Tempt the Dragon--An Afrofuturist Paranormal Romance Read online

  A pregnant pause filled the air while the combined warmth from both their Drakon bodies filled the room. She may not want to accept it, may not even be fully aware of what was happening, but her beast was wide awake now, moving inside her and shifting the way her body worked.

  “I don’t understand.” She sighed and dropped her head. “Why won’t it stop? Why can’t I make it go away this time?”

  Was she talking about him or her beast?

  “Do you want me to go away, Mel? Do you want me to stop wanting you?”

  He didn’t believe he’d ever stop wanting her. Could he live without her? Well, he’d proven that before. It wasn’t a one hundred percent happy life, but he’d managed to move on. As painful as the thought of her finishing this assignment and walking away was to conceive, if that’s what she wanted, he wouldn’t try to stop her. Just as he hadn’t before.

  Taking a tentative step to close the distance between them, he waited until she looked up at him again. He’d never forget her dragon eyes. They were luminous, reflecting a golden light that appeared as intense as her building body heat. He inhaled deeply, letting the sweet scent of honey mixed with a more primal aroma tickle his senses. His beast exhaled with such force his nostrils warmed. It knew her scent, had been waiting for its return for eighty years. “Tell me to stop wanting you, Melody. I’m not talking about anything else, just this. Just you and me. Tell me to stop remembering the softness of your body beneath mine. The whisper of my name on your lips when you came. The touch of your mouth on me. You’re gonna have to tell me, Mel.” Because damn if he could do it by himself.

  Another deep inhale from her and she shocked him by closing the small distance left between them.

  “I can’t.” Those two little words, spoken so quietly, stopped his breath. But then she lifted a hand to cup his face in the same way he’d wanted to do hers. He leaned into her touch, closing his eyes as comforting memories continued to float through his mind.

  “I can’t tell you to stop,” she whispered as he recalled them standing this way before. On the balcony of a hotel they’d been staying at. It was the middle of the night then too, and they’d just finished a job. They’d decided to stay another night at the hotel just to have some private time together.

  “I don’t want you to stop because I’ve never stopped wanting you either.” Her voice seemed so small, so delicate and vulnerable. All things Mel fought hard not to show to anyone. “I wish it would go away, Aiken. You have no idea how many nights, I wished all of this would’ve never happened. I was fine before I met you. But since the first time, I’ve never been the same. I don’t know how to go back to being the same.”

  And that hurt her more than anything her parents had ever done. His entire body ached with that thought. “I’m sorry,” he whispered even though he’d really had no control of his beast selecting her. Nor did he have anything to do with her birthright.

  “It hurts.” Those two words came on a whimper. “Some nights the need hurts so bad.”

  He nodded. “I know. But it doesn’t have to hurt tonight, Mel. We can feel better, if just for tonight.”

  With an easy shift of his face, he kissed the inside of her wrist, then eased forward to kiss her neck, where he could stroke his tongue over her delicate skin. He slid his hands over her back, up and down to inch past her waist and over her ass where he cupped healthy cheeks and then groaned.

  His name fell from her lips in the softest whisper and her hands clasped his biceps. That touch sent desire streaking through his body, reaching out to his beast with an urgency that he had no choice but to match. The most important thing at this moment was to get her naked. She’d removed her jacket before he found her in here, so his hands worked quickly to pull the turtleneck she wore up and over her head. When she helped by taking the shirt from him and tossing it somewhere he lowered his head, opening his mouth before he’d even reached the high mounds of her breasts. With one tug he ripped the bra free and covered a nipple with his tongue. She arched into him, her hands slapping against the back of his head as she moaned. Sucking seemed like a lifeline. He wasn’t going to live if he didn’t taste every part of her again.

  One breast and then the other, kneading them in his hands, sucking each hardened nipple into his mouth, none of it was enough. He walked them back to the pool table, yanking at the button of her jeans and dragging the zipper down.

  “Hurry,” she whispered before moving her hands around his to push at her jeans and panties in one effort.

  “Your wish is my command.” A hungry rumble started deep in his chest. Bending, he lifted one of her legs, undid the laces of one boot and pulled it off. The other foot was a repeat and he yanked the jeans and panties all the way off.

  Inside of her, he had to get inside of her right now. But he couldn’t, not just yet. On his way up he stroked his hands over her long, toned legs, inching toward the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. He kissed her there, ran his tongue along the smoothness, while his nostrils flared at the rich, dewy scent of her arousal.

  “This, Aiken.” She sighed, her fingers shaking as she eased them down the back of his head. “This is what I missed.”

  Taking her hips he lifted her off the floor, setting her on top of the pool table before spreading her legs wide.

  “Me too, baby.” The sight of her folds already damp with arousal made his mouth water. Sharp teeth pricked against his lips and he fisted his hands. The beast wanted it all—for him to take her, claim her and then to shift so the dragons could be together. It would be complete then, the Selection would have totally claimed them. But Aiken wouldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t force her to choose, not again.

  Dipping his head quickly, he licked her in one long slow stroke. Her body bucked up off the table and he resisted the urge to roar in victory. His mouth was on her again, this time with his tongue moving over her clit, down the silky smooth path to her entrance, where he plunged, thrusting his tongue deep inside until she began pumping against his ministrations.

  She was feeding him in ways he guessed she’d never know, but the very taste of her, the feel of her warm essence dripping onto his tongue was feeding the ache that had settled into the pit of his stomach and made it home for the last eighty years. He gripped her thighs, pushing them back farther so that he could have more access to her. That’s what he needed—more of her, all of her.

  Rearing back with a growl, he fought against the shift, ripping the button of his pants and hurriedly pushing them and his boxers down until his rigid dick was free. He should ask her again, make sure there was absolutely no doubt.

  “I want you, Aiken.” As if she read his mind, he jerked his head up to stare at her.

  She looked phenomenal leaning back on her elbows, breasts full, nipples hard, legs spread. Everything and more, was all he could think as his gaze remained fixated on her. Never before had he been so grateful that pure Drakon weren’t susceptible to human diseases, and thus there was no need to pause and find a condom. Even with that knowledge, he’d worn a condom each and every time he’d had sex with other women. Only Mel could have him this way.

  “You need to know that I’ve always wanted you,” she whispered.

  He stepped closer and grabbed her ankles. Giving a slight tug to bring her ass to the edge of the pool table, he eased her legs around his waist, clasping them behind his back before spearing his dick deep into her.

  “Yes!” She yelled the word and he felt it ricochet throughout every corner of his body.

  * * *

  What was she doing?

  Why hadn’t she stopped him?

  Because she couldn’t. Not this time. She’d known that the moment he walked into the game room shortly after she’d come here to hide. Just the thought of getting away from Aiken had seemed far easier than it had ever actually been. Even as angry as she’d been that he’d lied to her, she’d wanted him
just as fiercely. Craved his touch, sought his closeness. It was insane, but it was real.

  Now, he was inside her and all she could do was close her eyes and enjoy the ride. Because that’s exactly what it felt like—the ups and downs of their relationship in the past and now in the present. How one minute she could be so frustrated with him that she’d want to strangle him and the next she couldn’t keep her hands off him. Just him being closer to her was the preamble, and the second he touched his lips to her wrist, his tongue to her skin, the ride had begun, taking her higher and higher until eventually taking that deep plunge that would hollow her stomach and fill it with nothing but pleasure. She was almost there. With each thrust he stretched her wider to accommodate him, his body fit between her legs, his fingers running along her scalp as he grasped her head, tilting it up for a kiss.

  This was the moment when he’d whisper her name and tell her how much he loved her. Or at least that’s what he’d done in the past. Her heart thumped wildly with that memory and she’d tried to whisper something before his lips touched hers. A plea? A declaration? She had no clue what, and it didn’t really matter. Words didn’t matter. All that made any sense at this moment was the feel of his dick inside her pussy, his tongue inside her mouth. That was it. Just him and just her. The two of them and...their beasts.

  She could feel the invasion long before they’d made it back to the Office, knew that it was present even while they stood in Montoy’s house. Efforts to will it away again failed. This was the first time she’d given what was inside her this much control and in this moment, it felt as if it had been a part of her all along. They seemed so in tune, as she tilted her head to deepen the kiss and dug her blunt-tipped nails into Aiken’s strong shoulders.

  Pushing, urging, edging her toward delicious bliss, that’s precisely what this foreign beast was doing to her right now.

  “This,” he mumbled against her lips. “This is what I want. Always.”

  The last word was emphasized by his fingers gripping her ass. She gasped. “Yes. I want it.”

  And she did. She wanted this pleasure, the feel of him so hot and strong beneath her touch, inside her, all around her. She wanted that. The rest, she believed she could do without.

  “Do you hear me, Melody? It can be just...like...this.” He was really getting into matching the physical thrusts and touches to her with his words and she was totally here for it. Arching her back, all she wanted to do was moan with how good it felt.

  “I hear you. Just, give me more.” More was all she could think of right now, all she wanted to think of, more of Aiken. The rest, it would be there when the sun came up.

  “Whatever you want,” he said, burying his face in the side of her neck. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”

  And he did, moments later when he pumped into her so fiercely, she bit down on her lip to hold back the scream. Bliss, that’s what it felt like, pure, unadulterated sexual bliss that ripped through her like a tsunami. She was drowning in it, falling deeper and deeper until she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop herself from hitting rock bottom. And then what? How was she supposed to go back to who and what she was after this, after releasing her beast to tangle with Aiken’s once again?

  * * *

  Even waking in his arms was different now.

  Way back when they were both hunters she’d moved into his lavish penthouse apartment at the top of a building in Miami Beach. He liked to sleep on the left and she favored the right, so that each morning she could roll over onto her side and watch the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean.

  It wasn’t morning yet and when she rolled over now, it was to stare at the painting hanging on the wall over his dresser. It was dark in the bedroom, but she could see clearly. For the first time in her life, she could see in the dark without the red haze. She closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again just to make sure.

  The Wind. That’s what the painting was called. Uneven brushstrokes in many shades of blue and gray covered the thirty-six by twenty-four canvas. It took her breath away.

  “I was wondering when you’d see it,” he said, moving behind her. Why couldn’t he sound like a total drunken jerk in the middle of the night? It would make it a lot easier to want to climb out of this bed.

  “Why do you have it?”

  “You said you liked it.” His answer sounded simpler than they both knew it was.

  She recalled the day they’d seen the painting at the art gallery in France. “You said you hated it.”

  His laugh came in a booming burst of joy she hadn’t realized she missed until this exact moment. “I did hate it and I still don’t know that it’s any more than a bunch of slashes of blue paint. But you liked it.” The back of his fingers brushed over her bare shoulder. “And I loved you.”

  I loved you too.

  The words floated in her mind the way those blue strokes moved over that canvas. “How long have you had it?”

  “I ordered it before I left Miami. It was going to be a second anniversary present for you. The gallery held it for me for two weeks before shipping it to my new location.” Two weeks after she’d left him she was back in the bungalow she’d lived in with Rosilda when she was a teenager.

  “Never could figure out how you could be so obsessed with clothes and style but knew absolutely nothing about art.” Memories of their many shopping sprees where Aiken always bought the most clothes between the two of them, created a light, happy feeling in the center of her chest. It didn’t damper the dull ache of the memory of the second anniversary they hadn’t spent together.

  “Because art is whatever people tell you it is, style is what you make it.” He always had an answer. Even when she told him she couldn’t stay with him, he’d had an answer—that day it was his silence.

  “Myths are whatever people tell you they are.” She expected him to stiffen behind her. Instead, he inched closer, until the muscles of his chest pressed against her back and his semi-erect dick was cradled by her ass.

  “You were never afraid of anything. From the first time I saw you in action on a hunt, you were fearless. Standing up to me, pushing back against all I’ve tried to convince you to be, is nothing short of courage in action. Why does accepting who and what you are scare you so much?”

  She wasn’t afraid. A voice shouted that in her mind, contradictory to the way she curled her fingers into the sheet as anxiety approached. “That’s not what scares me, Aiken.”

  “Then what is it, baby? What’s stopping you from staying with me?”

  She shook her head. “I really wish it was just about staying with you.” She’d almost called him “my love” the way she used to.

  “Then tell me what it is. Whatever is keeping me from having you, I want to know.”

  “It’s me,” she answered quietly. “I’m stopping us from being together because accepting this thing inside me means I never really knew who or what I was. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been living and breathing a lie. And all I know how to do is fight back to prevent that lie from destroying me. Can you understand that?”

  He’d wrapped his arms around her so tight she almost couldn’t breathe, yet the embrace felt good, it felt right.

  “I hear you and I don’t want you to take what I’m about to say the wrong way, but—”

  “Anytime someone says that it means they’re about to say something you’re bound to take the wrong way.”

  He nipped her shoulder. “Don’t be a smartass. What I was going to say was, you’ll never truly know who or what you are if you keep running from what’s a basic part of you.”

  “That’s so easy for you to say, Aiken. It’s so easy for you to hold tight to all that you know, all that you are. My parents didn’t tell me squat and at four years old I didn’t know to ask. All I can remember was being surrounded by rock walls and gorgeous green valleys and the brightest sun y
ou’d ever seen. That’s it. Nobody told me I had a dragon living inside me. Nobody said I had powers. All that came through trial and error. One day they came to take me to a new foster home and I didn’t want to go. I wished so hard that I could just blend into the wall so nobody would see me and then they could all leave me alone. And it happened.”

  Her body began to tremble.

  “That’s the first time I went into what you later told me was called a chameleon cloak. For more than a hundred years I did that with Rosilda only telling me it was because I was special. I didn’t physically age beyond twenty years old. That’s when Rosilda finally explained what she was and that I was sort of like her. So I spent the next one hundred and sixty years being ‘almost’ like a half shape-shifter and a human. Until you came along and gave what I was a name and all this legend and lore that you expected me to just latch on to.

  “Do you have any idea how that feels? Having someone proclaim and prove to know more about you than you do yourself? No. You don’t because you’ve always had the perfect life, the perfect clothes, hell, even your face, you’re like some Drakon-style model. Even your dragon is beautiful.”

  He’d shown her his beast for the first time a few months after they’d been sleeping together. On a beach in Miami in the middle of the night when he wanted there to be less risk of anyone seeing the gigantic dragon, and open space to accommodate the size without causing millions of dollars in damage.

  “I’m far from perfect.” He said it so easily as if that meant she had no choice but to believe him. Instead, she flopped over onto her back and he eased only partially away from her.

  “I can’t tell, not from where I’m sitting,” she snapped.

  “That’s because you like sitting in the dark.” He sighed. “You see what you want to see because that’s how you remain comfortable. But blinders don’t make the truth any less true.”