Chapter 20

Dallas jerked in Rhys’s arms, her eyes flying open. She’d only been asleep for three hours and he knew she needed more. It was clear in the wild, almost unfocused glaze of her beautiful gray eyes.

“Is Willow okay?” she rasped out.

His heart clenched. She was always thinking of other people, other beings. He’d never imagined a female like her in his life. “She’s fine. Currently being spoiled. It’s only been a few hours, Dallas.” The blackout curtains were firmly in place but bits of the late morning light still peeked through.

Dallas sighed and seemed to settle more against the sheets. “Good.” She nuzzled her face against his chest, wrapping her arm around him and throwing one leg over him as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Just like that, his cock hardened. He’d already been in a semi-state of arousal on and off for the last few hours. Every time she shoved her ass up against him, or turned over and wrapped her body around his, he got hard. Then he’d have to think of shitty things so his erection would go down. It was a vicious cycle.

Now with her curled up against him, her full breasts pressing against his chest, it was definitely too much for his waning self-control.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, fighting to steady the wild beat of his heart, and tried to think of anything but Dallas’s lush body pressed up against his.

“I wouldn’t mind that kiss right now,” she sleepily mumbled against his chest.

Oh, hell. He rolled his hips against her, leaving no doubt how aroused he was.

She leaned her head back to look up at him. She was half awake, but he saw the fire simmering in her bright eyes that had gone almost silver and he could clearly scent her desire. It was sweet and overpowering, leaving him no doubt that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.

Without second-guessing himself, he crushed his mouth to hers, tasting, teasing, taking. Goddess, he wanted to consume her, to bring her so much pleasure that she passed out from it. His female needed rest—and an orgasm.

Moving quickly, he caged her body underneath his, glad they had an actual bed in here now as opposed to that flimsy cot.

Moaning, she stretched out underneath him, arching her unfortunately covered breasts against his chest. But he felt the beaded points of her nipples rubbing against him as he plundered her mouth. Her taste was perfection. She was perfection.

He slid his hands up the tiny shirt he’d picked out for her earlier, cupping her breasts, shuddering at the feel of them in his hands, at the fact that she wanted him to touch her at all.

She groaned into his mouth and the scent of her desire spiked in the air as he slowly teased her nipples.

He needed to see her naked, or at least more of her. And he needed skin-to-skin contact, was desperate to feel her against him. When he leaned up to tug her top off, he realized he was slightly glowing.

The mating manifestation. Dallas was…his mate.

He jerked at the reality of what was happening to him, even as his dragon sniffed that of course she was. He’d just been too foolish to see the signs. He…would digest this later.

He tugged on her shirt, wanting to see all of her.

She stared at him, a soft, sleepy smile playing across her face. “I think you’re a little bit magic too,” she whispered, running her fingers over his biceps and down his forearms. “You’re glowing.”

That he was, and clearly she didn’t know what his glow meant. He would tell her later.

Once she was bared to him, he stared down at her breasts, feeling as if he had the most precious thing in front of him. She was better than any dragon hoard, better than…anything he deserved. “And you are perfection,” he managed to growl out as he reached for the top of her sleep shorts and tugged them down.

He dipped his head to one breast even as he got rid of her shorts—and it was taking all his self-control not to simply incinerate her clothing and just be done with it. She should be naked all the time around him. As he tugged her nipple into his mouth, she let out the sweetest moan and arched into him.

Hell yeah. Hearing that sound from her lips made him shudder.

As her back lifted off the bed, he slipped a hand underneath her, palming her back, feeling more grounded as he held her. The beat of her heart was wild and out of control as he teased her breasts, moving from one to the other, so that her skin was slick with his kisses.

She clutched onto his back, her legs spread wide for him as she moaned out his name.

Her scent was driving him crazy, making his glow even brighter. He’d heard about the mating manifestation before. Hell, he was just surprised it had taken this long to manifest. A week ago he would have scoffed at anyone who told him that he was destined to mate a witch. A week ago he was a fucking fool who needed a good punch in the face.

Mine. That was the only thing he and his dragon knew with certainty. Dallas was his.

He reached between her legs and gently teased a finger between her folds and found her soaked. All for him.

Finally, you please her, his dragon purred.

He was rock-hard between his legs but he didn’t dare take off his pants. He needed to taste her, needed her to come. His sweet Dallas deserved all the orgasms.

And he needed her to find the release she so desperately craved so she could get some more rest. She’d done so much, and he’d learned in the few hours she’d been asleep that the amount of power it had taken for her to rip that wall open was superhuman. It should have taken a whole coven to rip it open but she’d done it all alone and in seconds.

His female was truly remarkable.

She speared her fingers through his hair as he started kissing a path lower along her body. Her skin was soft, smooth, and he nipped everywhere, giving her little love bites. She gasped out in pleasure every time he did and his cock pushed even harder against his pants.

When he knelt between her legs, she tried to close her thighs.

He looked up the length of her body and realized her cheeks were flushed red and not just from desire. Was she nervous? Or was this something else?

“Is this okay?”

She nodded, her breathing erratic but her gaze hesitant.

“Say it,” he murmured. “Yes or no.” He needed the words, wanted to make sure she was all in for this. Because he never wanted her to regret them. Regret him.

Her thighs slowly fell open. “Yes.”

It was clear she was nervous and he didn’t think it was because she’d never had this done to her before, but more likely because of the way their relationship had started off. She was at her most vulnerable with his face between her thighs. He had to do this right, had to make this perfect for her. Because he didn’t think he could let her go. He didn’t want to.

Ever.

He bent his head between her legs, inhaling the sweetest scent of her as he slowly licked up her slick folds.

In that moment she clenched her legs around his head, her desire filling the air and making him light-headed as it overpowered everything else.

As he started flicking his tongue against her clit, she cried out. “Rhys.”

Hearing his name on her lips was almost too much. His cock jerked against his pants again. He felt like an untried adolescent, ready to spill his seed in his pants, instead of the ancient he was.

He dipped two fingers inside her and her inner walls clenched around him as he continued teasing her clit. He could tell she was close. She was riding the edge so hard it wouldn’t take much to push her over it.

He continued teasing her, increasing the pressure on her sensitive bundle of nerves, and when her fingers dug into his scalp, pleasure mixing with pain, he knew she was about to come. So he slid another finger inside her.

She arched up against his fingers and mouth as she climaxed, crying out his name as she trembled with the pleasure. When she fell against the sheets, boneless and satisfied, he crawled up her body, caging her in with his forearms. He could look at her all damn day and not get tired of it.

She gazed up at him, a slightly dazed expression on her beautiful face. “Thank you,” she murmured, looking sleepier by the second.

But then she reached between their bodies and rubbed his cock over his pants.

He took her hand away. “You need sleep,” he murmured.

“I need you to come too,” she whispered back, wildfire entering her gray eyes as she tried to dip her hand underneath his pants.

“Fine. But you lie here and do nothing,” he ordered. She’d given way too much of herself and he wasn’t letting her do anything else. Not even for his pleasure.

“So bossy,” she murmured as he freed his thick length from his pants.

He started stroking himself, pinning her with his gaze as he did, imagining it was her hand stroking him. It wasn’t going to take long and that should probably embarrass him, but he had the most perfect female underneath him. And he had the taste of her orgasm on his tongue. Yeah, it wouldn’t take him long at all.

He covered her mouth with his as he stroked. She joined him, wrapping her fingers around his. Oh, goddess.

His balls pulled up tighter at the feel of her fingers skating against his hard length, and that was what set him off. Her touch.

He started coming in long, hard waves.

All his muscles pulled taut as he found release on his stomach and hers. When he was done, he felt a bit savage and primal as he rubbed himself into her skin. He had the most primitive need to mark her, to claim her so that all other supernaturals would know she was his and only his.

She gave him a sweet kiss, then curled on her side as she made that soft humming sound he was coming to realize she often did. As she started to drift off into sleep, he slid in behind her and tucked her up against his chest before he pulled the covers over them.

He wasn’t one to let his guard down, but he knew the house was well protected, and hell, he needed sleep too. Once he was sure she’d finally drifted into oblivion, he allowed himself to close his eyes and fall asleep with the woman who meant far too much to him.

The female who he now knew, without a doubt, was his intended mate.