his hips back to thrust them forward once again, his growl becoming a groan of pure ecstasy when her body once again stretched around him, accepting his full length, her answering groan told him everything he needed to hear.
Together, in unison, they slowly began to move, her hips rising to meet his every thrust, his hard, muscled pelvis lingering after every stroke, rotating against her cleft to heighten her pleasure.
It was too good. His dragon roared inside him, fighting for release. It's desperation to claim her rising with every pistoning thrust into her welcoming body, merged with his own until both man and beast were fully one again.
Raif picked up the pace, burying himself deep inside her, pulling back almost to the point of withdrawal only to thrust forward again and again, until the passion grew so intense between them he could no longer restrain his need. He began to plunge harder…faster…each stroke more urgent, more possessive than the last.
Mine, his dragon roared.
Kaitlyn wreathed beneath him. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders as she clung to him, drawing blood as she scored his flesh, driving him into a frenzy.
He needed more.
He would always need more, he knew.
She was his Mate.
Raif was lost to his Siren's mating call, eagerly plunging over the precipice of no return.
Raif roared as his dragon took control. His emerald green eyes glowed, his face contorted momentarily, elongating as his dragon pushed to the surface, its snout filled with razor sharp teeth bit down into the tender flesh between her shoulder and neck. Marking her.
Claiming her as his for all time.
Kaitlyn barely felt the sharp sting in her shoulder so lost was she to all the overwhelming sensations whipping through her body, like electricity gone wild, zapping through her blood, through every nerve ending, convulsing in her womb as it rippled around Raif's pistoning cock. She pushed her hips higher, her inner muscles working his hard shaft with possessive need. A kaleidoscope of colour and light danced in her vision, brilliant fire bursts of carnal bliss blasted into her as her orgasm detonated.
The earth moved. Mountains shuddered…or did he? He wasn't sure which. All he knew was the violent release quaking through his body as her tight channel milked him, hot spurts of his seed filling the depths of her womb.
His dragon purred with satisfaction, as did the man.
Mine.
Raif collapsed over her, his strong powerful body shaking from his release, his breathing laboured and ragged but he did not pull out of her body. He stilled.
He stared intently into Kaitlyn's flushed face, studying her, assessing her for any injury. He had been rough, he knew, far more than he had ever wanted to be but he'd felt helpless to fight his nature, his need and his dragon's, to claim her as his Mate. Leaning in closer, cautiously, he took in a deep lungful of her scent.
It was…..
He sighed with relief.
It was there. His scent was now a part of her. He was now a part of her. She had accepted him as her Mate.
"Are you okay?" His watchful eyes lowered at half mast and mussed hair made him look sexy as hell.
"Never better. And you?" she panted, lifting her shaking hand to touch his bristled face, his short whiskers adding to his roughish charm, before letting it fall back bonelessly beside her, utterly exhausted and sated,…and she felt something else….
He still filled her, not just with his body but with his soul. That niggling feeling she'd felt building for weeks, of needing to get closer to him, of never being close enough. She felt it now, the bond between them, bright and vibrant and intensely intimate.
Raif looked around the spacious bedroom. Alaric and his family had been more than generous to him over the past two months he had stayed here, but this wasn't his home. He had a kingdom to run and he couldn't do that from this bed, no matter how much he wanted to stay.
Kaitlyn's brow furrowed, the corners of her mouth dipped in a pout of understanding. She could feel the cogs in his mind ticking over, could almost hear them. "Now that you're awake, you're leaving aren't you?" she asked, quickly blinking away the tears that began to form.
"Yes," he answered in a whisper, his fingers gently teasing the knots from her silky dark hair as he nuzzled his nose against her cheek. Kaitlyn bit her lower lip and held her breath to quench the need to cry. "I've stayed here long enough, it's time to go home."
"I know." Barely a squeak of sound passed her lips, her throat closing over, her lungs burning from lack of oxygen as she fought to hold back a sob. If she took a breath now she'd lose her battle and break down in a flood of tears. She'd just found the man of her dreams and now she was also about to lose him. Wyvern weren't allowed to live on Earth, they belonged in Fey.
Raif shifted his hands to cup her cheeks, holding her face to face with him until she raised her moistened eyes to meet his. It almost broke his heart to see the pain behind them. "Sweetheart, I think you misunderstand. It's time for me to go home, but I'm not leaving without my Mate. Without you."
Kaitlyn stared for a moment, stunned by the sincerity in his words.
Her heart skipped a beat.
There was a long silence as Raif waited for her response. She could physically feel the weight of his searching gaze. His fate was already sealed. He had mated with her, marked her. For him there would never be another female, but that didn't mean that she couldn't reject him regardless of the bonding that had occurred.
They were from different worlds.
"This is crazy, we barely even know each other."
Raif chuckled. "True love defies logic. That's it's signature trait, didn't you know?" he replied.
That was true, she admitted to herself.
Raif remained still as he watched her facial expressions change as she processed his proposal.
There were no rules forbidding Druids from entering Fey, her own ancestors had done it. The question was, could she leave everything behind and go to Fey with him? Leave her job…which she was unsure whether she still had after an eight week leave of absence. Could she leave her sisters, particularly her twin, Paige? They've been inseparable since birth, where one went, the other always followed….Maybe they could visit her, or she could visit them. She had a life here…living in a rundown apartment in a sleazy part of London. She had friends….who she couldn't tell who she really was or what she did in her spare time. She had a cat…who could maybe come with her to Fey?
The ultimate question was, could she let this incredible man leave without her?
Her chest constricted once again. The thought sent a stab of pain straight to her heart.
No. No, he couldn't.
"Okay," she grinned.
Raif's eyes burned with gratitude and he wished he could look away from her long enough to relieve his overwhelming emotion. But he could not, did not. Instead he simply let if flow over him, mingling and intensifying his pulsing need for her.
She had given him the greatest gift ever. She had awakened the dragon with him, reuniting them once again. But she gave him something else far more precious, the gift of peace with the touch of her complimentary soul.
He had found his Mate.