Hours later, she lay on her side and cuddled with him, too sated to move. Their arms were wrapped around each other, their groins pressed together with her thigh held tightly between his. She’d never met someone with Chace’s passion and intensity, both of which were tempered by tenderness that made her trust him in every way in bed, even if she didn’t outside of it.
They made love like they were made for each other. There was no hesitation or awkwardness, and she almost swore he was in her head and knew where to touch and when.
Their foreheads were pressed together, and they breathed the same air, laden with the scent of their combined skin and their lovemaking.
“About those dreams,” he whispered huskily.
It was hard to remember they shouldn’t trust one another, when she was wrapped in his heat and intoxicated by his scent. The cabin lights were out, the crackling of the romantic fire peaceful.
“I don’t think they’re dreams,” she murmured.
“I don’t understand.”
“They’re memories. Trapped somewhere in my mind.” She tensed, expecting him to utter one of his blatant I-told-you-so’s about her being brainwashed.
He said nothing and began running his fingers through her hair.
She closed her eyes at the gentle touch, relaxing once more.
“I have a mother. Or had. I’m not sure,” she said, replaying the dreams though her mind. “Caleb took me from her about six years ago, when I was thirteen. I’m not sure what happened then. The dreams just kind of … stop.”
“Caleb is an asshole.”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me about your mother.”
She hesitated. “There’s not much to tell.”
“Skylar.” His growl was low, barely human.
“If you hadn’t waken me up earlier, I might know more,” she retorted.
“Excuse me for caring about your life.” His tone was dry.
Skylar chewed on her lower lip. It was swollen from his kisses, and she shifted forward to plant her face in the nape of his neck, where his scent was strong. His smoky-honey flavor somehow eased her into calm once more, like a drug she needed more and more of. Her physical satisfaction, combined with his scent and nearness, helped her think more clearly than she’d been able to since meeting him.
What bothered her more? That he admitted to caring about her or that he was the only person she knew on the planet right now who wasn’t lying to her or brainwashed?
“She’s beautiful,” she whispered. “Big blue eyes, long, dark hair. She has a smile that just melts you from the inside, and she makes good apple pie.”
“Like you. Except for the pie. Do you cook?”
She snorted. “No way.”
“We can buy pie then.”
Sometimes, this guy scares me for a reason other than because he’s a dragon. It was too easy to fall into his arms and want to stay there, to imagine herself surrounded by his warmth every day and know that there wasn’t anyone on the planet who was going to tangle with a dragon.
Even Caleb.
“What else?” he asked.
“Just glimpses mostly. Pieces of my past or what I assume might be my past. They don’t make sense though. Kinda like flipping through a photo album. The pictures are clear, but there’s so much missing from the story. From my story.” The tremor in her voice bothered her. She cleared her throat.
His arms tightened around her, and she snuggled against his chest.
“What do you see?” he pressed.
“Why?”
“Just curious.”
For the first time since they began making love, a trickle of unease went through her.
I don’t know this guy. At all. It didn’t bother her when her hormones got involved, but when she had time to think, she had trouble making sense of him.
“I told you about my mother. Now I want to ask you a question,” she said.
“Hmmm.”
“You said you’re not a normal shifter. Why not?”
He drew a deep breath. She listened to his heartbeat and nuzzled his skin with her nose, smiling at the tickle caused by the small hairs that littered his chest.
“I was placed under a curse a thousand years ago,” he replied. “Pissed of someone who knew how to use magic. I was a stupid, stupid kid.”
“Oh, wow,” she said. “I didn’t know magic existed outside of shifters.”
“I’m guessing she was a shifter. Probably an ancient one, one of those damned nocturnal shifters.” By the distracted tone in his voice, he was thinking hard.
“What’d you do? Cheat on her?”
He was silent.
“Turn her dog into fried chicken?” she joked, not liking the sudden tension of his frame.
“You were close the first time,” he said tersely. “Anyway, she made me into this so I’d suffer.”
“When does the curse end?”
“I don’t know.”
She shifted her head back to see his expression in the low light of the fire. Flames and shadow danced across his noble features. His gaze was distant, stormy. For a long moment, she was mesmerized by both the flames reflected in his blue eyes and the ones that danced in his pupils.
“It has to have an end,” she murmured. “Curses always do.”
“This isn’t some Disney movie fairytale,” he replied. “There’s no happy ending, no running off into the sunset or waking up one day to find it’s all a dream. Just me and the curse. Forever.”
Skylar pitied him in that moment, hearing the pain in his voice. An eternity alone as punishment?
She shimmied even closer to him and returned her face to his neck, where his scent grounded her.
“I bet there is a way to break it,” she said. “Or someone who can help you.”
“Maybe.” By his short response, he was ready to leave the topic.
“One of the things my mother told me in a dream … or memory … ugh.” She sighed.
Chace pressed warm lips to her forehead in a sign of support that made her heart flutter.
“She said I’d get my own dragon someday,” she finished. “I think that’s you.”
He said nothing.
“I don’t understand what it means. It’s why I took the pills, to try to learn more from my memories about this and about who I am. Or was. Or should be. Whatever.”
“I can’t imagine what you’re going through,” he said gently. “I may be cursed, but I know who I am and where I’m from. I don’t know what it would be like to have that part of me taken.”
“Yeah kinda sucks,” she admitted. “But maybe it’s not such a bad thing. I mean, you’re miserable remembering your curse. Maybe I don’t want to remember what’s happened to me. I can start from fresh, right now.”
“Your past is a part of you. It’ll come back to bite you. Might as well know what’s gonna get you.”
You’re so jaded. She kept this observation to herself, wanting to believe her life wasn’t as bad as it sounded out loud.
“What did your mom say to do with your dragon?” he asked.
“Fly around the world? Make fried chicken in an eco-friendly way?” she joked. “No idea, Chace. I haven’t gotten to that part of my memory. Or maybe, that part is permanently gone.” Like my mother might be. “Speaking of brainwashing … what on earth are you doing sleeping with a slayer?”
“Damned if I know,” he said with a sigh. “I can’t get enough of you or far enough away to stop wanting to fuck you again.”
“Ditto,” she murmured. “I’m surprised you’re not more upset about yesterday, about what Caleb tried to do to you. I thought you would’ve fried him good.”
“I still might. You keep distracting me,” he said pointedly. “My plan is to raze the place. Set the entire rehab center on fire and everyone in it.”
She propped herself up on one elbow to see his face. “Chace, the slayers like me don’t deserve to be hurt. They can’t help what they are,” she said, alarmed.
“They’re destroying my kind. You’re snapping out of it, but they might not.”
“You don’t know that. My friend Mason was going through what I am. He remembers his sister, who shouldn’t exist, according to his file.”
Chace studied her. “Do you know how many shifters are dead because of this little operation? Close to five hundred.”
“By your rationale, I should be one of those you fry. I turned in over a dozen, Chace, not knowing what was going to happen to them.”
He grated his teeth together, and the fire of his pupils grew brighter, bigger.
She placed both hands on his chest and pressed him onto his back, straddling his muscular hips. She rested her palms on his lower abs, marveling at the firm ridges beneath taut golden skin.
“Calm,” she ordered with a worried smile. “I’m sorry the shifters are getting hurt, but more death isn’t going to fix this. So you need a Plan B.”
“No.”
“How many times have you told me that you’ve never hurt a fly?” she challenged. “You’re not going to set fire to people who are innocent of any purposeful wrongdoing.”
“There’s nothing innocent about slayers.”
“Does that include me?”
He stared at her, jaw ticking. The depth of his anger and pain was clear. She didn’t blame him for wanting to set the world ablaze, but neither did she believe he had a right to take innocent lives.
“I’ll stop you,” she told him.
“How?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out,” she said. She ran her hands up his abs and chest and down his thick biceps and roped forearms. Skylar took his wrists and pinned them by his head with a grin. “I’ll just kiss you again. You melt every time I do.”
He snorted, some of the tension fading.
She kissed him deeply, wanting to taste him again so soon after they’d just made love. She rested her body on top of his, aware of the erection growing against her lower belly.
“You can’t kiss this problem away,” he whispered, pulling away.
“No, but I can help you realize that hurting slayers isn’t the way to go.” She said, meeting his gaze. “You want to help your shifters. I want to help those like me. I still don’t understand what’s going on, but I don’t think your plan is the right one.”
He tugged his wrists loose from her grip and wrapped his arms around her.
“You’re brave, until you see my other side,” he said. “I don’t think you fully understand what your dreams told you about what it means to have your own dragon.”
“No, I don’t. But I’m getting closer to figuring that out, too,” she replied. “Maybe it’s this. Us. Or maybe I’m meant to help you somehow.”
“No to both.” His tone was firm. “This … us … is a one-night stand that turned into a few nights. I will do whatever it takes to protect the shifters, even if that means someone gets hurt.”
Not someone. Me. The words stung, their hidden meaning hitting her harder than she expected.
“I’m running out of time. I’ve got to act soon,” he added more quietly. “Which is why you’ll tell me everything you know about other slayer rehab centers or training centers or even where every single member of the organization lives.”
“That won’t happen,” she replied, unsettled by the force of his words. “You’ve got eternity, don’t you?”
Chace rolled her onto her back and settled between her thighs. One of his hands traced her skin from knee to hip while the other pushed stray hair out of her face. The tenderness was gone, replaced by purpose and resolve.
“It will happen,” he said. His dark blue eyes were piercing, the hard body pressing her to the bed a distraction she didn’t need.
She did what she’d done whenever he started to scare her and reached up, taking his face and pulling it down to hers.
“Kiss me.”
“You can’t-”
She didn’t let him finish but kissed him hard, fast and deep, opening herself to him in an invitation she knew he wasn’t going to walk away from. Chace started to resist then gave, his emotion bursting into hunger even more intense than before. Skylar relaxed, aware she was about to go on a ride much different than before, rougher, more primal. She let his passion sweep her away.
Tomorrow I’ll figure out what to do.