I kiss her again, slower, deeper, pouring every unspoken promise into the press of my lips, the sweep of my tongue. She melts into me, soft where I’m hard, yielding where I’m desperate, and when I finally join us together, when I sink into her warmth and feel her gasp against my mouth?—
Her eyes rise and I know my hair has turned to fire as she slips up and down my length. My hands grip her hips feeling the flex of the muscles there as she moves. I meet her thrust for thrust and as I do the fire spreads sliding down my neck to my shoulders and then out into the water. Flames erupt across the water’s surface, racing outward in rippling waves of gold and crimson. The fire doesn’t burn—itsings, ancient magic recognizing the bond being forged between us.
Raven pulls her wings in close and I see her dragoness is in the drivers seat by the look in her eyes. Her mouth opens and I seeher canines descended and she’s heading towards her original bite. The second her mouth clamps down on my shoulder I cum. Her arms tighten around me as I pulse within her. She soon follows me over the edge and wraps us up in her wings. I’m kinda embarrassed with how short of a time I lasted with her. The deep contented purr that escapes Ravens lips soothes the feeling of failure I’m dealing with.
Raven nuzzles my cheek and moves to sip at my bottom lip. I can feel her undying love pulsing through the bond to me. Her human eyes search my face their movements are slow as if seeing me for the first time. She snuggles in close and just holds me. The flames are fading when I finally carry her from the water.
Raven’s head rests against my shoulder, her breath warm and slow against my throat, and I move carefully—so carefully—mindful of the great leather wings draped down her back. They’re magnificent things, black as midnight and soft as sin, and they flutter weakly as I shift her weight, still trembling from the aftershocks of what we’ve shared.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur against her temple. “I’ve got you.”
She makes a soft sound—contentment and exhaustion and something deeper—and her fingers curl against my chest, right over my heart.
The sand is cool and fine beneath my feet as I step onto the shore. I find a stretch of beach where the moonlight pools like spilled silver, where the sand has been warmed by the day’s sun and still holds a whisper of heat. Gently—so gently—I lower us both down, cradling her against me as I settle onto my back.
Raven shifts, her wing unfurling to stretch across the sand while the other tucks against her side. She pillows her head on my chest, one leg tangled with mine, her palm pressed flat over the steady drum of my heartbeat.
“Can you feel it?” she whispers.
I can. The bond thrums between us now—a golden thread wound tight around my soul, connecting me to her in ways I’m only beginning to understand. When she breathes, I feel it in my own lungs. When her heart beats, mine answers.
“Yes.” I press my lips to her hair, breathing in the scent of her—smoke and night-blooming jasmine and something uniquelyRaven. “I feel everything.”
We lay there in silence, watching the lake. The flames are dying slowly, ripples of gold and amber flickering across the black water like the last whispers of a prayer. Each one winks out, leaving trails of steam that curl toward the stars, and I think about all the mates who have come before us. All the bonds forged in this sacred place.
None of them, I decide, could have felt like this.
Raven traces idle patterns on my chest—spirals and loops and shapes that might be letters, might be nothing at all. Her wing shifts, the leathery membrane rustling as she tucks it more firmly against her body, and I run my fingers along the delicate ridge of bone where it meets her shoulder blade.
She shivers. “That tickles.”
“Does it?” I do it again, just to feel her squirm against me, just to hear the breathless laugh that escapes her.
“Finlay.” She props her chin on my chest, peering up at me. In the moonlight, her eyes are liquid darkness, fathomless and full of stars. “What happens now?”
I consider the question. The politics. The complications. A phoenix bonded to a dragon—there will be those who don’t understand, who won’t accept it. Wars have been fought over less.
But looking at her now, bathed in moonlight with her wings spread across the sand like fallen shadows, I find I don’t care about any of it.
“Now?” I tuck a strand of damp hair behind her ear, letting my thumb trace the curve of her cheekbone. “Now I spend the rest of my existence making sure you never regret choosing me.”
“I’ll never regret this.” She whispers to me and kisses me so gently. For the first time in my existence I am finally at peace.
