It was late by the time Clarissa had wrapped up her act, met with fans, and signed autographs. She’d stripped off her costume, hairpiece, and makeup. Then there was the hard conversation with Tom. Words were said, words that could never be taken back. But that’s what happened when you violated someone’s expectations. She’d figured as much.
Tom had staked his career on her ongoing success, and she’d told him she wasn’t interested in being a pop star anymore. All things considered, she thought he handled it well.
Security walked her out to her car, where she anticipated Emory would be waiting. Instead, she found Nathaniel leaning up against the Mercedes and staring at the stars. When he saw her, his mouth spread into a wide smile.
She took off at a run and leaped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips. He did not disappoint. Catching her, his big arms enveloped her in protective warmth and his face buried in her neck.
“Oh God,” she said. “My God, Nathaniel, I thought you’d never get back. And Aborella, she would have k-killed me if not for you.”
“Shhh. Shhh.” He kissed her cheek. “We got her. I have you now. You’re safe.”
He opened the car door for her and she slid in. Once he was in place beside her, she tucked into his side again as Emory took off for Mistwood. “I missed you so much. Tell me everything.”
He gave her the condensed version. “I had no idea that Aborella would strike tonight. I simply came to see you perform and acted when I saw her in the crowd. Truthfully, I thought it would take her longer to recover from what we did to her in Paragon.”
“I’m lucky you did. Even with my voice and magic in place, I’m not sure I could have stopped her from hurting me or one of my dancers by myself.”
He placed a kiss on her temple.
“Why do you think she came after me? Why not Raven?” It was a question that had weighed on her all night.
Nathaniel thought about how to tell her the truth. “In my world, there is a legend, part history, part folklore, about three sister witches. In the early fourth century, long before I was born, the kingdom of Paragon was attacked by the kingdom of Darnuith—in our world, the kingdom of the witches. The witch queen of Darnuith, who attacked Paragon—which was under the rule of my uncle King Brynhoff at the time—was one of three sisters. She’d risen to power quickly, and her magic was unparalleled. The uprising was thwarted, and Brynhoff credited the Goddess of the Mountain with his victory.
“He claimed the goddess had decreed that for the greater peace, there must be an alliance of kingdoms. The Highborn Court was formed with Paragon as its head, thus giving the kingdom of Paragon power over all five territories. Although each kingdom is independent on paper, Paragon, as the protector of all, has ultimate power over all. Since then, there has been a tenuous peace. But there is a marked difference between the way Paragonians talk about the five kingdoms and the way others do. We say that the realm of Paragon is divided into five kingdoms, led by the kingdom of Paragon.”
“And what do the others say?”
“Before the uprising by Darnuith, the realm was called Ouros and Paragon one kingdom among five. Many outside of Paragon still call our world Ouros. But while ancient maps are labeled Ouros, all maps since the Witch War label our world as Paragon with the Kingdom of Paragon delineated as the capitol.”
“I can’t imagine the other four kingdoms appreciate that. No wonder there’s political unrest. But how does that translate into Aborella trying to kill me?”
“There is a prophecy among the Darnuith that one day the descendants of the three sisters will return and that the progeny of a witch and a dragon will destroy the kingdom of Paragon. Aborella tried to kill you tonight to get at Raven because Gabriel and Raven’s child is believed to be the destroyer, the one foretold, the weapon the three sisters would use to conquer the kingdom of Paragon. You were the most vulnerable, so she targeted you. I can only assume she’d learned you’d be at the O2 the last time she was here, the night she took your hair.”
A dull humming had started in her ears, and Clarissa shook her head as if to clear it. “Are you saying that my existence… my connection to you and to Raven and Avery… that you believe it was prophesized in your world. Like… like… in your mythology?”
He nodded. “We think, perhaps, yes. I didn’t believe it at first, not until Gabriel brought it to mind. But there’s no doubt Raven and Gabriel’s child is the one foretold. It all fits.”
Ooookay. She leaned back against the seat and swore. What was she supposed to do with that? “It’s a lot to process.”
“Right, well, you don’t have to worry about anything.” Nathaniel brushed a hand over the sleeve of his suit. “I’ll be there, every night at every concert, from now on. I’ll protect you. No one from Paragon or anywhere else is ever going to hurt you again, and Gabriel and Raven can go about their lives and decide what to do about Paragon. We don’t need to be involved.”
She swallowed. “Aside from the idea that I should or could simply set aside what you’ve told me about Paragon to pursue my career, there’s something you should know.” She turned to look him in the eye. “I told Tom tonight that I’m retiring. There’re a few more appearances I’m contractually obligated to complete, but then I’m ending it.”
He placed his hands on her shoulders, his brow furrowing. “Why? Clarissa, I promise you, nothing that has happened requires you to sacrifice this. You love to sing. You live to sing. I know my world is terrifying right now, but I swear to you I protect what’s mine—”
She shook her head and laughed. “I know. I know I could do it. Tonight was our best performance ever. We’re trending everywhere. Everyone is talking about the show. Tom said it was a concert for the history books.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’m not willing to pay the price of fame anymore.”
“Clarissa…” Nathaniel looked contrite, like he regretted what he’d said to her over breakfast about her chosen profession.
“No… no. Nathaniel, you were right about that. All these years, I’ve been terribly lonely. Surrounded by fans but always alone. I thought it was enough. But spending every holiday with the people you work with because you have no real friends or family isn’t living. It’s a prison.”
“You’d have me. I’d be there for you, always.”
“Yes. I know. But I don’t want it anymore. I love to sing. I’ll always sing. I want to become an indie artist. Release music on my own terms. Perform in small venues, intimate ones for me and a few dozen fans. No more arenas. No more crowds of thousands. No more Tom.” She placed a hand over his heart. “I want to have a home, maybe a family. Let’s face it, I have more money than I could ever spend. I don’t need to work and I just… I just…”
“What sort of family?” Nathaniel asked. Dark clouds moved in behind his irises, and his expression became gravely serious.
She drew back. Had she made a terrible mistake? Her words rambled out all at once. “I… I thought because we were mated that your family would become my family. I mean Nick, Maiara, Sabrina, Avery, and I seemed to bond while you were gone. I felt connected for the first time.” She sighed. “Oh hell, I was wrong. They don’t like me, do they? I’m so bad at reading people.”
Her hands went to her head, but Nathaniel caught her wrists. “No, you’re not. My family is your family and always will be. Any of my siblings would do anything for you.”
“Then why do you look so grave?”
“Children between dragons and witches are rare,” he said. “Forbidden, as I mentioned. Gabriel and Raven’s child was conceived with the help of a magic spell. She died giving birth, and although they were able to revive her, it was touch and go for a time. Children won’t happen naturally between us, and the magic to make them happen would be dangerous.”
“Oh.” She blinked at him. She’d known he couldn’t impregnate her. They’d covered that much before when they’d become lovers. She’d just never fully understood why.
“We should have talked about this… before.” He tucked her hair behind her ear.
She sent him a soft smile and tugged at the cuff of her sleeve. “It wouldn’t have made a bit of difference, Nate. You are mine, and our claiming each other was long past overdue as far as I’m concerned. But truly, when I said family, I didn’t necessarily mean children, although someday I wouldn’t mind providing a home for a child who needs parents— an orphan like me. Right now, I just mean you, your siblings, Tempest and Laurel if they ever warm up to me. A home… Love… Warmth. I’m tired of feeling like my every breath is pulled into my lungs for someone else.”
Nathaniel ran his fingers along the inside of her thigh from her knee to the hem of her dress. “Then so it shall be. If you truly want to make a change, we can build you a studio at Mistwood.”
“Life is too short for anything else.”
Nathaniel turned serious. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”
Her stomach tensed. Was her mortality a problem for him? “Yes?”
“There is a way I can make you immortal like me, and I hope you’ll accept it.”
It felt like all the blood had drained from her face. Her skin went cold. She thought she’d understood what it meant to be mated to a dragon, but never did she assume it came with immortality. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. If I feed you my tooth, you will live as long as I do.”
“Your tooth.”
He nodded once. “It is how it always has been and always will be for dragons. Do you think you could be bonded with me for all eternity? The tooth will keep you young and impart you with health and strength.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. He squinted at her. “I mean, have you ever done this before?”
“With Emory.”
She mulled it over for a few long moments.
“Does the length of the commitment scare you?” A muscle in his jaw twitched. She realized his bond to her was already eternal. He would love her for the rest of his life, not hers.
At once she knew her answer. “No. It doesn’t scare me.”
“Then yes?” His eyes met hers and flashed amethyst.
“Yes.”
He reached into his mouth, and with a tug she thought must have hurt, extracted something white and too long to have fit in his jaw. He closed his fist around it. A surge of magic rippled across her skin. When he opened his hand again, there was a purple pill the size of a Tic Tac in his palm. “Take this and it is done.”
“That’s it? Just swallow it down?”
He nodded. She took the pill and placed it on her tongue, then swallowed it without hesitation. Immediately she felt warmth bloom from her stomach and branch through her limbs like lightning. She closed her eyes as energy charged through her blood and her connection with Nathaniel became a palpable thing, a taut, invisible string between them.
Her eyelids flipped open and he was there, focused on her, his masculine presence almost overwhelming. She wanted him. Wanted him in her.
Every cell in her body came alive at the feel of his fingertips lightly caressing the sensitive flesh along the inside of her thigh. She desperately wanted to yell at Emory to drive faster. She remembered the feel of Nathaniel rising behind her onstage, felt the sheer power that seemed to surround him. All that magic, all that feral, tightly coiled strength, was right here in her arms. She needed him. She needed to feel him inside her, to know he was hers on every level.
By the time they pulled into the drive at Mistwood, she was a raw, hungry nerve. They slipped into the manor through the back door and went directly to his room, where he wasted no time trying to strip her out of her dress, his mating trill rumbling in his chest. She dodged.
“So impatient. I don’t recall giving you permission to touch me,” she said through a smile. There was nothing she wanted more than to feel Nathaniel move inside her, but patience was a virtue, and a game would make the prize all the sweeter.
His hands dropped to his sides and his lips twitched. “I can’t touch you?”
“Not until I say. What good is having a dragon to ride if he can’t take direction?”
His eyes narrowed. “You’d like to be in control, Ms. Black?”
She grinned. “Oh, I am in control. Hold absolutely still.”
She raised herself onto her tiptoes and grabbed the lapels of his suit jacket, pushing it off his shoulders. It fell to the floor in a heap. To his credit, he did hold absolutely still. And didn’t that make her feel powerful? All that brutal potential, that lean, hidden power, was completely at her command. She swaggered around him, her eyes raking his body, then slid her hands over his ribs from behind.
Arms wrapped around him, she unbuttoned his shirt, tugging the tails from his pants and sliding it off his shoulders from behind. She scraped her nails along his ribs, enjoying the hard peaks and valleys of his chest and abs. Her fingers dipped inside his waistband.
“Clarissa,” he whispered, and her name on his lips sent a wave of heat through her. He said it with reverence.
“Hmm.” She took a step back and then swept her fingers up his spine and into the hair at the back of his head. His muscles twitched and flexed under the soft graze of her nails. She pressed her hand between the two crescent-shaped marks on his shoulder blades. “Show them to me.”
Obediently, he unfurled his wings. They were glorious, sparkling and purple tinged. She allowed herself a moment to take in their magnificence. She ran her hands along the place where they sprouted from his body, petted the flesh along the webbing.
He moaned, his breath coming faster. She stroked along the bony edge and then scraped her nails along the underside. A shiver traveled over his skin, and she grinned in triumph. She was just getting started.
“For the love of the Mountain, Clarissa, I’m going to ruin my pants.”
“We can’t have that.” She reached around his waist, unfastened the buckle of his belt, then circled to the front of him to pull the strip of leather off in one quick snap. She folded the leather in half and placed it in his hand.
“What do you want me to do with this?” he asked lasciviously.
She backed up a few steps. “Hold it in both hands, behind your back.”
He obeyed, the motion causing the muscles of his arms to bunch and strain. Her blood pounded in her veins. She was going to enjoy this. She unbuttoned his pants and slid them and his briefs down around his ankles. He stepped out and toed off his socks. She tossed them over the chair against the wall.
He was hard and erect. Magnificent. Her eyelids felt heavy. Deep inside, her body opened and wet heat bloomed between her legs.
“Well, Ms. Black, what do you plan to do with me?” His irises had turned bright, burning violet, the way they always did when he was doing magic. Behind him, his wings tensed. Desire flowed off him in waves.
“This.” She dropped to her knees and wrapped her mouth around him.
Nathaniel felt the leather in his fists stretch as Clarissa drew his erection into her mouth. He was going to need a new belt. Her tongue slid slick and wet along the underside of his shaft. By the Mountain, he’d never felt pleasure like this. The act itself was delicious, but the way she reveled in controlling the pace, in absolutely owning him, ignited the thrill.
She opened her throat and drew him in deep. His mating trill boomed loud enough to rattle the walls.
“You’ll make me come,” he whispered.
She slid her mouth faster, wrapping her hand along the base of his shaft. His release rushed through him and his wings spread as the belt finally snapped and dropped from his grip. He laced his fingers in her hair as she licked the last bits of his release off him.
“Mmm, so you can take direction,” she said in a tone that was nothing short of indecent.
“You are an exceptional taskmaster.”
His hands found the hem of her dress and pulled it over her head. He made short work of her bra and her lace thong. Her breasts mounded warm and heavy in his hands, her nipples budding hard between his fingers. His mouth found hers and tasted the salty remains of his passion on her lips.
Nathaniel had lived a long time, but there was only one thing he knew for sure: she was his other, his true and permanent partner.
His fingers trailed over her abdomen, then lower to the junction of her thighs.
She sighed against his lips. “I love you, Nathaniel.”
He drew her against his chest as he hastened the work of his fingers. “Love isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel for you. You are my heart, my greatest treasure, the fire in my blood.”
She arched her back and pressed her breasts into his chest as an orgasm rocked through her. He lowered her onto the bed through the aftershocks and thrust into her just as her body softened beneath his.
“And the student becomes the teacher,” she whispered, tilting her head back.
He kissed the underside of her jaw, moving inside her, magic building between them once more. “I think there’s plenty left between us to learn.”
Together they found their release, their hearts and bodies entwined, but the bond between them ran far deeper. All his life he’d practiced magic, both the dark and the light, but he’d never experienced power like this. Or love like this. And that was the strongest magic of all.