STORY EXCERPT

“You’re together, aren’t you?”

The question, asked so innocently, actually made the breath in Zane’s lungs catch. He pulled his hand away, staring down at the other man and then back up at the two dragons as they began to melt out of their dragon shapes. Seth passed them both small towels to wipe their brows with, but then the three of them seemed to notice they had company.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Zane said, even as he was further paralyzed by the intensity in Marxus’s bright blue eyes. They were a different blue than Sorin’s. Sorin’s eyes had little bits of green in them. Marxus’s eyes were the color of frost. Pretty, and intimidating as all hell.

Especially when the man looked at Zane as if he wanted to devour him.

Zane was still figuring out if that was meant to be in a good way or not. He still wasn’t sure about that.

Lucian jogged over to Sorin, briefly glancing at Zane and then giving his mate all of his attention. “You all right?”

Sorin nodded, but now Zane was stuck, still looking at Marxus and trapped in the memory of when Marxus had pulled him away from Lucian and Seth before they could accidentally slice him in half.

Zane had hated Marxus back then. The man had been his jailer, essentially, ordered to follow Zane around pretty much wherever he went, and Zane had hated it. They fought all the time, and then, out of nowhere, Marxus had saved him.

Zane could still feel what it was like to be pressed against the man’s chest. Marxus was only a little taller than Zane was, and wider in the shoulders, but having his back pressed against the man’s perfect chest had been something Zane honestly hadn’t expected to affect him so much.

He’d assumed, at first, that the pounding in his heart had been entirely because of the fight he’d gotten in the middle of and had been nearly killed by.

But even after Marxus righted him on his feet, Zane’s legs had trembled, his body had been so warm, and he’d had to run away and find someplace private where he could take care of his cock.

Touching him, like that, those powerful arms wrapped around him, protecting him, had been enough to make Zane hard.

And now here he was. He’d woken up to a nightmare and had rushed downstairs to see Marxus fight.

As if he were a teenager chasing after a high-school crush on the football field.

He hadn’t even been out in high school.

Marxus walked right up to him. Zane nearly jumped for a third time in so many minutes after being snuck up on.

He really was losing his edge. Or he’d already lost it. “You feeling okay?”

“I…” Zane looked to the side. Lucian was already walking off with Sorin, his arm around his mate’s shoulder, both talking in small whispers.

“I’m good,” Zane said quickly. He swallowed hard. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, this wasn’t what he wanted to be doing right now.

“I had a nightmare.” Not what he’d meant to say. “I looked out the window and saw you fighting with Lucian.”

Marxus lifted a brow. “How did you know that was me?”

How to answer that?

Zane looked to Seth, wanting to say something to him, ask him absolutely anything that might get him out of this.

Seth, of course, was walking off, hands in his pockets, not looking at Zane or Marxus at all.

As if he were abandoning them both.

Marxus clearly noticed where Zane’s gaze had gone. “Did you come out here to see Seth?”

“No!” Zane cleared his throat. “No, nothing like that. I was just wondering how you were. I didn’t know you liked to spar at this time of night. Or morning.”

He wasn’t usually this much of a flake, but God, he really hoped Marxus let the whole thing go. He didn’t want to explain to the man that gut feeling he had in knowing the onyx dragon had been him.

And why did his skin have to glow like that in the moonlight?

“Your heart’s pounding,” Marxus said, crossing his arms. “You sure you’re all right?”

If Zane had realized for one second that coming out here would put him in this strange position, he would have stayed inside. Why did Marxus’s arms have to get bigger when he crossed them? Why did Zane have to be totally into that?

Whatever. He was going to be a man about this, and maybe this wasn’t as big of a deal as Sorin made it out to be.

Sexual attraction didn’t mean anything had to go deeper than that. If Marxus was up for it, then what did it matter what happened after the fact?

“Actually, I was wondering something,” Zane said.

“Wondering something. Okay, shoot.”

A few weeks ago, they never would have been speaking so casually. It wasn’t like they were friends, so there was no relationship to ruin. It was actually kind of perfect.

Zane closed the distance. His hand came up behind Marxus’s neck, pulling him closer while Zane leaned forward.

He let himself feel brave as he kissed the dragon softly, even a little sweetly. They were nothing to each other, so if Marxus turned him away, then it was no big deal. He could take what he needed and be perfectly content with everything else.

Marxus didn’t kiss him back. Not at first, which was ruining this bravery Zane was putting on because he kind of needed the other man to go along with this for him to not feel like a complete idiot.

Then, miracle of miracles, Marxus did finally kiss him back, his mouth hungry, tongue probing and searching against Zane’s lips until he opened for the man, opened himself to being dominated by him as Marxus 

ADULT EXCERPT

It was always fun getting the tough guys to submit to him. Zane was almost not putting up enough of a fight for it to have that same adrenaline high, but the rush Marxus got seemed to be coming from somewhere else. He couldn’t figure out where, not really, but he didn’t bother himself with thinking about it.

All he had to do was take it.

Zane moaned, a soft, sweet little noise that made Marxus growl. His inner dragon, for one of the few times in his life, felt like an entirely separate being from himself.

The creature wanted back out. It wanted to wrap itself around Zane and keep him there forever, not sharing with anyone or anything.

Yeah, well, that was too damned bad for the dragon because Marxus was the one who was going to get in on this. He yanked Zane around, noting the soft shocked noise Zane let out against Marxus’s mouth.

Marxus bit the man’s lower lip, grinning and wiggling his brows at him as he put Zane’s back up against the wall of the pool.

Zane propped his arms up over the ledge, allowing Marxus all the room he needed to lift Zane’s hips.

“Curl your legs around me.” He nearly moaned when Zane did as he was told. “God, you are so fucking sexy.”

Zane grinned, though there was an edge of uncertainty in it. “Well, I’m glad you approve.”

“Do you approve?” Marxus purred.

“Of what?”

Marxus reached down, taking his cock in hand and letting the head slide back and forth against the crack of Zane’s ass. He watched, grinning stupidly as Zane’s eyes widened and his pink, kiss-swollen lips parted.

Marxus couldn’t resist. He leaned in, capturing that mouth in another quick kiss.

He almost wasn’t able to pull away when Zane did a little lip biting of his own, only he caught the ring in Marxus’s mouth.

The playful grin on Zane’s face when Marxus looked at him was enough to make Marxus growl at the man.

Yeah, he understood what was being said here. Just because Zane was handing his ass over to Marxus for play didn’t mean the man was going to entirely submit.

Well, they were going to have to see about that, weren’t they?

Eventually, Zane let him go.

“Thought you liked biting lips.”

“Only yours, and that’s a weird way to phrase that.”

“No it’s not!” Zane chortled.

“It sounds weird. You thought I liked biting lips. Sounds nefarious and kind of cannibalistic.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m the one ruining the romance, I get it. Hurry up and get inside me.”

“You’re not worried it’ll hurt?” Marxus cooed, letting his cock head slide again and again at Zane’s pucker.

He could see exactly what sort of effect he was having on the other man. He could see just how it made him shiver, how it made his thick lashes flutter, and how the color in Zane’s cheeks increased each and every time Marxus pulled back just before he could push inside.

Zane got ahold of himself, and he glared at Marxus. “I’m not a virgin, and I’ve done it with just water before. It’s not preferred, but I can handle it. If you turn out to be any good at this. That last part is entirely on you, by the way.”

So spunky. Marxus had been annoyed by it when they’d first met. Zane had been a snarling wild thing. Now it was exciting to be able to play this game with him and to know he was going to make the man come undone in good time.

“Uh-huh,” Marxus said. “Sure, if I don’t get you off, it’s my fault, got it.”

He pressed his cockhead a little harder against the man’s asshole, feeling it give in just a little. The pressure threatening to consume the head of Marxus’s dick was almost too much. He was just barely managing to keep himself under control. He wanted Zane to look at him and think that Marxus had control, that this was nothing to him and he wasn’t going slowly insane from the teasing, but at the same time, there was only so far his acting skills could stretch.

“God, in me. Fuck me already,” Zane said. “You take too long.”

That was exactly what Marxus wanted to hear.

He gripped Zane’s hips tight, tight enough to bruise the man, and it didn’t matter to Zane as he threw his head back while his hole stretched around Marxus’s cock.

Marxus knew that look well. The look and feel of a man who was letting go of everything else as he was fucked.

Zane wouldn’t be feeling the pain, only the anticipation. He wouldn’t feel the discomfort, just the burn of the entry and the eager need for it to continue so he could reach even greater heights.

The ring of tight muscle proved to be an obstacle, but then it popped open. Marxus groaned as he was suddenly inside, and then it was a slow, forward slide right where he needed to be the most.

Marxus slid home.