Fire Me Up (17 page)

"Mine," he growled, his hand a blur as it snared me, jerking
me forward until I was pressed tightly against his chest. "You tease me
purposely, Aisling. You tell me you don't want me, but you tempt me shamelessly,
offering yourself in body but not in mind. Make the decision, mate. Make it now.
Accept me, or not, but do not torment me any longer."

It was strange, but in the dream world his fire didn't touch
me. The heat of his body sank into me everywhere our skin touched, but his fire
was missing. "Where does your fire go when you dream?" I asked, unable to keep
from sliding my hand up his arm to the lovely muscles of his shoulders. There
must have been oil in the water, too, because his skin was as slick as the
finest satin, smooth and enticing. Even the curly dark hairs on his chest
rubbing against my tight, sensitive nipples were soft and silky.

He just looked at me, his eyes bright with emotion, so tilled
with need that it almost hurt to look at him.

Almost.

I sighed. "All right, I admit that maybe my mind isn't quite
as clear as I'd like it to be when it comes to a relationship with you, but I'd
like to point out that I am not the one who moved an important peace summit just
on the hopes of getting lucky."

One eyebrow rose in a silent objection.

"Don't you give me that look! You can't possibly deny the
fact that you came after me."

His eyes were deep and dark and infinitely beautiful. "I
don't wish to deny it. I have explained to you that as my mate you have a role
in the summit. Since I knew you would be attending this conference, I rearranged
my life to accommodate you."

When he put it like that, it took all the fun out of being
annoyed

I sighed again, aware that he was still waiting for me to
give him an answer. "The truth is, I don't want to make a decision, because you
want something from me I can't give. You want all of me, you want me forever at
your side, for going my own life to be a part of yours. I can't do that, I won't
do that. I have a life of my own to lead, and even though I'm willing to admit
that there's something between us"—

He growled deep in his chest, the arm that was banded around
my back sliding lower to pull my hips against his. I wiggled a tiny little
wiggle to let him know I appreciated his anticipation.

"—neither of us is of a particularly accommodating nature,
and the bottom line is that I'm not going to give up being a Guardian. If you
are willing to try to work out some sort of an agreement that will allow me to
study whatever it is apprentices study, and working together whenever possible,
well, then, I'm your girl. But if you can't see your way clear to working out a
compromise, then there's no hope for us."

Drake was silent for a few moments, the muscles in his jaw
working. I thought he was going to refuse outright, but he surprised me. "I am
here to negotiate a peaceful settlement of hostilities between the septs. I want
the same with you. Therefore, I will agree to do whatever it takes to achieve
that goal."

"You will? Really?" I goggled at him, hope glowing warmly in
my heart, while in my less ethereal girly parts, outright celebration was the
order of the day. "You won't fight me anymore on this? No more snarky comments
about being a Guardian? No more saying things to potential mentors that might
ruin my chances with them? If they ask, you'll say you support my decision?"

He inclined his head in acquiescence. "I will not say
anything to a mentor that could be interpreted as being anything but wholly
behind your plans."

 "Oh," I said—less than brilliant, I admit, but to be honest,
I was overwhelmed. Fd never thought Drake would come around, never thought he'd
be willing to compromise. He was such an inflexible man, I couldn't help but
grin at him as I slid my other hand up his arm, tangling my fingers in his hair.
"See? Giving me what I want didn't hurt very much, now did it?"

 His eyes burned bright, and his hands were hard on my bottom
as he rubbed against me. "You have yet to ask what it is I want from this
agreement, mate."

 "I think I can guess," I answered, sucking his earlobe into
my mouth, nipping it just hard enough to get his attention. "You want someone to
attend the peace summit with you. You want someone to pour when you have other
wyverns over for tea. You want to make steamy, sensual, passionate love to me
three times each and every night."

 Both of his eyebrows went up. "Three times?"

 I kissed the tip of his nose. "You're immortal. You can't
die of a heart attack. Three is good."

 "There is more to being a mate than pouring tea, Aisling."
His voice rumbled around and through me as I kissed a line along his jaw. "To be
a wyvern's mate is to be bound for all time to the sept. You must take an oath
to never turn your back on the green dragons. If you are called on for help, you
cannot refuse. To do so would mean death. This is not something to be taken
lightly."

 I nipped his chin, smiling into his so serious face. That
seems a fair trade. "I get to have you at my beck and call, and now and again I
watch the kids when you're busy."

"Aisling—" he said, his voice filled with reproach.

I stopped the words by sliding my fingers across his lips.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be flip. It's just that I'm happy. Can we do this
oath now, or is there some sort of special oath at the clan ceremony?"

"We can do it now." His lips compressed for a moment before
the corners of his mouth relaxed. "But you must be certain. The oath wilt be
binding."

"OK." I cleared my throat and thought for a long moment about
what I was going to do. It was a big step, a major step, one of those
life-altering steps that always seem to come about without the least hint, but
the time had come to stop running from what the fates kept throwing in my path.
Drake was meant to be a part of my life. Either I could spend my lifetime
fighting us both, or I could accept the compromise. "I, Aisling Grey, Guardian,
swear upon my soul to fulfill my duties as your mate. I swear to uphold the
well-being and happiness of the sept of the green dragons. I swear that whatever
help is mine to give shall be given wholeheartedly, of my own free will."

My heart beat madly with the realization of what I was doing.
I was binding myself to one man, for eternity, wyverns' mates being immortal.
Somehow it seemed fitting that at this most important moment in my life I should
be naked, held tight against the warm flesh of the man who filled my heart and
soul with something so profound I couldn't bear to examine it closely.

"I, Drake Vireo, wyvern of the green dragons, accept and
acknowledge your fealty. You will forever hence be known as my mate, and as such
will receive all protection, honor, and respect due you."

His voice echoed in the empty room. I waited until the last
of the bass echo faded away, then licked my lips. "That's it?"

He nodded.

"There's nothing else? Nothing else that we say or do?"

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know." I looked downward, although I was pressed so
tightly to him, there was little beyond my breasts squashed into his chest to
see. "I guess I thought that maybe there would be something like a bolt of
lightning going through me or that I'd feel something, you know, big"

One eyebrow cocked. I giggled. "No, not that. I feel that.
And I refuse to pander to your male ego by discussing size. I meant with the
whole mate thing. Does it take a while to go into effect?"

He walked forward, toward the steps at the far end of the
pool. "The oath was binding the moment it was completed. You are my mate,
Aisling. Now and forever."

"Ah." He bent to scoop me up, carrying me up the marble
steps. "So, what do we do now?"

He grinned then, his eyes filled with desire and heat and a
need so intense it made my skin prickly. My body rubbed sinuously against the
warm flesh of his torso as he headed into the shadows, where a bed magically
appeared, and he set me down in the center of it with care.

"Now you wake up."

Jim lifted its heavy head and blinked sleepily at me as I
leaped out of bed and ran for the door. "What burr got under your bustle?"

"Don't ask stupid questions. Just come with me!"

The demon slowly got to its feet, stretching with a loud
groan. "I don't smell an incubus, so what's the big deal—ow! That's my ear
you're pinching!"

"It's going to be your former ear if you don't get a move
on." I dragged Jim toward the open door, snatching up the plastic key card before
hurrying out of the room.

"I was sleeping! I can't go from flat-out sleep to racing
around like a lunatic like some people I can name," Jim said grumpily as I all
but dragged it down the hallway to the elevators. "Don't tell me, let me guess—
you've had another nocturnal visit from the Studly Dragon?"

I slid Jim a curious glance. "How do you know about my dreams
with Drake?"

Jim snorted. "How could I not know? I shared a room with you
back in Paris, if you recall. For a couple of nights before you and he got it
on, there was a whole lot of, 'Oh, yes, Drake, yes, yes!' and 'Take me, you
dragon studmuffin, take me hard and fast!' going on. It was all I could do to
get a couple of hours' sleep before you'd start with the moaning and thrashing."

"I never once said, 'Take me, you dragon studmuffin!' That's
a lie, pure and simple. Hey! I thought you weren't supposed to be able to lie to
me when I asked you a question." I punched the elevator button, struggling to
keep from doing an impatient little dance. How long did it take elevators in
this country to move?

Jim yawned. "It wasn't a lie, it was an exaggeration. Nothing
in the Big Demon Book o' Rules says I can't exaggerate now and again."

"Hmph." I pushed the button a couple more times, trying to
hurry the elevator along.

"Oh, yeah, that's going to do some good. Everyone knows an
elevator doesn't shift into second until you really lean on the call button."

I pressed it another fifteen times, giving Jim a triumphant
smile when the green light lit above the door. "Ha! See? It does too work—oh,
sorry. Didn't mean to step on your foot."

Jim waited until the door had closed on the man whose toes I
had inadvertently tromped on before saying, "It's gotta be Drake sending you
sexy dreams. Why else would you run around the hotel in nothing but a T-shirt,
trampling innocent tourists in your lust to get to your boy toy?"

"He's not a boy, and this is a perfectly decent sleep shirt,
so shuteth thy moutheth upeth, demon."

By the time I pounded on the door of Drake's suite, my
desperation to reach him and throw myself into his strong, manly arms had been
doused a little by the cold glare of reality as seen by the artificial light of
two a.m. What if I had manufactured that whole dream on my own? What if I had
attributed to Drake things he'd never agree to? What if it was all wishful
thinking, my mind's version of a happy little fantasy wherein everything in my
life worked out the way I wanted it?

Drake had the door open before my hand fell. "You were much
quicker than I anticipated, kincsem."

His eyes were smoldering with a familiar look, one that went
straight to my blood and set it boiling. It was all the answer I
needed—obviously he had been a participant in the dream, which meant that he
really had agreed to my terms, and that meant— "Hoobah!" I shouted as I leaped
on him, wrapping my arms and legs around him.

He chuckled a sexy chuckle in my ear as he started for the
door to his room, calling over his shoulder, "Jim, close the door, would you?"

Jim's face bore a canine version of disgruntlement as it
turned from nosing the door closed. "Oh, sure, you two just go off to
Boink-Land. I'll stay out here, then, shall I? Alone? Without my blankie? With
no water bowl? With no one to talk to and nothing to do but listen to the bed
squeaking all night Ion—"

"You're not naked," I said as Drake slammed his bedroom door
shut on Jim's plaint. I was almost giggling into his neck, I was so happy. Of
their own volition, my fingers crept across the opening of the blue and green
satin robe Drake was wearing, sliding beneath the cool material to find the hot
flesh of his pectoral muscles. "I liked YOU better when you were naked."

"I like you liking me naked." Drake's voice, always sensual,
took on a new level of eroticism as he stopped next to the big bed that claimed
most of the space in the room, allowing me to slide down his body until my feet
were on the floor. I glanced at the rumpled sheets, then back at Drake, smiling
a smile I hadn't known was in my repertoire.

"You were sleeping? Since I know you don't like to sleep
wearing anything, I guess that means that under this very nice robe there's
nothing but a really hunky dragon."

My hand slid down to the carelessly tied belt, tugging it
loose.

"You're wrong about me not liking to wear anything while I
sleep," he answered, his breath sucking in as I slid my hand down the lovely
warm planes of his chest to his belly. Drake had what I thought of as a B-grade
amount of body hair—not so much that he looked like a Darwinian throwback, but
enough to make me appreciate the differences between his body and mine. His
chest was moderately haired, but what I loved was the little tail of dark hair
that led from the bottom of his breastbone to his groin. My fingers followed the
silky path down to where he was already hard and hot.