Amethyst Bound (6 page)

Chapter Six

“You can bite him if you like, Antonia. I would enjoy
that.”

I laughed. I didn’t mean to, but Amethyst’s tone was so deeply sincere that she had to be teasing me. However, Davis hadn’t expected me to laugh while my hands roamed over his body. I glanced up and confirmed his frown.

“Is something funny?” I could hear the smile in his tone, but also a hint of hurt.

When he started to shift me off his lap, I caught one hand and pulled him to a stop. “Look, Davis, having a dragon in my head is going to make me do funny things sometimes. Don’t take it personally.”

“So you were laughing at Amethyst?” He sounded doubtful.

“Yeah. She said I can bite you if I like.” I raised his hand to my mouth and bit down on his thumb, letting my tongue slide over the pad and circle around twice before freeing it.

He let out a sexy little moan, which I leaned forward to capture on his lips.

Kissing Davis was an experience in luxury. At first he did little more than react, but then he got into the action, and when he did…whoa, he did it right. His mouth moved slow and easy over mine. The contact might have felt 44

Amethyst Bound

casual if not for the way his tongue tickled me open and then plunged in to explore.

By increments he drew back, holding my advance at bay with firm hands on my upper arms. I didn’t want to stop touching. I didn’t want to stop kissing. I wanted him naked and writhing under me. I wanted him thrusting and hard, deep inside me. And I sure as hell didn’t want to hear whatever he was saying.

“…this a good idea?”

“A good idea?” I doubted it, but my brain had shut off a while back. Bringing it back online took a little work.

“I just want to be sure it’s you with me and not Amethyst.” His gray eyes were so serious. “Some mythologies claim dragons are instinctively sexual creatures. I want you, but I need to know that you want this as much as I do.”

I struggled to get a grip on my libido. Maybe he was right. This wasn’t very in character for me. Not the sex part. I was okay with that. But the out of control and giving in to my baser side was not me. Here we were about to have sex while the bad guys were probably hunting us down, and I couldn’t even work up a worry for anything more than how to get Davis out of his pants.

It was Amethyst. It had to be. But I still wasn’t sure if Amethyst’s desires changed anything. “Davis—”

“Call me Ben or Benjamin. If we have sex, and I think we are about to, I don’t think you should be screaming out my last name.”

Just like that, all my fear slipped away. I couldn’t help but laugh at his expression. “I do believe you’ll have me screaming soon enough…Ben.”

He kissed me again, this time with enough spark that I thought I might burst into flame right there on his lap.

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When he drew back, breaking the kiss, his lips formed a cocky grin. “What were you going to say?” Was I going to say anything? Oh yeah, before he’d singed my shorts off, not that I was wearing any. I was still in nothing but his shirt, and at some point that had managed to come unbuttoned. “I think that Amethyst is me and I am Amethyst. At least to a certain extent.” One dark eyebrow jumped upward. “So which of you wants to make love to me?”

“Both of us do, which is what makes it an easy decision.” As he released my arms, I slid back into his embrace. “I only have one question.” I nibbled at his shoulder, working my way up his neck. “Where will we do all this lovemaking when the bed is covered with six tons of books?”

“The books can move. Believe me, they can burn as far as I’m concerned.”

I chuckled at his intensity even as I knew he didn’t really mean it. His books held the past eight years of his life. He wasn’t about to let them burn just for a little nookie. But I wasn’t about to point out his exaggeration when he was feeling ambitious. He kissed me soundly and tossed me from his lap before turning his attention to the books in question. While he focused on stacking and moving them, I did all I could to distract him by removing his clothes and exploring his very nice body.

Ben had what I called a grade-A butt. And his shoulders were about perfect as far as I could tell by feel or taste. His muscles bunched as he moved, and each motion showed off his lean masculine body. I pressed my front to his back and reached around to unbutton his shirt.

The moment my breasts crushed against him, he froze. I undid his buttons while being sure to shimmy slowly 46

Amethyst Bound

against him. When I finally slid the shirt over his shoulders and tossed it to the side, I could just about see the steam rising from his skin.

“You had better clear a little more room,” I whispered.

“I want to do more than perch on the edge.” His only reaction was a low groan and a speedy return to his rearranging.

I let my hands draw lazy circles on the smooth skin of his back, slowly running over the newly bared territory.

He was lightly tanned all over but darker past a T-shirt line on his arms. I smiled at the thought of him shirtless in the sun. I kissed a line up his back, nipping lightly at his shoulder, while my hands wandered lower to frame his lean hips.

I pressed in closer to reach the button of his jeans, unfastening them with a flip and slowly drawing the zipper down. His hands stilled once more and his breath sped up to a pant. I dipped my fingers under the waistband and oh so slowly pushed the denim down, letting my body sink with the last of his clothing. I followed the retreating cloth with my lips, pressing kisses to his back and then down over his right hip and lower to his thigh.

I was panting too by the time his erection sprang free.

But I was dedicated to my job of making him naked. I resisted the urge to caress him even as I felt the moist heat bloom between my thighs. First the clothes. Then the reward.

I focused on his sneakers, quickly loosening the ties as I heard books hitting the floor on the opposite side of the room. I raised one foot, then the other to take off his shoes and socks and the legs of his pants.

Finally he was nude and I was ready to play. I L. Shannon

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shrugged my borrowed shirt off to even the odds and slid up his body. The skin-on-skin friction sparked between us. Damn, he felt good. I rewarded myself, cupping his erection and slowly exploring his response to each touch.

Ben spun me around and drew us both onto the cleared half of the bed. His weight pressed deliciously down on me, our chests brushing, and my thighs cradled his naked erection.

His kiss was what shattered reality. I’d kissed and been kissed enough to know who deserved gold medals, and Ben was of the highest caliber. Every kiss became a piece of art. His hands and body stilled as if he could focus on only his kissing, and the man had a talent for focusing his whole being on one task.

I wanted to drown in his kiss, to let him devour me in the sensual torment. But I also wanted more. I shifted, gliding one leg up around his thigh. I gasped as his body connected with my core. And when he did no more than continue to kiss me, I took control and slid against him, letting my folds ride his length, reveling in pleasure as the head of his erection hit my clit.

He moaned into my mouth and then he shifted his weight and drove into me with a single hard thrust that left me gasping. Wave after wave of pleasure rode through my body.

And in the joy of the moment I wanted to be sure Amethyst could share this with us. I opened my mind and welcomed her to feel everything. And thank God I did.

With each sensation I felt the rush, then the echo as the pleasure rebounded through Amethyst.

The third echo washed over me in a flash fire of sharp, resonating pleasure. Ben’s mouth gasped into mine as he hammered into my core and I thrust my hips, meeting 48

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him. It was his pleasure I felt along with Amethyst’s.

Then I was burning. The world roared, or maybe Ben did. I was beyond thought and leaped over the crest of my pleasure, riding the orgasm on and on.

Slowly the world came into focus as we both struggled to breathe. I rasped out a short chuckle. “I think that counts as a quickie.”

Ben drew back and I gasped at the amethyst sparkles that clung to his skin. “I think you burned a few years off my life.”

He did have a bit of a pink glow, like I got if I stayed in the sun too long, but what worried me more was how he rubbed at his right arm. “Are you okay?”

“Hell, yeah. I’ve never felt…so much, so deeply before. I don’t think I’ve ever considered what dragon fire might feel like during sex.” He grinned at me. “You may have spoiled me for anyone else.” I sat up. “What’s wrong with your arm?” With a gentle tug I pulled his hand away to reveal a coating of the amethyst flakes clustered loosely.

He scratched at them with a puzzled frown. “Are those scales? No, they can’t be. You didn’t change form.”

“I wasn’t all that aware, but I’m sure you would’ve noticed making love to Barney.” I picked up one of the sparkles on the end of my fingertip. “But it does look like scales.” Which was pretty freaky.
“Amethyst? Are those
scales, and will they hurt Ben?”

“They are scales.”

Before Amethyst could confirm or deny how safe they were, Ben brushed at where they clustered on his arm. “I think I’d better get these off. They burn some.” I nodded to Ben as he left me for the bathroom.
“Will
the scales hurt him, Amethyst?”
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“They will do no permanent harm.”

“What the hell?” Ben swore.

I leaped up and rushed to the door. Ben stood naked before the mirror. A damp washcloth lay on his left foot.

And a tattoo of an amethyst dragon now covered the upper part of his right arm, with the serpent’s tail curling possessively around his limb.

“He is ours now.”

“What the hell does that mean? What have you done to
him, Amethyst?”
A long pause filled the air as Ben held my gaze and Amethyst refused to answer. My heart pounded while I waited.
“Answer me, damn it.”

“I thought you would be pleased.”

“What. Did. You. Do?”

“I claimed Dr. Davis as our minion. The mark matches
the one that covers your back. I wanted him. As do you. Why
is this wrong?”

Now that I had a mirror handy, I wanted to take a better look at my newborn tattoo, but instead focused on answering Ben’s question. He deserved to know what the cost of having sex with me would be. “I don’t know exactly what it means yet, but Amethyst says you’re now my minion.” His jaw fell open and then snapped shut with an audible click. “Minion, as in some mindless servant? Oh, hell no, I am not a minion.”

“Please, Ben. Wait until she tells us more.” He grabbed my upper arms. “You don’t get it, do you?

All I have is my intelligence. I’ve sacrificed everything to prove I had it right, that dragons exist. Amethyst is that proof. But even if being her minion doesn’t suck my brains out or steal my willpower, I’m damn sure it will keep me from exposing her existence to the world.” His voice dropped lower. “I’m not sure I can give up my vindication for her. Or even for you.”

Chapter Seven

I tried to calm Ben. “Don’t panic yet. We don’t even know what that means.
Minion
might just be another word for lover or something. She’s not being very upfront.” He grabbed the washcloth and continued scrubbing at the tattoo, trying to rub it off.

“My kind claims minions to do for us what we can’t
do. What’s wrong with claiming Dr. Davis? This way he
will stay with us. You want that too. I can feel it within
you.”

“So he won’t have any control? You’ve stolen his life
just like you stole mine? Is that what you do, Amethyst?

Do you just go around and destroy lives until there is
nothing left in the world?”
My thoughts ran wild, fueled by anger and fear. Somehow seeing Ben’s life changed with a word brought home my own terrors. I’d never be the same. Even if I somehow could get rid of Amethyst, she’d changed me.

“Please, Ben, help me sort it out. Together we can find the answers in one of these books or somewhere else.”

“Minion…” He choked on the word as he threw the washcloth into the sink.

“It’s just some old name stuck in the head of an old dragon. Last time she probably used it, there might have been knights and such or, for all we know, cavemen. Just give me a chance to find out more.”

“Maybe I don’t want to know more.” His expression L. Shannon

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softened ever so slightly. “Look, Toni, it’s not personal. I like you, and being here with Amethyst is a dream come true, but this changes everything. I need time to think it through.”

I certainly understood that. “This wasn’t exactly what I signed up for either.” I tried hard but couldn’t keep the grumble from my voice. I thought we’d had something special, and now that Ben was splitting, the betrayal hurt that much more. I didn’t let many people into my emotions but he’d found his way in anyhow. “So, are you walking away?”

If he’d stay we could maybe figure it out together, but I was done begging. If he wanted to split, I wasn’t going to stop him. I didn’t need an unwilling
minion
.

I paused beside the bed as he dug through his many books, sorting out the few that would fit into the green backpack. Some small part of me was desperate to see more reaction from him. His hands didn’t shake. His motions were swift and steady. He moved like a man without doubts.

“Maybe splitting up is right,” I said as pulled on the shirt I’d worn before. People always left, and it was always for the best.

“He cannot leave us.”

“Apparently he can. Are you not seeing him pack even
as we watch? I can’t see how this tattoo formed nor how
it has any significance. Maybe you can shed some light on
those questions before our minion makes it to the door?”
Amethyst hesitated and I kept our gaze on Davis.

When she finally answered me, there was a strange edge to her tone.
“I wanted to mark him. The mark will allow
us to link to him so that we can better protect him and he
can aid us. And I wanted him marked.”
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