Page 24 of Iced Heat

“Don’t be,” he shook his head, still kneading his fingers into my ass. “I’ve seen battle before. Life isn’t always peaceful but if another war comes – wherever we are – I will keep you safe.”

“That goes both ways, just so you know. They touch you and they fucking die,” I whispered.

“Good to know,” he said and kissed me hard.

I wasn’t sure how to think now that Xav was fully inside my head. Did he know that? Did he hear all my thoughts trying to line themselves out? Did he know how euphoric it felt to be stuffed full of his knotted dick?

When the kiss broke, it was my turn to claim him. There were a million promises I could’ve made but they touch you and they fucking die really summed it up. Ride or die was literal for dragons and ran both ways in mated relationships. Instead, I kissed the icy skin over his claiming gland and drew circles around it with my tongue as he’d done to me moments before.

“Bite him! Claim him!”my dragon purred, and I couldn’t stop it from happening. My inner beast shifted my canine tooth to his and an explosion of chilly, clear magical fluid erupted in my mouth. The borrowed tooth disappeared as I savored the sweet vanilla bean flavor of my alpha. It was cold enough to remind me of ice cream, but Xav’s memories sent a warm wave of fuzzies dancing around my stomach. Everything was green. Trees, grass, even some of the rocks that were here and there. I was a mist. I was an icy mist inside his memories. Then I burnt hot like fire as other mists yelled and screeched. And screeched they did. It was the only word I could use to describe how his mother spoke. Nothing she said was friendly. I didn’t need to speak the language to understand that every word coming out of her mouth was hateful. Then I (and the mist) fled. We fled right through door after door, squeezing around the cracks as wind, ice, fire, whatever element worked really, until we slammed right into Liatris’s classroom. That’s when everything changed. That’s when he found himself even if Liatris still didn’t know Xav flew in on an icy breeze. Glimpses of Starscale establishments popped in and out of my mind. Doctors and dancers ground side by side on dancefloors until my dick ached to be touched. In the solid world, Xav wrapped his fist around my cock and squeezed as the thought crossed my mind.

The memories faded as the last of the vanilla ice cream flavored fluid ran dry. I rocked my hips, savoring the fullness his broad knot provided. Xav gripped my thighs and rocked in time with me. His pleasure squeezed me too now. I could almost feel my omegahole close in and trapping his knot inside me. I bit my lip, but he kissed me making me stop it before the coppery tang of blood dabbled onto my tongue.

We lost ourselves to each other and the newfound magic flowing between us. The cave grew colder and colder as we chased down our joint release. Heat sizzled inside my belly butmy skin wasn’t scorching to the touch anymore. I loved his ice, I reveled in it. It was both magic and him. It was as if he could touch me everywhere at once.

I rode him harder and harder as his knot gave us centimeters to work with. Soon it was slim enough that I could ride over it, spreading the sensation to all my nerve endings. My dick shook in Xav’s hand, and he squeezed me harder as he trembled inside me. He was as close as I was, and his pleasure and longing rained down over me on our newly opened mating link.

I came hard, seeing bright lights of stars that might’ve been ice crystals freezing in the air. I panted out my pleasure as I covered him in my cum for the second time that day. His hands found my hips and worked me hard as his hips bucked up, sending his cock deeper into me with each upward thrust. My nails dug into the back of his neck as he thrust up hard again. He breathed out in an icy stream followed by a growl of victory as he released warm, sticky streams of pleasure into me. I clung to him as our bodies slowed. He cradled me against him, locking me in his embrace and there wasn’t anywhere else in the world I wanted to be. My eyes drifted shut and I rested my head against his shoulder. I barely felt him sink down onto his back, still holding me on top of him. The cave was burning up again. The heat hadn’t been satisfied but I couldn’t give it more just yet. My insides still pulsated from the pleasure pumping through my veins from our first time together.

Chapter Thirteen

Xav

Sequin dozed off but all my cells felt too alive to sleep. He was warm to the touch. So every few minutes I iced up my hands and ran them up and down his back. He muttered something about bottling me up to sell me in his sleep. I chuckled and tried not to think too hard about what I’d tell anyone if they wandered into the cave while we were still naked and sticky. The truth was probably my best bet. Newly met true-mates seldom followed the rules of convention anywhere. Back home, if we were both elemental, we’d probably still be off in the woods blending our mists together.

I stroked Sequin’s back as he napped and thought about what our lives might look like together after our matingmoon was over. A year from now, we had the wedding. His family would be everywhere back on the Starscale worlds but Teddy and I were already friends. Liatris would probably stop shipping us now – thankfully. My friend and mentor only wanted me to be happy but Teddy would’ve never been that guy for me. That was Sequin. Somehow, I was happy even though I was solid (and being solid was never as pleasurable as being ice) and laying on thin blanket on a stone floor, I was happy. Sequin made me happy. I thought about what our kids might look like and how building a nest would be different for us. How would he react if our babies turned into ice, fire, or some other element like I did? I wasn’t sure how much of me would pass onto our kids because as far as I knew I was the first from my birth group to mate with someone from the outside.

The sun set before Sequin woke up and he woke up blinking and ready for a snack.

“Stomach growls,” he muttered as if his dragon spoke through him.

“There’s food back there. I know you said it was supposed to be for storm emergencies but this might be a different sort of emergency.”

He blinked and squinted at me.

“How are you not starving?” he grumbled.

“I’m hungry but not starving yet. I’m not a dragon, sweetheart.”

“I should eat you,” he pressed himself upright and wandered over to the shelves full of nonperishables.

“I want a pizza,” he grumbled. “Do you think they’ll deliver it to the cave?”

“Maybe and I think maybe my pants are clean enough to put back on.”

“I don’t want to shift into my dragon right now,” he said, leaning his head against the shelving. “If I shift, he’s going to go straight to hunting and that’s definitely not allowed on the island.”

“Hang on,” I yawned, pushing myself upright. “At least drink some water, while I peek outside and see what’s going on. Maybe we can sneak you back to the Scale B&B without you having to shift.”

“Fucking people,” he muttered.

“You are hangry, mate.”

The world was deserted outside of the cave. Except for one bag that I almost tripped over. It wasn’t a pizza but it was almost just as good when I picked it up and took a look inside. Liatris had thought ahead and brought us each a change of clothes. A scribbled note on the top of the bag told us to take our time and that he and Selt would watch the house while we were gone.

Inside the cave, running water startled me.

“Shower. Back here,” Sequin grunted. “Is the world still out there?”

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