Page 47 of Curse of the Midnight Dragon (The Moonlight Dragon #2)

Celestina

I sucked in a quick breath as Soren pressed his mouth to my neck. His hot tongue licked a jagged wound there. He was healing me the same way he’d heal his own puncture wounds closed after he’d fed. I squirmed against his hard length. I needed…needed…

But this couldn’t be real. I was living with the dragons now.

“Celestina,” Soren rasped. “You came back for me.”

“I did? I don’t remember… Where are we?” I lifted my head. “We’re in a cave. Why are we in a cave?”

He cupped my cheek and nibbled on my lips. Suddenly, all the questions demanding my attention vanished.

This. I wanted this. And I didn’t care how it was happening. Or why.

I reached between us. There was a huge rip in his battle leathers. I used it to gain access to his smooth skin covering tightly corded muscles.

“Let me make love to you,” he begged between drugging kisses. “I need to feel you, Sky Girl. I need to fill you up to convince myself that you’re really here. Is that…? Will that be…? Will you allow that?”

I nodded. “I need you more.”

With his fangs, he ripped open a vein in his wrist and offered me his blood. I drank in the metallic liquid, loving how it heated my body. Still, I needed more. I couldn’t get my leggings off fast enough. He worked my sweater up off over my head and immediately sank his fangs into my breast’s tender flesh. I gasped as the sudden flash of pain was replaced by a pulling that traveled all the way down to my already overheated core.

Goddess . I bucked against his leg, chasing the release my body craved.

He reached between us and pressed a finger inside me while swirling my throbbing clit with his thumb. Teasing. Knowing exactly how to get my body to respond to his touch.

He lifted his head. His pupils were blown wide. “That’s it, Sky Girl. Come for me.”

My body obeyed. The entire world seemed to explode with flashes of light as my body convulsed on his hand.

And here we were. Together. I didn’t know how. And part of me didn’t want to know the specifics. All I wanted was to hold on to the now, to enjoy what his touch, his mouth, his feeding on me did to me. How his body shattered me only to pull me back together.

“That was only the first one,” he murmured.

His large, calloused hands pressed my legs wide apart as he slid down my body to nestle between them. He gently sucked my clit into his mouth, licking and teasing until I was squirming beneath him. He pulled back so he could blow his hot breath against my sensitive bits.

“Celestina, you taste like honey cakes. I could eat you forever.” His fangs flashed in the cave’s dim light before he struck again. Down. There. In that most sensitive place.

He’d bitten me there once before, but, even so, the shock of the pain had me wiggling away. Soren clamped his hands on my hips, to keep me in place. The pain swiftly became something different, something hot and nuhnnn …

I threw my head back and buried my hands in his hair as he proved just how much he enjoyed eating me out. I didn’t think I could come harder than I just had, but his wicked teeth and tongue proved me wrong as my body splintered into a flash of bright light.

When I finally managed to catch my breath, Soren looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back. I so loved it when he played with me like this. And I could tell by the hungry look in his eyes, that he wasn’t nearly done.

He crawled back up my body, pressing his lips to mine, letting me taste myself on him as he deepened the kiss, pressing his tongue in my mouth, as he pushed two fingers into my pussy and then worked his thick thumb into my puckered hole. I reveled in the feeling of absolute fullness as he pumped his fingers in and out of both slick holes. I came hard and fast, holding him tightly as my body pulsed on his hand. I loved the roughness of his battle leathers against my naked skin. And yet…

“I need…I need more…” I panted as I fumbled with the buttons on his leather pants. “I need all of you.”

He withdrew from my body and, after wiping his hands on the blanket, took over the task. As he shed his pants, I bared his chest. There was a long, jagged red line marking a barely healed wound on his belly that made me frown. But it didn’t seem to bother him when I ran my hand over it. Still, I didn’t like seeing any injury on his perfect body. I kissed it, wishing I could stop him from ever going to battle again, from ever getting harmed even in the slightest way.

My vampire prince was mine . He was the most important part of my beloved hoard. He deserved to be cherished. Protected. The part of me that I still hadn’t really accepted raged inside me. Mine. I protect what is mine .

“You are well?” I asked him, unable to stop worrying about that mark on his body.

“I am now.” It was a strange answer. But I guess I understood what he’d meant. For the past several weeks, I’d been walking around with a gaping hole in my chest from having to live without him.

But that didn’t explain the jagged red line. It still worried me. I traced it. “What happened?” I asked between kisses as we wrapped our bodies around each other and sank back into the nest of blankets.

His hand closed over mine. “What’s important right now is you. I—I can’t think when I need you so fiercely, Sky Girl. You’re the reason I’m still here in this world. You’re the light in all the darkness that surrounds me. I don’t know how you got here to me or why. All I know is that I’m not going to fucking waste a second of this.”

He flipped me over and, wrapped his arm around my middle, positioning me so my ass was in the air. I balanced myself with my hands on the blankets. “Brace yourself, darling, because I’m going to fucking show you how much my cock missed you.” With his knee, he spread my legs wider and then with one fluid movement pushed inside me. Oh, how my body had missed him…missed this. Even at the awkward angle, with him holding me up while my head was hanging toward the cave floor and my fingertips barely touching the blankets to balance me, his cock hit places inside me that more than approved of his actions. I arched my back as he pounded relentlessly, my body tightening, tightening around the flood of sensations. His strong fingers dug into my hips as he continued to move at a frenetic pace.

“Come for me again, Sky Girl,” he growled.

Everything went black for a moment as my body obeyed and tipped over the edge yet again. He followed me, filling me. Breathing hard, we tumbled back into the nest of blankets. He spun us to the side, so his body would take the brunt of the fall. And once we were half-buried in the nest of warm wool, I turned in his arms and gently brushed my lips over his.

“Hello,” I said as soon as I lifted my lips.

“Hello,” he replied. A smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. He brushed the side of my face with the back of his hand. “How?” He shook his head. “How did you get to me?”

“I don’t know. I woke up with you here.” I touched the place on my neck where the wound he’d healed had been. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know.” He sat up slightly so he could take a better look around. “A cave.”

I gave his chest a playful shove. “Thank you. I would have never figured that out on my own.” He captured my hand and lifted it to his mouth. He sucked my forefinger into the hot cavern of his mouth. I sighed. “How do you suppose we both ended up in this cave together?”

He pulled my finger from his mouth and gave the tip a tender kiss before taking a moment to ponder that question.

“Well” — he slapped my bare ass as he jumped to his feet—“we should get dressed and find out.”

I groaned, not wanting to leave our nest. But I managed to crawl my way to my feet and gather my discarded clothes. I tugged on my leggings, but paused when I felt the tingly sting of where he’d bitten my clit. My body shuddered with delight at the reminder of what we’d just done.

Other than the first bite that he’d healed with his tongue, he’d left all the others. I ran the tip of my finger over where he’d bitten my breast, enjoying how pain and pleasure blended together. My lower lip felt bruised from where he’d kissed me too enthusiastically. I pressed my tongue against the sting and smiled.

This. This is what I love. Soren always gives me exactly what my body craves.

I pulled my sweater over my head and tightened the ties on my leggings.

“Are we ready to find out where the hell we are?” he asked as he buttoned his ripped and bloodied leather coat.

I hesitated. I didn’t want to leave this place when leaving meant I’d have to deal with reality. And my last memory was of Drix killing Amaya in hopes that my anger would awaken my dragon.

Oh goddess, my last memory is of Amaya’s throat being cut!

I couldn’t—I couldn’t—I couldn’t—

“Shhh…breathe, Celestina. Breathe. We’ll figure this out together. I promise.” He rubbed my back vigorously until I was able to catch my breath. With a look of panic, he threaded his fingers with mine. “I’ll fight the entire continent to keep you by my side. Fuck the prophecies and kingdoms and responsibilities. I’m not going to let you go, not ever again.”

While I believed his words, I doubted even Soren could turn the impossible into a reality. And falling apart about everything I’d already lost wasn’t going to help anything. I pulled myself together, straightening my spine, lifting my chin.

Neither of us knew what waited for us at the mouth of this cave, but we’d face it—woefully unarmed—together.

The sun was starting to travel toward the horizon, sending sharp beams of light directly into the cave’s mouth. I had to squint in the sudden brightness to make out the silhouette of two figures sitting side-by-side a few hundred steps away. Both Soren and I stopped. Were they friends or foes? I cupped my hand over my eyes to block out the glare. I recognized the outline of the woman sitting to the right of the taller, lankier figure.

“It can’t be.” My voice must have carried in the cave. The woman stood and turned toward us. My eyes had adjusted to the bright light enough that I could make out the sharp features of her face and the inky blackness of her hair.

“Amaya!” I screamed. I fell to my knees as my legs gave out on me. “How? You’re alive! How?”

Maybe it was time I started believing in the impossible.