Onyx Dragon (Awakened Dragons Book 1) Read online

  She grinned. “I’m glad.”

  It was odd that just snuggling him had the power to make her more and more aroused. The movie they were watching was a chick flick, a tame one, and the kitten was right there being a perfect gentleman.

  But the woman in her was stirring, wanting something she too often went without.

  This man might be odd and mysterious and surprising her with every passing hour.

  But she couldn’t help thinking about that incredible kiss in the salon. How it had felt when he’d rescued her. His huge presence. How good he could be in the world if he wanted to.

  And how he made her melt when he touched her.

  If she didn’t know better, she’d say there really was magic happening between them.

  “Zach.” She leaned in to whisper in his ear when her body could take no more of waiting for him.

  “Yes?” he asked, somewhat absentminded.

  “Do you think Bo is ready for a nap in his room?”

  “No,” Zach said. “I’m enjoying him.”

  She moved her hand over his chest, gently squeezing one pec in a way that got his attention. “What about now?”

  He stood abruptly, Bo in his hands, and walked with him to the back hall and the spare bedroom where they’d set up his food, litter box, and bed.

  Then he strode back out empty handed.

  He was dressed in just a tee and jeans, his hair again loose and around his face, dark and shiny. His eyes glittered as he folded his arms and leaned against the doorway. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. She’d never been more sure of anything in her life.

  “Once I start, I’m not going to want to stop,” he said, pacing closer.

  “Good,” she said, reaching up for him. Whether she was under his spell or just enamored after a perfect day with him, it didn’t matter.

  She was going to get to know her dragon more intimately, right freaking now.

  9

  At this point, Zach didn’t need to read thoughts to know what was on Erin’s mind.

  It was the same thing on his, too.

  She lay back on the sofa as her soft hands wrapped around his shoulders, her warm touch heating him wherever it went as he came over her, surrounding her on all sides.

  The lights were dimmed, with the soft-blue glare of the paused TV screen casting its light on her beautiful face. A face he’d come to know like the back of his own hand, yet he could still watch for a million days to come.

  Without hesitation, his inhibitions quickly crumbling, Zach sealed his lips over Erin’s in a searing kiss as hot as dragon fire. She moaned lightly against his lips as he held her, one hand cupping her cheek while he used the other to prop himself up on the yielding, well-worn couch.

  Kissing her was like gathering treasure, only stronger. The second you have it, you’re left wanting more, needing more.

  He deepened his lips into hers, their mouths joining so close he couldn’t tell where his own started and hers ended, passion growing fast like a bonfire more with each passing second. Then she opened her mouth willingly, inviting, and he delved inside, caressing with slow, languorous strokes. With each movement, she pressed her soft body against his, making him harder as his mind raced with thoughts of what he would do to her next.

  One thing at a time, he said calmingly to the dragon surging beneath him, pent up, wanting to claim Erin since the day he first laid eyes on her yet needing to weigh wisdom and her timeline with his own burning desire.

  Zach moved from her mouth to her delectable earlobe, playing with the soft skin there with his tongue and then biting gently with his teeth, testing her own limits and seeing how close she liked to ride the line between pleasure so good it feels like pain.

  With each touch, each nip, she reacted to him in different ways. The writhing of her hips. The soft catch of her breath as she gasped in delight. The motion of her hands along his shoulders, his back as her fingers roved and then clenched ever so slightly as pleasure moved through her at his behest.

  “You’re relentless,” Erin said, a light moan punctuating the end of her sentence as he kissed the sensitive skin at the base of her neck.

  “Of course, because I’m a dragon,” he said, kissing her again, then coursing lower to her décolletage, “and a dragon never tires of seeking treasure.”

  Normally, they would have shared a laugh over the same words in a different situation. But his lips moving toward the rising swells of her breasts kept him very much in the moment and kept her very much enraptured.

  Just the way he liked to do things.

  His hands came beneath her shirt, feeling up along her perfect, soft body until they reached her breasts. But instead of indulgent, voluptuous flesh, he felt a bodice-like contraption standing between him and her pleasure.

  That would not do.

  Sparing no time, his hands searched for the mechanism to undo the brassiere and, upon finding it, quickly undid it. Then in one quick motion, he removed her shirt and the breast prison with it, revealing her entire upper body to him.

  For a moment, he just gazed at her beauty, all curves and softness as pleasing to the eye as it was to the touch.

  “Is something wrong?” Erin asked, a slight flush on her cheeks.

  “Not at all. In fact, something is very right. Perfect even,” he said, lowering his mouth over one impeccable nipple. “You, to be exact,” he said fervently, then ended with one long kiss on her appreciative breast.

  She moaned more loudly than before, her back arching and her hips brushing his painfully hard member, nearly sending him into a frenzy.

  But first things first.

  His hands immediately found her generous breasts, so soft and delicious and almost too much for even his incredibly large palms. For a long moment, he kneaded them, caressing and squeezing and kissing and savoring every response he elicited from her as he did.

  Her nipples responded to his touch, forming small, hardened tips that he teased with his tongue, causing Erin to writhe and clutch the couch pillows with her wandering hands. Then he bit down softly, pressing one tip between his teeth and his lip, then the other after it, making her mewl with pleasure.

  But even though he could do this all day, perhaps even all week, he was well aware of the fact that his mate wanted release, too. Needed it.

  And he was going to give it.

  There was nothing like this.

  If someone had walked up to Erin on the street and said, “Hey, you’re going to meet a guy that says he’s a dragon who’s going to be protective and hot as hell and who’s going to want to follow you around everywhere you go. Oh, and by the way, he’s also unbelievably amazing in bed,” she’d have thought they were crazy.

  But it was somehow true.

  He was so deft, so wholly directed to her pleasure, he was like a homing missile, going everywhere and anywhere that ignited a fire inside, a rising wave of desire that built and built so high she had no idea how far she could go until it came crashing down.

  Zach’s mouth continued to cover her breast, suckling as she tried to find something, anything she could hold on to that would stave off her body’s incredibly strong response to his touch. But it was no use. No sensation could hold her back as he ravished her with indescribable pleasure.

  Just as she felt she could handle no more, his hands were at the zipper of her jeans, answering the wordless desire of her body.

  Yes, please. Anything you want, as long as it’s you, she thought, her body almost quivering with anticipation as he slid off her jeans and panties quickly.

  But instead of pulling off his own clothes, he looked down at her deviously, his dark, fathomless eyes smiling at her as if recognizing the desires of her heart, saying in response, Not quite yet, darling.

  Instead, he moved lower on the couch, spreading her legs and lowering his head to the apex of her thighs as strands of his raven hair fell over his face rakishly.

  There was something about seeing a six-and-a-half-fo
ot, broad-shouldered, ridiculously muscled, sexy, dark, handsome man—or dragon or whatever he was—positioned over you that made your heart stop.

  And then his tongue ran directly over her clit.

  All at once, her entire body froze, the pleasure from his touch pent up and exploding inside her all at once. The feeling was so strong, so overpowering that she gripped onto the closest thing she could hold.

  For what felt like forever, pleasure pulsed through her over and over, with even the lightest of his kisses from earlier coming back out of her with tenfold strength. Even as it finally waned, she was left in a haze of release and happiness and want.

  When she looked down at Zach, though, it was only then she realized she’d been holding on to his thick, dark locks as if her life depended on it. His gaze was locked on her, watching her every movement with rapt attention.

  “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t pull too hard,” she said, feeling so relaxed and amazing that she hadn’t been thinking in the moment.

  In response, Zach licked his lips slowly, eagerly, then spoke in a dark, husky tone unlike anything she’d heard before.

  “So long as you’re coming, you can hold on to me however you like, Erin.”

  In that moment, she could swear she saw his eyes glisten as his irises became thin slits, glimmering and diamond-like yet still dark as the midnight sky.

  Then, in a flash, it was gone, and he ardently moved back to her center, his tongue finding her before she had any time to process anything but the torrid pleasure engulfing her entire being.

  He was like a surgeon with his tongue, making tiny strokes with the very tip with such incredible deftness it defied reason. Then he would do small circles around her wanting nub, pleasuring her yet teasing her at the same time, then following up with a long, purposeful lick directly over her center.

  And as he did, his hands were not left idle either. As she closed her eyes, she could feel the dual sensations of his touch on her breasts as his thumbs pressed into her nipples and his hands squeezed her breasts mixing with the shocking pleasure of his tongue on her clit. It was too overwhelming for words, too strong for human language to convey.

  She didn’t know how many times she came while his mouth was there. She came so hard, so fast that she could feel orgasms layering on top of each other, his tongue kicking off another release from inside her while she was still smack dab in the middle of coming. He was as gentle as he was ravenous, as controlled as he was unleashed, unyielding in his quest to pleasure her more than she had ever been pleasured before in her entire life.

  As she finally relaxed from what either could have been her fifth or five-hundredth orgasm—it didn’t really matter how many at this point—Zach gave her respite from the torrent of his lovemaking.

  She felt so wonderful, both exhausted and relaxed at the same time. Yet she still felt a powerful need deep inside her that she hadn’t known in a long time, perhaps ever. An insatiable want that could only be filled in one way.

  “I think we should move on to the main course,” she said, trying to find her breath.

  Zach paused for a moment, watching her, appraising to make sure it was what she wanted.

  Hell yes, it was.

  “For that, I think my mate deserves a proper bed,” he said, lifting her off the couch, making her feel light as a feather perhaps for the first time in her life, and taking her directly to her bedroom. When he got there, he closed the door behind him and put her on the mattress, surveying her like a hungry predator would its prey.

  But based on the way his jeans strained at the size of his cock, she wasn’t the only one in need.

  He pulled off his shirt, giving her a view of the most perfect male body in the world, complete with bulging pecs, a chiseled row of abs and defined Ken doll lines, and thickly muscled shoulders and biceps. But it was still his face that captivated her the most. His high, refined cheekbones and strong, straight jawline. The way he always arched his eyebrow slightly suspiciously or his dark eyes the color of water at night.

  She watched with rapt attention as he stripped off his pants, showing thickly muscled thighs and impressive hips and an even more impressive member.

  Before she forgot, Erin quickly reached into the bottom drawer of her nightstand and dug around until she finally found a small foil packet that had been there for who knew how long, tore it open, and handed the contents to Zach.

  “What’s this? A sheath of some sort?” he asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

  “You could call it that. It’s for protection,” she said, hoping to not stall what her body was desperately wanting any longer.

  “From what? Of course I’ll protect you,” he said, puzzled.

  “It’s just something people do as a safety measure,” she explained, not wanting to go into detail at this time.

  Thankfully, Zach seemed to get it, and without hesitation, he started to put it on.

  “If it’s what you want, then it’s what I want,” he said as he unrolled the condom, stretching it to its limit. “But it’s certainly a poor fit.”

  Erin would have laughed at the sight of the too-small condom barely containing his member had it not been so hot, so visually overwhelming to see Zach naked like this, all sex and strength and control, just for her.

  And as he got onto the bed, positioning himself over her, she could feel the heat of his body, his nearness, so strong she felt she could melt. She could see each of his muscles bulging as he held himself over her, could feel his tip at her entrance, teasing her with its sheer size and hardness.

  His eyes were intense, focused on her as they had been all night, his gaze as wild as it was caring, gentle as it was dominant.

  And then Zach came into her, and everything slipped away into unfathomable pleasure.

  Oh, this was going to be good.

  Zach’s mind went entirely blank as he slid into Erin slowly, carefully making sure her body could accommodate him but entirely overcome with the sensation of it all.

  To Zach’s recollection, sex had never been like this before.

  And they had barely just started.

  It hadn’t hurt that he could hear her thoughts. Even though he tried very hard to not eavesdrop, the desires of her body still called out to him as clear as spoken words.

  And up until this moment, all he could hear was, Want. Need.

  He intended to give her everything she wanted and needed.

  Zach waited a moment, giving their bodies time to acclimate to being one, his fit inside her just barely right and getting better by the second as she relaxed onto him. Then, once he was satisfied she was fully ready, he pulled out and thrust into her fully.

  Erin moaned in pleasure and excitement, her hands grasping the sheets around her. Even with the ill-fitted sheath he wore, it still felt like wildfire to be inside her, intense and amazing and pleasing.

  He didn’t wait this time, instead stroking into her at a slow rhythm, letting both of them experience the wet friction that shocked like lightning as he slid in, then out, then back in again. The deeper he went, the more overwhelmed Erin appeared to be, her eyes rolling back and her back arching as he pushed their hips together.

  But it was clear both of them were near their limits. And as he gradually thrust faster and faster, he could feel a fire being stoked deep within him that blazed as an unquenchable lust for her, his mate. And whether or not they were mated just yet, he wanted to hear her scream his name, needed to feel her come with him inside, the two of them together.

  He hastened his pace, moving more quickly with each second, pushing into her and immediately coming out, nothing but white-hot pleasure coursing between them as they joined and separated. And as he did, she pushed her hips in to meet him, her breathing ragged as they rushed toward the same inexpressible goal together.

  Then he could feel her body at the precipice, and he reached a hand between them, flicking her center in the hopes of further intensifying her orgasm.

  “Zach. Oh, Zach,”
she cried out, her nails digging into his back and her body clenching around him tighter, squeezing him far past his incredible control as he thrust one last time, all the way until hip met hip and skin met skin.

  Then she came, releasing everything they had built together, as his own release was forced from him. He jerked inside her and tried to focus on seeing Erin come as darkness clouded his vision from the intensity of it all.

  Together they rode out the collective buildup of all the pleasure they had experienced, all the unanswered feelings that had existed between them and tension that had been there since the moment they first met. Erin called out his name again and again, music to his ears, as Zach held her close and soaked in the intense realness of it all. The feeling of being more alive than he’d ever felt before and not wanting to let it go, ever.

  Even as they finished, their breathing quickened and slowly coming back to normal, Zach held her, shocked at the humanness of making love to one’s mate.

  Carefully, he pulled out and went to the bathroom, discarding the sheath and then coming back to the bed and drawing the covers over them. She snuggled against him, and he eagerly wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as if to shield her from everything bad in the world, wanting her to feel safe forever in his arms.

  She quickly drifted off, and for a moment, he ruminated as his body relaxed.

  Her pleasure was his new treasure. The brightest and purest of all things desirable in this world. The one thing he would forever seek yet never tire of finding, of giving her in every way possible.

  And as sleep quickly overcame him, it was the final thought that passed through his mind.

  10

  The next day at work, Zach sat at the counter, impatiently tapping his fingers and looking out the window.

  How did humans come to the same job every day?

  He missed Bo and wished he were at home alone with Erin, exploring all the delightful things they could do to each other’s bodies. When they’d made love, there had been no human, no dragon, simply two beings entwining in one powerful embrace.