We didn’t make it to the bed. The first time he took me hard and fast on the thick rug in front of the fireplace. I was not remotely quiet as the orgasm flooded through me. Braxton was right there with me, groaning out his own release, my name on his lips.
“Shit, Brax, we didn’t use protection,” I slurred from pleasure and exhaustion.
He stared down at me, those eyes so mesmerizing. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re already carrying my young. I don’t want anything between us … are you worried about it?”
“I love you,” I said. “Even if I had a million choices for a mate, I would still always choose you. And no, I don’t want anything between us either.”
He went motionless above me, our bodies still intertwined, his strong arms holding most of his weight off me. Probably worried about squishing me and his possible baby. “I love you too, Jess. You know I always have. If you had a million mates, I would destroy every single one to get to you.”
He shifted to lie beside me, pulling me into him. The heat of the fire crackled against our naked skin and I couldn’t stop from running my lips along his chest. He had tasted me and now it was my turn. His eyes were electric as they followed my movements. I ran my tongue along each defined line of his abdomen, down to my favorite V in the world, the one which led to … damn, he was hard again, even though we’d only just finished. As I let my tongue run across him, tasting the salty sweetness of our lovemaking, I tried to figure out how I was going to fit him all in.
Huge dick was great and all, but I could already feel the ache in my jaw. Still, it was going to be fun to try, and we had plenty of hours left for me to get it right.
The night was almost over by the time we showered again and finally crawled into bed. I was spent, boneless, and as relaxed as a person could be who was not actually dead.
As I lay in the arms of my mate, thoughts slowing down, my animals inside quiet and calm, I did something pretty unusual for me. I prayed to the Faerie gods. I asked the shining ones to protect my loved ones during this battle. I needed this to last forever. I was not ready to lose one second of my life with them. With Braxton.
I hated the dragon king for so much, but if I lost even one person I loved in this coming battle, he would rue the day he decided to create his dragon marked curse and forcibly dragon mate souls. My dragon and I had already decided that we had to kill him just for that alone, for the fact that she should have grown up with her family in Faerie, that she should be the next ruling dragon queen.
Braxton’s arm snaked around me tighter, his large palm resting against my stomach. There was something both tender and possessive in his action and it gave me a sense of calm and home. Even though I didn’t want to waste one second on sleeping, my exhaustion pulled me under and I was gone into a dreamless slumber.
The sirens violently ripped us from the comfort of sleep. I was disoriented for a second before finding myself really freaking annoyed that my reprieve from the stress and worry of life had ended so abruptly.
At some point during the night we had moved slightly apart in our sleep, although Braxton still had a heavy arm draped protectively over me. That was just how shifters were, we liked to sleep in a big pile of comfort. Without saying anything, we both jumped up and were off the bed in a flash.
“Shit,” I said. “I don’t have any clean clothes here.” I really didn’t want to put on my old, dirty Faerie garments.
Braxton was already striding into his walk-in wardrobe. “In here, babe,” he said.
I scurried after him, wondering what sort of magic he had cooked up, and as I stepped inside I ground to a halt to see an entire shelf filled with my stuff.
“What the crap?” I shouldn’t be so surprised. My mate was nothing if not impressive and organized. “Did we move in together and you forgot to tell me?”
He grinned. “When you disappeared I might have dismantled most of your room at Jonathon’s and moved your stuff in here.”
I could see lots of my things now: clothes, shoes, little mementoes of my life scattered throughout the large closet.
“I just needed to feel that you were close to me. I needed to protect these things while I was searching for you.” His voice was low as he stood there naked, pouring out his pain and worry.
I couldn’t stop myself from crossing to him. “I love this, Brax,” I said, standing on my tiptoes so I could almost reach my arms around his neck. “Our stuff should be together, in our dragon den of sin.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I think the beast inside was controlling me a lot, and he wanted to protect his treasures.”
I knew exactly what he meant.
The siren was still blaring, and a sense of urgency filtered through the room. I knew the others would be waiting for us; we needed to get moving. I rifled through my stuff and pulled on a dark purple long-sleeved shirt and some black jeans. My hair went up into a ponytail; my boots were the heavy, face-smashing kind. Braxton handed me a few knives from his collection and I fitted them into the side sheath of my boot. Our dragons were the best weapons we had, but it never hurt to have a few knives stashed around.
Just in case.
Braxton was silent as we made our way quickly through the room and toward the stairs. Just before we were about to descend, he captured my hand and pulled me against him. I found myself pressed against the closed door of his room, his big body crowding into me.
“I swear to do my best to protect you and our baby, Jess.”
It sounded like he had already decided I was pregnant, and in all seriousness the jeans I was wearing might be a little snug in the waist area, although, possibly, that was from the three tons of cake I’d eaten last night.