Smitten (16 page)

“I can’t believe the night is over. We did it,” he mused. “We really did it. Now there are so many things to do and people I must call. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

“I could be wrong, but I believe most newly-elected presidents take a day or two to rest.”

“Rest? You must have forgotten who I am. How could I possibly rest when there is so much work to be done? This is only the beginning.”

Max loosened his tie and paced the entrance hall before entering the secondary parlor where he often took his drinks and entertained company. He was positively humming with energy and she worried he was at risk of losing his composure
and
his human form.

No,
she told herself.
Max is always so firmly in control of himself.

“Ēostre.”

“Yes?” Ēostre stepped out of her heels and exhaled a sigh of relief. How did human women do it all day? She’d once thought the Elizabethan corset to be uncomfortable, but by comparison, heels were an exquisite torture device.

“Promise me this was a fair race, and that you didn’t orchestrate a preposterous scheme or purchase the vote. Tell me I did this on my own without money or cheating.”

Ēostre laughed at her friend’s elated expression. “I do so swear on the color of my wing feathers and the silver of my tail. Honestly, Maximilian, this was your hard work. Your talent of persuasion, perseverance, and promises to get things done. You have a silver tongue, my friend, and America loves you.”

As he opened the bottle of chilled champagne, she tossed her blazer over the back of a chair. It felt good to sit down and rest, even if the worst wasn’t yet finished. After all, supernaturals still had to come out into the open. In the meantime, she relished the chance to have Max all to herself again if only for a few days before he began to appoint his cabinet members.

“Do you suppose they will love me as much once they know the truth?” Max asked. He pushed a glass of champagne into her hands then poured another for himself.

“It’s possible they’ll love you even more,” she said. “After all, humans have believed in magic for a long while. Our existence will confirm the beliefs of many.”

“It’ll be a new age.” He continued his lively pacing, bristling with excitement. His drink went untouched.

Ēostre lowered her glass to the table and abandoned her seat. Crossing to Max in only a few steps, she reached out to take him by the hand and guide him to the couch. “You should sleep tonight,” she said. “I know you’ve been awake for the past week, but even dragons require a nap every so often.”

“I’ll nap when my presidential term ends. What’s another four years but a blink?”

“Eight,” she countered. “You won’t lose the next race.”

“Ha! You may expect them to take this in stride, but we’ll see how they feel when the truth comes to light,” he said, laughing. “Still, I’m grateful for your unflagging optimism.”

“As if the American public would squander the opportunity to instill fear in their opponents across the ocean. The only country with a fire-breathing dragon at the helm.”

Maximilian chuckled. “You have a point. Soon the others will be clamoring to take their places in the political arena, no doubt. Especially you silvers.”

She waved off his offer to refill her glass but remained lounging on the sofa beside him. She needed the time off her feet, appreciating it after the busy day. “Not this silver. I don’t often say this, but that was a grueling, highly exhaustive campaign. I may take a break.” She flashed him a smile. “Maybe even retire from American politics until you need me again.”

“There won’t be an ‘until,’ Ēostre. I always need you.”

His words gripped her heart and squeezed, eliciting a yearning deep in her soul. More than anything, she wanted his words to go beyond their work. Beyond friendship.

“Although this election has been only a fraction of my life, a mere grain of sand in an hourglass, I’ve never felt more like a winner than I do this evening. I have you to thank for that.”

“Unnecessary. We did this together.”

Max flashed her a nervous smile, his usually confident demeanor seeming to crumble under the weight of rising uncertainty. She watched everything about him change in that moment and reached out to touch his knee. “I suppose it’s time to be open with you.”

“Open about what, Max?”

“Ēostre, you are the mate of my best and dearest friend. I swore to him if death ever took him, I would protect you in his absence and look after Saul.”

“Max—”

“Let me finish.” Maximilian set both strong hands on her shoulders, the touch setting off electric sensations across her skin. His thumbs swept over her collarbones, touching her bare flesh and the straps of her little black dress. “What I did once for obligation, I do now out of love and respect for you.”

Ēostre remained silent, sensing he had more to say. In lieu of words, she placed her palm over the back of one of his hands and stroked his knuckles.

“It’s taken too long to realize what you mean to me. I care for you in ways I’ve never loved any mere friend. You have been my faithful companion, my advisor, and most importantly, you have stolen my heart, Ēostre.”

All of her carefully laid plans and rehearsed declarations of love fell apart. With three sentences, he reduced her to a state of stunned silence, and she could only stare at him in wonder. A profound sense of relief swept over her.

Before she could even utter a reply, Maximilian dragged her to him by a handful of her silver hair, and he anchored her in place as the heat of his kiss graced her lips. She melted against him, moaning into his open mouth. He tasted like cognac, despite the champagne glasses and the night’s dining. Ēostre couldn’t determine if it was his natural flavor, or if his favorite liquor had just become a part of him, infused in his very essence.

“Should I… should we go to your hoard?” Ēostre whispered. As he was kissing her, tracing an invisible trail between her ear to the pulse point in her throat, he edged closer and introduced her to the throbbing hardness captive in his pants. Ēostre pressed against it and dropped one hand beneath his belt, stroking upward over the firm length. He responded by nipping her ear and growling low after she leaned away to gaze up at him.

“Why?”

“Our dragons…”

“Mm… No, we will not visit my hoard,” he said.

“No?” A dragon’s hoard was his most sacred home, and while she had plucked her prize from among his treasures, it didn’t grant her the right to mate with him amidst his jewels. Regret dropped a lead weight in her gut, and she wished she hadn’t brought it up. She’d asked for too much, too soon.

“For many reasons, none related to my trust in you, Ēostre,” Maximilian said, as if sensing her trepidation. “You have it, all of it, but I cannot endure the time to travel home.”

“And your other reasons?”

His fingers flowed over her slim waist, continued upward until he squeezed one plump breast in his hand. She shivered in delight. “I will not take you as a beast,” he breathed against her jaw, before his lips traced to her mouth and claimed them in another searing kiss. Heat pooled between her thighs and lower belly, and a warm flush spread over her limbs. “But as a man.”

Maximilian found her zipper and lowered it until a casual brush of his hands brought the dress down around her waist. Her arms pulled free.

“Beautiful.”

He caught her by surprise when they moved from the couch. One moment they were seated side by side, and in the next, he had cradled her in his arms. Quick, decisive steps moved through the opulent mansion, through a lavishly decorated entry hall and to the stairway leading to the upper level. She knew his home from memory. She’d been there a few days to visit when he had the dragon flux a few years ago, lying in his room bedridden and miserable.

Entering his room for a wholly different reason, an entirely different situation, took the breath from her lungs. Unceremoniously, he tossed her onto the spacious king size bed and gripped the hem of her simple sheath dress. He gave in to his urges without wasting time, stripping it from her body. A noisy rumble vibrated through his chest when she was left in only panties, a demi-bra, and thigh-high stockings. The matching silk underwear was trimmed with lace, a scant garment she’d chosen in hopes of revealing it to him.

“You approve?” she asked.

“Very much,” Max answered. He bent over her and closed his teeth around the edge of the lace on her hip. A sharp tug yanked the tiny panties down her thighs, then his clean-shaven cheek glided over her skin. She realized then how much she preferred
and
missed the stubble. She loved the scrape to her skin each time she’d kissed his cinnamon whiskers.

When her panties finally hung from one ankle, an anticipative shudder ran through her body. There was no turning back. At least, not for her. It was the moment she’d been waiting for; every plot, every tease, every veiled seduction leading to one moment alone with her best friend. Through the fog of arousal, Ēostre watched him flick his belt through the loops and toss it aside. His shirt buttons came next, parting fine white fabric to reveal a broad expanse of tanned skin.

Ēostre’s heart leapt in her chest again. Before she could remove her own bra, Max reached out, quickly seizing her hand. He pinned her wrist to the mattress and tore the offending garment down with his other hand, spilling her left breast from the half cup.

“Only I get to undress you, Ēostre. Just me,” he growled low. “I waited too long for anything else.” He flicked his thumb over her nipple and circled mercilessly until it was pebble stiff.

“Max, I thought… why didn’t you tell me earlier about the way you felt? I could have told you,” she groaned as he revealed her right breast and gave it the same treatment. His mouth followed, a balm of warm sensation over the tensed peak. He didn’t stop until both ached as much as the dull throb between her thighs, and then he created a scorching trail of kisses from her sternum to her throat, ending with a suckle and nip below her ear.

“Did you think I didn’t realize how much you wanted me?” Max asked, his breath a hushed whisper against her cheek. “I
knew
this moment would come between us, Ēostre, and I bided my time until we could be alone without worries or regrets. Did you think it was a coincidence I gave Lynette the night off?”

His index finger traced the moisture down her slick cleft, and up again, bumping against her clit. She writhed against the sheets and raised her hips impatiently for more.

“No… I knew, but… but…” Her words ended on a shuddered sigh, heralding a whispered plea for more, “I need to feel you inside me.”

“And you shall.”

“Max, I can’t… I can’t wait another moment.” Something about being the only one without clothing made her feel vulnerable, sexualizing nudity when it had always been natural and normal in the past.

“I have waited centuries to have you, my love. Wait five minutes more to have me.”

“But you haven’t undressed.”

She longed to see him, hungry for a body sighted only a handful of times in passing over the years. As a young dragon, he’d been slim, his frame the lithe build of a distance runner. As Max settled into maturity, he’d picked up considerable muscular bulk, broadening his shoulders and adding girth to his biceps. Their entire day at the beach she’d struggled against the urge to touch and explore.

Now she had no such self-limitations.

“You’ve seen me undressed before.”

“Every time is different,” Ēostre breathed. “How are you so patient?”

The finger responsible for teasing her sank to the last knuckle, penetrating her body but denying the fulfillment she desired. And then the other hand tightened in her hair again, anchoring her. Testing her desire to kiss him again, his tongue traced the seam of her lips then pressed between them, beckoning her to allow him entry. She gasped as his thumb flicked over her clit then moaned into his open mouth.

In under five minutes, Max had ruined all hope of Ēostre taking charge, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. He was raw and sexual, claiming the lead and what he wanted from her body. Her hips moved to the pattern he created with the thrust of his fingers, until he stopped and withdrew completely from the bed.

“Max?”

Her eyes snapped open to find him standing beside the mattress, his slacks falling to the floor to reveal snug-fitting boxer briefs in bold red with a heavy bulge distorting the front. An impatient whine rose from Ēostre’s throat until at last, they fell from his thighs, and the hard length of him jutted forward and up. As Max lowered one knee back to the bed, his thick arousal bounced and swayed, the perfect enticement to get a grip of herself — and of him.

“Satisfied?” he asked.

“Not yet.”

At first, her fingers traced down the wide shaft until she found the rounded tip. His arousal matched her own, sexual need forming a clear drop of precum at the sensitive crown. The sight of him alone made her breath catch in her throat, but holding his cock was its own sweet reward.

“I don’t know if I want to be selfless with you tonight, Ēostre… there’s so many things I fantasized about doing with you. To you,” he clarified.