Artistic Vision

Shane barely managed to close the studio’s outer door before Akane was on him, kissing him like she’d been starved of his touch, his taste for weeks instead of hours. Her teeth worried at his neck, drawing blood. Her purr thrummed against his skin, drawing a groan from him. Damn, he wanted her purring while she sucked on him, taking him deep inside her mouth. He wanted to feel that vibration, that absolute sound of want she was making right now.

“Gods, Shane.” She lifted her head from his neck, her dragon eyes wide, her pupils blown. “It was like bathing in liquid gold.”

Uh oh. Shane slung his new wife over his shoulder and padded to the bedroom. “Claws to yourself, woman.”

She huffed out an offended breath. “You’re not the one I want to rip to shreds.” She reached down and cupped his ass cheeks, her talons cold against his skin but her palms warm. “I just want to eat you all up.”

He repressed a shiver. His cock twitched, hard as a rock. He placed her on the bed, careful of her wings. “That can be arranged.”

Shane hissed as she darted forward, her tongue enthusiastically lapping at the head of his cock. Endearments and encouragement in the Sidhe language began pouring from his lips when she finally took him inside her mouth.

Then she began to purr.

Shane couldn’t stop himself. He grabbed both sides of her head and began to thrust in and out of her welcoming heat. Her fist wrapped around the base of his cock, stopping him from accidentally choking her, but otherwise she let him have his way, purring encouragement around him until his head fell back and he poured himself down her throat.

Akane leaned back and licked her lips, very much the dragon that got the gold. He had to laugh at the satisfied expression on her face. “Dare I ask, was that good for you too?”

She snorted, smoke curling from her nostrils. “Get your ass down here, Jethro.”

He grinned. He loved it when she called him that. “Anything for you, Miz Akane.” He lowered himself over her, forcing her onto her back. It was too soon for his cock to rise, but he was going to see to it she enjoyed herself thoroughly before he took her. He stroked one finger along her golden horns, enjoying the ways he shuddered beneath him. “Can I get you to come just by doing this?”

She turned dazed eyes up to him. “Wanna find out?”

He gripped both horns and began stroking up and down, enjoying the hard, cool feel of them between his fingers. Akane moaned and writhed under him, her hips jerking up against him. She bit her lip, her hands clutching at his ass in desperation.

Shane began to rise to the challenge. His wife wanted to get fucked, and Shane was more than willing to oblige her. He bent his mouth to hers, kissing and nipping at her fullness, loving the way her pupils dilated in sheer pleasure. The only thing his little seer was seeing was him and what he was doing to her.

Akane spread her legs, enticing him into her wet heat. She grabbed hold of his wrists, stilling his fingers on her horns. “Do it, Shane. Fuck me.”

“I thought you wanted me to make you come like this?” He stroked her horns again, grinning when she gasped. “Well?”

She snarled and yanked at his hair, the sting strong enough to bring tears to his eyes. “Fuck. Me. Now.”

“As you wish.” Shane slid into her, his hands gripping her horns to hold her steady. Or so he told her. “I wouldn’t want you to think I was trying to disobey and get you to come just by stroking them, right?”

She growled. “Stop and die, Shane.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Ta mo chroi istigh ionat.”

She didn’t even know what it meant, but she looked up at him with love. “Ta mo chroi istigh ionat.”

Shane began to move inside her, desperate now to feel her come around him. “My heart is within you,” he translated. He wanted her to know exactly what he said to her, what she meant to him.

She cupped his jaw. “My heart is within you.” She gasped, shivered and came, squeezing his cock like a vise.

He kept his movements smooth, nowhere near ready to come. “A gra, mo saol.”

She panted beneath him, a small smile on her lips. “A gra, mo saol.”

He shuddered as the Gaelic phrase dripped effortlessly from her lips. “My love, my life.”

Akane’s eyes cleared. She gazed up at him, her expression fiercely possessive. “My love. My life.”

Shane jerked, startled, as his orgasm tore through him, blinding him to everything but his wife’s brilliant, loving gaze.

Akane held Shane as he panted, exhausted, above her. His back was slick with sweat, his hair, that beautiful red-gold hair, darkened still by his run-in with Black Court poison. Her jaw clenched, cold fury overriding everything else. Shane belonged to her, and someone had almost taken him. “I almost lost you.”

“You didn’t.” He lifted his head, the weariness he’d fought to pleasure her deepening his blue eyes nearly to black. Dark circles ringed them. He’d made love to her without his Seeming, but his vibrant colors were dulled. A faint scar remained from where Jaden had first cut him, a vivid reminder of what had almost happened.

“Sleep, love.” She caressed his hair, smiling when he leaned into her palm. “Rest. I’ll protect you.”

He smiled against her hand. “I know.”

The utter confidence in his reply, the complete faith in his gaze almost undid the fury.

Almost.

“When do you go hunting?”

She blinked. “After.” He tilted his head, but the yawn he’d been fighting ever since he came broke free. “After I’m sure you’ve rested.”

Shane kissed her gently. “I just Bound you. You should be exhausted.”

She allowed her brows to rise arrogantly. She was a dragon. She could go days without sleep if she absolutely had to, but she’d pay for it by sleeping for days on end.

It was worth it, for Shane.

“Ruby was out for days when Leo Bound her. From what my parents tell me it was one of the strongest Bonding rituals they’d ever witnessed. Akane? I think ours was just as strong.”

Ruby was human. Akane was not. “Our lives are one now.” She could feel him inside her, his exhaustion threatening to drag her down too. “I need you to rest, Shane.” She licked his chin, tasting salt and Shane. “Rest for us.”

For just a split second his expression was shocked before carefully blanking once more. “Oh.”

“What?”

“I just understand what something meant, that’s all.” He rolled off of her, leaving her cold. “Good night, a ghra.”

She sniffed. “You’re evil.” Now she was going to wonder all night what he was talking about.

“I know.” He pulled her into his arms and she curled around him, kept her mate warm when exhaustion proved too much for the hybrid to hold off any longer.

Akane almost blew a raspberry, but the man had finally fallen asleep, truly asleep, for the first time since he’d been taken. She rubbed her hand up and down his side, enjoying the feel of his warm skin. He’d been so cold when she’d first found him she’d been afraid he’d never be warm again.

Akane stopped, frowning when she noticed something on her arm. She lifted her hand and had to stifle a gasp. On her forearm was a golden spiral triskele, three joined, glittering swirls of light bound in the center by a single symbol. The center of the triskele was a dragon curled around a golden human form. The arms of the triskele rotated away from the dragon and her mate, the golden spirals glittering in the light like a Sidhe’s skin. Akane smiled at the sign that her mate accepted her protection until she got a closer look at the figures.

The tiny human figure held a dagger in one hand and a shield in the other.

Akane tsk’d. Why was she not surprised? “Stubborn man.”