Page 21 of His Fiery Mate

“Tanner, stop. Please,” she begged, knowing it wouldn’t stop him. He’d told her he probably wouldn’t stop, and that was as close to a promise as she needed.

“Not a chance, my fiery mate.”

She tried to pull her hips away from him, but he just wrapped his arms around her upper thighs and pulled her tight to his face, to that tongue licking so cleverly at her clit, before withdrawing his fingers and spearing her core with it. She missed the thrust of his fingers inside her, but then vague disappointment gave way to pleasure again.

“God, Tanner, don’t stop, please don’t stop,” she said, hearing herself as her tune changed. She wanted this and so much more.

There was another, quieter explosion inside her core, but it didn’t matter. Tanner kept devouring her with his mouth. All that mattered was Tanner’s tongue. All she could think about was the man between her thighs, the man she had waited so long for and had known for less than a week. The man who had the power to make her wet and weak.

Tanner’s fingers dug deeper into her thighs, holding her to his mouth, refusing to let her go. She moaned his name again, writhing beneath him in response to his touch. He knew what he was doing to her, knew by the sounds she was making, knew by the way her body reacted to him. There would be no going back, no way to deny their intertwined destiny.

He reached up, taking her still hard nipples between the thumb and forefinger of one hand. He pinched them tightly, too hard. She should have wanted to bat his hand away, but she didn’t. It felt so incredibly good.

Her body was trembling with anticipation, her breath short and quick, her heart pounding in her chest. She knew she should be angry, frightened, something other than bordering on being blissed out. She knew now what it must have felt like to those drakaina who had become sky drunk and had plunged into the toxic sea to keep from giving up this feeling. Melisandre knew she was in danger of losing herself, but all she could think about was Tanner’s masterful touch between her legs.

As he continued his relentless assault on her clit, her moans grew louder, more desperate. She couldn’t take it anymore, she had to have him, had to feel him inside her. She wanted to come again, but she only wanted to come with his hard cock buried deep inside her. She tried to sit up and push him away, but found him atop her, covering her, looking down.

“Please, Tanner, fuck me. Please.”

He grinned, a wicked smile that made everything inside her flip-flop. “As you wish.”

He positioned himself between her legs, pulling her closer. She felt the thick length of his cock sliding against her slick folds. She wanted him badly, desperately; needed him to fill her up and take her to new heights of pleasure. He thrust into her, shoving deep and hitting all the right spots. Her arms wound around his shoulders, pulling him closer as her legs wrapped around his waist. She moaned his name, her body arching up to meet his every thrust.

His lips met hers in a fervent kiss, his tongue sliding into her mouth as his hips slammed against her. She could feel the electric charge between them, like lightning strikes, sending shivers down her spine. Tanner’s cock filled her completely, and she knew it would be the only thing to satisfy this deep, burning ache within her.

His hands gripped her hips, holding her still as he moved inside her, each thrust sending waves of pleasure radiating out from her core. She could feel the tension building within her again, the familiar sensation of her body preparing for orgasm. She clenched her muscles around him, wanting to feel his cock pulsing inside her as the climax washed over her.

“Tanner,” she whispered, her voice hoarse, “come with me. Please.”

Tanner groaned, his thumb coming between them and pressing down hard on her clit. The world exploded around her and so did he, deep inside her, over and over again. They gasped into each other's mouths, his hot, dry lips nuzzling her neck in a deep groan as he lost all control and thrust hard and deep one last time as he collapsed upon her.

She held him as they came down, wondering if she’d made the right decision and deciding she didn’t care.

CHAPTER 9

TANNER

Morning came, and he damned himself for not having closed the shades sometime during the night, but she had looked so beautiful bathed in the iridescent moonlight. She was exhausted, and not just from the numerous times he had made love to her—and he knew that’s what it was: making love, not fucking. As a mortal—even though she was a dragon-shifter—passing through the In-Between could be exhausting in and of itself. It hadn’t helped that they’d already been exhausted from chasing the arsonist.

He eased from their bed and walked to the windows, pulling the shades down. He needed to talk to the chief. Melisandre had made some pretty damning accusations, but as he considered her evidence, he had to admit that the chief made a good suspect. His truck was back at her place and her SUV was down by the municipal building, neither of which was close to the chief’s office.

Leaving Melisandre a note by the bed, he jogged down the steps into Nicole’s combination warehouse and office space.

“I’m a little surprised to see you here,” she said. “Your truck wasn’t outside and in fact I heard from Rick it was over at the diner—in the alley by the outside stairs.”

Tanner groaned. “Don’t you people have anything better to do than gossip?”

“Are you kidding? The banished brother of the hellhound leader and the drakaina who left the Denali clan? I can tell you rumor has neither Cooper nor your brother, Hayden, any too pleased with you.”

“And is it all my fault?”

Nicole grinned. “But of course, although knowing Melisandre, she won’t see it that way. How did you end up here and where is she?”

“She’s upstairs sleeping. She’s exhausted…”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “You men and your fated mates; once you find her, it’s like you’ve never had sex before.”

“We are obnoxious, aren’t we? But before that, we had to slip into the In-Between and a reaper almost had her. The In-Between is not for the faint of heart and takes its toll on you physically. If and when you hear her, could you see that she eats breakfast?”

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