STORY EXCERPT

“You’ll do no such thing. They don’t need to know yet.”

“The fuck they don’t.” Mark’s fire joined his, his more turquoise than amber as their combined dragon fury clashed at Duncan’s feet. Kerry clung on tighter.

“Please, make it stop. Please!”

His mate’s impassioned plea got through to his dragon. Taking a deep breath in, Duncan closed his eyes and recalled his energy into the tight control he normally exerted over that side of himself. When he opened his eyes, it was to see his mate watching him. Of Mark, there was no sight. No doubt the fucker was on the phone to the elders even now. Then again, what did he expect? Mark’s father was one of them, and Mark was duty and blood-bound to report to him. The truth was Duncan should have reported to the elders the minute he realized Kerry was his mate, especially as she was human. They would check her genealogy and its compatibility to his, and also confirm her being marked or not. Not that Duncan had ever given a shit about the rules, but following them meant his lassie was protected by them all.

Renewed flames licked across the floor, and Kerry gasped when one licked up his leg and touched her foot.

Before he could pull it back, she reached out and ran her fingertips through the edge of the blue flame. Inside his head, his dragon roared his approval at her actions, while outwardly Duncan didn’t dare move a muscle. This, right here, was too important. One false move on his part and he’d scare her off for sure.

“Why doesn’t it burn?” She turned slightly to look at him, eyes wide and questioning, but it was the sheer awe and wonder he sensed from her that made him breathe a sigh of relief.

“It’s just a manifestation of my dragon. It’s not meant to burn, not unless I intend it to.”

“Oh, that’s…” Her words trailed off, and seemingly emboldened by his reassurance, she hesitantly put her hand on the flame for an instant. So brief was the contact that had he blinked, he’d have missed it, but she repeated it over and over, each time leaving her hand in a fraction longer. Slowly the tension seeped from her body and she relaxed into him, which made his dragon far easier to control. His fire retreated as his animal half relaxed with her until there was no outer trace of his dragon left. It came to rest back on his biceps as a tattoo, snout facing toward Kerry in a good imitation of a goofy grin. Her eyes widened when she noticed, and then she shook her head.

“I thought I’d imagined him moving before, but your tat is so much more than just a tattoo, isn’t it?”

She at long last looked up at him, and Duncan exhaled sharply at the quiet understanding in her blue eyes.

“Aye, it is.”

She nodded and traced the edges of his dragon with a fingernail.

“What’s going through that head of yours, wee one?” This treading-softly approach was killing him, but he didn’t want to spook her, and he couldn’t read her emotions right now. It was almost as though she shielded herself—a common enough occurrence between mates—but she was human and they hadn’t mated yet, so…

Damn it, maybe the elders have a point in their rules.

“He’s beautiful.” His dragon positively strutted at that praise, and, sure enough, that goofy grin on his arm got wider as the dragon inched closer to her and winked. Kerry laughed. A rather nervous laugh, for sure, but she didn’t look as though she was going to faint or run away screaming, so that had to be a good sign.

“He’s a pain in the ass around you. Believe me, I don’t make a habit of shifting inside. Wreaks havoc on the décor, as Mark pointed out.”

Her brows drew together at the mention of the other man.

“What did he mean he’d have to tell the elders? He made that sound so serious. Are you in some kind of trouble? Should you not have shifted in front of me, is that it?” She paused and wriggled on his lap as though to get comfortable. Predictably, his cock took that as an invitation to signal his interest, and she went very still when she noticed. A faint blush stained her cheeks, and Duncan couldn’t hold back any longer. He had to taste her. Giving her ample time to pull away, he slowly closed the distance between them until his lips were hovering mere millimeters over hers.

“I’ll only be in trouble if you don’t agree,” he murmured.

“Agree to what?” Her husky reply made him even harder, as did the sweet scent of her arousal, which perfumed the air between them.

“To become my mate.” He didn’t wait for her reply, the urge to finally taste her properly a too-urgent beat in his bloodstream. Kerry’s lips, so soft and sweet under his, opened to his gentle pressure. Her sweet moan as he thrust his tongue inside, to fuck her mouth in a rough and urgent imitation of the other part of her he wanted to possess, meant that all finesse went out the window. All that mattered was the need to taste her, to possess her mouth, to drink in her submission, her whimpers of need, as she fisted her hands in his shirt and kissed him back.

ADULT EXCERPT

His heat warmed her back seconds before he slid a silk blindfold over her eyes.

He chuckled at her surprised gasp while he tightened the thing behind her head with nimble fingers, then slipped his hands down to her shoulders.

“Give me a color, my sweet.”

“Green, Sir.” Her breath caught when he slid his hands lower along her arms until he could grasp her wrists. Warm leather replaced his hands, tightened, and then there was a tug when he clipped her restraints together. Kerry couldn’t help her gasp or her involuntary pull against the restraints, but they held firm.

“Don’t struggle. You’ll only hurt yourself.” His voice held that delicious edge of command that only served to make her wetter, as she anticipated his next move. He ran his fingers under each cuff, and seemingly satisfied, he murmured his approval.

“Color?”

“Green, Sir.”

A hand on her shoulder, the lightest of touches to reassure her, and he moved again. Robbed of her vision, she felt her other senses kick in. The fine hair on her arms rose in response to the slight air displacement as he moved. She whipped her head around to the renewed clink of metal and jumped as something cool touched her nipples.

“Up you come, lass.”

She struggled to her feet, and Duncan pushed her backward until her ass rested on the cool leather of the spanking bench. She gasped in surprise when he closed his hot mouth around one of her nipples and sucked hard, while he pinched the other one between his thumb and forefinger. Pain morphed into pleasure when he switched his attention between the nubs. Every suck, pull, and bite sent stabs of arousal to her clit, making that bundle of nerves quiver while her nipples grew ever harder and Kerry whimpered her need. Sir took her right to that delicious edge, but before she could tumble over into the abyss of her building orgasm, he withdrew. The clink gave her a second’s warning before white-hot pain attacked her nipples. Kerry screamed and tried to pull away, but it was useless. With the bench at her back and her hands restrained, she had no means to stop him, to get away, as the pressure on her nipples increased until she was sure they were going to explode with the pain.

“No, please, it hurts…”

“Shh, I know, wee one. It will pass. Breathe and take this for your Sir. That’s a good girl, breathe…in…out…slowly with me…there you go.”

His deep voice in her ear as he held her, breathed with her, lessened the agony until only a dull ache remained. She jumped when he licked her jaw, then continued to kiss his way down her front to each breast. They grew heavier under his touch, the ache in her nipples giving way to the slow thud of arousal, which beat in tune with the heavy pulse between her legs.

“You’re so fucking beautiful with your tits clamped like this, my sweet wee lass. So very brave to take this for me.”

The approval in his voice made her feel ten feet tall. Oh, the deep, smoky, gravelly cadence of it could talk her into anything. She would take any amount of pain to hear the reverence in his voice. Lower he went, leaving a hot, wet trail of his saliva behind as he kissed and nibbled her skin, licked it as though she were the sweetest lollipop.

“All mine to do with as I please. I fucking love your body, wee one.”

There was no room for doubt in his statement, so Kerry simply gave herself up to the sensation of him working his way to her pussy. His breath grew more heated the closer he came to where she wanted him to touch her, a sure sign of his dragon half taking over. The rough texture of his beard scraped across her skin while he dug his fingers into her ample thighs to open her wider. The lick of his tongue across her clit took her breath away, and then he started to suck that little bundle in earnest.

Kerry jerked against her wrist cuffs, desperate to run her fingers through his long hair and clasp him to her so that she could grind her needy pussy all over his face, but his grip on her never lessened. He was in charge here, and she melted at his dominance.

“Please, Sir, I need to come…please.”

A sharp swat to the inside of her thigh was her answer, and he withdrew.

Kerry shook her head, desperate to have his talented mouth back on her clit, but something cold touched her instead, and then a vice attached to her clit.

“Fuuuuuck.”

Duncan chuckled into her belly and then turned her around.

“Not yet, but we will soon enough. How does that clamp feel on your clit, sweetheart? Tell me.”

Kerry gasped for air, her ability to speak superseded by the throbbing pulse between her legs. With her clit clamped, she could feel every heartbeat pushing blood into that area. She must have managed to produce some sort of sound because Duncan laughed and then helped her up onto the spanking bench.

“That’s my lass. Up you get now.” The leather felt cool against her overheated skin, and she groaned when her breasts fell either side of the contraption he was strapping her to. The bench had an odd shape to it, and she now realized why. With her head and torso supported, the sides fell away, giving Sir full access to her nipples. Leather straps secured her to the extensions she kneeled on before he adjusted them outward until every part of her was completely open to him. Another thick strap wrapped around her back, further immobilizing her until she couldn’t move at all.

Robbed of her vision and held in place, she could only submit to his will.

His large hand trailed up and down her back, and he murmured his approval as he grasped hold of her ass cheeks and squeezed just the right side of pain.

“So beautiful.”

The sharp open-handed swat right across her ass took her breath away. It was followed by several more in quick succession, hitting a different spot on her behind every time, until the whole area felt hot.

She moaned her denial when he stopped, and she jerked as cool liquid dribbled between her cheeks.

“Relax, it’s just lube. Ever taken a man back here, wee one?”