He stopped at the edge of the pool, arrogantly male, watching me with unreadable eyes as I lazily swam toward him. As I approached, an image arose in my mind of his hands skimming me, touching me in all sorts of sensitive places, stirring me until I couldn't catch my breath. "I'd tel! you you're beautiful, but you already know that, don't you? You know how much I like to look at you. You know I want to touch you, and taste you, and feel you burning deep inside me. You know all that, and yet you know you can never have me except in this dreamscape."
With a swift, graceful move he dived into the water. It was about nipple-high on him, allowing him to walk slowly to where I was still languidly treading water. "This is your dream, Aisling. You summoned me to it."
My eyes widened in surprise. In the past, Drake had come to me in dreams, always initiating them himself, and it had only been with practice that I had learned how to end them despite his wishes to the contrary. But I had never called him to me in a dream—I didn't think I knew how. "Is this some sort of a trick? Something to make me even more confused than before? I didn't summon you, Drake. I want you out of my life."
"You want what I represent out of your life, but if you truly wished me gone, then you would not have called me to you tonight."
I swam around him, a need building within me to touch him, to have him touch me, but I knew what would happen if I did. We'd have wild, fiery dragon sex, and I'd end up torn with indecision. I hated being indecisive. I liked my life in control. "And just what, Mr. Smarty Pants, do you think you represent in my life?"
'The future," he answered, standing still in the water, the tiny waves of my wake caressing the wonderfully warm flesh of his back and chest. I wanted to be those waves.
"HaT" I said, putting as much scorn as I could into the word. I swam a complete circle around him and stopped to face him, just a scant foot separating us. "I'm not afraid of the future. I'm a professional. I am in control. I am—"
"Mine," he growled, his hand a blur as it snared me, jerking me forward until I was pressed tightly against his chest. "You tease me purposely, Aisling. You tell me you don't want me, but you tempt me shamelessly, offering yourself in body but not in mind. Make the decision, mate. Make it now. Accept me, or not, but do not torment me any longer."
It was strange, but in the dream world his fire didn't touch me. The heat of his body sank into me everywhere our skin touched, but his fire was missing. "Where does your fire go when you dream?" I asked, unable to keep from sliding my hand up his arm to the lovely muscles of his shoulders. There must have been oil in the water, too, because his skin was as slick as the finest satin, smooth and enticing. Even the curly dark hairs on his chest rubbing against my tight, sensitive nipples were soft and silky.
He just looked at me, his eyes bright with emotion, so tilled with need that it almost hurt to look at him.
Almost.
I sighed. "All right, I admit that maybe my mind isn't quite as clear as I'd like it to be when it comes to a relationship with you, but I'd like to point out that I am not the one who moved an important peace summit just on the hopes of getting lucky."
One eyebrow rose in a silent objection.
"Don't you give me that look! You can't possibly deny the fact that you came after me."
His eyes were deep and dark and infinitely beautiful. "I don't wish to deny it. I have explained to you that as my mate you have a role in the summit. Since I knew you would be attending this conference, I rearranged my life to accommodate you."
When he put it like that, it took all the fun out of being annoyed
I sighed again, aware that he was still waiting for me to give him an answer. 'The truth is, I don't want to make a decision, because you want something from me I can't give. You want all of me, you want me forever at your side, forgoing my own life to be a part of yours. I can't do that, I won't do that. I have a life of my own to lead, and even though I'm willing to admit that there's something between us"—
He growled deep in his chest, the arm that was banded around my back sliding lower to pull my hips against his. I wiggled a tiny little wiggle to let him know I appreciated his anticipation.
—"neither of us is of a particularly accommodating nature, and the bottom line is that I'm not going to give up being a Guardian. If you are willing to try to work out some sort of an agreement that will allow me to study whatever it is apprentices study, and working together whenever possible, well, then, I'm your girl. But if you can't see your way clear to working out a compromise, then there's no hope for us."
Drake was silent for a few moments, the muscles in his jaw working. I thought he was going to refuse outright, but he surprised me. "I am here to negotiate a peaceful settlement of hostilities between the septs. I want the same with you. Therefore, I will agree to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal."
"You will? Really?" I goggled at him, hope glowing warmly in my heart, while in my less ethereal girly parts, outright celebration was the order of the day. "You won't fight me anymore on this? No more snarky comments about being a Guardian? No more saying things to potential mentors that might ruin my chances with them? If they ask, you'll say you support my decision?"
He inclined his head in acquiescence. "I will not say anything to a mentor that could be interpreted as being anything but wholly behind your plans."
"Oh," I said—less than brilliant, I admit, but to be honest, I was overwhelmed. Fd never thought Drake would come around, never thought he'd be willing to compromise. He was such an inflexible man, I couldn't help but grin at him as I slid my other hand up his arm, tangling my fingers in his hair. "See? Giving me what I want didn't hurt very much, now did it?"
His eyes burned bright, and his hands were hard on my bottom as he rubbed against me. "You have yet to ask what it is I want from this agreement, mate."
"I think I can guess," I answered, sucking his earlobe into my mouth, nipping it just hard enough to get his attention. "You want someone to attend the peace summit with you. You want someone to pour when you have other wyverns over for tea. You want to make steamy, sensual, passionate love to me three times each and every night."
Both of his eyebrows went up. "Three times?"
I kissed the tip of his nose. "You're immortal. You can't die of a heart attack. Three is good."
"There is more to being a mate than pouring tea, Ais-ling." His voice rumbled around and through me as I kissed a line along his jaw. 'To be a wyvern's mate is to be bound for all time to the sept. You must take an oath to never turn your back on the green dragons. Tf you are called on for help, you cannot refuse. To do so would mean death. This is not something to be taken lightly."
I nipped his chin, smiling into his so serious face. *That seems a fair trade. I get to have you at my beck and call, and now and again I watch the kids when you're busy."
"Aisling—" he said, his voice filled with reproach.
I stopped the words by sliding my fingers across his lips. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be flip. It's just that I'm happy. Can we do this oath now, or is there some sort of special oath at the clan ceremony?"
"We can do it now.I' His lips compressed for a moment before the corners of his mouth relaxed. "But you must be certain. The oath wilt be binding."
"OK." I cleared my throat and thought for a long moment about what I was going to do. It was a big step, a major step, one of those life-altering steps that always seem to come about without the least hint, but the time had come to stop running from what the fates kept throwing in my path. Drake was meant to be a part of my life. Either I could spend my lifetime fighting us both, or I could accept the compromise. "I, Aisling Grey, Guardian, swear upon my soul to fulfill my duties as your mate. I swear to uphold the well-being and happiness of the sept of the green dragons. I swear that whatever help is mine to give shall be given wholeheartedly, of my own free will."
My heart beat madly with the realization of what I was doing. I was binding myself to one man, for eternity, wyverns' mates being immortal.
Somehow it seemed fitting that at this most important moment in my life I should be naked, held tight against the warm flesh of the man who filled my heart and soul with something so profound I couldn't bear to examine it closely.
"I, Drake Vireo, wyvern of the green dragons, accept and acknowledge your fealty, You will forever hence be known as my mate, and as such will receive all protection, honor, and respect due you."
His voice echoed in the empty room. I waited until the last of the bass echo faded away, then licked my lips. 'That's it?"
He nodded.
"There's nothing else? Nothing else that we say or do?"
"What did you expect?"
"I don't know." I looked downward, although I was pressed so tightly to him, there was little beyond my breasts squashed into his chest to see. "I guess I thought that maybe there would be something like a bolt of lightning going through me or that I'd feel something, you know, big"
One eyebrow cocked. I giggled. "No, not that. I feel that. And I refuse to pander to your male ego by discussing size. I meant with the whole mate thing. Does it take a while to go into effect?"
He walked forward, toward the steps at the far end of the pool. "The oath was binding the moment it was completed. You are my mate, Aisling. Now and forever."
"Ah." He bent to scoop me up, carrying me up the marble steps. "So, what do we do now?"
He grinned then, his eyes filled with desire and heat and a need so intense it made my skin prickly. My body rubbed sinuously against the warm flesh of his torso as he headed into the shadows, where a bed magically appeared, and he set me down in the center of it with care.
"Now you wake up.I'
12
Jim lifted its heavy head and blinked sleepily at me as I leaped out of bed and ran for the door. "What burr got under your bustle?"
"Don't ask stupid questions. Just come with me!"
The demon slowly got to its feet, stretching with a loud groan. "I don't smell an incubus, so what's the big deal—ow! That's my ear you're pinching!"
"It's going to be your former ear if you don't get a move on.'II dragged Jim toward the open door, snatching up the plastic key card before hurrying out of the room.
"I was sleeping! I can't go from flat-out sleep to racing around like a lunatic like some people I can name," Jim said grumpily as I all but dragged it down the hallway to the elevators. "Don't tell me, let me guess— you've had another nocturnal visit from the Studly Dragon?"
I slid Jim a curious glance. "How do you know about my dreams with Drake?"
Jim snorted. "How could I not know? I shared a room with you back in Paris, if you recall. For a couple of nights before you and he got it on, there was a whole lot of, 'Oh, yes, Drake, yes, yes!' and 'Take me, you dragon studmuffin, take me hard and fast!' going on. It was all I could do to get a couple of hours' sleep before you'd start with the moaning and thrashing."
"I never once said, 'Take me, you dragon studmuffin!' That's a lie, pure and simple. Hey! I thought you weren't supposed to be able to lie to me when I asked you a question." I punched the elevator button, struggling to keep from doing an impatient little dance. How long did it take elevators in this country to move?
Jim yawned. "It wasn't a lie, it was an exaggeration. Nothing in the Big Demon Book o' Rules says I can't exaggerate now and again."
"Hrmph." I pushed the button a couple more times, trying to hurry the elevator along.
"Oh, yeah, that's going to do some good. Everyone knows an elevator doesn't shift into second until you really lean on the call button."
I pressed it another fifteen times, giving Jim a triumphant smile when the green light lit above the door. "Ha! See? It does too work—oh, sorry. Didn't mean to step on your foot."
Jim waited until the door had closed on the man whose toes I had inadvertently tromped on before saying, "It's gotta be Drake sending you sexy dreams. Why else would you run around the hotel in nothing but a T-shirt, trampling innocent tourists in your lust to get to your boy toy?"
"He's not a boy, and this is a perfectly decent sleep shirt, so shuteth thy moutheth upeth, demon."
By the time I pounded on the door of Drake's suite, my desperation to reach him and throw myself into his strong, manly arms had been doused a little by the cold glare of reality as seen by the artificial light of two a.m. What if I had manufactured that whole dream on my own? What if I had attributed to Drake things he'd never agree to? What if it was all wishful thinking, my mind's version of a happy little fantasy wherein everything in my life worked out the way I wanted it?
Drake had the door open before my hand fell. "You were much quicker than I anticipated, kincsem."
His eyes were smoldering with a familiar look, one that went straight to my blood and set it boiling. It was all the answer I needed—obviously he had been a participant in the dream, which meant that he really had agreed to my terms, and that meant— "Hoobah!" I shouted as I leaped on him, wrapping my arms and legs around him.
He chuckled a sexy chuckle in my ear as he started for the door to his room, calling over his shoulder, "Jim, close the door, would you?"
Jim's face bore a canine version of disgruntlement as it turned from nosing the door closed. "Oh, sure, you two just go off to Boink-Land. I'll stay out here, then, shall I? Alone? Without my blankie? With no water bowl? With no one to talk to and nothing to do but listen to the bed squeaking all night Ion—"
"You're not naked," I said as Drake slammed his bedroom door shut on Jim's plaint. I was almost giggling into his neck, I was so happy. Of their own volition, my fingers crept across the opening of the blue and green satin robe Drake was wearing, sliding beneath the cool material to find the hot flesh of his pectoral muscles. "I liked YOU better when you were naked."
"I like you liking me naked." Drake's voice, always sensual, took on a new level of eroticism as he stopped next to the big bed that claimed most of the space in the room, allowing me to slide down his body until my feet were on the floor. I glanced at the rumpled sheets, then back at Drake, smiling a smile I hadn't known was in my repertoire.
"You were sleeping? Since I know you don't like to sleep wearing anything, I guess that means that under this very nice robe there's nothing but a really hunky dragon."
My hand slid down to the carelessly tied belt, tugging it loose.
"You're wrong about me not liking to wear anything while I sleep," he answered, his breath sucking in as I slid my hand down the lovely warm planes of his chest to his belly. Drake had what I thought of as a B-grade amount of body hair—not so much that he looked like a Darwinian throwback, but enough to make me appreciate the differences between his body and mine. His chest was moderately haired, but what ] loved was the little tail of dark hair that led from the bottom of his breastbone to his groin. My fingers followed the silky path down to where he was already hard and hot.
"Really?" I breathed into his mouth, flicking my tongue along the length of his lower lip. I adored Drake's lower lip. It was full, sensual, with a curve to it that never failed to make my innards melt. "What exactly do you like to wear to bed?"
"You," he growled, tossing me onto the bed and following so quickly behind that I didn't have time for anything more than a happy squeak before his mouth claimed mine.
Wyverns, I had occasion to note, were naturally dominant individuals. I suppose that made sense—arrogance, an innate belief in your own talent, and a healthy ego had to be attributes that were needed to rule an entire sept of dragons (also naturally arrogant), but my experience with Drake led me to believe that the wyverns, male and female, were also extremely comfortable in their skins. Even if it was not their original skin.
"You have my express permission to wear me as often as you like," I said on a gasp, Drake's mouth having released mine to move to a very sensitive spot on my neck, just behind my ear. Little shivers of delight zipped up and down my body, but it wasn't enough. I wanted more.
I shoved the robe off his shoulders. His teeth nipped my neck as h
e shrugged out of the robe, his hands returning to claim my breasts. I wrapped one leg around his, digging my fingers into the smooth muscle of his behind. "Drake?"
"Mmm?" His mouth moved to my collarbone, pausing over the mark he had branded a month before, the warm heat of his tongue swirling over it sending a sharp bolt of desire zinging through me.
"That dream—I have to know for sure. You did agree to what I asked, right? I didn't just imagine that?"
"You didn't imagine it," he answered, pressing a line of wet, hot kisses across my chest. L shivered as he approached my breast, my aching nipples about ready to implode, they were so tight. "You swore fealty to me. I formally accepted you as my mate. We are now bound together."
My hands slid up his back as his head moved lower, avoiding my breasts, which were heaving themselves about in a wanton display intended on capturing his attention. "And .. . and ... the other? You agreed to support me in my Guardian training? You won't interfere with that?"
His tongue flicked my belly button, then he exhaled— fire. My stomach contracted as the flames licked my skin for a few seconds, heating but not burning, seeming to sink straight down into the pool of dormant heat that lay deep within me.
And suddenly there didn't seem to be enough air in the room to breathe.
"Good god, Drake," I gasped, struggling to get air back into my lungs as he looked up, a half smile on his delicious lips. "Next time you want to roast me, warn me, will you? That almost brought me straight up off the bed!"
"Almost, hmm?" Every single atom in my body froze as he gave me a speculative glance, then parted my legs, draping one leg over his shoulder. "We can't have an almost. Let me see if I can do better."
"Drake!" I shrieked as his hands spread up my thighs, heading for party central. "You can't! You'll burn me!"
"No, mate. You'll burn for me," he said moments before he lowered his mouth to me.
I tried to muffle the shriek that rose in my throat, not wanting to alert everyone in the hotel that I was about to have the wildest oral sex experience of my life, but the touch of his tongue on all my sensitive parts was too much for me. He licked, he swirled, he sucked. . . then his teeth joined the fun and gently tugged on tugable parts, his fingers doing an equally erotic dance in the surrounding scenery.