“Oh,God,”he said helplessly, his colour rising. “You had to say that, didn’t you?”
I couldn’t stop myself. My gaze ran slowly over his body, appreciating every part of him.
“See you outside,” he said, turning to walk out of the shop. It appeared I wasn’t the only one to have been frustrated by last night’s forced cancellation.
This time, we left before pre-supper drinks. Leaving a little earlier also ensured we wouldn’t get back too late. We’d apologised to Mr Taylor for disturbing him last time. His customary expression hadn’t faltered as he’d informed us, “Sleep is for the weak.”
My phone safely in my bedroom, I followed Alex’s sat nav instructions to the alternative place we’d chosen. It wasn’t as convenient—we had to climb over two fences, cross a field, and there was a definite smell of cow in the air—but none of that stopped the way my heart was racing as we neared the river. Closer to the moment when we’d be touching one another again. Anticipation was fizzing through me so fast I could scarcely breathe.
Chapter Thirteen
ALEX
After Nate’s comment in the camping shop, I spent the afternoon on a hair trigger. The drive to the river was a special kind of hell, sitting so close to him but unable to touch, and by the time he pulled up at the end of a dark lane, I was already growing hard. That made climbing the fences a little interesting, but finally, we were on the riverbank.
Nate laid out the rug he’d bought while I sorted out the lanterns. I managed to get the batteries the wrong way round on my first attempt—not my fault, Nate was bending over at the time—but finally, both lanterns were casting a bright yellow glow over the rug. I lay on it and reached a hand up to Nate, pulling him down until he was lying on top of me andfinally,I could kiss him. Last night had been good. Being able to see Nate so clearly was even better.
As our open-mouthed kiss grew more desperate, we rocked against one another, shoving hands under clothes, searching for skin. He stripped my top off, and then he poised above me, lookingat me. His eyes were hot as they roamed over my body.I reached up and tugged his jumper and t-shirt off, and he helped me get them over his head before I pulled him back down.
I was kissing him and pushing up against him, needing him but not willing to stop touching him long enough to undo my jeans. Thank God he finally took control of what had been swiftly turning into a teenage dry hump and trailed kisses over my chest, stopping to lick and mouth my nipples. I arched up under his hot, wet mouth. Making a pleased sound, he did it again before closing his teeth around one. I pressed against him, wanting more, wanting it even harder. He alternated bites and licks, and then he rubbed his cheek and the beginning of stubble over my sensitised nipples.
“Fuck,”I said. Panted, really.
He grinned at me for an instant before continuing with his little licks and kisses over my stomach, his hands working at the fastening of my jeans. I was breathless, watching him. His hair gleamed softly in the lamplight, and his eyes when he looked back up at me were dark and intense, yet there was a teasing glint there which I knew meant I was in for the time of my life.
And I was. His lips closed softly around just my tip, and then his tongue—dearGod,the things he knew how to do had me fisting my hands into the rug. Otherwise I’d have wrapped them into his hair to keep him doing that, always. When his warm, wet mouth finally slid down on me, he just kept going, and it was nothing I’d ever felt before, pressure and liquid warmth surrounding me until I was lost, groaning in helpless pleasure. Gag reflexes and Nate Mortimer had apparently never made one another’s acquaintance.
With that, and the way his clever fingers, slick with lube, were teasing my arse, I lost it far sooner than I’d like to confess.
I was still floating somewhere in the night sky when he lay down beside me. We kissed, and he tasted of me and him. Something about it felt perfect.
He was making little breathy sounds into my mouth, and I remembered he hadn’t yet come. I didn’t stop kissing him as I undid his jeans and found the thick heft of his cock, so ready. And then it was my turn to slide my mouth down on his hot length until he was thrusting and whimpering.
He cried out as he came, a sound of pleasure and longing escaping into the night.
When I lay beside him once more, he smiled at me and trailed his finger over my lips. “Sorry I came in your mouth,” he said. “I should have warned you.”
I know some guys don’t like it, but I do. So long as I don’t think about it too much.
“S’really not a problem.” My words slurred slightly in the afterglow. I rested my head against his broad shoulder, just for a moment, and he drew me closer.
I stamped on the little voice that reminded me it was only sex and that we’d both leave Bath soon. For now, I let my mind drift happily as I lay in Nate’s arms.
NATE
Alex shifted slightly in my hold, and despite the risk of him feeling it, I obeyed my urge to press a kiss against his hair. It was okay—he didn’t stir. I glanced at my watch, luckily on the arm Alex wasn’t lying on. I wasn’t interested in the time so much as checking in with pieces of my treasure. Tonight, although they sparkled beautifully in the lantern light, they seemed cold, hard, and remote. A world away from the warm, sleeping dragon in my arms.
All too soon, Alex woke with a jerk and a snort. Somehow, it was adorable.
“Oh, God, I think I drooled on your shoulder,” he said, sitting up. “Sorry.”
“You can make it up to me later,” I told him. “If we’re quick, we’ll have time to fly and still get back without Taylor opening the door to us in his pyjamas.”
Alex glanced back over his shoulder at me, his face alight with laughter, and my heart twinged. God, he was gorgeous, and never more so than when he laughed. I hadnoidea how he could still be single. Cornish dragons must be both blind and stupid.
“I’m going swimming,” he informed me, rising to his feet and stretching.
I’d tried swimming as a young dragon and hadn’t liked it. I hadn’t mastered the trick of closing my nostrils the way that seemed to come naturally to Rufus and had ended up spluttering and choking in the shallows while he’d been chasing fish in the depths of the Thames. But Rufus and Alex enjoyed it. I wondered if I should give it another chance.
