Demand of the Dragon (4 page)

“The chest is in, ah, Thorne Castle.”
Don’t
think
about
his
ass
, she silently chanted again. “At least it was
before you guys disappeared.”

“What’s it doing there?”

“My family used to own the castle, before they discovered the
portal beneath it and deserted the place.”

Silence.

“Caleb?”

Lucy spun around, slammed her back against the stone and
inhaled sharply at the sight before her.

Caleb had shifted into a dragon, only he wasn’t the dragon Lucy
remembered. He was colossal—well over ten feet tall. Teardrop-shaped scales
covered his body, coating his leathery skin. The color of his scales was so
bright, so warm and buttery, they seemed to absorb the setting sun’s rays and
radiate them back with a luminosity that nearly blinded her.

She moved toward him. Mesmerized. Reaching out. As the tips of
her fingers brushed over his left flank, his entire body rolled into a shudder.
His scales were soft. Silkier than she thought possible.

Unbelievable
.

Lucy had never ridden him before. Not once. She’d imagined it a
thousand times and wished for it a thousand more. But now, standing in front of
him this way...she caught herself holding her breath.

“Now or never,” she said, pushing the air from her lungs,
stepping up onto his hind leg.

With a snort, Caleb craned his neck around and nudged it
against the dirt floor. Lucy looked back, following his gaze.

His backpack.

It was as if she hadn’t been trained for this at all. Sindraco
riders carried their Draco’s clothes, since they couldn’t carry it themselves.
Sindracos directed them. Rode them hard and fast, pushing the dragons beyond
their limits.

Half the morning with Caleb, and Lucy had all but forgotten her
entire upbringing.

But she couldn’t carry his bag if she planned to bring hers.
Biting back a curse, Lucy shoved her spare clothes into Caleb’s bag, slung it
across her back, and approached his side. He offered his leg for her to mount
him. She took the step and heaved herself onto the ridge streaming down the
middle of his back.

Lucy leaned down, unsure of where to put her hands. The dragons
she’d ridden during Sindraco training were half Caleb’s size. Her arms easily
wrapped around the base of their necks, providing the perfect hold for
unsettling flight. Their skin was rougher, too. Her thighs didn’t feel as if
they were slipping over satin.

She must’ve been thinking too long.

Mr. Impatient rolled his body from his tail to head, sending
Lucy careening from her seat, down the thick length of his neck. Out of
instinct, she latched on, hugging him tightly, though her arms were nowhere near
closing around him.

He shook, a tiny tremble that felt like a laugh.

“You think that’s funny?” Lucy said, flattening her chest to
the back of his neck. “You’ll get a real kick out of this.”

She dug in with her heels. Jabbing him right in his sensitive
underbelly.

With a jolt that rocketed her out of her seat, Caleb leaped
from the ledge and plummeted into the gorge. Lucy pinched her eyes shut. Held
her breath. Felt the warm wind in her hair and Caleb’s strength solidly beneath
her.

And when Lucy thought they couldn’t possibly fall any faster,
Caleb picked up speed, pounding his wings, rippling his body through the
air.

Lucy opened her eyes.

The river!

She screamed, clutching Caleb for dear life as he flattened out
at the last minute, soaring over the water like an eagle. Only he wasn’t an
eagle. He was one-part dragon, one-part jackass.

“Okay,” she said, stroking his side. “I’m sorry. Truce?”

He craned his neck around and slowly blinked his big,
coal-black eyes.

Truce
.

Lucy’s heart fluttered as Caleb lifted her through the sky,
higher and higher, his wings beating the air with relentless strokes. As they
crested the ridge of the canyon, Lucy peered at the rain forest below. Miles
upon miles of trees blanketed the landscape. It was breathtaking. The sky always
seemed more beautiful from up here. Even with black clouds lumbering over the
horizon, the wind was crisp and clean, and the colors were more vibrant.

Lucy wasn’t sure how long Caleb flew, when thunderclouds
conquered the sky, or when her hold loosened into a soft embrace, but she knew
when he started to feel differently about their flight. Somewhere on the
southern end of Draco territory, Caleb’s body began to hum. The small pulsations
tingled against Lucy’s legs and warmed her middle. It was like riding a powerful
motorcycle in all its grumbling glory.

As heat crawled up Lucy’s legs, vibrating her in all the right
places, she shifted, slinging her body weight far to the right side. She
shouldn’t be feeling this way. It wasn’t normal to be thinking sexual things
about a Draco when in dragon form.

But this wasn’t any dragon. This was Caleb. The humming, the
rolling of his body, his sheer power as he dominated the sky.

It was
him
.

And riding him was the most erotic thing she’d ever felt in her
life.

Tingles of pleasure slinked to her middle. She readjusted,
splaying herself over him. Not now. She couldn’t think about him now. How many
training courses had she taken that explained the connection a dragon had with
his rider? How many times had she heard that a dragon can sense what his rider
is feeling?

The humming increased, vibrating Lucy’s middle until she was
sure the next ten minutes would grant her entrance into the Feralon Sky Club.
But then Caleb slowed. Flattened out his wings and banked right.

There, on top of the southernmost ridge of the isle, perched
Thorne Castle. She hadn’t seen it in years. The castle had been demolished, and
was now ruled by moss-masked stones and murky shadows. The eastern wall had been
crushed, broken through completely, and the top tower no longer existed except
for an exposed platform with stones protruding from it like broken teeth.

“The place has changed a ton,” Lucy whispered, as thunder
growled from all around them.

Caleb rolled his neck in agreement as the clouds opened up,
drenching them in seconds.

Chapter Four

Caleb closed in on the uneven stone overhang on the
eastern side of the castle. With a low
whoosh
, he
quickened the beating of his wings and gripped the ledge with the tips of his
talons. Once on flat ground, Caleb dipped his wings and bowed, letting Lucy
dismount.

It was a damn shame he had to put her down. Judging from the
stimulating currents flowing off her body, things were about to get interesting.
But he couldn’t risk flying in the storm and getting struck by lightning. One
bolt through his wings and he’d drop to earth like a stone.

As if on cue, a jagged spear of light pierced the sky, punching
through the tallest evergreen canopy of the forest below them. When the rod
disappeared, smoke snaked to the heavens. Good thing the forest was moist and
the air was humid; fires weren’t a threat.

Cowering from the rain, Lucy darted beneath the nearest
archway, dumped his bag, and turned back, waiting for Caleb to shift. Scanning
the sky to make sure they weren’t followed, Caleb gathered shards of energy into
his gut and pushed outward, shrinking in size and strength. His scales flattened
and smoothed into tanned skin. His wings folded into his back, disappearing into
his muscles effortlessly.

As he glanced up, he caught Lucy’s gaze. He shouldn’t get used
to the way she looked at him, though it’d be damn easy. Her sapphire eyes nearly
glowed with awe and admiration. Those feelings would change once she found out
that he was the one responsible for her brother’s disappearance in the first
place.

He should’ve been at Tristan’s side.

He should’ve never left to wander the Sindraco village.

Finding Tristan alive would mean Caleb hadn’t failed as a
partner and friend as miserably as he’d believed all these years. It would mean
the guilt Caleb had borne could lessen and, with time, diminish completely. It
was really the only way Lucy would forgive him...the only way he’d forgive
himself.

“Come on,” Caleb said, and grabbed Lucy’s hand. He needed to
get inside and put some clothes on. And Lucy needed to dry off. She was
drenched. Her honey-blond hair was plastered to her head, with silky strands
covering her face. “Let’s go inside and wait out the storm.”

“Wait.” She resisted, pulling back.

Sheets of rain cascaded over them, turning the gray-faced stone
of the castle black. It slashed sideways on the wind, soaking them despite the
overhead cover.

Once Caleb’s gaze settled on Lucy, he couldn’t tear his eyes
away. Her white tank top was sopping wet and see-through. The cotton clung to
her skin, revealing two perfectly pink nipples drawn tight from the rain.

Caleb’s skin tightened over his bones. He knew that look; it
was desire in its purest form. Could he resist Lucy again? The clenching in his
gut warned that he wouldn’t be able to hold back another second if she didn’t
quit looking at him that way.

What happened in the chamber had surprised the hell out of him.
He wasn’t supposed to feel such heated intensity with someone like Lucy, someone
he truly cared for. It was supposed to be physical—two people releasing tension,
and nothing more.

But their encounter was light years away from being something
dry and impersonal.

Lucy lit a fire in his gut, releasing all kinds of primal
desire and pent-up rage. She was hotter than he could’ve imagined. He’d always
known they had chemistry that burned off the charts, but he wasn’t expecting to
feel sated from pleasuring her. Watching her climax stirred something inside
him. It aroused him like never before.

It was all he could think about.

“What are you waiting for?” he asked.

“Can’t you wait out here?” Lucy shouted as thunder grumbled
through the clouds.

“Why the hell would I do that?” Caleb couldn’t budge a muscle.
Not when she was staring at him with those gorgeous azure eyes—the ones that put
his heart in a vise and squeezed. “Come on, let’s get inside and dry off. After
the storm passes we’ll head out again.”

She shook her head, sending wet tendrils of hair flying about
her face. “I’ll go inside and find the chest. If there’s anything in it that’ll
help find Tristan, I’ll come back out and let you know.”

“And I’m supposed to wait out here for you like a good little
boy?” He laughed. “The clouds are dropping buckets and I’m buck ass naked.
You’re being ridiculous. Come on.”

He took her hand. She ripped it away.

“Fine,” Lucy said, “then you go inside and I’ll stay out
here.”

“You’re not making a lick of sense.” He brushed a golden lock
out of her face. Her bottom lip trembled, making Caleb want to suck it into his
mouth. There were so many things he ached to say. He wanted to tell her about
the day he left Tristan to guard the portal by himself. But out here, on a ledge
high up in the castle tower, in the middle of a storm, wasn’t the place to say
such things. “If you wanna argue, we can do it inside.”

“If we go inside together,” Lucy said, “I’m only going to feel
things for you that I shouldn’t feel.”

The rain turned to needles, lancing Caleb’s skin. “What are you
talking about?”

“Do you think it’s easy for me to see you after all these
years?” Her voice shook. “Every second I’m with you, I remember those feelings I
had when we were young. They all come flooding back. Only now you’re here, and
I’ve touched you and kissed you, and now I can’t forget how those things felt.
Don’t you think it’s hard for me to feel a connection to someone who is
hell-bent on pulling away?”

“Pulling away?” Caleb palmed the stone on either side of Lucy’s
shoulders, pinning her in place. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“But you are. You may be here in the physical sense, touching
me, kissing me—” her breath hitched “―but just like in the chamber at the
cavern, you’re going to pull away.”

“You’re the one who asked me to kiss
you
, remember?”

“Wonderful.” She huffed, slapping her hands against her sides.
“Throw a moment of weakness in my face.”

“Lucy, I didn’t mean—”

“I’m not taking one step into this castle and risk getting even
closer to you, until I know what your intentions are.”

“My intentions?” He froze. “Shit, Lucy, you want to do this
now?”

How could she not see what was happening between them? Their
chemistry was electric, sparking on the air, defying the strength of the
storm.

“Beyond the kiss, did what happen between us happen because I
asked for it, or because you wanted it?”

“I never do anything that I don’t want to do.” Caleb lowered
his head to hers. Fat drops of rain slid down Lucy’s tank top, dripping between
her breasts. Her porcelain-pale skin was drizzled with rain, a thin sheen of
sweat mixed with it, giving Caleb fantasies of licking the cocktail off her
skin. “How can you not see what’s happening between us?”

As Lucy’s gaze trailed down his body to his erection, her eyes
widened with insatiable hunger. He was rock hard, swelling with the need to
finish what they’d started in the chamber. The sight of Lucy sprawled on the
bed, the taste of her most sensitive flesh, succulent and honey-sweet...simply
thinking about it again made Caleb’s muscles clench into torturous knots.

“There’s something beneath the surface. Something that’s
holding you back from me.” Lucy lifted her chin and arched her back, bending
into him. “If you want to keep our relationship on a platonic level the way it
was before, you can tell me. But I need to hear it before I get too deep so that
I can set boundaries for myself. Can you understand that?”

“There’s no denying that I think of you as one of my best
friends, Lucy. What you don’t understand is that I’ve thought of nothing but
carrying you to bed for three long years. I’ve dreamed of your muscles squeezing
around me as you shatter apart. I’ve made myself crazy with thoughts of things I
want to do to you.” Caleb was drawn so incredibly tight, it was a wonder Lucy
wasn’t beneath him already. “But I don’t want to wreck what we’ve got for a few
hot and heavy moments under the covers.”

“Caleb, I’m already past all that, but I can’t risk getting
closer to you until I know what you’re in for.”

“What I’m in for? Damn it, Luce.” Did she want a ring or a
promise of forever? He’d just returned after three years of being away to find
Tristan still missing. Already she wanted promises he didn’t know if he could
keep. He’d been right all along. Sex complicated things. Except they hadn’t even
gotten that far yet. “Lucy, I’m here because you said we should come here.
Because you said there might be something here that’ll lead us to finding
Tristan and bringing him home. What more do you want from me?”

“And that’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

“I think the best thing for us to do is focus on finding him.
Everything else can be dealt with later.” The words
It’s
my
fault
he’s
gone
were too damn difficult for Caleb to say,
though they teetered on the edge of his tongue. “If you come inside with me, we
can check out the portal beneath the castle. It’s sealed and safe now, but at
least you’ll get to see where this whole thing started.”

“You can go check out the portal.” Lucy’s lips pressed white
and she shook her head. “But if you can’t be straight with me here, I’m not
moving. If you want to be with me or not, you need to say so. I can handle the
truth, Caleb, I just need to hear you say it.”

Was she afraid to be alone with him in the castle? Afraid of
what might happen between them? She seemed more afraid now, with him, than she
did when she was about to marry a stranger.

“Damn it, if you weren’t so...” Caleb groaned, pitching between
what he wanted and what he needed. He wanted Lucy, wet and sex-drunk, writhing
beneath him. But he needed to tell her about what happened and admit that it was
his fault. If she could forgive him. If she wasn’t such a damn temptress slicing
away at his last shred of control.

“So, what?” Lucy’s thick, rain-soaked lashes fluttered quickly.
“If I wasn’t so, what?”

She couldn’t have known what a sight she was—the rain drenching
her skin, the seductive curve of her lips, the top clinging to her plump
breasts—how erotic she looked, how she starred in Caleb’s deepest fantasies. For
three long years, he’d searched wastelands inside the portals with the guilt of
his past as his only companion. He’d dreamed of Lucy coming for him, searching
him out and finding him there.

He wanted her like he’d never wanted another, but there were
other feelings brewing beneath the surface. Things he couldn’t pinpoint and
didn’t want to, at least not now. The blood seemed to have vacated his brain.
All he could think about was stripping the clothes off Lucy’s body and sliding
between her legs.

God, his chest was so tight. Air wheezed in and out of his
lungs. Blood thrummed through his veins, drowning out the thunder grumbling its
way across the blackened sky.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Lucy’s breasts began to
heave. “If you’re going to seduce me again only to leave me unsatisfied, I’d
rather stay out here.”

“Unsatisfied?”

Oh
,
hell
,
no
.

Caleb cracked. Pushed Lucy against the wall. Ground against
her, pinning her with his hips. If it was one thing he could do, it was pleasure
a woman. He’d pleasured Lucy before. He’d do it again.

He slammed his hands against the stone for fear that he’d grip
her too forcefully. Instead, he assaulted Lucy with his mouth, sliding his
tongue past her lips, devouring as much of her as he could get.

She moaned, the tiniest sound that stoked his fire hotter, and
scratched her nails down his back.

There was no pulling back. No calming the flames now that
they’d erupted into a raging inferno. Caleb may’ve been able to restrain himself
when they were in the chamber, but not now.

Not after she’d thrown down a challenge.

He thrust against her, bending lower to claim her mouth from a
better angle. The peak of her nipples pressed against his chest, causing a growl
to slip from the back of his throat. He nipped at her bottom lip, and moaned
into the kiss as her hands grazed his abs. Her fingers were tantalizing, rousing
every nerve in Caleb’s body, pinning them on edge.

Rain fell between them, onto their faces and between their
mouths, saturating their kiss. Their mouths slid together, wet and hungry, and
when Caleb’s heart lurched, Lucy’s breath broke out as an exasperated sob.

She could feel him, Caleb was certain of it. Lucy was sensitive
with the workings of his body, like a true rider should be. She felt when his
heart clenched, when his stomach tumbled. Her reactions were in tune with
his.

He’d never felt this way before. Never wanted to pleasure a
woman for her sake alone. He’d never felt such pure satisfaction at making a
woman tremble and come apart, even when there was a possibility that he’d get
nothing out of it.

Being with Lucy was blissfully different.

Possessing her mouth, Caleb slid one hand down from the wall
and jerked the button on her pants free. Answering his demand, Lucy pushed her
jeans down and kicked out of them. Unable to wait another second before feeling
Lucy’s heat, Caleb stroked two fingers over her panties. The dampness of her
center had soaked them through. She was hot, wet and quivering with need.

Lucy squirmed when his fingers brushed against her clit, so he
stayed there awhile, teasing her through the soaked fabric. He relinquished the
fight with his self-control and dragged his other hand off the wall. He brushed
his fingers through her golden halo of hair, down the smooth curve of her cheek.
And when she moaned into his mouth, he grasped her chin and tilted her to him so
that his tongue could dive into her fully.