Layla shivered, feeling the ferocity inside Dusk. He wasn’t just angry; he was furious in a way that had no name, because it had been buried and churning for so many years. Just before his clan and the Tunisians had killed each other off, Dusk’s mother had gotten a summons to King Markus’ court and never returned. Layla saw it now, the deep rage inside Dusk ever since. It flashed his eyes to a seething diamond-white before they returned to sapphire – and Layla felt a tremor so deep inside the earth that it felt like the world might just split apart.
“Do you think you can challenge him?” Layla asked, a black fear moving inside her that woke the edge of her dark void deep within. “Do you think you’re strong enough to challenge your King?”
“I know I am.” Dusk’s voice was quiet, and though his gaze was fierce, his tone held no bravado. “Just like he feels me, Layla, I can now feel him. I can feel my King’s vibrations in a way I’ve never felt before. It’s a phenomenon calledcore resonance,that happens when a Crystal Dragon meets someone of nearly their power level. But Markus Ambrose is a devious bastard and has thousands of years on me. Even if I’m strong enough to challenge him, he knows ways of using his magic that I’ve never dreamed of. And since he’s killed off anyone who even approaches having Royal Crystal Dragon power, I’ve had no one to train me. Everything I’ve learned to do in a fight, I’ve learned on my own, or from reading ancient texts. Adrian knows this. And even though he and I are resonating with our strange Bind-like energy again, which is powerful… he thinks I’m about to embark on a suicide mission.”
“He’s worried he might lose you, Dusk.” Layla reached up, cupping Dusk’s jaw. “He cares about you.”
“I know.” Taking a breath, Dusk exhaled as he reached up, taking Layla’s hand and trapping it to his heart. “Adrian and I are friends, comrades, adopted brothers, even adversaries. He cares about me and I care about him, even though we fight like banshees occasionally, especially over you. But now that I’ve leveled up, this power between us is resonating stronger than ever before. It’s almost like… Adrian’s drake is driving mine, challenging it to be stronger, more dominant, fiercer than ever before – and my drake is responding. In a way I haven’t let it do since our twenties.”
“You’re afraid if you explore that power and use it to fight your King, that you’ll harm Adrian and me. Through the Bind.” Layla understood.
“Or my King will harm you.” With a hard sigh, Dusk rolled to his back, propping his bare feet on the bed as he stared up at the sky, still cradling Layla’s hand to his chest. “I want to explore this, Layla. I can feel your interest in us having a threesome vibrating all through you. It just flat excites you, the possibility of Adrian and I sharing you. But it’s a lot more complicated than that.”
Layla’s couldn’t lie. Thinking about herself, Adrian, and Dusk together made her burn with passion as her drakaina rose high in her veins. But as she smoothed her hand over Dusk’s chest, she wondered. “You were willing to try a threesome back when Adrian found us at the crystal pool-house in the fall. What changed?”
“I was heady with passion that night, Layla,” Dusk chuckled as he glanced over. “You and I had just had the most mind-blowing sex I had ever experienced in my life. I had finally realized you were my mate, and I wanted you come hell or high water. It flared my Dragon high that night, burning away my hang-ups. And when I saw Adrian’s wrath and power, his need to have you also to compete with me… I don’t know. The moment just swept me away. Your presence in our lives has brought him and me closer than we have been in decades. When we both hold you in bed sometimes… I want to engage the game. I want to fight his power to fuck you. I want to feel that way again. But untested magic has consequences.”
As Dusk cradled her hand upon his chest, Layla felt him heat. As if he was thinking about sex, Layla felt a deep tension take him. Glancing over, his gaze burned dark now with the dangerous look of his Dragon. As if it was thinking about fucking her, that look caught Layla’s breath as it devoured her. In a lithe movement, Dusk was suddenly up on one elbow.
And then he rolled her down to the bed – far faster than Layla had ever expected.
It made her gasp with a spike of fear and eagerness, her drakaina wanting dangerous play. Falling back beneath him, Layla let Dusk corral her with his rock-hard body, setting his soft lips to her neck. A tense, dangerous desire was in him as he moulded his strong body to hers, pressing down so she couldn’t get away. Layla’s pulse raced, pounding as Dusk sucked gently at her neck, then bit – grazing her with his teeth and making her body grip; hard.
His body began to move atop hers as a deep growl poured through him. Layla moved with it, arching as he bit deeper into her neck. She could feel the power in him; the dark danger of his Crystal drake. Something in her was deliciously afraid of it, knowing he was a far stronger Dragon than she. Even if she struggled or shifted, she couldn’t get away. He was just too big, too fast, too male – and everything about it excited her.
Layla felt her Bind-magic unfurl like some enormous underground flower as he kissed and bit at her skin, moving down. As the Bind’s golden cords twined them, it pushed their eros higher. Layla gasped as Dusk reached her collarbone. He bit it, growling mean and eager into her skin as he shuddered a low roll of his magic into her. Sliding a hand up, he cupped her breast through her thin gown, sliding his thumb deliciously over her nipple. Layla arched beneath him, crying out, and he pressed her down, trapping her to the bed with his formidable strength.
“I want you,” he growled, pouring his magics into her throat like a waterfall. They flooded her chest, stronger than ever before, pouring down into her abdomen and deep into her groin. The erotic sensation bent Layla’s back as she cried out, clawing her hands into the bed. Her head fell back as his lips kissed the front of her throat. It was possessive, and Layla surged beneath him as he gripped both hands into her gown and ripped it; shredding it down the front with force and baring her breasts to the night.
“Dusk…!” She gasped as he gave a growling rumble, burying his face in her breasts. Sliding a hand up under Layla’s skirt, he gripped her bare thigh as he teased her nipple with his teeth, biting and suckling. Slipping his hand up her groin, he cupped her sex with his warm palm, scalding through her lace underwear. She mewled, squirming. With a low growl, he slipped his middle finger under her thong – and slid in deep.
Arching upon the bed, Layla pressed up into him with a cry as he sucked her breast. Delving into her as he bit her nipple, he licked his tongue over her, with strokes that were matched below. Layla arched into him harder, moving to his deep, hard rhythm. She was close; so close. With a growl that rumbled straight from his lips into her groin, he let her have it, annihilating her with pleasure. His touch and magic brought her, hard. She gasped as she contracted into him, gripping and shuddering with release. He held her close by the sex and the back of her neck, corralling her to his firm body as she shattered.
And then she fell back as his hand rubbed her sweetly, slipping out.
Dusk’s eyes burned diamond-bright with pleasure and darkness as he hauled his shirt off over his head, baring his incredible body. Layla’s lips fell open as she saw the amazing, strong planes of his sculpted chest and abdomen curling with serrated scales of midnight and sapphire, decorated with golden lines and new iridescent fractals. He was amazing; godly beneath the stars and moon, and Layla gasped to behold such beauty as he crawled slowly over her, danger and passion in his eyes.
As his power poured down her throat with their next kiss, he teased her breasts with his knuckles, pulling and rolling her nipples, and Layla went mad. Her power exploded through the night as her hands tore at his jeans, desperate to get them undone. She could feel his promise beneath; so hard, so terribly thick, and she needed it. Hauling his jeans open, Layla watched him spring free, straight and ready. His eyes were fierce as he seized his fly with both hands, tearing his jeans in two from the crotch down just like he’d done Layla’s dress – ripping them away from his amazingly built body.
His strong thighs were powerful as a sprinter’s as he rolled down to the bed, hauling Layla up to straddle him. She gasped with pleasure, arching atop him as she suddenly felt the thick heat of him pressed between her spread legs. Raising up, he kissed her neck, devouring her, licking power from her skin and swallowing it. Sliding his hands up beneath her gown, he gripped her thong between his fists; tearing it and casting the ruined lace aside. He was lifting her; effortless, weightless in his strong hands. And then he was sliding her down.
Burying himself to the hilt inside her.
Layla gasped. Rocking all his tremendous girth and length deep inside her until they were pressed pelvis to pelvis, it was pain and it was bliss all at once as they found their perfect fit. As Layla cried out from the sheer joy of it, she heard an answering cry from Dusk. Opening her eyes and looking down, she found his wild diamond ones. They were devoured by fractals of gold as he began to rock her with his hands, lifting his hips and thrusting up on the bed in a way no human man could ever match.
Power surged through every thrust and Layla cried out, gathering that magic deep inside her and releasing it. As they fucked so deep and complete, she felt something enormous spiral up from her, right through her heart. An answering funnel spiraled up from Dusk, and as they locked together through the Bind, the magic of their Dragons shot up into the starry night with such force that it slammed the garden around them with a hard shockwave of rumbling earth-energy and scalding wind.
Twisting, thundering, coiling, dancing, Layla could feel that power surging inside her like drums in the darkest places of the world, driving through her with every thrust. It was inside her and inside Dusk also, and as they thundered together, quickening as Dusk thrust with abandon, Layla felt their beasts roar.
It was like thunder in the mountains; like earthquakes in the great caverns of the earth. It was like a storm of meteors concussing the earth and Layla screamed, erupting into climax. Dusk screamed beneath her, his fingers digging into her hips, his body shuddering into hers, hard. She screamed again, climaxing a second time, and he echoed it as their beasts hammered through each other in an endless dance. Power thundered through Layla’s body. Spasms roared through her in orgasm after orgasm, from thrust after thrust. Dusk roared with the bass notes and impossible overtones of his Dragon as he exploded beneath her, throwing his head back and concussing his power to the wide night sky.
As their drums surged through the night, Layla felt their beasts come together; roaring into each other with one final, hedonistic surge. Layla’s and Dusk’s scents twisted together like oranges chilled in river-water as a ring of diamonds on fire with gold burst from their bodies, scattering out over the veranda. As they blasted through the palms and vines, everything lit like white fire.
And then the power roared away, far out into the deep desert night.
Panting, sobbing, Layla ached deliciously through her entire body. Breasts bared to the cool night, she collapsed atop Dusk’s chest, into his encircling arms. He held her tenderly, heaving hard breaths, both of them too exhausted to move or speak. They could only gasp together, their scents smelted beneath the stars as the night glittered all around them now, both above and below.
“God, I love you, Layla Price!” Dusk choked at last, gripping her in his arms, shuddering but still hard inside her.
