I scrubbed a hand over my eye, wanting to deny the wetness. “You knew I’d be at the bar.”
“Jaime…”
My stomach twisted. “You were waiting for me.” I waved a finger between us. “Waiting for this.”
A faint line of red stained his cheeks, unexpected and strangely endearing. He’d planned to approach me, known what I wanted for my last night. It was little wonder he’d hidden who he was from me.
“I was selfish.” His head tilted. “Hate me?” His voice had a light touch, but lurking under this was a brief hesitation, a doubt that formed a wince around his eyes. “Or not?”
“If I’d known you were the envoy, you would have found my beer in your face.”
“But not now?”
“Now…” I leaned in close. Our time was ticking, beating out in each rapid thud of my heart. His mouth was only inches away, his breath warm against my lips. “I don’t want to waste anymore time.” He wouldn’t be my mate-and my gryphon pined for that loss-but we could still make love. I stroked his cheek, sighing at the satin smoothness of his skin, and his amber eyes darkened, deepened into molten gold. “Do you?”
“Absolutely not.”
His kiss was soft, exploring, and I had to remember to breathe. Wanting him hurt, a hollow ache in my chest, driving me to deepen the kiss. I needed to forget the impossibility of our future in his mouth, his hands, in his flesh hard and hot against mine.
“Jaime…”
The darkness of his shadow swept around us, coalescing with my own. Their passion flared, and I groaned. I wanted our last time to be unhurried, luxurious, a time to lose ourselves, to pretend that we were together.
“No thinking,” Kaden murmured, kissing away the wetness from my cheek. “Just us.”
He held me to him, peppering my neck and throat with kisses. The heat of his mouth searing too sensitive skin arched me against him. My fingers scrabbled with his belt, the buttons, eager, needing to find him, so that we could lose ourselves in the growing heat of our mythoi.
His hands covered mine, stopping them. I blinked, breathing hard. He couldn’t want us to stop, could he? “Kaden?”
“Making love in the back of a car, not a good idea.”
Cold disappointment sank into my gut. “Not a good idea?”
He held my gaze, his face serious. “When you still have your boots on.”
I swatted at him, my hand impacting the solid muscle of his upper arm. He winced and then smirked at me. I slid off his lap and pulled free my boots and my underwear. Turning back to Kaden, I found him practically naked and couldn’t hold back a giggle. He could move fast.
He glared at me. “What?”
“This.” I flicked my fingers around the cramped interior. “It’s all very adolescent.”
The wicked shine to his eyes said that it had been a long, long time since he’d been a spotty teenager. He held out his hand and I slid my fingers into his. He squeezed and pulled me towards him. I yelped and stumbled, but he caught me. Strong hands eased me over the warmth of his bared thighs, the roughened heat of his skin against mine jolting little shocks of pleasure.
I took his cock in my hand, he sucked in a breath and I smirked. “How long have we got?”
He glanced to the panel. “Fifteen minutes.”
I shifted my pelvis and eased myself over the head of his cock, teasing him along my flesh. Kaden groaned and his fingers dug into my hips.
“You’re playing with me.”
“Maybe.” The word came out on a soft rush of air as I sank down on him. I trembled, the fire of our surrounding mythoi and Kaden’s low moan flickering heat up my spine. I buried my face against his neck, breathing him in, holding him, his strong arms wrapped around me. Damn, his heat, his scent, everything about him felt right, felt needed. My shadow gloried in the emotion, her wild heart surging into Kaden’s shadow, an intense, spiralling passion that had my heart racing, my breath coming short.
I bit at my lip, fighting the urge to simply fuck Kaden like a wild thing, and ground my hips against his in a slow, satisfying tease. It elicited a long moan from both of us. I had to move before the wild passion of our shadows overtook me and I said something insane…like I loved him.
That thought pushed me hard against him, and I took his mouth to drive the idea from my head. It burned with danger. If I said it, I’d be bound to him, my mythoi one with his, mated…and as Kaden had said, the First Dragon would then have no further use for me. But, by all that was unholy, the taste of it, the fire of it on my tongue, was almost irresistible.
Kaden’s hands tightened on my hips, urging me faster, the angle finding my clitoris and sparking fire in my belly. I held him closer, my thighs gripping him. The need to tell him how I felt sharpened with every deep thrust. I couldn’t say it. My life, his life would be forfeit. That knowledge dulled the words, and I focused on the stroke of my tongue against his, a soft moan escaping. Damn, he could kiss.
Already the first tightening of orgasm flushed my skin. I moved faster, harder, ripping my mouth from his to find his shoulder. Our short gasps, moans, the wet slap of our bodies filled the interior of the car…and around us, through us, spun the ancient glory of our mythoi, lost in their own building desire. My body burned, teetering on the edge of a blistering orgasm, and six words repeated over and over in my mind.
He is mine. I am his.
The fierce glory of that knowledge coalesced with the twisting fire of our mythoi. I couldn’t fight it, didn’t want to fight the pleasure, the belief that Kaden and his mythoi were ours, their incredible, ancient power belonging solely to us. My gryphon screeched, the sound of it raw, intense in my mind, her blistering release bursting down over my flesh.
I screamed, arching my spine, pushing hard against Kaden. Orgasm seared over me, wrapped around me in a fiery rush and, for a long, endless moment, I lost myself to it. Somewhere in the maelstrom, Kaden chanted my name, working my hips and blazing fresh need through my flesh. I clung to him, my mouth against his damp shoulder, wanting him to come, wanting him to make me come again.
“Jaime…”
He growled my name as his body gave a final shudder and his release had him gasping. A jumble of words spilled out and they spun fire through my mind. I matched them, said them against his damp skin, his taste delicious on my tongue.
For a second, a wild, insane second, our mythoi surged over the cramped interior, melding into a glorious single beast, vast wings stretched, who screeched its power to the heavens.
And then it was over.
Chapter Eight
I crushed my eyes shut, not wanting to move, not wanting to acknowledge what we’d done…but it couldn’t stop the warmth, the curl of happiness from wrapping around my heart. And now I was free to say it without fear. “I love you.”
Kaden’s arms tightened around me, pressing me to his chest. “I’m sorry, Jaime. I’m so sorry.”
A brief laugh shook me. “Not the reply I was looking for.”
His half-grin curved against my neck. “No, I suppose not.” He pulled back and cupped my face, fingers teasing back damp strands. Amber eyes held me, warm with affection. “I love you. I have for too long.”
A sigh escaped me and I gave a little wiggle that had Kaden glaring it me. “We are so fucked.”
“Yes, we are.”
He pressed a kiss to my lips, a delicious teasing that made me want to wiggle a lot harder. And that was yet more of our insanity. The threat didn’t feel real, not while I could touch him, kiss him, have the damp heat of his skin against mine and his scent all around me.