And just in case I thought I had a choice in the matter, I soon find out I don’t. He pulls me down to his side.
And suddenly, here we are. Sleeping in a bed like a normal couple…who happen to live in a castle that apparently doesn’t show up on bio-maps. The lights must be on some sort of timer. The room sinks into sudden darkness a few minutes later. But neither of us fall asleep.
His side of the mate bond is still blank. I don’t understand why. But we’ll figure it out. I have faith in him. Faith in us.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When I wake in the dim light of early morning, I freeze at the sight of Damianos lying beside me. No chest heaving and I can’t hear the sound of air moving through his nose. His body, which burned so hot the night before is now cold. Like a corpse.
I rise up on one elbow, my heart contracting with fear.
But then déjà vu swoops in to remind me. This happened before.
Toward the end of the three months with Other Damianos. I woke up in the middle of the night to find him a similar kind of dead. I panicked then, too. To the point of shaking him, then gasping when he immediately opened his eyes.
When he felt my fear radiating over my mate bond, he drew me into his arms and broke-down dragons on a quantum level for me. This was merely just a shell, he told me. One that did not require oxygen or respiratory functions. And so it became a sort of hibernation chamber when its dragon slept, relaying all power to repairs and more necessary functions.
“Please accept my apologies, Reverence. I would never wish to cause you fear. But you honor me with your care for my life.”
Neither of us said it, but I suspect he knew I was there to stay when I woke him in a panic instead of trying to run again, and that my flame was starting to burn yellow for him. Forever.
I still haven’t run.
But does that make me an idiot?
I look down at Damianos, his features as cold as his shell.
I can’t imagine him apologizing to me for anything. Much less thanking me for honoring him with my fear.
But I know what I felt last night was true. The reverent dragon is in there. I just know he is. But how to get him to come out again? Open his mate bond back up?
Maybe with a kiss?
Feeling like a fairytale in reverse, I lean over and press a kiss into his cold mouth.
“Ola…”
I look down to find his eyes now open, his golden gaze staring back at me. “You honor me with this kiss.”
Oh, Fenrir wolf….
Kissing him even more fervently, I climb on top of him before either of us can break the spell.
Maybe he understands what I need in this moment. What both of us need. He sits up with me in his lap, and pulls me into his arms, hugging me tight as his cocks find their way into both of my holes.
There are no words after that. No fucked up power games. We move together. Neither of us in control. Neither of us learning or submitting. We’re both free to touch each other wherever we want. And that’s what we do, our hands roaming everywhere as our hips undulate to the same beat.
This sex is vanilla in comparison to everything we did back in North Dakota. But somehow way more intense. The fire builds faster than it ever has before and the hum from last night becomes louder and louder until the world bursts apart.
I don’t let the orgasm take me away this time. Instead, I stay there, my arms tight around his shoulders, my legs locked around his waist. He cups his hand around the back of my head to bring me in even closer, and I comply. Burying my face into the side of his neck, I silently beg him to join me where I am as I fall apart, not to mute me out.
He lets out a sound above my head, a roar somewhere between pleasure and pain. Then he releases inside of me.
And the mute button flips back off. Suddenly, I’m flooded with an emotion, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.
“Yellow.” Damianos drops the word into my mind like an answer for a question I didn’t know I was asking.
Yes, yellow…I realize. Yellow is the emotion washing over me. Like sunshine and happiness all wrapped up in a cozy blanket.
“Open your eyes,” he tells me. “Gaze upon our flames in the mirror.”
I do as he says to find him already staring at our reflection in the huge gold framed mirror beside his bed. And though I can’t see our “flames” as he does, my heart stutters when I follow the direction of his gaze.