She cleared her plate in record time and felt completely satisfied. After she stumbled over to the bed, she lay down and promptly fell asleep. The next thing she knew, she felt Xavier’s hand on her belly. Xavier’s deft fingers popped open the top button of her jeans.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as excitement trickled through her lazy brain. “Mmm,” she moaned softly, coming awake.
His hand slid inside her jeans, fitting tightly under the denim. The tip of his long finger tapped the moist place between her legs, and her entire body shuddered. She gasped and almost sat up in bed. He covered her mouth with a kiss and began pulling her pants down around her hips. She frantically pushed at her clothing, trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible.
He pulled the jeans down her legs and over her feet. Quickly, he stood and removed all of his clothes while she lifted the sweater and tank top over her head. Neither of them was wearing undergarments. Xavier stood over her for a brief moment, looking down at her quivering body under the firelight. Her pigment had come back, but her skin was still pale alabaster. Her hair hung in waves around her shoulders, framing her diminutive breasts and hard, rose-colored nipples.
Xavier’s muscled chest heaved with deep breaths. He wanted her. She could tell he was showing restraint even now. A thin sheen of sweat on his tanned skin glowed in the firelight. His towering, thick shaft stood erect like a steel bar, grazing his belly. Circe sucked in a breath as she gazed at his magnificent body and ran her hand down his taut arm.
Xavier sank into the bed with a slight growl, his hand running up the inside of Circe’s thigh. He pressed his forehead to hers as he cupped her pelvis in his hand. His fingers slipped into her dampness, and he pressed against her mound with his thumb. She gasped and gripped his member while he pushed his fingers deeper inside her, moving her body with the force of his thrusts.
Her core flooded with desire, and moisture seeped between her legs, coating Xavier’s fingers with her cream. Sniffing the air, he dipped his head between her legs and lapped at her body with his long, thick tongue. He flicked against her sensitive bud and worked her body with his fingers.
Circe grasped her breasts, not having his erection to hold in her hands. She kneaded at her breasts and nipples while he lavished her body with animalistic attention. She could hear him grunting and growling as he licked her. The sight of his muscled back and strong arms holding up his agile body and his blond hair falling around her thighs overwhelmed her senses with hot desire.
She whispered his name as the lust ripened inside her. What had started as a persistent drip since the day she’d met him had built into a gushing river of need. She moved her hands to cover her eyes as the passion lashed her body. Panting, moaning, she felt the deluge coming. It had been so long since she’d felt that sensation.
The orgasm ripped through her like an earthquake surging through tectonic plates. Her whole body quaked, and she cried out, covering her mouth to muffle her screaming moan. Her whole body felt electric, amplified beyond measure.
Xavier lifted his head and covered her still-moaning mouth with his kiss. His salty tongue dipped inside her mouth. She kissed him back greedily, urging his body toward her. As she wrapped him between her legs and arms, he lowered himself to her. His erection slipped inside hers effortlessly. It happened so quickly, Circe almost wasn’t ready for it.
The sense of fullness he gave her as her body stretched around him was blissful. She gripped his back and bucked her hips, trying to bring him closer. His mouth slid down her neck and bit her jugular vein. She gasped in shock and pain as his teeth grew sharp.
He held her in a stunned, passive state while he thrust inside her. The pain of his bite and the incapacitation added a new level of eroticism she’d never known. She lay languidly below him, her desire still frenzied but her body submissive.
Xavier drove his powerful hips into her core. She would have moaned with pleasure if she’d been able, but all she could do was accept his ministrations with wide-eyed, open-mouthed awe. He pumped into her again, moving their bodies together in a passionate rhythm.
She could hear him growling against her neck. He was barely holding back from tearing her apart, and she could feel it. The subdued kisses in the hot spring had been a pale prelude to the experience of Xavier’s inner hunger.
He let go of her neck, and she gasped, whining. Xavier slid away and gripped her hips, flipping her onto her hands and knees. She looked behind her to see his wings protruding from his back. His tail circled her shoulders. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she moaned, sweeping her hair away from the back of her neck.
Xavier bit down on the nape of her neck as he slid inside her. His tail entered her open mouth. Circe let out a muffled moan of pleasure. As he held her hips tight, biting her neck with his sharp teeth, he thrust madly into her.
Each pump of his powerful hips brought her closer to a mind-shattering orgasm. She was beyond reason, beyond time. She licked at the tip of his tail as it played with her tongue. His shaft filled her sopping-wet body completely.
The intense animal need in Xavier’s sex drove Circe one step closer to falling over the edge into utter ecstasy. His body pumped pleasure into her as a piston pumps gas. The smacking of flesh against flesh mixed with guttural growls from between Xavier’s teeth, biting into Circe’s skin.
Her mouth fell open as the orgasm hit her. His tail flicked around inside her mouth, caressing her tongue and touching her pleasure points. The climax rolled through her like thunder. Xavier let go of her neck just as his hot cum shot inside her. She called out, moaning with sheer pleasure spiked with exquisite pain.
She fell forward, lying on her stomach and panting, repeating, “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.”
Xavier fell down beside her, his tenderness returning. He petted her hair while she caught her breath. A moment later, she rolled over and pulled him into an emphatic hug.
“I’m not a god,” he said, laughing. His broad, boyish smile returned to his handsome face.
“I disagree,” she breathed into his chest. “I never took myself for the kinky type, but, Xavier, that was a whole new level.”
“I kind of lost control. After the bath… I was lying here next to you for what felt like hours. I couldn’t help it anymore. I should have tried to be gentler.”
Circe’s gleeful laughter tinkled through the room. She’d just had the best sex of her life. Mind-blowing, life-changing sex, and he’s apologizing. Silly man.
“No need to be gentle. I was so horny, I though my head would explode. You were perfect. So perfect.” She nuzzled into his chest, feeling her desire rising again.
“You were so beautiful, so yielding. I’m getting hard again, just thinking about you.”
She giggled and rolled onto her back, looking deep into his eyes, ready to take him again.
A gunshot cracked through the cavern, and someone screamed.
Chapter 13
Circe and Xavier jumped to their feet. They dressed and ran out into the main cavern. There was confusion and commotion.
Someone shouted from one of the higher apartments. “Zombies!”
The cavern had no fortifications against zombies. They could keep out wild animals and the weather but not a horde of relentless undead cannibals that never stopped and were nearly impossible to kill. She doubted the shifters had the hand-to-hand combat skills required to fight them with swords and cut off their heads. There was no telling if they had enough loaded shotguns to blow off their heads.
There had to be nearly two hundred zombies in the area, at least, from what Circe had seen. This bear clan was no match for the horde. The bears were clueless, lulled into a false sense of security by their seclusion.
Circe and Xavier pushed their way through the crowd, toward the gate. She had a strong sense that she and Xavier could save the clan. Her mind searched for the way, but the answer was just beyond her grasp.
Once she and Xavier reached the front of the cave, she
could see the zombies’ hands grasping through the closed gate. The barrier wouldn’t last long. They had already begun climbing it, and there was a large gap at the top that would allow them to fall right through.
Xavier looked down at her, realization crossing his face. “I’m going to shift,” he yelled above the pandemonium. “When I do, jump on my back and tell these people to get the hell out of the way.”
Her first instinct was fear for his health, but she nodded slightly. He didn’t wait for her to reply. He shifted through his clothes. His imposing male body contorted and grew into the shape of a reptile the size of a Mack truck. Circe screamed at everyone to get back, but they were already running away. Zombies outside and a dragon inside threatened to give the sheltered bears a panic attack.
Circe scurried onto Xavier’s back, draping her legs over his shoulders and around his neck. Suddenly, awareness snapped into place. She gripped his neck with her hands, sending healing energy into his body. Xavier threw back his neck and shot a blast of green fire through the gate. The flame disintegrated the wood, metal, and every zombie crawling over it.
Screams, cries, and cheers erupted behind them as Xavier charged out the entrance. He rained fire down on the undead horde. It wasn’t just fire—it was a high-powered explosive mixture of acid and fire. Circe had never seen anything like it. She continued to pour healing energy into his body as if to power him while he wiped out every zombie within a mile.
She was ready to go back to the clan’s cave when he leapt into flight. Circe clutched Xavier’s neck, holding back fear as he climbed higher into the sky. She called out to him, asking him what he was doing, but he didn’t respond.
Had his erratic behavior come back? Her stomach clenched, and she tried to control her breathing, which was bordering on hyperventilation. She could barely keep her hold on the slick scales on his neck, and the fear that Xavier had lost it, coupled with a very real possibility that she could plummet to her death, ran like a cold electric current through her veins.
“Xavier,” she demanded, her voice on the edge of hysteria. “Please land now! I can’t hold on much longer.”
The dragon below her grunted and let out a steamy breath. Circe bent over and gripped his neck with both arms, clamping herself to his body, her belly flat against his back. He let out a trumpeting howl that filled the sky. Circe looked around feverishly, trying to understand what was going on as she clung to his body.
In the distance, through the wispy white clouds that hugged the mountain, black shadows dotted the horizon. This is it, she thought. The Anu will shoot us down with their lasers. She tried to make her peace with the world, with her part in the defense of her planet, her failures, her successes, and the love she’d shared. She closed her eyes and buried her head in Xavier’s neck.
The next time she looked up, she could see a legion of dragons flying around Xavier. They were a multitude of colors—red, green, gold, yellow, blue, purple, and pink. Some were smaller, but only one was larger than Xavier was. It seemed to dwarf them all. Circe was amazed the rotund beast could stay aloft.
At least a dozen dragons encircled Xavier, waiting. He bellowed his trumpeting howl again. The dragons answered by belting fire, water, wind, and oil into the air. Xavier seemed to nod to the dragons then howled again. Most of them flew off, back to wherever they had come from. But one stealthy dragon with a sleek blue body shaped like a bullet dove toward Circe with its teeth bared.
Xavier roared and whirled on the smaller, quicker creature. The other dragon sped around Xavier, easily outmaneuvering him. The blue dragon spit a bellyful of salt water at Circe, blinding her. She clung to Xavier with all her strength, true panic making her freeze like a deer in headlights.
Xavier spun again, clawing at the smaller dragon and bashing it with his superior strength. Xavier’s claw ripped through the other dragon’s chest, making the other dragon angrier still. It lunged again for Circe, snapping at her with its needle-like teeth. Xavier reared back, shooting the small dragon with a burst of his explosive fire. Even without Circe’s healing energy, Xavier’s green fire ignited the smaller water dragon.
Its body fell from the sky like a burning, spinning stone. Circe finally let out a moan. Tears fell caused by the stress and fear fell from her eyes. She also cried for Xavier, who had killed one of his own kind.
Chapter 14
Xavier flew to the earth and landed. Circe slid from his back and fell to her knees, weeping. Such displays of emotion were not in Circe’s nature, but witnessing a dragon battle while clinging precariously to the back of her winged lover had brought out her emotional side.
She sobbed into her hands as she knelt in the cool soil of the pine forest. Xavier touched her shoulder, warm and comforting like a soft blanket. He knelt beside her and murmured reassurances in her ear. She turned to him and buried her face in his chest, letting his solid body absorb the brunt of her emotions.
Finally, when her sobs quieted, Circe dried her eyes with the back of her hand and looked up at Xavier. His naked body radiated inner light. Circe felt overcome. Her desire for him exploded, and she pressed her lips to his mouth.
He opened his mouth to hers and dipped his tongue inside. Her hand ran down his chest and gripped the magnificent shaft that had captured her imagination and her desire. She wanted to feel it in every part of her. Pulling away, she bent down to take him in her mouth, supporting herself on her hands and knees.
She slid the tip inside, only able to accept half before his manhood became too much for her to take. She lifted a sweaty hand and used it to work with her mouth as she glided up and down on his erection. Xavier moaned, gripping her hair with both hands.
He guided her head up and down on him. She could tell he was taking great pains to keep from pounding mercilessly into her face. His lust and restraint filled her with need, and she moaned on him. Her body gushed, and she couldn’t wait much longer.
Neither could he. He pushed her down onto her back into the soft moss and deftly removed her clothes then sank between her legs. Above, she could see the blue sky between the towering treetops. She smelled the scent of the earth, pine, and Xavier’s desire.
She moaned as he slipped inside her wet core. He covered her mouth with passionate kisses, overwhelming her with his power. She clung to him as he rocked into her.
His momentum pushed her toward the peak of desire. She screamed into his mouth as her body contracted with fantastic pleasure. Within a split second, Xavier’s body swelled, pulsating as it shot jets of hot liquid into her core.
As the last of his seed entered her body, he relaxed onto her chest for a brief moment, panting heavily on her breasts. He raised his head and smiled down at her as he propped himself up with his chiseled arms. His beautiful boyish grin hadn’t gone anywhere.
He slid from inside her and rolled onto his back, taking her into his arms to rest on his chest. Her body still pulsated with the afterglow of climax. Her naked breasts pressed against his hard chest. She would climb on his lap and ride him again, right this very second, if he wanted it.
Xavier lay still, breathing steadily and looking up at the sky. Circe relaxed into his embrace and listened to his heart beat as she caressed his chest.
“What was that all about up there?” she asked.
“I called the dragons within hearing range to let them know who their master is.”
“What?” she asked, surprised. She sat up to look him in the eyes.
“I am their lord now. I know it like I know my own name. The only problem is, many of them might not be rational enough to be led. You witnessed that yourself.”
“I wish I hadn’t.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t explain before I called them. I felt the intense need to do it right then. It was time, and I needed you with me to show my strength. Most of the dragons will follow me while we are both in dragon form, but any other combination will be disastrous. I do not want a repeat of today. Killing my own kind will not help our goal.”
“What goal?”
“We must defeat the Anu.”
“Xavier,” Circe said, hugging him tightly, “I knew you’d come around.”
“The dragons under my command can be optimized into fighting machines, much stronger than ordinary dragon shifters. We could easily take down the Anu ships that patrol the skies. But there are many challenges. I don’t know how to command them if they aren’t rational. If they attack you. We must find a way.”
“But how can we possibly get the other dragons to become rational?” asked Circe, feeling the weight of the obstacle before them.
“There is a way,” said a voice that sounded like the rustling of wind through leaves.
Circe and Xavier looked behind them to see a dryad standing between the trunks of two tall pine trees. Her body was made of bark, and her hair was long pine needles. She stepped toward the naked lovers and gazed down at them with her sap-colored eyes. “You must travel west, to where the great trees tower above the sea, where the mist clings to the shoreline and the ancient forest whispers secrets to those who would listen.”
“The redwoods?” asked Circe.
“The sequoia dryads have the answers you seek, Dragon Lord and Dragon Rider. You will help set this world free.” With that, she disintegrated into the wind, her parts flying off into the forest.
Circe took a deep breath and looked at Xavier. He nodded once and stood. As soon as he got to his feet, his legs buckled, and he was back on his knees. Circe ran to him, feeling weak herself.
“Xavier,” she called out. His skin was hot, as if he were getting a fever.
“It looks like we’re driving to the coast,” he said with humor in his voice. “You got any more of that nettle root?”
Circe dressed hurriedly and scurried off to a damp spot to find nettle for Xavier, her heightened sense for plants guiding her way. She quickly found a bunch, ran back to Xavier, and quickly gave him the roots.