CHAPTER 1 – VALENTINE
Layla Price stood upon the balcony, staring out over the bright morning. Snow shimmered in every direction, bending the boughs of laden pines surrounding the Swiss mountain chalet. Blowing steam off her espresso, deep peace suffused her. Birds flitted around the gables of the chalet, darting off into the sunshine as snow shed from the icicle-speared roofline. Dressed in a sky blue silk robe with fuzzy slippers on her feet, Layla smiled as a breeze stirred her sable curls. Scents of cinnamon and jasmine drifted around her, mingling with alpine smells of pine and ice. Layla smiled more, sipping her coffee as that heady mountain aroma curled in with her espresso.
That delicious spice scent wasn’t coming from her coffee. But it did complement coffee and slow mornings nicely.
“Good morning. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Stepping to her back, Adrian Rhakvir’s arms curled around Layla, cinching snugly around her waist and pulling her close to his exquisitely fit, tall body. Beaming, Layla settled back into Adrian’s arms, letting him cradle her to his scalding bare chest. Pleasure moved through her as she felt the blistering energy of their Royal Desert Dragons slide against each other with a delicious ripple of scales and heat. Adrian’s desert magic was like a live thing as it curled around her, licking up her ankles and sliding in through her parted lips. It was like kissing cinnamon and anise as Layla inhaled his power with the espresso’s fragrance, exquisite. Her head fell back, her coffee forgotten as his hands gripped her, one slipping up to knead her ribs as his smooth lips kissed her neck – his magic delving in and teasing her tongue.
“Good morning yourself.” Layla breathed, deliciously pleasured. “Do they even celebrate Valentine’s in the Twilight Realm?”
Though Adrian’s mountain chalet was in the Twilight Realm, a next-door world to the human one, his refuge in this remote valley of the Swiss Alps was miles from civilization. Silence held court around them in the bright February morning, the two of them quite alone after arriving by helicopter a week ago. After their debacle at Chartres a month ago, followed by Layla’s sudden whirlwind Ownership in the Red Letter Hotel, Adrian had come to her with this idea for a vacation at Valentine’s, and Layla had jumped at it.
A chance to spend some long-overdue quality time together.
“Want some breakfast? I’m cooking.” Adrian murmured into her neck as he kissed her. One of his hands slid up, cupping her breast while the other slid down, slipping under the robe and sliding sweetly between Layla’s thighs. She shivered in his arms as her smile curled more – as his long, hot fingers contrasted with the cold air, stroking her gently, his body radiating heat.
“Youarecooking,” Layla breathed, her body clenching deliciously in Adrian’s arms. “What say you be my Valentine right now, and we can cook up an appetite for breakfast. Maybe all day long…”
“I did have dinner reservations for us tonight in town, but I’m getting the feeling you’d rather skip all that hoopla of chocolates and a fancy meal today.” Adrian chuckled at her neck as his fingers slid into her now, sweet and slow. She bucked in his arms with a gasp, and his free hand took her coffee mug away, setting it aside on the snowy deck rail.
“Yup. We’re definitely skipping anything you have planned today.” Layla spoke, shuddering in his arms.
“Back inside?” He growled at her neck, his fingers delving in slow and deep.
“Back inside,” Layla nodded fast. “Or I am going to throw you down right here and fuck you in the snow.”
“Maybe we can melt this whole valley and cause an avalanche. Like we melted my room back at Riad Rhakvir at Yule.” Adrian chuckled, truly grinning at her neck now.
Layla laughed, but she got no further. In one smooth movement, Adrian turned her and hefted her up with her legs around his waist, one hand under her ass while his fingers still took their pleasure inside her. He was unrushed, but his kiss was passionate as he turned, stepping them gracefully back inside. Pressed close to his bare chest, feeling him hot and hard through his navy silk sleep-pants, Layla couldn’t help but writhe. Her Dragon roared inside her like gasoline on a bonfire as passion ignited between them, hot and wild with the golden Bind between their bodies. Adrian had been angling for the king-sized bed along one wall of the open mountain chalet, but he didn’t make it. Ten steps from the balcony doors, he collapsed, spilling Layla to an enormous white sheepskin rug before the river rock fireplace.
She came down soft but fast as he controlled her fall, his hands bracing in the thick nap of the rug. He shed his silk trousers fast; her robe was shucked in one quick motion. She was naked beneath him now, his skin so hot and delicious against her, his lithe, mean muscles tense with excitement. Layla had a moment to watch his eyes shine like the dawn over the Mediterranean sea – aqua and gold and so many other colors – before he slid into her upon a wave of pure pleasure, making her forget everything else.
Layla cried out, arching beneath him as he gasped above her. As Adrian moved inside her, it felt like it had this entire week. Like coming home; like there was no place to be but beneath him, gripping him deep inside her as he thrust smooth and slow, using every inch of his impeccable control. Coils of wind and heat surged around them with barbs of delight and powerful muscles. A spiced zephyr lifted inside the chalet, rushing through the old-growth cedar timbers and toppling lamps, swinging the deer-antler chandelier, and making the fire blaze. Layla felt her drakaina roar as Adrian took her with his incredible heat and control. She cried out, scalding with a delicious passion that made her quicken, tightening her legs around him as it tightened her deep.
The sensation made Adrian cry out above her. He was losing his rhythm and Layla wanted him to lose it. Her drakaina wanted this mating in the bright morning to be an exuberant call of the wild, and Adrian’s drake responded. Layla felt his Dragon roar, felt its scales and barbs tighten around her as a burning cinnamon-jasmine aroma flooded the room. Adrian cried out, shaking on his hands, his eyes opening as he thrust hard inside her now. His eyes burned with blue-gold heat, with too many colors as he lost control at last, and Layla cried out, loving every long, thick inch of him buried to the hilt inside her.
Like he’d dug himself into her very essence – possessing his mate.
But Adrian wasn’t about to let this come to an end so soon. Wrangling his Dragon, he trapped Layla close to his viciously sculpted body, and in one swift movement, lifted her up to a sitting position in his lap. They’d not parted and the new position stole Layla’s breath as her ankles locked around his hips, his legs crossed beneath her. She gasped as their eyes locked, as he changed the angle to thrust as deep as he could get inside her. A sound spilled from Layla’s lips as he gripped her back with one arm, holding the nape of her neck with his hand.
Trapped. She was trapped by her mate.
And she loved it.
Layla writhed; she couldn’t help it. It was part struggle as her Dragon tried to escape the talons of her mate, but mostly ecstasy. Breathing hard as he fucked her deeper, slower, Adrian watched her with his luminous aqua eyes. The gold in them seared as his winds surged around her, his passions pouring through her body. As if he could pour power and heat through his hands and the press of their bodies, a devouring wind rushed through Layla. Sliding through her with coils and muscle and talons, it raked her insides until everything shivered with pleasure. Throwing her head back, Layla arched in his arms, a sound between a roar and a scream spilling from her lips.
And then she spilled over into orgasm.
As she spasmed, crying out, Adrian crushed her close, rolling his hips to thrust infernally deep and bring her again. Layla shuddered with pleasure as he quickened. She was an inferno as her power locked to his. She was a wave of scalding heat as he took her, his breath ragged now, his body slick with sweat before the fireplace. As Adrian exploded into orgasm, Layla gave in one last time; they came together, crying out and collapsing into a heap on the rug.
Laughing breathlessly as the last of their scalding zephyrs careened out the open balcony doors.
“My god!” Adrian laughed, shaking as he curled Layla around his impressively tall, lean nakedness.
“Wow! Just… holy fuck wow.” Layla laughed also, cuddling close to Adrian’s inferno as he tucked her beneath his arm. Laying her head on his shoulder, Layla sank into the feel of him. At the beginning, their passion had been unconsummated for months, and it had left this roaring heat inside their bodies too long. But since Layla had bound her Royal Crystal Dragon Dusk Arlohaim at Samhain, some of Dusk’s reasonableness had inserted itself into Layla and Adrian’s Bind – and subsequently into her Royal Siren Reginald Durant and Storm Dragon Regent Rhennic Erdhelm.
As if thinking about her bound Royal Dragons drew them near, Layla suddenly saw Dusk’s bright sapphire eyes in her mind. It had been a long while since she had felt anything from him, still entombed in his crystal healing cocoon since their battle against the White Chalice at Yule. But as if called by the explosive sex Layla had just shared with Adrian, she felt a heave from Dusk suddenly through their Bind.
