“Clarissa?”
The sound of Nathaniel’s voice entered her dreams and called her out of sleep. When her eyes fluttered open, he was there, shirtless and in a pair of loose-fitting sweats. She stared at his chest. He was a masterpiece of long, lean muscle with a set of abs that made her long to stroke their hard peaks and valleys. She could stare at that chest all day and never get tired of it.
“I can dress,” he offered. “I was just concerned. It’s been hours. It’s the middle of the night. Tempest said you hadn’t eaten.”
She sighed. “I’m sore and very hungry.” She ran a hand through her hair. It had dried while she slept and fell loose and wild around her shoulders.
“Let’s make you something.” He held out his hand to her. “A proper special omelet.”
She slipped her hand into his and sat up, allowing the blanket to fall from her naked body. It wasn’t a mistake. She’d been thinking of him when she crawled between the sheets, and she was thinking of him now. She wanted him to see her.
He sucked air through his teeth. “Shall I fetch you a robe?”
“No.”
“I know I told you there was nothing I hadn’t seen before the first night you were here, but there is only so much a man can take.” His voice was coal and grit. “You have to get dressed, Clarissa. I can’t…” He shook his head and turned his gaze away.
She climbed from the bed and placed her hand on his cheek, feeling the stubble against her palm. Bracing her thumb on his chin, she turned his head to face her. “Be mine, Nathaniel.” Her voice was so weak she could hardly hear herself.
His gray eyes turned hard and cold in an instant. “Careful, Clarissa—this isn’t a game. If you’re playing with me, you won’t like how this ends.”
She searched his face, craning her neck to see him better in the dim light from the door and the moonlight streaming in the window. “Today, when Grindylow grabbed you, I didn’t care if I ever sang again.”
His brow furrowed. “You don’t mean that. You’ve said over and over again how important it is to you.”
She shook her head. “All I cared about was getting you back. All I felt was regret for not forcing you back into the car once I understood the scheme. What sort of horrible person sacrifices someone she loves for… for a song?” She felt nauseated just thinking about it.
“Love isn’t enough, remember?” he said cynically. He tried to take a step back, but she moved right along with him.
“I thought that was true when I said it, but I was wrong.” She frowned. “Love was enough today. Enough to make me realize that I cannot live in a world without you. All these years, somewhere in the back of my mind, I assumed… No, I knew down to my soul that you’d take me back whenever I was ready. It made me confident, this secret I had in my subconscious, that I held the love of a dragon. Oh, I thought you’d take other lovers, sure, but no one, no one would ever touch what we had.”
“I’m not a toy you can take out of the box when you want to play with it.” He narrowed his eyes on her.
“I know. I was wrong. I realized today that I can live without my voice, I can live without my magic, I can live without a family.” Her voice cracked. “But I can’t live without you. Please forgive me for taking so long to decide. But if you want me still, I am yours.”
The look he gave her was nothing short of mystified. It was like she was speaking a different language. For the longest time he just stared at her, face impassive, body tense. Minutes passed and she felt truly naked, exposed in a way she’d never been before.
She looked away and laughed under her breath. “It is too late, isn’t it? You don’t feel the same way as before.”
His hand landed on her arm. “No. That’s not it.”
Her eyes met his. “Then what is it?”
“You’re still Clarissa. The Clarissa. You have a concert at the O2 in a week.”
“I know.”
His eyes grew dark and stormy. “The extreme circumstances of today have heightened your emotions. It’s quite possible you’re in shock. When the sun rises, or the next time Tom calls, I fear you’ll change your mind.”
She shook her head. “Not about this.”
“I need you to listen to me. Really listen. If I take you as my mate, if you agree to be mine, I cannot break that bond, not ever. I could hold you at arm’s length before because you did not agree. Once you give yourself to me in this way, I can’t go back. The love we felt before will be a shadow of what will exist in its place.”
He’d told her that before about the mating bond, that for dragons it was akin to a marriage that could never be dissolved. She wasn’t sure she could fully understand what that meant as a human. Could anyone who wasn’t immortal wrap their mind around it?
“I think I understand. I mean, as much as I can, not being a dragon.”
He let her go and paced the room, clearly agitated. When he turned back to her, his eyes were glowing amethyst and it was his dragon that spoke. “If you change your mind, I will come after you. I won’t be able to abide your distance.”
She crossed her arms. So it had come to this—he’d expect her to live here with him, which meant severely limiting her career. Of course, without her magic, her career would be limited anyway. The chance that she could decipher what Grindylow had said to her and get her magic back seemed distant. Sisters? Dragon queens? It hadn’t been what she was expecting.
And then there was the emptiness that she felt when she thought about going back to her old life. That was something she couldn’t deny. She’d been lonely before and hadn’t even realized it. But being here, being with Nathaniel, the old spark was back. For him. For life. She might have lost her voice, but she’d found again her reason for wanting to sing.
She looked straight into the face of the dragon and her throat caught as she said, “Don’t you know, Nathaniel, I’m already yours.”
Mine.
Nathaniel could smell it. Her love for him, her wanting, filled his lungs. He took a step toward her, then another. She did not back away although he must have been terrifying with his dragon so near the surface. He could feel it burning in him, its desire to complete the bond so intense he could think of nothing else. Still, some part of his logical mind expected her to run. Expected her to turn him away, the same as she had the night of the ritual.
She didn’t. And the look she was giving him pushed all the right buttons. It was total surrender. Unlike the night of the ritual, he wasn’t hunting her. She was an active participant in the electrical charge building between them. She met him halfway, slamming into him in the middle of her bedroom.
He wrapped his arms around her as her mouth crashed into his, returning her kiss with all the intensity that had built inside him for a decade. She melted against him. He teased her bottom lip until she opened for him, then licked and thrust into her mouth until she moaned.
By the Mountain, she smelled of lilies and sex, her need blooming between her legs and kindling his dragon senses. He was hard in an instant, almost painfully so. He swept her into his arms.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked as he strode from her room.
“My room. The bed is bigger, and I intend to use every inch of it.”
He watched an intoxicating pink creep across her cheeks. Silently, he reveled in it. She may be older now, more sophisticated, but he could still make her blush. He entered the master bedroom and lowered her to the black silk of his sheets while he shimmied off the sweats he was wearing. She stretched like a cat, her creamy skin a delicious contrast against the dark fabric. She was spilled milk he intended to lap up.
“God, I missed this bed,” she said, doing a snow angel against the fabric.
He grabbed her ankles and slid her to him, spreading her legs wide. “I missed you.”
His lips found her ankle and teased along the bone and along her calf. She writhed. Her fingernails dug into his hair.
“So impatient,” he murmured against the inside of her knee. He slowed, creeping along her thigh. His mating trill started in his chest, and she moaned as the vibration tickled her skin.
“That sound. I could listen to that all day.” She arched herself toward his lips, and he flashed her a self-satisfied smile, then trailed closer to her center. She closed her eyes. “Your mouth is… so… hot.”
“Open your eyes. I want you to watch me, Clarissa.”
Her eyes popped open, that arresting blue sending a ripple of anticipation through him.
“Good.” He held her gaze as he spread her ankles wider and licked up her center. Her whole body shivered. “I want to know that you’re here with me. That you want this.”
“Oh… Nate. I do.” She spread her arms wide and clawed the sheets.
He started working on her properly, his tongue flicking along her delicate flesh. He could feel the tension building within her, hear her breath coming in pants. He rested one of her ankles between his wing and shoulder and slid his fingers into her slick heat. She came apart under his tongue, her entire body trembling. Her gasp of pleasure filled the room.
Wings unfurling, he stretched over her, supporting himself on his elbows. A satisfied female sigh brushed his cheek.
“I want you in me.”
“Mine.” He raised his hips, positioned himself, and entered her.
Nathaniel had been with women before Clarissa, and he’d been with her before they were mated. But nothing compared to this. As he slid into her slick heat, the mating bond snapped into place and everything changed. Every cell in his body aligned with hers, and when their eyes met, he could see she felt it too.
“It’s… oh… it’s like…” She couldn’t finish. Her hips rose to meet his, finding an easy rhythm.
He leaned back, spread his wings, and lifted her.
“So deep,” she crooned, bracing herself on his neck.
She moaned as he thrust inside the deep vee of her legs. On his knees like this, with her suspended in his arms, he had everything he’d ever wanted. Everything made sense. And he realized he would always feel this way. All the pieces fit. He moved with her until she grew tired and let go, flopping onto her back on the mattress and pulling him on top of her.
“More. Faster,” she said.
He stretched on top of her, gave her what she needed, pistoning into her until she shattered around him once again. He found his own glorious peak, and everything in the room melted away. All that existed was her. Her moans of pleasure. Her body writhing gently beneath him. The soft mounds of her breasts against his chest. The long thin stretch of her waist.
When he finally came back down to earth, she had his face between her hands. “I love you, Nathaniel. I love you so damned much.”
“I love you too, beyond limits.” He rolled onto his back, taking her with him, and reveled in the feel of her weight over him. He stroked her hair down her back. “Now, my mate, tell me everything Grindylow told you. We’re getting your magic back.”