“I get the feeling the elemental wanted you out of the way,” he said.
I sat up straighter as a thought hit me. “How were you able to penetrate the veil of magic the jinn created in the forest clearing?” I hadn’t even stopped to think how lucky I was that he had managed to reach me in time, otherwise I’d be here alone. I shuddered, and Braxton tightened his arm, pulling me back into his heat.
“When we were separated I kept an eye on you, following you into the forest. I’m not sure why, I just knew something was about to happen. The way you’d been driven from our group … it wasn’t natural.”
Thinking back, he was probably right about the unnatural part.
“By the time I reached you, the jinn was already there. I could see you, but couldn’t make it across the barrier. Eventually, I partially shifted and lunged through. My dragon can go where no supernatural has gone before.”
It was true, dragons were resistant to most magic, with protections the rest of us could only dream of. Yeah … I still couldn’t really think of myself as a dragon. I’d shifted once, and who even knew if I could do it again. My dragon raised her head then, snarling little wisps of smoke, which trailed around her. She was definitely flipping me off … it was so bizarre how I could internally see the movements of my shifter animals. Truth be told, it was something I really treasured.
Tilting my head so Braxton could see my face, I smiled. “Despite the fact we seem to be stuck in the ass end of Faerie land, I’m really glad you’re here.”
He was staring down at me, the weird undying light of the sky highlighting every dark facet of his beauty. “You have no idea how relieved I am to be here,” he said. “If you’d disappeared on me, well, right now there’d be a fire dragon ripping apart the sanctuary.”
Snorts of laughter shook me. “I’m sure you wouldn’t have destroyed the mystics, marked, and their little world.”
I expected him to laugh with me, but there was not a trace of mirth in his expression. “You have no idea what I would do to keep you safe, Jessa. No idea.”
I was sure the awed shock registered on my face, just for a moment, before I managed to control my features. That was without a doubt the hottest thing I’d ever heard. The surge of attraction which blasted through me every time Braxton was close was getting worse, clawing through my body, leaving jagged rips in my heart and soul.
I blurted, “I’m tearing up the friend contract.”
Fuck. Me.
I really should learn to think before I speak.
A flash of surprise crossed Braxton’s face this time, soon to be replaced with the heat of a thousand suns. “Be very sure about what you want, Jessa.” His husky voice was a low growl which turned my insides to liquid. “You’ve been a long time without sex, so right now it’s like being hungry and going to a buffet.”
He was calling himself a buffet … oh my.
Squeezing my thighs together to hold back my urges, I suddenly felt like the neediest supernatural in the world. As in, I needed to be butt naked and claiming myself a dragon shifter.
“… there is no going back,” he said.
I realized that in my roar of desire I’d missed some of what Braxton had said.
I didn’t want to ask him to repeat it, so I had to guess. No going back … did he mean that once the sexual relationship ran its course we wouldn’t be friends any longer? Surely not – there was no way that would happen.
A half grin lit his features. “Get that look off your face, sweetheart. There is not a single scenario that would result in us not being best friends.”
Relief.
Except … there was a scenario. What if one of us found a mate while we were together and the other wouldn’t let go?
Thinking it through, I was sure that even if I found a true mate, I’d still choose Braxton. I didn’t care what a true mate bond felt like, I was stronger than that. Plus my relationship with Braxton and the other Compasses was pretty close to mated relationships anyway. We ate, slept, and played together. We made joint decisions and consulted each other for the important things. We were a pack and a family. The only thing that I didn’t share with them was sex, but in every other way I was hogging those four morsels of deliciousness to myself. We all knew other members of our community thought I was banging all of them, but I‘d never given a single fuck what others thought.
It just didn’t feel like it was enough anymore, not with Braxton. I wanted more.
The dragon shifter seemed to be following along with my thought processes. Probably the emotions were showing themselves clearly on my face. “Sleep on it, Jess,” he said. “I know what I want, now it’s time for you to decide.”
He knew what he wanted? Shit, while I had been slowly coming to the conclusion that he was attracted to me, the serious nature of his tone … spoke of much more than a quick dalliance.
“You want me?” I braved the words and asked the big question.