The Cursed King by Abigail Owen

Chapter Twenty-One

Angelika held her breath as her lover aligned himself to her body, then pressed inside. Slowly, slowly…gods, so slowly she wanted to scream and savor at the same time.

His muscles locked and trembled above her as he controlled the thrust so tightly, pressing, pressing, until his cock filled her to the hilt, stretching her and yet familiar now in the best way.

Any second, Angelika expected Airk to come to his senses and pull away. Or run away. Again. But maybe just knowing that he could do this without killing her had given him permission to relax.

He stopped suddenly, breathing hard, eyes locked to hers as he visibly struggled for control, his white-blue eyes turning dragon for a flash.

Maybe not.

Angelika took his face in her hands, staring deeply into his eyes, seeing the man but addressing the creature buried inside. “You have to let Airk do this, with your help, if you want me to belong to you both.”

Was she getting through? Could the dragon even fathom her words, let alone understand and act?

Airk blew out a long breath, then the ridges of his muscles gave a little. “He likes your voice.”

Moving restlessly against him, Angelika grinned. “That’s great…but right now I really need your fire inside me.”

A rare blush surged into her cheeks at her boldness, and Airk’s eyes twinkled, even as his gaze turned more intense, searing her with a look. He obeyed the demand and dragged his hips back, almost as slowly as he’d entered her, before pressing inside again in that masterly, controlled manner.

“Faster,” Angelika demanded and moaned at the same time, using her feet against the backs of his legs to try to hurry him up.

“No.”

She gave a tiny grrrr of frustration, even as her body sang with the sensations his total, controlled possession was building inside her.

Airk’s smile turned predatorial.

He continued to torture them both with the slow surge and retreat. No wonder this man had withstood the years in captivity. If control was a superpower, he was the most dominant man on the damn planet.

A spark of her naturally teasing nature struck, and Angelika started trying ways to tip that control over the edge. Not much. Not enough to let the dragon out. Just a little.

She ran her hands up over the backs of his legs, squeezing an ass that was pure muscle. His smile turned almost taunting, and she had a feeling he was well aware what she was attempting. Not that she gave up. Next, she trailed her foot up the back of his leg, adjusting her position, seating him more deeply as he pressed forward.

That drew a small grunt from them both.

“I know what you are doing,” he whispered.

She shot him her most innocent, wide-eyed look, even batting eyelashes. “I’m getting thoroughly fucked.”

The color that surged into his cheeks at that told her he liked those words. He liked them a lot.

To prove her point, she clenched her inner muscles around him as he dragged his cock out.

That drew a full-on groan from him, and he reared up over her, the sound of fire stoking in his chest unmistakable.

Finally.

“If you still want this, open your mouth.” A command, stark, harsh, and uncompromising, even as he gave her a choice.

As if she’d change her mind. Clenching her inner muscles around him again, she did as he asked, opening wide.

On a growl that was pure dragon, his eyes lighting on fire as his chest glowed from within, Airk lunged at her. His kiss, when it came, was exacting, ravaging, and still in utter control. Heat poured into her mouth, not burning, only adding to the heat consuming her body from his touch.

His fire stopped suddenly, and he buried his face in her neck, going eerily still.

“Airk?” she murmured.

She feathered a soothing hand over his shoulders, his back.

On a roar, he lifted his head, staring down at her with worry clouding his eyes, watching her closely.

“Stay with me,” he begged harshly. Almost a plea.

Had it suddenly occurred to him that, if she was only a human with dragon sign, that she wasn’t a phoenix? Which meant that, if he wasn’t her fated mate, he could kill her with his fire. She had no fire to mate him with, which she’d always assumed was what protected a phoenix from dying. Gave them the choice of mates.

Hadn’t he realized?

Because she’d known that the second she’d recognized what her dragon sign was. Known and accepted the risk. Immediately. No question.

But the heat inside her wasn’t burning, wasn’t eating away at her insides. If anything, it only latched on to the bliss coursing through her veins, heightening her pleasure.

Angelika’s eyes went wide. “If you want to join me in this orgasm…” A shiver racked her from head to toe. “You’d better get going.”

The relief that poured through him melted over his face and his shoulders, only to pour blood into his cock, thickening her inside him.

“Thank the gods,” he muttered.

…

Desire, pleasure, and relief apparently combined with an elemental sort of possession in a way that turned to pure, incandescent pleasure.

Airk let go of the last of his fears—the first being producing fire without releasing his dragon, and the second watching Angelika burn to death in his fire. Neither had happened. She was his now. Theirs.

And he intended to give himself to her fully. He was hers. Forever.

Rearing back onto his knees, he clamped his hands around her thighs, lifting her bottom up, and held her there as he pounded into her. Her body was wet and hot and tight around him, grasping at his cock with the most delicious drag as he surged in and out of her.

He stared into her beautiful face, accepting her total trust, the passion seizing her features as she moaned around her pleasure, feeding his. For once, he didn’t need to be in control. Falling forward, he gathered her into his arms and kissed her, over and over, in time to his body as he built their combined pleasure higher and higher.

“Airk?” Wonder laced his name, and he knew she was close.

A tingling gathered at the base of his spine so intense his body felt electrified. He let go of the final mental barrier, dropping those walls he’d built around his dragon, and together, on a shout of total completion, they poured a new kind of fire into her, for the first time in memory acting as one.

Angelika bore down on him and tossed her head back on a scream of ecstasy, her orgasm dragging his own pleasure out, and Airk shouted to the skies as sensation sizzled through his body and streams of his essence poured into his mate’s body. His dragon pressed harder, roaring in his head and sending another wave of fire into Angelika, whose breath hitched. Then she cried out again, a second orgasm ripping through her so hard, her body milked his with a stranglehold until every last ounce of him coated her womb.

Only then did they slow. Sweat-slicked and breathing hard, he buried his face in her neck, reaching for control again.

But he didn’t need to. His dragon was…oddly content…inside him.

He clutched her more tightly to him, suddenly wanting to claim her again, just to watch her face as she tumbled over into that abyss of sensation, to taste more of her, feel more of her. But that would come later.

She was his, now and forever.

Gently, he moved them so that they lay on their sides facing each other. Taking a deep breath, Angelika twined her fingers with his, then lifted eyes glowing with hope and an undeniable happiness to meet his gaze.

He sucked in sharply at the look in those eyes. Ages ago, he’d given up all hope of having this. Having a mate.

“My mate,” he whispered the word, his dragon humming with satisfaction inside his head. “It worked.”

Her lips drew into a smile precious with happiness. “Just like Kasia said.”

Airk dropped his forehead to hers. “Thank the gods.”

“See?” she teased. “If you had just accepted my good sense when I brought this up the first time, we could have saved a lot of time and angst.”

Airk grunted at that.

“In fact, I think we should make it a rule that you listen to me from now on.”

He huffed a laugh, shaking his head. His little mate was incorrigible, but then, that had always been part of what drew him to her.

Angelika bit her lip, staring at him as though he’d grown two heads.

“What?” he asked.

“I’ve never seen you so…”

Happy. Relaxed. Free. He grimaced. “It probably will not last. I am pretty sure my nature is not this.”

Hmmm… She didn’t seem too bothered by that fact. “I think I have a good sense of the man I mated.”

She did, too, even when no one else wanted to get close enough to try.

“We need to work on your self-preservation skills,” he murmured.

Angelika’s grin might have lit up the entire room. “What do I need those for? I’m a dragon now.”

He grunted. “Not yet.”

Not until the bond snapped into place and his family’s mark seared into the skin at the nape of her neck. Bonding could take seconds for some, years for others. The mysterious connection was something dragons didn’t question or try to explain. They just accepted it and waited.

A new kind of tension filled him, tightening the strands of his muscles one by one, first across his shoulders, then down his back, his arms.

A new kind of worry.

Keeping her safe was always a concern, and until that bond, he was determined to never leave her side. But once she could shift, the new problem was making sure nothing happened to him. Because if he died, the bond would drag her into the grave right after him.

Fuck. What was I thinking?

He’d permanently bound her to a man who couldn’t shift. Shouldn’t ever shift again. Which meant he needed to be more careful than ever with himself.

“Stop,” Angelika mumbled, voice turning sleepy.

“Stop what?”

“Remember…I can hear when you’re overthinking. Probably a bad habit from being locked in a cell with nothing else to do. All bad things about protecting me from you or from myself, probably.” She flung a leg over his, plastering her delectable body even closer, and burrowed her head under his chin. “You can just stop.”

For once, surrounded by her sunshine scent and her heat with her in his arms, Airk was inclined to agree. He’d probably wake up tomorrow with a thousand regrets and even more worries. Something he’d never seen coming.

He’d never, ever seen her coming, even when he’d always seen her.

He snuggled her closer. “Stealthy.”

“What was that?”

“You. You are stealthy.” He closed his eyes. “Snuck under my skin and into my life even while I was looking.”

A soft chuckle tickled his chin. “Good thing for you. If you haven’t heard, I’m quite the catch.”

“Because you are a phoenix?” He shook his head, then had to reach up to pull a gossamer strand of hair off his face. “I do not care about that. Never did.”

“Ah. So you mated me for my body, then?”

He couldn’t help his smile even as he shook his head. “Sleep.”

She seemed to settle, and his heart tried to stop altogether at the sense that this was beyond right.

After a beat of silence: “Do you think they’ll accept us?” she asked in a small voice he’d never heard from his brave mate.

“Accept us?”

“The White Clan? As leaders, I mean.”

Airk had zero intention of stepping into any kind of leadership position. Not without being able to shift. But Angelika… “They will love you,” he said. “Everyone does.”

She mumbled something into his chest that might have been, “Not everyone.”

What was that supposed to mean? “Hmmm?”

“Nothing.”

He didn’t believe her, but he was familiar with that tone by now. She had no intention of telling him. “Are you going to sleep now?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sleepy.”

Airk slowly opened his eyes, not really taking in the rock wall across the room. “Oh? What are you?”

A small silence greeted his question. “Um…maybe we should try that mating thing again. Just to be sure it took.”

Now a slow smile crept across his mouth. “I do not want to wear you out.”

“No chance of that.”

Airk lifted his head to stare down into sparkling eyes. Then flipped them in the bed so that he was on his back and she was seated across him, straddling him, the long, already achingly hard shaft of his cock pressed right into the hot, slick core of her.

Her eyes went wide, and she laughed. “I guess I’m not the only one not tired.”

Airk tucked his hands behind his head, thoroughly enjoying the view.

Her eyebrows shot up. “What are you doing?”

His smile was slow as his mind flipped through the Kama Sutra book Nathair had brought him and all the things he wanted to try. “I’m letting you play,” he said.

Confusion darkened her eyes to sky blue, brows lowering.

So he gripped her hips, lifted her up, and impaled her on his rigid cock, almost coming then and there at the stark moan that ripped from her. Then, seated deeply inside her, he let go. “Play, little mate.” A command.

Angelika’s eyes widened, comprehension dawning.

For a split second, he wondered if she would balk. The swift color flooding her cheeks told him she might. He waited. Patience, learned patience—finally a fucking virtue.

Then her eyes narrowed, a spark of challenge in them, her lips tilting. She undulated her hips, and Airk smiled, then hung on for the ride.