Fate of Dragons Read online

  I stopped to pick some moss ten or twelve yards down the trail but dropped it suddenly as my senses pricked at my neck.

  “I thought I heard the screen door snap.”

  I turned at Wade’s voice. He was a few feet behind me on the trail. Stealth was obviously a dragon skill. But at least it had been him. I let the hand I’d raised in a defensive spell drop.

  “Just gathering things to help you.” I lifted my basket for proof. “I need to work a cloaking spell.”

  “For yourself? Hiding from me?”

  Dammit.

  “No.”

  “You can’t lie to me, you know? I know when you aren’t being honest with yourself or me.” He dug his hands into his jean pockets. “If you don’t want me here, I’ll go. I had no one else. I never meant to hurt you. It’s the last thing I want to do.”

  But you have, I wanted to yell at him. You’ve scratched off the scab that hid seven years of pain. It was bleeding fresh, the hurt just as deep now as then. Maybe worse. And if it didn’t heal, the scars this time would be much worse.

  “You are welcome to stay.” I would regret it, but I offered for him to come along. “Come on. We’ll hunt the ingredients together.”

  “You go on.” He turned and headed back down the path toward the cabin. He stopped briefly and looked back at me, through me, into me. His gaze unnerved me.

  There was that heat again too. He nodded like we’d come to some kind of agreement and rubbed the back of his neck as he looked away. “I appreciate you helping me, Sienna. I’m grateful. Thank you.”

  I felt like an ass. Without meaning to, I’d hurt his feelings. I could see it on his face. He knew I wanted to avoid him. His declining to join me said as much.

  “Wade, wait,” I called after him and followed him to the back yard. “Wade, it’s not—“

  “It’s okay. I understand.” He kept walking.

  “What do you understand?” I hurried to keep up.

  “You need to be alone. I can give you your space.”

  “Wade!” I grabbed his arm and tugged at him.

  He turned, heat flaring out toward me.

  Screw it. I let the heat in. God, it felt good.

  Our gazes met, the tension between us an inferno.

  Suddenly, he pulled me to him, and this time, when his lips met mine, I didn’t pull back. I met him with the hunger I’d known since he’d left.

  He gripped me, lifting me bodily up until my chest was flush against his. The heat coming from him consumed me, and my own begged for release.

  “Wade.” His name was a whisper of surrender.

  He pressed his hand to my cheek. “Sienna. God.”

  His finger grazed my lips, lingering at the bottom one. “I’ve missed you, missed the taste of you, holding you.”

  My breath caught, and my eyes closed. I couldn’t think.

  He groaned then, his hand leaving my face to cup the back of my head, angle my mouth against his. His other hand found the small of my back, and mine reached up to his shoulders, steadying myself from the feelings he was creating with his nearness.

  His kiss was better than I remembered, sweeter, more soulful than ever before, like he’d poured seven years of longing into one brief kiss. Then it was over before I could process what had happened.

  He pulled away, but his eyes never left mine. "I'm sorry, Sienna.”

  I stood there dazed as he walked away. The heat still pulsed off of him in waves, coming to me to hold even as he went back toward the house and left me standing on the trail looking after him and feeling every emotion in me at war.

  I touched my lips, ran my hands over my skin where I could still feel his touch sizzling my nerves.

  It took me a moment to gather my senses and remember the herbs and plants I needed for the cloaking spell I was about to attempt. I stumbled toward the old elm to collect its bark and maybe my thoughts if they’d stop outracing my heart.

  I reached the tree and took out my dagger. I stared at the trunk. There were our initials, taunting me with more memories of our past. WH & SS.

  I ran my fingers over the carved letters and then lingered on the last part. 4-EVER. That was what we’d promised each other then. Could we have that now?

  I stripped some bark from a limb above me and sent a healing spell to the tree, to close off the cut. The tree would heal itself, like I had, growing over the wound, but the scar would remain. Mine might not have been visible, but it was there.

  I wrestled with myself. What was I holding onto? Anger? No. I was afraid.

  Afraid to let myself want more, to need someone else, to be vulnerable again.

  I reached out to the old scars our carved initials had made. 4-EVER. Did he want that? Did I still? Hadn’t it been everything I’d wanted then and for the longest time after he’d gone?

  We needed to talk, but it felt like a small thing compared to the hell he was facing, the hell we were facing.

  I hurried to get the moss I’d dropped and the rest of the ingredients and went back in the cabin to shower and change out of my kitten pajamas into something that didn’t make me look like a frump.

  My room was empty, and when I called for him, the house was silent. He wasn’t there. I hoped he was just walking off some steam like he used to do.

  I took my shower and put on a cute sundress I barely ever wore. Looking in the mirror, I admitted it was for him. To prove what, I wasn’t sure. That maybe I was still the girl he wanted years ago. Maybe. I tried to put my hair up and failed. It fell out of the clasp, and I gave up.

  Moments later, I found myself taking my frustration out on my mortar and pestle in the kitchen, still wanting to clear the air between us. It felt wrong for him to be upset with me. Unnatural. We’d never been able to stay mad. I sighed.

  He still wasn’t back, but he couldn’t have left the property. My chimes were still silent, the wards unmoved today.

  Then the door creaked open, and he came in from the back porch. The screen door eased shut behind him, and his footsteps sounded heavily in the hall. My hands had stilled at their labor, and I realized I was holding my breath as he came up behind me. I let it out in a long sigh.

  He spoke first. “Hey.”

  I turned. “Hey.”

  “You look nice.” He glanced away and picked up his breakfast plate. “You think this cloaking will work?”

  He was purposefully ignoring what had happened. Fine.

  He joined me at the counter, washing the dishes he’d used.

  “Thank you. I hope so.”

  “Me too.” He struggled with the little scrubber I used for pots. When he rinsed the plate and held it up, he looked around for a place to put it and ended up holding it awkwardly.

  “Here.” I abandoned my mortar and picked up a towel. I dried the plate, pan, and utensils and put them in the cabinets where they belonged, but when he handed me the suggestive mug, I bit my lip, and we both smiled.

  Then we were laughing over the sink and some of the tension had broken.

  Wade nudged me with his hip. “You are, you know. Hot.”

  I was suddenly very glad I had changed. “Thanks.”

  He smiled. “That dress is nice, but you are especially sexy in those kitten pajamas you wore. Me-ow.”

  I nudged him back and swatted his arm. “Shut up.”

  We eased into a conversation, reminiscing. It almost felt like a normal reunion of two close friends, if you could call us that, except I was blending a magical potion and casting a protective cloaking spell. And he was giving off that dragon heat that curled toward me enticingly. But maybe that was our normal.

  Wade watched me grinding the moss into the bark. “Am I gonna eat that or what?”

  “No, more like wear it. I’ll add it to a kudzu absolute and some witch hazel and kinda,” I mimicked my finger on a nozzle, “spray you down.”

  “Oh.” He pulled a long face. “I was sort of hungry again.”

  “Really?”

  He grinned. “Yeah, kinda kidding but not. I’m starving.”

  “Wow.”

  “I burn a lot of calories. Literally.” His sheepish shrug and smile did as much damage to my heart as that kiss had.

  “I guess so. I’d be hungry too if I were a dragon. What do you want?” I tried the fridge again. A quick assessment of the ingredients gave few options. “How about soup? Salad? No, oh, I know. Mac and cheese.” I smiled. “With a ton of cheese, right?”

  “That sounds perfect. You used to make me that all the time. With hot sauce to give it a little kick. Ironic.”

  “Ha. A little ironic, yeah. It was about the only thing I would cook back then.” Except potions. Gran made sure my craft lessons were covered even if the culinary ones were not.

  “You were a good cook. But yeah, it’s your fault I crave cheese. Blame’s all yours.”

  I put some water on to boil and tossed the salt in before returning to the potion. I dusted the granules left on my fingers into the herbs. As in cooking, salt intensified the ingredients in many potions too.

  “Be sure you keep those straight there.” He grinned. “No moss and cheese for me, thank you.”

  “I’m sure you’ve eaten worse. Like raw eggs.”

  I finished the grinding and added it to the bottle of kudzu absolute and witch hazel mixture. “There. Let’s get this on you. Let’s spray it away from the kitchen if you don’t want to be eating a cloaking potion.”

  He nodded, walking backwards toward the hallway. The wicked gleam in his eyes matched the little grin that played at his lips. “I guess you want me naked for this.”

  I blushed, but a perverse sense of humor took over. “You’re right. I want you naked.”

  6

  “Your wish is my command.” He pulled his s
hirt over his head and tossed it to the floor.

  My mouth went dry at the sight of him. I knew I was staring again, but I couldn’t stop. His hands went to the clasp of his jeans, and I almost cried out for him to stop. He paused before I could speak.

  “I should make you wait to see that, shouldn’t I? Work for it?”

  I shook my head, unable to think, as if some spell or charmed magic had me in its clutches. All I wanted was to see him naked in front of me, God help me. Clearly, I’d inhaled too much of the cloaking spray.

  “I’ll spray your top half, and you can manage the rest.”

  “I don’t know if I can get it all.” He grinned, but the heat he sent out nearly engulfed me. My skin answered in tingles. He saw me react, and the grin turned to a clenched jaw.

  There was that fire again, reaching for me, overcoming my better judgment which said take things slowly, get to know each other again. That was a good idea actually.

  I lifted the spray bottle in a shaking hand and squirted one dose over his right shoulder. “Tell me about what you’ve been doing all this time.”

  “Other than training and learning to control my shifts, I finished school, did some online classes at state.”

  He turned for me to get his back and spread his hands against the wall like I was about to frisk him. And damn if I didn’t want to. What was wrong with me?

  He looked at me over his shoulder, grinning. “You are looking at a college graduate’s backside, thank you very much.”

  I spritzed his entire back and found myself licking my lips at the beads of potion now making their slow way down to his waist.

  “Aren’t you going to congratulate me? Never thought I’d be a man of letters, did you?”

  I cleared my constricted throat. “I always thought you could be whatever you wanted, Wade. Always.” I tapped his shoulder to let him know I was done. “I’m proud of you. Very proud.”

  He smiled. “Thank you. I did it for you, for us. That’s how it started anyway. I thought when things went back to normal—” He stopped. “Anyway, what about you? Did you go to college? I know you had all those offers.”

  “No. I never went.” I busied myself spraying his abs.

  “What happened?”

  “Gran got sick, so I stayed. End of story.”

  “I’m sorry. I know how much you dreamed of that.”

  I shrugged. “Dreams change. Sometimes they die.”

  “They don’t have to.” He went quiet and stared at me. “Any big loves in your life?”

  Just you. God, I hope I hadn’t thought that toward him.

  “No, there’s been no one. No time for that.”

  He sighed. “Me neither. No one, Sienna. No loves big or small.”

  What was he saying? I turned away, shaking the bottle that didn’t need shaking. “Here, you can go in there and apply the rest. It works best with skin contact.”

  “Everything does.” His voice was low and hoarse. His gaze darkened, and he leveled it at my breasts as he held out his hand. It covered mine, and he didn’t try to take the bottle. “Can’t you feel this?”

  I closed my eyes against the warmth spreading from my hand to my core.

  “What?” I knew damn well what, but I didn’t want to admit that I was one caution-to-the-wind breath away from letting desire overtake me.

  “The pull between us, the heat, the undeniable desire. I feel it. It’s like a drug. I know you feel it. If you’ll forgive me and let yourself let go.”

  “What then?” My words were whispers. I wanted to know. What then?

  Wade crossed the short distance between us in deliberate, slow steps. One, two...

  “Sienna, I’m sorry for everything.” He squeezed the hand he still held. “If nothing else, please forgive me. I wanted to come back.”

  I nodded. Something burst inside my chest. I wanted to cry and laugh— and grab him and kiss him. I took a deep breath. “I forgive you.”

  He let go of the one he’d been holding, and it was his turn to close his eyes. His hand went to his heart, straight to the spot where I’d traced that rune. That undid me.

  He began thanking me, but I wasn’t listening. Without pausing to think, I closed the remaining gap between us, pushing against him mid-sentence with enough force that he stumbled back.

  “Shut up, Wade.” I worked my hands into his hair, holding his gaze. “Just kiss me.”

  I pulled him down to me, claiming his mouth and that sizzling heat of his in a hard, soulful kiss, everything else forgotten as he pressed me tight against his chest and stroked my tongue with his.

  The heat that had built between us exploded. Our mouths met in a frenzied intensity. His hand fisted in my hair, angling my head to better thrust his tongue against mine until I dug my nails into his back and dragged him closer by his belt loop.

  “Mmm,” I moaned and moved my hip into the cradle of his legs. My thigh brushed his arousal, and he bucked. A sense of power came over me, and I pressed into him, grinding my hip there.

  He threw back his head, the heat coming from him suddenly flaring out in a burst that rocked me on my feet. I could feel how close it was to combusting. And I wanted it to explode all over me.

  Wade growled.

  “Wanted you this way for so long.” He lifted me up and drove me across the room until my back was flush against the kitchen wall.

  I slid down his body and wrapped one leg around him. “Me too.”

  “Dreamed of this.” His hands came up to cup my breasts, kneading them. “And this.” He tugged at my sensitive, taut nipples through my dress until I was panting.

  I leaned into him. “Yes.”

  I needed to touch him in return, explore those hard planes.

  I dug my nails into his backside and dragged them around to graze his chest, raking my way down until I met with the resistance of his jeans.

  I gripped his straining flesh, squeezing lightly.

  He moaned, pressing forward. “Oh, god. Please...”

  I obeyed that please, stroking him through his jeans until he struggled to hold me there against the wall. He ran his hands under my dress and almost lost his grip. I slid down the wall a few inches before he caught me.

  “Good lord, Sienna.” His hands cupped my bare bottom.

  “What?” I wriggled against him. “Wade?”

  He gulped. “You’re not wearing… oh, good god, I want to take you right here, right now. I can barely think”

  “Then don’t. Don’t think. Just take me.”

  He growled in reply and raised the dress over my head, tossing it to the floor beside his shirt and coming back to lavish my exposed breasts. He stopped to touch the claddagh he’d given me and then buried his head between my breasts. “You’re so beautiful.”

  Before I could get a coherent reply past my lips, his lips teased one puckered nipple, his tongue swirling around and around, biting gently.

  Unfettered desire pooled between my legs. I needed to be closer to that heat, to his flesh. I arched against him, and his hand found my wet heat.

  “Sienna?” He paused, waiting for my answer.

  I moved against him. “Yes, please.”

  “Jesus.” He slipped his finger slowly inside me, and another loud moan tore from my lips.

  I almost lost my ability to stay upright. I’d have fallen hard if there hadn’t been a wall to catch my back.

  Wade’s panting voice was hot at my ear. “You’re so wet, so tight. Do you know what you’re doing to me?”

  I squirmed against that finger that I wanted to do something, anything, and tried to process his question. I leaned forward and lowered my head to his shoulder, not meeting his eyes. “No.”

  He tilted my chin up to meet his gaze. “I want to make love to you, Sienna.”

  He kissed me, a long, hard, sweet kiss that quickly became a passionate, consuming one. And when his hand cupped between my legs, I pushed against him, needing him there more than anything at that moment.

  He answered me the same, his moan passing to me through his kiss, and pressed his hard length into my hand as his fingers began to work my quivering flesh. I struggled to remain upright, my body and mind melting to this heat between us.

  I shook in his grasp. “Bedroom.”