She stared.
He was magnificent.
Perhaps this was why he was her destined mate.
Drakina caressed him with one hand and saw the first glimmer of the seed easing forth with her encouragement. Success was close! She rolled to one hip and tore off her own underwear, not bothering to remove anything else. She was slick and hot, ready for all he had to give. Troy tried to say something but she kissed him to silence. She moved to straddle him again and reached to coax his strength inside her.
She would take him in an inferno of passion. She would set his blood afire. She would show him how magnificent desire could be. Drakina was burning with need and ready to explode.
But the Carrier rolled her to her back in a smooth and powerful gesture that she could only admire for its grace and decisiveness. She smiled up at him, perfectly willing to be claimed in this posture, if only once. He lowered his weight between her thighs and she wrapped her legs around him, drawing him closer even as he bent to kiss her. His kiss was teasing and potent, and she could feel the hardness of him nudging against her.
She hooked one heel behind his tight butt to drive him home but he broke their kiss and evaded her. He trailed kisses along her jaw to her ear, a tingling path of fire, then nipped her earlobe. “Slowly and thoroughly,” he whispered, as if it were a threat. Drakina had no chance to make sense of the words before he slid down the length of her.
He caressed her breasts with his hands, then opened the front fastening of her dress with his teeth. It felt so good, his strong rough hands on her skin, that she didn’t stop him. He cast her a playful glance that almost made her giggle, then his mouth closed over her bare nipple.
He caught the peak between his teeth and flicked his tongue against it, making it harder, making her writhe with pleasure. She reveled in his touch and was glad that he showed no signs of relenting. She was gasping when he released the tight bud, and then he lavished the same attention on the other. Drakina thought she might explode. She reached for him, intending to pull him up and complete the union, but he caught her wrists in his hands and held them captive.
“Not so hasty, princess,” he growled, his chest vibrating against her thighs.
Drakina was startled by his address, then wondered whether it was just a Terran endearment. He moved lower before she could ask, blew her skirt out of the way and bared her thighs to his view.
She was as wet as a harlot, to be sure. Drakina flushed crimson, but the Carrier simply lowered himself to grant her a most intimate kiss.
There?
She froze. She choked. She had never shared such an embrace but once he had begun, she didn’t want him to stop.
It felt marvelous.
Her legs parted and she welcomed his tongue, his glorious mouth, and yes, even the graze of his teeth. What exquisite torment! This skill must be why he was her destined mate!
Drakina moaned and gripped his hands, twisting in satisfaction beneath his amorous assault. She had never felt so conflicted, so on fire, so desperate for more and so desirous of a moment lasting forever. She felt her heart pound harder, her breath catch, her passion grow. The Carrier was relentless, more expert a lover than any she’d taken before. Unlike other warriors, his focus was upon her pleasure instead of his own. And he understood her needs. He courted her reaction. He fed it and encouraged it, and teased her in ways that even she could not have named.
She felt his body respond to her arousal, which was most seductive. Their pleasure was yoked together, giving her a new and wondrous sense of communion.
Drakina felt the tide rise, higher and faster than it ever had before. Her need doubled and redoubled. She wanted him inside her, but he defied her will and remained where he was.
Tormenting her with that glorious mouth.
She could not restrain herself when he grazed her gently with his teeth. Drakina screamed as the torrent broke. She locked her legs around the Carrier and thrashed as pleasure coursed through her body. She shook and then she trembled.
When she fell back on the bed, spent, she glimpsed his triumphant smile.
Yet before she had recovered, she reached for him. She hauled him alongside her and straddled him again, needing to see him satisfied as well. He was harder and larger than he had been, but she teased him with her fingertips, caressing him and tormenting him in return. He moaned. He writhed against the bed, but Drakina held him down.
“We have tried your way,” she whispered. “Now mine.” And she lowered herself atop him, welcoming his strength inside her. She felt him tremble deep inside and knew he could not bear the exquisite torment long. His heart was racing. His breath came quickly. His hands gripped her waist and his gaze burned into hers.
Drakina was ready again, roused by his touch more than she might have believed possible. She gripped his wrists as he had seized hers, locked her mouth over his, and began to move. She swallowed his moan, felt victory near…
Then a strange dream unfurled in Drakina’s mind.
She was dancing with the Carrier again, in a dark and private chamber. She saw his knowing smile and felt her heart respond. She saw his hand, sliding over her shoulder. Slowly. Very slowly. Warm when it reached her bare skin. His hand was tanned and calloused, the hand of a man who worked, and it contrasted with the silken smoothness of her own pale skin. He was gentle, though, so gentle, that his touch kindled a spark deep inside her. A coal glimmered to life. A blaze was lit anew. He spun her in front of him as they moved in time to the music, admiring her, barely touching her, knowing how much she wanted him and letting her simmer.
Making her burn hotter.
Drakina felt her movements slow as she was seduced by the dream.
Slowly and thoroughly.
Her mouth went dry. How long could he endure? Could she leave him without knowing for sure?
Drakina felt the warmth of his fingertips feather over her back, then his lips touch her skin so gently. A caress of a thousand butterflies. His finger traced little circles lightly over her flesh. Fingertips and lips working together to awaken every bit of her skin. To undermine her resistance. It was a seduction that made her ache for the next brush of his skin against hers.
He lifted the weight of her hair, ran his fingers through it, eased it over her shoulder, then his lips burned against her nape. She heard herself gasp. She felt her nipples bead. She arched her back and demanded more.
She halted her movements and sat up. The Carrier’s eyes glittered as he watched her astride him. She bared her breasts, displaying herself to him, then rolled the nipples between her fingers and thumbs. She cast her head back, teasing him, and felt the power of his reaction.
“Slowly and thoroughly,” he whispered and moved within her with a deliberation that left her yearning.
In her dream, he moved behind her and she swayed to the music, aware of his gaze upon her. He tugged down the fastener at the back of her dress, one tiny increment at a time. When it was loosed, he moved closer, his hands sliding beneath the garment, his arms around her, his hands cupping her breasts. Drakina heard herself moan as he rolled her nipples between finger and thumb, teasing them to peaks as he kissed the side of her neck. He was tormenting her, teasing her, making it last—and she was melting, powerless, snared by the spell he cast…
Drakina blinked as she realized the truth. This dream wasn’t her own. It was his.
He had put his thoughts into her mind.
The Carrier was a MindBender!
What travesty was this?
Chapter Two
Drakina roared with fury as she recoiled from the Carrier’s embrace.
Not just a Terran but a MindBender! Rage rolled through her and she reacted with lightning speed. In a heartbeat, she had shifted shape, her back slamming against the plaster of the ceiling and making it crumble.
She would have abandoned him, if he had not been the Carrier of the Seed.
She still needed him, though that realization just made her more angry.
&nb
sp; Drakina snatched up the Carrier and swung her tail to break the large window. She leapt through the gap, heard an alarm sound, and took flight.
How dare he try to manipulate her thoughts?
“Hey, wait a minute,” he began and Drakina wasn’t interested in any plea for mercy. She was a crown princess of Incendium! No one dared to meddle in the minds of her kind.
She could have left him behind. She could have fried him in place and he would have deserved no less.
But Drakina didn’t just need the seed. She preferred vengeance to be slow and deliberate.
He would pay.
She flew beyond the boundaries of the town, her wings pounding hard in her fury. Once they were in the desert, she hurled the Carrier at the ground with force. She didn’t care what he broke when he fell. His audacity demanded punishment of the highest order. She breathed a plume of flames after him.
He hit the ground, then curled into a ball and rolled away, propelled by the wind of her breath and the torrent of fire. Drakina bellowed and burned him some more, pursuing him with fire and fury.
She smelled his clothes incinerating. She smelled his skin burning. She smelled his hair singeing. Yet his mental fingers were still in her mind, probing, seeking her secrets.
Trying to learn her secrets and shape her will.
It was outrageous!
Impertinent.
Unacceptable.
No mere Terran should intrude in the mind of a royal Wyvern.
“Get!” Drakina roared, then took another breath. “Out!” The ground trembled at the volume of her cry. She spewed fire hotter and brighter than any she had breathed before. “Of my mind!”
The Carrier loosed his grip upon her thoughts immediately, and she wondered whether he’d forgotten what he was doing. Maybe he had been overwhelmed in the heat of the moment, so to speak. She stopped breathing fire, though she glared at him as she hovered in the air and watched him. He had come to a halt against a wall of rock.
He looked a little bit less confident. Shaken, but he deserved as much in Drakina’s view. He lifted his head and looked around warily, watching her as he held up one hand in a universal gesture requesting clemency.
“Easy now,” he said, with surprising bravery.
Drakina snarled, loosing an array of sparks. “I understand why my cousins devour their mates after they’ve served their purpose.”
“There’s no need to be hasty,” he said, his tone soothing. “Let’s talk it through.”
There was something to be said for a man who didn’t turn and run when faced with a larger and stronger adversary. Drakina felt her admiration return.
Still, she spoke sternly. “Out loud, MindBender.”
“Right.” He stood up and a part of her was relieved that he wasn’t badly injured. His chest was mostly exposed, with shreds of his shirt hanging around his waist. He did offer an enticing view. His hair was a little shorter than it had been and his skin on the back of his shoulders was a little bit red. As if he’d been sunburned.
But there was a dignity in the way he stood, and she had to admit that she was almost as vexed by his mistake as by the interruption of a passionate interlude of considerable promise. For a moment there, Drakina had forgotten that she was seducing him for king and planet.
And then she realized something. Terrans didn’t believe in dragons or shape shifters—yet the Carrier, a Terran, was unsurprised by the form she had just taken.
Drakina breathed a plume of fire at his feet, compelling him to dance backward. “Who are you really?” she demanded, her tone as imperious as it could be.
“My name is Troy.” He offered that crooked smile, and Drakina was appalled that it softened her anger so much. “You’ve already figured out that I’m a MindBender.” His gaze roved over her. “I do like smart women.”
Drakina caught her breath, trying to fortify her resistance to him. It was fading fast. “You had no right…”
“No, I didn’t.” He sounded contrite. “I’m sorry.”
Drakina wasn’t quite prepared to forgive him—even if she was tempted by his appearance and that wretched smile. She sat back on her haunches, waiting. Her kind could be patient beyond most other species.
She would wait for a better apology, at least.
The Carrier eyed her for a moment, then walked toward her, proud even in his vulnerability. Not many men would willingly walk toward an angry dragon, especially after that dragon had just tried to fry them alive.
Was he brave or stupid?
Not stupid. Anything but stupid. Drakina had to bet on brave.
A warrior. Her heart clenched at what a fitting father he would make for their son.
“It was an act of desperation. I just wanted the whole thing to last a little longer,” the Carrier said, that smile making it hard to hold such a desire against him. “It was so amazing.”
“It was,” she felt compelled to admit.
“You are amazing. I knew there was something different about you.” He looked at her wings, her tail, her splendid scales, her trailing feathers and his admiration was clear. She fought the urge to preen and reminded herself that he should have been shocked by the sight of her. “You are really something.”
“And how many other dragon shifters have you known, Terran?” she asked, her voice low with threat.
“None.”
“Yet you were unsurprised by my abilities.”
That smile broadened. “But you already know why, princess.” His eyes shone with confidence and she knew the choice of endearment hadn’t been an accident. “You caught me in your thoughts, but that was the second time I peeked.”
If he had bent her mind without her detecting it, then he was highly skilled. Despite the insult, Drakina regarded the Carrier with new respect.
Was this the trait that he was to give to their son? A dragon shifter and MindBender might make a very potent crown prince.
And a successful king.
“In fact, that gives us something in common,” he continued easily. “We both have secrets.” He heaved a sigh. “Imagine finding the one person you can trust who knows your secret. That’s where we are.”
She supposed it might be an appealing notion for some, but everyone in her life knew what she was.
“We have desire in common,” Drakina said flatly. “That is enough for this encounter, or it might have been if you had kept your thoughts to yourself.”
“I think we should talk about this,” he continued, his manner so assured that he might have believed the discussion inevitable. “Why can’t there be more than one encounter? What if there’s a future for us?”
Drakina laughed. She couldn’t help it.
The Carrier didn’t look insulted. No, he gave her a look that was so stubborn that if he had been more handsome, she might have been reminded of the sons of royal blood of her acquaintance. “You want me,” he said, reminding her of the truth. “I want you. Let’s talk first.”
It was a telling reminder. Drakina needed him, and his seed.
“You will not surrender to me without a discussion first?”
“Nope.” He grinned, confident that she would cede to him.
His cockiness was entirely undeserved. Drakina knew she could seduce him, even against his own will, because the attraction between them was strong.
Still, it might be a bad portent for a crown prince to be conceived against the Carrier’s will.
And a conversation was a comparatively small concession.
It wouldn’t take much time.
She might convince him to surrender in a blaze of passion yet.
“Stay out of my mind,” Drakina stipulated. “Because next time, I won’t stop.”
“Promise not to roast me if I do stay out of your mind,” the Carrier countered and offered his hand. He was so intrepid that she admired him even more.
His was a charming Terran gesture, although Drakina hadn’t recognized its appeal when she’d read about it in her research. His
move, in silence, conveyed the notion of compromise, a concept not particularly dear to Drakina but which might be useful in pursuit of her quest. On the other hand, her word was her bond, and if she pledged this to him, she would keep that vow at any cost.
She considered his hand for only a moment before she shifted shape, assuming her woman form again. Her dress was still unfastened at the front but she couldn’t have cared less. She felt the leap of Troy’s pulse at the glimpse of her breasts, though, and knew he was very aware of her physically.
That could only help in achieving her goal.
In fact, their conversation might be very short. She chose to leave her dress open to aid in that and stepped closer to put her hand in his. “I am Drakina.” She put her hand in his and they shook hands. She liked the feel of his warm fingers gripping hers.
“How do you do that?” he asked with real curiosity.
“Do what?” She couldn’t explain to him how she shifted shape. It was an innate power, but one that required considerable training to master effectively.
“Be naked as a dragon, then still have your dress in human form.”
“Initiate’s secret,” Drakina said mysteriously, having no intention of giving him any power over her. Her gaze trailed to his lips and she hoped they might seal the bargain with a kiss. That was another Terran tradition, and a very appealing one.
The Carrier smiled as if he knew her inclination and began to lean closer.
Drakina glared at him and he lifted his hand in surrender.
“It was in your eyes,” he protested. “I didn’t need to look in your mind.”
So, he was perceptive. Drakina considered herself warned. His kiss this time was fleeting, a tease and maybe a promise.
Or maybe a way to keep his desire reined in.
He quickly released her hand and stepped back, and she saw the evidence that he was not unmoved by their quick embrace. He pushed one hand through his hair. “Look, there’s an all-night diner in town. How about something to eat?”