A heavy knock on his door barely even startled us. “Come on, you two, stop screwing.” Jesse’s voice got lower as he muttered, “…and making the rest of us nauseous.” His voice grew louder again. “Get your asses out to the pool for lunch and a swim. The birthday girl needs to eat her cake.”
“You want this or cake?” Asher murmured against my mouth, tracing a hand down my body, caressing the edge of the tiny panties I wore.
One finger slipped under and I moaned as he glided across my skin and down through the wetness pooling there. As one finger slid inside, my eyes closed and I decided that next time this was the game I’d play. Tickling was dead to me.
“Asher! Maddison! I will break this door down.”
“Fuck off, Jess,” Asher said, his eyes locked on me, a wicked smile on his lips as he pushed a second finger slowly inside.
“We’ll be out in a minute,” I gasped, sounding breathless, but fuck, Asher was driving me insane.
I heard grumbling, and the earthy lion shifter energy faded as Jesse walked away.
“You love teasing me,” I gasped, my body moving as I swiveled my hips, needing the release that was hovering close by.
“I loveyou,” he replied, before he shifted his thumb, and stroked across my clit. Pleasure exploded, the swirling sensations in my gut spiraling out of control as the world flashed black and white at me. I managed not to scream, but I was far from quiet as I rode out the orgasm.
“Gods,” I groaned, falling back, limbs jelly. “One day my heart is going to give out when you touch me like that, and I’m not even going to be mad about it.”
Asher’s eyes darkened even as he laughed, fingertips brushing across my bare skin. “You’re fucking adorable, but no more talk of dying. I’m not entertaining that thought. Not ever again.”
It probably was too soon. Asher and I had both died, sorta, last year. Our mortal bodies had been destroyed to allow for our rebirth as god-ish entities, with a ton of new powers that were still developing and changing daily.
One in particular had been on my mind. “Have you noticed anything odd when we’re close to each other?” I asked him, not sure if I was crazy or not. “Especially when we’re touching.”
Asher propped himself up on one arm, his broad chest very distracting, so I forced myself to focus on his face—not that it was any less distracting. “Like what?” he asked, his gaze like a caress as he ran it across me.
“Uh…” I cleared my throat, “I have occasionally been picking up on your thoughts. And I’m almost certain you’ve also heard mine.”
It started late last year, Asher answering me when I was positive I hadn’t said anything. At first I’d dismissed it, thinking maybe I had spoken out loud, but when it happened five or six times, I knew it was something more. I was sure I’d heard a couple of his thoughts too. Just random snippets, almost like a whisper across my mind, but it was there.
He was watching me closely, expression unreadable. “Does that mean something to you?” I asked softly. I’d caught up a lot on knowledge of the supernatural world, but I was still miles behind everyone raised in this world. That’s what twenty-two years of thinking you were a human would do for you.
“It’s not completely unheard of,” he finally said, “especially for dragon shifters with true mates. Possibly Atlantean mates have the same gift. We are somewhat closely related to dragons. Our energy.”
He leaned over and cupped my cheek. “We already know we’re true mates, we just have to figure out how to trigger the bond.”
I nodded, my head hazy as it always was when he was close. “And maybe we should ask Jessa and Braxton about the mind reading thing…?” I paused. “Or Rayge?”
Rayge was a dragon shifter—not confirmed, but I knew it—that I’d met in Germany. Asher refused to tell me what their history was, just saying that it was in the past and it was something he’d rather not revisit. I couldn’t let it rest though. I’d only spent a few hours with Rayge, but I already knew he had too much going on to waste his life drinking in some tiny supernatural dive. Right now it wasn’t a priority to find out his story, but I would be dealing with it once the god situation was over. For now, I’d continue to casually slip Rayge into conversations in the hopes that Asher would accidentally reveal some new information.
He grinned, perfect white teeth flashing. “Nice try, baby, but we’re not talking about that scaly beast today.”
Yes!A dragon was a scaly beast, right? He’d at least confirmed that much for me.
“Jessa and Braxton, on the other hand, are definitely viable sources on this mind reading thing. Be nice to know if we could communicate when separated.”
Part of me—the human part I was sure—freaked at the thought that Asher might have free and unfettered access to my mind. Sometimes a chick just needed a little privacy. Like those times he pissed me off and I started planning ways to torture him. I’d lose my surprise attack, and that was essential to success.
On the other hand, I totally got the positives to us communicating from a distance. That would be a priceless gift. If we had that sort of bond, I might have felt his mind when he’d been “destroyed” and known he was alive. I definitely would have known later that he was only pretending to hate me to keep me safe. Saved myself a hell of a lot of heartache.
Hindsight was a beautiful thing.
“Come back to me,” Asher murmured, and I shook my head, focusing on him again.
“Sorry,” I said with a sigh, “I was just thinking that the mind reading thing, and even more important the communicating over a distance thing, might help in our battle against the gods.”
He let out a low breath against my skin. “You haven’t been sleeping well.”
