Playing with Fire

not so simple as me having a choice, don’t you understand? He is repugnant, evil personified, the being I most dread on the planet, and yet more than once I have found myself slipping under his seductive spell. To say you won’t give me up is neither here nor there… I’ll give myself up in the end.’’

‘‘You have resisted his attempts upon you for a hundred years,’’ he said, his eyes bright with emotion. ‘‘I will teach you ways to continue to do so.’’

A faint surge of hope blossomed within me. ‘‘You know a way to avoid his spells?’’

‘‘Well… not as such. But there are others who do, and we will find them. Do not worry about this, little bird. You are mine, and I do not give up what I hold.’’

I looked deep into his eyes, and for a moment, I believed him. His belief in himself was unshakable, as was his interest in me. But there was something else, something that was even more intriguing, a brief glimpse of a gentler emotion that found an answering chord within me. ‘‘Even if we do find someone who can teach me, we’ve only known each other… well, for a few hours. And much as I enjoy kissing you, and touching you-’’

‘‘And wishing to feel me slide into your body, possessing you as only I can-’’ he said, echoing my thoughts.

I clapped a hand over his mouth, glaring as his dimples emerged.

‘‘Even if all that were true, and I’ll thank you very kindly to stop reading my smutty thoughts about you, even so, I am not the sort of a person who is comfortable with the idea of physical intimacy the very day we met. Just because I haven’t slept with a man before doesn’t mean I’m the sort of girl who jumps into bed at the first seductive and incredibly arousing smile a man gives her.’’

To my surprise, the aforementioned smile faded. ‘‘You are a wyvern’s mate.’’

‘‘Yes, I know-’’ I started to say, but he stopped me.

‘‘More to the point, you are my mate, but to ensure that you are not, for lack of a better word, poached by another, I must claim you. Physically. After which, you will accept me and the sept, and only then will you be safe from everything but lusus naturae.’’

‘‘What do you mean, poached?’’ I asked. ‘‘Lusus what?’’

He took a deep breath. I was momentarily distracted by the feeling of his leg pressed so intimately between mine, but managed to wrestle my mind away from that to what he was saying.

‘‘Wyvern’s mates are rare. They are born-or in your case, created-to be the mate of a wyvern.’’

‘‘And?’’ I asked, waiting for the penny to drop.

‘‘Any wyvern,’’ he said.

The penny hit the floor with the impact of an atomic bomb. ‘‘You mean I’m not your mate… I’m any wyvern’s mate?’’

‘‘Any wyvern who does not yet possess a mate, yes. There are four wyverns in the weyr… two of them are mated, two are not, although we’re not quite certain about whether or not one of the wyverns is still alive.’’

‘‘So there’s another wyvern out there who could zoom along and… what? Grab me for his own mate?’’

Gabriel looked vaguely uncomfortable.

‘‘What? The other wyvern isn’t a man?’’

‘‘No, he is, it’s just… it’s a long story, one which I really don’t wish to go into right now, but the blue wyvern was challenged and overthrown by another wyvern, the true wyvern, so now you could say there are two blue wyverns.’’

‘‘You dragons are very strange,’’ I said, apropos of nothing.

‘‘And then there’s Kostya,’’ he said, his gaze a thousand miles away.

‘‘That’s the guy you want me to rob?’’

‘‘Yes. He claims to be the wyvern of the black dragons, but as such, they do not exist.’’

‘‘Great. So there are now three other possible guys on the snatch-and-grab list?’’ I asked.

He hesitated. ‘‘Possibly four, if Chuan Ren is not confined to Abaddon after Aisling threw her there.’’

‘‘Pregnant Aisling tossed a wyvern into Hell?’’ I asked, astounded.

‘‘She is a Guardian,’’ he said with a slight smile, his gaze returning to the here and now. ‘‘A very powerful one.’’

‘‘I guess so. But none of that explains why any of those possibly four other wyverns would want to pick me to be their mate. I mean, you and I… well, we kind of hit it off.’’

His arms tightened around me, pulling me flush against his upper body. ‘‘You are mine, Mayling. No other wyvern will have you. But until you are properly claimed and accept me as your mate, you are vulnerable. We must mate tonight. You must accept me as your wyvern, and the silver dragons as your sept, or I will be forced to spend all my time keeping you from other wyverns rather than helping you escape your bondage to Magoth.’’

Tears pricked at the back of my eyes. I seldom cried, unlike Cyrene, who wept at the drop of a hat, but the thought that Gabriel would go to the immense trouble of trying to free me from Magoth touched my heart in a way I did not know was possible. ‘‘You’d do that for me?’’ I asked in a breathy voice.

His eyes promised so much. ‘‘I will move the heavens and earth if you so desire.’’

The romantic moment was almost too much to bear, but I would not be Cyrene ’s twin if I did not bring forth all the common-sense arguments against an instant relationship. ‘‘Can’t I accept you and your sept without us having sex?’’

A slow smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. ‘‘Yes. But it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.’’

Chapter Ten

‘‘I owe you much this first time, but unfortunately, I may not be able to show you the tenderness and gentleness you deserve,’’ Gabriel murmured into my collarbone as his fingers deftly stripped my upper body of shirt and bra.

I shivered as the chilled air hit my fevered skin, then gasped as my breasts, heavy and sensitive with wanting, brushed against his chest when his hands slipped lower, tugging off my pants. I rose to my feet, kicking off the pants, watching with increasing concern as he shucked his own sleeping pants.

‘‘I’m short,’’ I said, looking up as he stood naked in front of me.

His lips twitched. ‘‘I wouldn’t say short. ‘Petite’ was the word that first came to mind.’’

‘‘Yes, but…’’ I stared in dismay at his penis. It was slightly darker than the rest of him, possessing all of the usual attributes, but also startlingly… well, large. ‘‘You’re much taller than me. At least a foot.’’

A lovely soft chuckle twined itself around me. He took my hand and wrapped it around himself. ‘‘We will fit, do not fret, little bird.’’

‘‘I’m not fretting. I’m just concerned.’’

'I assure you that in this regard, I am no different from any other man.'

I narrowed my eyes at his penis. ‘‘You don’t have to patronize me. I’ve seen naked men before. I’m no stranger to sex, either, just not with a man.’’

‘‘I would not dream of patronizing you. Would you like me to lie down so that you may explore my body?’’

‘‘I have toys,’’ I told his penis, rather enjoying the heat of it in my hands. Since he invited me to do so, I allowed my fingers to explore the scenery. The results confirmed my suspicions. ‘‘I can say in all confidence that none of them even approach this level of… er… girth. I know women are built to accommodate all sorts of sizes and shapes, but there has to be a limit, Gabriel. And with the difference in our body sizes… well…’’

‘‘May.’’

I dragged my gaze off his nether regions up to his face. ‘‘What?’’

‘‘Are you stalling?’’ he asked, his eyes alight with amusement.

‘‘Is it that obvious?’’

‘‘Yes. But I understand. You are nervous. You are not sure you are ready to commit to this. And I wish I could give you the time to become comfortable with the idea of being my mate, but this is a time of war. I must claim you tonight.’’

‘‘You’re aroused,’’ I blurted.

‘‘Yes, I am.’’

‘‘But we just met. I’m not aroused.’’

His arms slid around me, his head lowering to the breast nearest him, his mouth hot on a suddenly aching