Page 9 of Must Love Dragons (Sable Cove #4)

Zay watched Kinsley storm out of the rescue, her cat Nysa hurrying after her. Everything she’d said to him was ringing in his head like church bells. The way she’d called him out about pushing her away, the way she claimed his fight as her own.

No one outside of his family had ever stood up for him the way she did.

She didn’t even know him, but she was already acting like his ride-or-die.

His dragon was restless again, pacing inside him and making all sorts of demands to go after her.

He should let her go. He should leave her to do whatever the hell she wanted, take to the sky and find Rorik, and never step foot in Sable Cove again. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that. Never see her again? What would that do to him?

He walked outside and found her sitting behind the wheel of her car, the engine humming as she turned it on. He stopped in front of the vehicle.

She glared at him through the windshield.

If her green eyes were weapons, they were aimed at his heart.

Or parts south.

She was furious and damn was she gorgeous.

He crossed his arms as she revved the engine with an exasperated grunt.

“What the hell, Zay?” she demanded, her voice muffled through the window.

“Exactly, Kinsley. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting supplies. Making a plan. Things that a person does for someone they care about.”

He did not pay attention to the way her words made the walls he’d erected around himself crack.

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going to let you go traipsing off on your own to fight my battle for me.”

“Are you accepting my help?” she asked.

He stared at her. He was now stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

He didn’t want to accept help from a magical person, but he knew she was right, and he couldn’t face the warlocks on his own.

He unfortunately needed magic to fight magic.

Even with the rest of his clan on his side, he would be outmatched.

There had been a handful of warlocks who took his uncle in the boat.

Just one of them had nearly sent Zay shuffling off into the afterlife.

He needed help and Kinsley was the only one foolishly determined to be that person.

Stomping to the passenger side, he sat down with a huff and slammed the door. “I don’t know if I trust you.” Mate .

“And yet you’re getting in my car.” She put the car into gear and said, “You must really think I’m cute.”

He let out an annoyed grunt. Cute wasn’t quite the word he’d use for her. Even now his body was strung tight with arousal, his dragon picking up once more how good she smelled, hot flames and spice.

The silence between them was a tangible thing, snapping with arousal and mingling with distrust. He couldn’t stop being at war with himself.

Yes, she was beautiful. Yes, she was his truemate.

But she was a magic user and that meant she was dangerous.

But help him, he admired the hell out of her anyway.

And his dragon wanted her with the fire of a thousand volcanoes.

Vicious and raw and hot enough to burn through anything.

She was determined and fearless, and completely unphased by his asshole behavior. He kept pushing her away and she kept coming back around like some yo-yo intent on ruining him.

Clearing her throat, she said, “I need to collect a few items for a protection ward and they’re at my house.

I also want to prepare some spells for fighting—defensive and offensive—that I can use to counteract whatever magic the warlocks will try to use against us.

I do have an idea for how to track your uncle, but it will take some time to get everything together. ”

He mulled over what she said as she parked in front of a small house.

She got out, entirely ignoring him, and walked to the house.

She did leave the front door open, with Nysa sitting primly in the doorway as if waiting for him, but Kinsley hadn’t done so much as ask him to join her or help, and he didn’t know how to feel about that.

He was getting whiplash from the way his emotions were see-sawing all over the place. It was highly unfair that he’d been assigned a truemate by fate who was exactly who he hated.

Magic.

All forms of it.

He didn’t think there was good and bad magic or good and bad magic users.

All magic was bad.

Except that she’d healed him when he was near death. And that was good .

With a frustrated groan, he got out of the car and slammed the door.

Stalking into the house, he gently pushed the cat inside and then closed the door behind him. He found her in one of the bedrooms, gathering supplies. She was a study in concentration, hovering between a large book and shelves of boxes, bottles, and relics. He watched her with a frown.

“Just what is your plan?” he asked.

She put a palmful of something dark and sparkly into a wooden box and turned to face him. “I already told you.”

“But how will you find Rorik?”

“Warlocks tuned into dark magic always use bloodroot that’s been burned with cedar bark. I can craft a location spell using an old map that will show the last place it was used.” She stared at him and her upper lip curled. “You don’t have to trust my magic, Zay. You just need to trust me.”

He couldn’t. He wanted to, but every instinct in him kept reminding him that magic was a threat.

“You say you’re on my side, but your magic is the same kind that destroyed my clan.”

“No the hell it’s not!” she said, raising her voice. “Dark magic is good magic that’s been corrupted. I am not the warlocks who destroyed your clan. When are you going to stop punishing me for something I didn’t do?”

His dragon roared in his head, demanding he fix things and stop fighting with her.

But Zay didn’t know how.

Every time he let her get close, fear pushed her away.

Kinsley stepped into his space, her eyes alight with fury. She gave him a shove. “You need to get over yourself! I’m bending over backward to help you because you’re my mate, and every time I turn around, you’re pushing me away. You wouldn’t even kiss me, you ass!”

We’ll see about that.

He grabbed her roughly against him and kissed her before she could utter a word. The moment their lips touched, something deep inside him exploded and heated, a firestorm kicking off in his body that he knew was going to consume them both.

She was rigid in his arms for a heartbeat and then she melted with a moan that he felt all the way to the center of his being.

She tasted like moonlight and sweet wine.

And he felt like he was drowning.

The desire to bond with her, to mate her and make her his, surged inside him, an intense need to claim her riding him hard.

Their lips parted at the same time and the kiss deepened. He curled his fingers into her shirt, pulling her even closer. He could smell her arousal, his cock aching as she pressed against him.

She broke the kiss with a gasp, then fisted his shirt and backed away, bringing him with her. He would have followed her anyway, even to the gates of hell.

She didn’t move her gaze from his as she directed them to her bedroom. The moment they crossed the threshold, Zay pulled her close and cupped her face.

He stared down into her green eyes for a moment, and then he kissed her again. Desperate and on fire inside and out, he fumbled with her clothes, trying to get her naked while keeping his lips on her addictive mouth.

When he’d managed to strip her entirely, he bent her over the bed and ran his hands down her back and over her hips.

Her hands clenched the blanket under her.

Her lips were parted, and she was panting for breath, her skin already flushed with her arousal, and the sweet scent that swirled between them was making him crazy.

He slid a hand slowly over her bottom and between her thighs, gently rubbing her pussy, already coated with her honey. He traced the same path back, giving her ass a squeeze before delving his fingers back between her thighs and easing two fingers into her pussy.

She moaned and her hands tightened on the blanket.

He pulled his fingers out and brought them to his mouth to taste her.

He could have come right then.

Did anyone but his Kinsley taste so sweet? Honey was the perfect word to describe it.

“Fucking hell, Kinsley,” he said hoarsely. “You taste like a dream.”

She let out a deep moan as he pushed his fingers back inside her, slipping through her heat and rubbing her inner walls.

He let his other fingers rub along her clit, pushing and pulling back and forth, watching as she spread her legs a little farther apart and tilted her hips to give him better access.

He liked seeing her open for him, giving herself to him to do what he pleased.

He knew she trusted him to see to her pleasure, which made something in his heart prick in awareness. But he pushed it aside and focused on making her come.

Gripping her hip with his free hand, he fingered her harder, faster, her pussy creaming around his fingers as he took her to the height of pleasure. Her shoulders rolled forward and she cried out as she fell into her climax.

He unzipped his jeans and shoved them down his legs, freeing his aching cock. Spreading her cheeks apart, he took a moment to enjoy her swollen wetness and then he grasped his cock, lined himself up to her entrance, and thrust inside.

Her head kicked back with a pleasurable cry as he filled her fully, her pussy clenching around his length as she took all of him.

He leaned forward and linked one of his hands to hers, pressing their joined hands into the blanket, and with his free hand, he grasped her hip and held on tight.

Flexing his hips backward, he pulled out of her and pushed in, fucking her hard and fast.

She rested her head on top of his hand, her teeth grazing his skin as he thrust into her, making the bed creak with each movement. He wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from coming if his life had been on the line.

She felt too good, too right.

His dragon roared in his head and the sound spilled out of his mouth as he came, filling her with his seed, satisfaction blooming in his chest.

Sliding his hand in front of her hips, he grazed her swollen clit with his fingertips and her head shot up with a gasp.

“I can’t,” she said, her voice hoarse from crying out in pleasure. Her hips flexed like she was trying to get away from him.

Hell no.

“You can and you will, little witch. I want to feel your pleasure around my cock. Come for me.”

She pressed her head to the top of his hand and squeezed his fingers, her body relaxing as she gave herself over to him. He played with her clit, rubbing in circles and up and down, until he found just the right spot that made her breath hitch, and her pussy clutch him.

He focused his fingers on that spot, rubbing it lightly and quickly until her teeth dug into his hand as she screamed in pleasure.

Her pussy locked down on him so hard that it made his eyes cross.

Nothing had ever felt as good as this.

Nothing.

He caught himself before he crashed on top of her, inhaling the combined scents of their pleasure.

When he felt like his bones had solidified, he pulled from her pussy with a groan and climbed onto the bed.

He reached for her, and she joined him, settling on his chest and curling up next to him like a contented cat.

For a moment, everything felt right.

Being with Kinsley, holding her close, reveling in the way she’d sounded when she fell apart. But then it hit him like a crashing wave.

What the hell was he doing?

He’d let his defenses down and he was snuggling up to her like she was a dragon female and not a witch.

Gingerly he extracted himself from her, rolling away and staring at the wall.

“Oh, Zay,” she whispered thickly. “Don’t do this.”

She could apparently read him like a book.

But he was already putting those walls up. He couldn’t forget what magic users had done to his clan, to his family. She might be heaven on earth, but that was tainted with her magic.

“This doesn’t change anything,” he bit out, hating himself as much as he hated magic.

“We’ll see about that.”