I climb out of bed and shuffle to the bathroom for a scale melting shower, the whole time imagining Xaze is here with me. As I run my soapy hands down my chest, I see him instead, his sexy smirk and witty words tantalizing me with the promise of another taste of his skin.
My mind drifts to his true form, and my dragon reacts, flipping around like a gymnast. Yeah, bud, I want to see more too. I want to feel his true form against me, experience the heatand softness of his flesh, taste the fire in his kiss. I want to touch his wings and gaze into his eyes and hear him whisper “Deliciae” before I claim his mouth. I want to see what that tail can do.
My dragon loses it, and I stumble back until I hit the tiles behind me. My cock twitches and pulses untouched, spilling cum at my feet and leaving me stunned speechless.
What the actual fuck?
Before I can linger too long on what just happened, the scent of Hemingway’s mate reaches me, which in itself means my dragon is barely contained. I hurry out of the shower, dry off and throw on some sweatpants before I head down the stairs.
The scene I walk into is not at all what I expected. Xaze is holding court with Dempsey and Dahlia in my living room, the three of them chatting about something I’m too fucked up to hear. He looks up from the chair he’s sitting on, smiling as he crosses his legs.
“Good morning, dragon. Hope you don’t mind that I answered the door. I was attempting to make coffee in your kitchen when they knocked.”
“Uh, no.” I drag a hand through my damp hair. “What’s going on right now?”
Dempsey pushes his glasses up his nose as his cheeks turn bright pink while Dahlia waggles her eyebrows at me with a smirk on her lips.
Dempsey clears his throat. “It’s so warm in here.”
“Sure is,” Dahlia says, still grinning.
Xaze flicks his eyes to me and smiles. It’s not a sexy, pheromone-laden smirk at all, but that doesn’t stop it from warming me from the tips of my ears to my toes.
“Why are you here?” I ask as gently as I can.
“We’re having a family meeting,” Dempsey says. “But we thought we should give you two a heads up first.”
“About?”
“Why Maggard is after Mac.” Dempsey pales slightly. “It’s not good, Tino.”
“It’s worse than not good,” Dahlia adds, shifting her gaze to Xaze and then me. “It’s deadly.”
My chest tightens at the suggestion. It means not only is Mac in deep shit, but so is my demon.
“Let’s go to Lord’s then.”
“Do you want to put a shirt on?” Dempsey asks.
“Oh.” I glance down. “I guess so. Give me a minute.”
“I’ll change too,” Xaze says, popping up and following me.
Halfway up the stairs, he stops me with a hand on my arm. When I turn to face him, it’s the first time I’ve seen a look of true concern.
“What’s wrong?”
“I-I don’t know. It’s a sense of foreboding, I guess. Something bad is going to happen.”
“Not to you.” I put my hands on his shoulders. “I won’t turn my back on you now.”
His eyes flicker from human to demon, lingering there as a wave of warmth pours off him. My dragon pushes through too, both of us gazing at each other in our truest forms.
Xazedose nods, inhaling slowly, his eyelids fluttering. “You smell so good.” His eyes shoot open and he clears his throat. “We should get changed now.”
“Yeah.”
We finish our climb up the stairs and separate to head to our rooms. I’m numb as I choose a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, then get into my boots. Xaze isn’t the only one filled with foreboding. I can feel it too, thick and palpable in the air, like a heavy fog no one can see.
