Titanium (Rent-A-Dragon Book 3) Read online

  And the quiet, urgent promise in his kiss, that he would be there forever if she let him.

  As he pulled back from her lips and dipped to her neck, placing searing kisses there, she moaned. “Let’s go to my room,” she said when she got her breath back, and he nodded and hefted her up in his arms.

  She was getting used to being carried. She’d always been small, despite being curvy, and she’d thought she’d hate it when someone picked her up. That it would be a loss of control.

  But with Titus, she felt safe, supported. Protected, though it was still terrifying to admit it.

  She still remembered the deliciously naughty things he’d done to her the first time. Would this be any different?

  He walked into the bedroom, and she could already tell the atmosphere was different between them.

  As he sat her on the bed, his expression was almost reverent. There was the carefulness that was always in his eyes, as if he were holding back, but there was also more.

  Burning heat. Want. Need. When she looked in his eyes, she could swear she saw a desperate need to possess her, to make her his.

  Was she only imagining it? As he came over her on the bed, trapping her beneath his huge, muscular body, she didn’t think so. Every move he made seemed designed to bind her to him. He took care of her home, took care of her pleasure, won over her dog, and protected her as far as she let him.

  Had she really found a start to her happy ending?

  He removed her clothes as he kissed her neck and her shoulder, pulling her shirt over her head, then unhooking her bra and resuming kissing as quickly as possible. One hard, large hand played with the loop of her flannel pajama pants, and then he yanked those away as well, leaving her only in panties. The next second, he freed her from those.

  She gasped as he rose on his powerful hands, looking down at her totally naked body. She felt she could blush from head to toe. She started to cover her body, feeling embarrassed, but he grabbed both hands and pinned them at her sides, looking his fill.

  She watched his face, tense, focused, and stared at his braid. “Can you let your hair down?” she asked.

  He cocked his head, looking puzzled by the request, but then reached back and grabbed the tie that held it, pulling it out and letting the waves unravel down his back.

  It was more gorgeous than she’d even imagined, and she caught her breath at the sight of it. She’d never pictured herself with a man with hair longer than hers, but somehow, it just made him that much more unique and impressive. It helped that he had the body to carry it off, masculine and sculpted so he looked more gladiator than high-fashion model.

  “You like it?” he asked nervously.

  He was always so confident except when it came to her. Maybe she needed to give him more validation. Yes, that was probably fair. She reached up and put a hand in his hair, marveling at how silky it was. “I love it.” Her hand trailed down to his crotch, cupping the bulge there and making him jump. His icy eyes pinned on hers. “I love all of it.”

  His eyes seemed to flare with blue flame, and he dove over her, kissing her neck, her breasts, trailing down her stomach to tease the inside of her belly button with his tongue roughly, making her arch and jerk.

  Before she knew it, he was between her legs again, swiping gently at her center, which was already aching and wet for him.

  Her hand still felt seared by the hard heat she’d felt playfully, and now she desperately wanted it inside her. She wanted to be one with him. Didn’t care if it made her vulnerable. Didn’t care if it meant they were serious after.

  She was ready to go all in with Titus.

  She fumbled with his shirt, pulling at it as he sucked at her center, bringing her closer to orgasm in a way that seemed way too easy.

  Though she fought, she felt herself go over the edge with one expert swipe of his tongue, and as pleasure swept through her, he came up to catch her in his arms, holding her against his chest as she writhed against him, feeling totally suspended, totally overwhelmed.

  When he laid her back against the bed and looked ready to start again, she shook her head. She reached up, grabbed a section of his hair, wrapped it around her fist, pulling him closer, and said into his ear, “I want you inside me. Now.”

  He let out a growl of approval, and she released his hair so he could get off the bed and disrobe. She watched, hungry for every bit of skin he revealed, marveling at each bit of tanned smoothness, each quickly flexing muscle bared to her gaze.

  When he was standing in front of her, totally naked, every bit of his muscular warrior’s body before her, his gorgeous hair trailing over his shoulders wildly, she had to hold her breath for just a second to take him in.

  Could that all really be hers if she said yes to him? Why did she get the feeling that was the case?

  Before she could think about it much, he took a step forward, and she put out both arms, gesturing for him to get back on the bed before she went crazy with want.

  This time, he got on the bed between her legs, spreading them in front of him. She looked up at him, thinking how impossibly huge he was, so broad in the shoulders. She looked lower and wondered how that… thing was going to fit inside her. Beautiful though it was, it seemed impossible.

  Keeping eye contact, she felt him slip a finger inside her, gently rubbing. He hit a sensitive spot, and she arched, crying out, and a small smile lit his handsome face.

  She relaxed, and he slid another finger in, then another, and she started to feel things would be fine. As long as she got him inside her. If this felt so good, how good would his member feel?

  She wriggled her hips, working down a bit on the bed to get closer, and he let out a laugh as he pinned her legs, keeping her knees spread.

  “I’m going to be careful, go slow. Okay, princess?”

  “I’m nobody’s princess,” she said, embarrassed.

  “You can be whatever you want as long as you let me worship you.”

  She felt like he wanted to add, “For the rest of my life,” but didn’t. She didn’t know why she felt like that. It was just a wavelength she felt they were on sometimes when she tuned into it.

  But was it just wishful thinking, her artistic imagination at work?

  He slowly pushed into her, and as he stretched her entrance, she tensed up instantly, holding her breath.

  “Relax,” he said. “I’ll stop anytime you want me to.”

  Looking up into his calm, familiar eyes made her calm again, and she was able to experience pure pleasure as he slid the rest of the way in.

  When he was fully seated inside her, she looked up at him with a sense of wonder. Nothing had ever felt so right or so incredible. It was more than just sex. It was something… cosmic. Out of this world. And he hadn’t even started moving yet.

  Then he did, and it felt like the world tilted on its axis. She gasped as he pulled out and then thrust in again, fitting perfectly in her wet heat, filling her with pressure and pleasure. He did it again, and she bit back a scream, feeling as if every thrust were pushing her hard toward the edge of forever.

  Or a kind of pleasure that seemed it would go on that long.

  He continued to thrust, and she moved her hips to eagerly meet him, thinking all the while of how good he’d been to her, how he’d showed her love without ever showing pressure. How he’d kept it all inside only to bring it out at this moment, when he could show her wholly how he felt.

  With one final stroke inside her, she felt herself go over the edge, hard, and dug her nails into his shoulders, clutching her to him and wrapping her legs around him, locking them so he couldn’t move away from her.

  That seemed to be too much for him, and she felt him jerk in her arms and had to pull back, even in the midst of her release, to get a look at her powerful Viking as he went over the edge with her.

  It was the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen, and as she grabbed him again and another wave overcame her, she knew one thing for certain.

  This was
n’t just sex anymore. It wasn’t a one-night stand or even a casual relationship.

  She was one hundred, one thousand, percent in love with this man.

  In love with Titus.

  She hoped he could feel it—in her hands as he held him, in her breaths as she slowly came down from her high. In the way she locked him against her.

  She finally had to fall back on the mattress, letting go of him as the last of her strength left her, and she sighed in pleasure at what she’d just experienced with him.

  His blue eyes glowed and his smile was warm, and he fell over her, supporting himself on his hands but keeping his body close to hers. Caging her in but only in the best way. She could leave at any time she wanted, and in that way, she still felt free.

  “Thank you, Titus,” she said.

  “No, thank you, beautiful,” he replied, kissing her forehead and pulling out of her gently.

  He brought a towel in and gently cleaned up before curling up behind her, holding her against his big, warm body.

  Somehow, though it was midafternoon and she’d just had sex with her contractor, everything in the world just felt right.

  So just for a little while, in his arms, she allowed herself to fall asleep.

  10

  Titus woke from his nap with Bree to a sound from his phone. A text. He picked it up and unlocked the screen, looking down to see who had the unmitigated audacity to disturb him when he was with his mate.

  It was Aegis.

  I’m outside. We need to talk. Come alone.

  Titus looked down wistfully at Bree’s sleeping form, so soft against him, her beautiful face peaceful in repose, her strawberry-blond hair splayed all over the pillow, falling loose from her hair tie.

  He leaned forward, kissed her forehead, and then gently removed himself from the bed so he could go talk to Aegis.

  He put on new clothes, checked his hair in the mirror, and quickly braided it, and then strode outside, shutting the door behind him.

  True to his word, Aegis was standing in the front yard, looking up at the house with narrowed green eyes.

  “About time you came out,” he said quietly, walking forward. “Man, this place still is a dump. What have you been doing here?”

  “Plenty of things,” Titus retorted. “Keeping the platinum dragon off of my mate for one.”

  Aegis’s cocked a blond eyebrow. “Oh? Is she your mate, then?”

  “No,” Titus said, touching the thin chain he wore around his neck, made of solid titanium. “She isn’t ready for that yet.”

  Aegis sighed and walked up the porch to sit on her swing there. “Is she around now?”

  “No,” Titus said. “She’s upstairs asleep.”

  “Good,” Aegis said. “Because the reason I’m here is that Opal is worried about you. She doesn’t often have premonitions or feelings about what will happen, but she had a bad one about you and Bree. About what will happen if you don’t tell her the truth soon.”

  “Oh?” Titus asked. “What do you mean?”

  Aegis rocked on the swing as Titus leaned on the railing, facing him. “I mean that the other dragons were perhaps a little too quick to tell their mates the truth about who they were and what they wanted, but you’re going far too slow. I understand your mate has trauma—”

  “How do you know that?” Titus asked.

  “She moved here, didn’t she?” Aegis asked. “No one moves to a dump like this in the middle of nowhere unless they are trying to escape something.”

  “She doesn’t want to be trapped or tied down,” Titus said.

  “But you wouldn’t do that,” Aegis said.

  “She doesn’t know that.”

  Aegis crossed one leg delicately over the other. “Look. There comes a point where, as a good person, you need to be confident in that and tell someone else that you’re good, knowing it’s true. It doesn’t matter if she believes it, because it’s true.”

  “That won’t matter if she runs from me.”

  “Don’t let her,” Aegis said. “You once said if human women ran, you could chase them. That applies now.”

  “But if I just wait, she’ll be ready for me. Some day.”

  Aegis leaned forward, resting his head on his palm. “And you’re willing to take a chance on that, hm? Willing to risk something happening while you wait?” He stood, brushing off the seat of his designer pants. He was wearing khaki chinos with a light-green polo. “Look, Titus, I can’t control you. But you really should tell her the truth. Other men may have been lying or had other motives, but if you persist, then I believe she will believe you.”

  Titus put a hand through his hair, pulling some loose from his braid. It reminded him of earlier that day when he’d been so free with her. “I can’t. Look, I know what you’re saying about something happening in the future, but I believe I make my own future, and I’m not going to ruin it by spoiling things with her.”

  Aegis’s expression tightened slightly. “I had a feeling that was the case. I told Opal you wouldn’t listen, but she told me I had to try.”

  He walked down the front steps, and Titus followed him. “I really appreciate you coming out here.”

  “Think nothing of it,” Aegis said, waving a hand dismissively. “And let us know if you need anything.”

  “I will,” Titus said, shoving his hands in his pockets. He watched as Aegis walked back down the drive toward the car and exhaled in frustration. “Aegis, wait.”

  Aegis rolled his eyes and turned around to walk back, joining Titus in front of the house again. “Yes?”

  “What am I even supposed to say? That this whole thing with her house was just a big scam to get close to her and that I’m just like every other jerk who has tried to own her? That I’m also not who she thinks I am at all?”

  He jumped as he heard a clatter behind them and whipped around to see Bree quickly kneeling to pick up muffins that had fallen with a tray she had dropped.

  Oh hell, how much had she just heard?

  I imagine she heard everything. That was Aegis speaking into his head.

  Shit.

  Well, I guess I should be going, then. Opal will be glad it’s all out in the open I suppose.

  You just ruined everything, Titus retorted.

  I don’t think so, Aegis answered.

  When Bree had finished putting the muffins back on the tray, she stood shakily, and Titus jogged over to help her, but she lightly pushed his hand away.

  There were tears glistening in her eyes as she avoided his gaze and walked toward Aegis.

  “Sorry,” she said, trying to act normal. “I meant to bring these out for you, to thank you for sending Titus over to do such a good job, but I’m clumsy and I tripped and dropped them.”

  Aegis took one off the tray and studied it. “No harm done.”

  “Don’t eat that,” she said, trying to take it back from him. “It’s dirty.”

  “It’s fine,” he said.

  She turned to Titus, looking stricken. “Is it true? Did you trick me?”

  “I didn’t want to. I—”

  “So he didn’t come here because of you?” she asked Aegis. “Or to get a review for the company?”

  Aegis slowly shook his head, and Titus wanted to strangle him. I’m sorry, Titus. The truth will set you free.

  Bree was shaking now, probably with rage, and Titus wanted to run to her. But he got the feeling he was the last person she wanted to see. She threw the tray of muffins aside, and they tumbled somewhat comically over the grass. “I can’t believe you. I was trusting you.”

  “Wait,” he said as she tried to run past him and into the house.

  “I don’t need another liar,” she said, jerking out of his reach. “So it was all just a way to get in my pants?”

  “No,” he said. “So much more. I don’t want to just be in your pants. I want to be with you.”

  “That’s worse,” she said. “You had ulterior motives all along, and you just hid them from me.”


  He just gaped at her. What was he supposed to do? Tell her, “Actually, I’m a dragon, and I want you forever. And you were destined to be mine,” right when she had thanked him for being patient and allowing her time?

  Would there ever have been a right time to tell her?

  He wasn’t sure, now that he thought about it.

  But he knew that he loved her and he’d never wanted to deceive her, and he just needed time to explain.

  “Get off my property,” she said, sounding devastated.

  “But we need to talk, and—”

  “So you can lie to me? No,” she said, wiping a tear away. “Get off my property. You’ve brought all my bad memories back, and I need you to be gone now.”

  That was the thing that hurt most. All he’d wanted was to be the man who broke the pattern, who took away all the other pain. Instead, he’d added to it.

  As she ran past him and into her house, slamming the front door behind her and sliding the deadbolt into place, he looked helplessly at Aegis.

  Aegis walked casually over to him, holding the muffin up in one hand. “See this?”

  “Yes,” Titus said.

  Aegis raised it to his lips and, surprisingly, took a bite of it. He chewed thoughtfully and then handed it to Titus. “People think things are ruined far too easily. Like this bread thing, which would have been thrown in the garbage but is still perfectly edible. Delicious even.”

  Titus nodded slowly, catching on. “So you’re saying things between me and Bree aren’t broken.”

  “Your relationship took a tumble,” Aegis said. “Pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Fix this.”

  “Okay,” Titus said.

  “She’s your mate,” Aegis said. “You do whatever it takes.” Then he tossed the dirty muffin to the side, spitting the bite out. “Can’t believe you made me do that to make a point.”

  Titus burst out laughing, then stopped as he remembered the seriousness of the moment. But Aegis was right and had made a perfect point.