DragonsHeart.wps (21 page)

“You take it wrong.” She spoke calmly and with purpose.

Dylan gave her a surprised look.

“I do? Where, pray tell, do you intend to go?”

“Dylan and I will be at my cottage. As far as I’m concerned it’s still a safe haven for the two of us.”

“Plus, you want to have your own space so you can go ahead and have some fun.

Just don’t blow up the cottage in the throes of your passion.” Blaze smirked.

“I will take that advice into consideration.” She smiled. Dylan still looked at her quizzically.

“We’re really going to stay behind? I thought you wanted to put me in a

protective little bubble?”

“I might have, but I’ve reconsidered. The days ahead of us are going to be filled with harrowing danger and unspeakable feats of fighting prowess. I think we should have some time to ourselves before the next storm hits.”

“I think you’re right.” Dylan raised his eyebrow as Blaze slowly wandered away from them. “You also want us to forge the bond of the mating fire between us.”

“I do. With my father closing in, we’re better off bonded than the way we are right now. This thin strand of a bond exists between us, but I want to make it a thick strand as strong as steel.”

“My sentiments exactly. Let the Mating Ritual begin.” He nodded at the rest of the group. “Do you think if we leave, anyone will notice?”

“Blaze might … but he’s too interested in Kayla’s tits and ass right now to even pay any attention to us.”

“I think you’re spot on, as usual.” He gripped her hand. They walked toward the door of the abbey. Opening it up, the sun flooded down on them.

“I do believe we are in the other calm before the storm.” A shiver ran through her.

“I should be feeling secure, but I don’t. I feel like my house of cards is going to come tumbling down around me tomorrow.”

“In that case, your husband thinks we should make the most out of tonight.”

She nodded.

DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170

They made it to the cottage in no time at all thanks to Grania allowing him to transport them magically. She seemed tense. He knew what her father was doing was wearing hard on her. Her eyes were filled with a haunting pain that made him want to lash out at Draco with his full magical might. He wanted to turn the man into the beast that he was. He wanted to watch him suffer the way he’d made Grania suffer. They removed the magical rucksacks from their backs and plopped them in the small entryway.

“Looks as if we didn’t need those.”

“Nonetheless, we might need them someday. I doubt Aurora would have given

them to us if she didn’t see a need. We should eat something.” She made her way to the kitchen. If he listened closely enough he could almost hear her heartbeat. It had to be the mating fire entering its final stage.

“Can you hear it, too?” She glanced back at him fleetingly, still making her way toward the kitchen.

He followed her. “Yes. I can hear it. It’s the most beautiful sound. It’s literally music to my ears.”

“You flatter me.” She smiled at him. Her emerald green eyes filled with

unbridled passion. He could feel the air heating up between them. Soon, it would lash out and scorch them both.

“I’m starting to feel a little hot under the collar.” He watched as she hungrily ate him up with her eyes. The disagreements they’d had earlier now seemed long forgotten.

Forgiveness and trust shone in her eyes.

“I think we should forego the meal. We can eat afterward.” Her voice turned

hoarse, her cheeks flamed. He instinctively conjured a piece of ice in his hand.

It cooled his lust down just enough. If they didn’t take care their combined

abilities were literally going to make the house burn down around them.

“Our jets are getting all fired up ...,” She looked longingly at the ice cube he held in his hands. Taking it from him, she ran it down her neck. “Ah, that does feel better. I must cool down my body temperature. It might be too much for you touch.”

“I want to touch you all over.”

Images of her naked body flared in his mind’s eye. He watched her eyes flare

with arousal at his suggestive remark.

“It’s the mating fire, it is starting to cloud our minds, and soon we won’t be able to see straight through the haze of passion.”

“Fine with me.”

“We’ll be ripping each other’s clothes off,” Grania murmured.

“Again, fine with me. I’m an able and willing participant in this love game.”

She studied him searchingly. “When this all dies down, when we prevail against my father’s forces, what will that mean for us?”

He shook his head. “I don’t get what you’re trying to say.”

“This marriage of ours will no longer have a need to exist. We could leave each other and go off to become hermits, away from society we might just be able to quell the bond that we are about to ignite.”

“Quell our bond? I don’t want to do that. I want it to always be throbbing

between us, buoyed by our passion and our love for each other. I don’t ever want my thirst for you to be quenched.”

“Do you mean it?” She cocked her head to the side. He could stand it no longer.

DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170

He raised his hand. The barrette in her hair snapped. Her glorious red waves cascaded around her skin, haloing her milky white complexion in a glorious flame.

“That sight takes my breath away.” She unconsciously touched her hair.

“I never knew that you had such an affinity for it,” she murmured, sighing.

“I want to run my hands through those glorious tresses of yours, I want to kiss you from your head to your toes. Grania, I just
want
you.”

“You want me only because of the mating fire.”

She held her hand up. The ice cube she’d been holding fizzed out into a streak of water. The mark on her palm blazed bright red.

“I don’t want you just because of the burgeoning bond between us. Granted, that does add to my extreme discomfort at the moment, but it’s not just the only thing propelling me into your arms. We would have arrived at this destination either way.

Let’s just say that from the first moment we met, I knew I had to claim you as my own.”

“I am not a woman to be claimed.” Righteous indignation welled in her voice.

“You misunderstand.” He sighed. “This isn’t going to be a one way street. As much as I’d like to, I’m not going to go all Neanderthal on you and make you my own.

Well, I will claim you as my own, but that is beside the point. What I want is for us to each claim the other. I am yours, and you are mine.”

Her eyes flashed with uncertainty. “You are quite sure that you want me? I’m never going to change my ways. We must be sure before we take the plunge into madness. Once we join bodies, our fates will be inescapably linked. Forever. Do you understand the full implications of that act?”

“We are husband and wife. Aye, I understand the full implications.”

“We will truly be as one, Dylan. Life as you know it will be forever altered. I will always be in your psyche, and you will always be in mine.”

“Hey, I thought we were pretty much telepathically linked now ....”

“We are. But after we make love that link will only intensify. It drove O’Malley mad ....”

“Watch it. Don’t go and compare me to that nut job. By the sounds of it, he was always a few bricks short of the full load ... the lift obviously never went right to the top.

He was damaged from the get go, we aren’t. We are both well-adjusted adults. Sharing a bond with you isn’t going to turn me into a raving psychopath.”

“Don’t ever say that I didn’t warn you.” Sadness flashed in her eyes. It was brief, but nonetheless a stab of pain seared into his heart. She must have felt it because regret now glimmered in her eyes.

“Warn me? Hah! I laugh at that. We’ve just returned from a harrowing battle. I never need to be on my guard around you.” Slowly, he closed the small distance between them, while her guard was relaxed. He touched her gently. She shivered beneath the contact of their skin.

Her sigh made him harden. She was working her seductive charms on him

without even meaning to. He needed her ... he wanted her so badly. He could feel his magic starting to awaken within him. He kissed her softly, gently. Gradually, she started to respond to him. Her fervor for him built inside of her. Soon, neither one of them would be able to hold back anything. Their time was coming, and he would make it the best night of their lives. Tomorrow, danger awaited both of them. When he walked onto the next battlefield he wanted to know that it was with a full heart, and a strong DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170

unbreakable bond between him and Grania.

Her hands tangled in his short hair. “I think I like your hair just as much as you seem to like mine.”

He thrilled at the seductive, sexy tone of her voice. Her eyes, so green and so pure, now overflowed with a passion that made his blood boil.

“I’ve fallen in love with you, Grania.”

Something danced in her eyes. Was it joy? He could only hope as much.

“From the first moment I set eyes on you in that little dusty shop of yours, I knew there was something frightfully yet, exquisitely different about you. I knew you would become an intricate part of my life. I couldn’t imagine my life without you now. Even when you make me feel like pulling out my hair I still feel tender toward you. You are my perfect partner.”

“And you are mine. My darling Grania, full of fire and grace. It is a glorious feeling just looking at you. I can take all night just soaking up your stunning beauty.”

“While your poetic words make me feel as if I am the most loved woman in the

world, I have to tell you that we don’t have time. We have each other, but time is slipping past on us. Tomorrow, we have no idea what sort of a changed world we will wake up to. I can only imagine how the mortals of the Earth are viewing what happened in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury yesterday.”

“I think they will report it with gratitude in their voices and hearts.”

“Perhaps … let’s return to hearing those silken words come out of that luscious mouth of yours.”

“Your beauty quite simply takes my breath away,” he proclaimed

“I like that.” She pressed her lips against his, molding her body against his. He wanted to tear off her clothing, or better yet use his magic to simply make it fade away.

“The bedroom … this kitchen is far too cramped for what I have in mind.”

“My thoughts exactly.” He snapped his fingers.

In an instant, they were in her bedroom. He lit the room in the soft glow of

candlelight. Darkness loomed outside. With his magic, he pulled the drapes across.

She caressed the side of his face gently with her hand. He reached up and caught her hand gently. “You are such a formidable woman, but you have such fragile looking hands.”

“These fragile looking hands of mine can do quite a lot of damage to the enemy when they are so inclined. Even as a dragon shifter, I am on the small side in my dragon form. I used to be revered for my beauty. My kind saw me as a celebrity of sorts. They all bowed to my beauty. I was like a rare jewel … they thought I was a gift from the Gods.”

“You are.”

“You don’t understand, I was literally seen as a Goddess in dragon shifting form.

Why do you think Denys and I never became mates?”

“I didn’t think you could mate with someone that wasn’t meant for you … if I’m your destined mate, I don’t have to be a dragon shifter to know how wrong it would have been for you to link yourself to Denys.”

“Indeed, but therein is the crux of the matter. I could have just lain with Denys and bore his children. My father kept telling me that I was keeping myself from recognizing the Mating Fire and giving myself to it. Now that I think of it … I think he DRAGON’S HEART Marly Mathews 170

knew all along. He knew it and he used me. He used me to gain the allegiance of most of his followers. They worshiped me thinking I was a divine entity in a physical shell, but they were deceived. My father had the seers come to him when I was but a babe in arms. They must have told him my future ... our future.”

“He wanted to deliberately keep us apart by setting me up with Denys, and it

almost worked. Except, I betrayed him by listening to my dragon’s heart.”

He nodded. “I always thought you had a human heart .…”

“I do. But our hearts are different from mortals, and even your kind. We love so deeply and hate so deeply—it can be our undoing.”

“Hesitating in loving me isn’t your undoing,” Dylan argued.

“I know that. You don’t understand … you don’t understand how precious you

are to me. My father tried to keep us apart, he tried and he failed. That means we are the hope for both of our peoples. We are most certainly stronger together than apart. As long as we love each other and revel in that love, our world as we know and love it can never be lost.”

“Your father was right in wanting his followers to worship you. I can’t disagree with him on that point. You are a rare jewel, and I’m happy to say that I am the heart destined to love yours.”

“Always linked.” She placed her hand over his heart and took his hand to rest on her breast. “From this night until the end of time itself we will always be connected.”

“That’s the greatest gift I could ever hope to be given. You are the greatest gift.

Fate certainly has smiled upon me.”

They kissed again. It was a scorcher. Their tongues met and started their own ancient duel. Heat flared between them. He looked at the walls. They glowed.

“Ugh … I don’t want to ruin the moment or anything, but why are the walls

glowing?”

Drawing away from him, she looked at the walls. Her eyes widened. “That’s me.