Page 10 of Iced Heat

“Tell me about the knotting,” I said, eager to change the subject.

“You really want to know?” he arched a brow.

“Yes,” I laughed.

He took my hand and pulled me down another small alleyway. We were across town from the club but near a lot of the stores that were closed this time of the night. Or was it morning now? I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to pull my phone out and ruin everything. It was probably weighed down with texts and voicemails from my entire family calling me the scaley ass again.

“What? Are you gonna whip it out or something?” I teased.

“No,” he said, walking me backwards until my back touched the brick wall of one of the newer grocery stores.

Xav cupped my chin again, like he did when we first met, and his lips brushed against mine. I reached out for him, wrapping an arm around his neck to pull him closer. His warm, moist tongue snaked into my mouth heating me up from the inside out. He pressed against me, locking me between him and the wall as his free hand trailed up and down my side, giving me goosebumps.

“Right after everything was settled from my medical transition, I kept waking up all knotted up. It confused the doctors because dragons don’t knot. They knew about knotting of course. So they did all this genetic testing trying to find something they recognized as canine or canine related and they couldn’t. So believe me when I say I know I can knot. Apparently, dreaming bout sex was enough to make it happen.”

I swallowed hard wondering if Xav jacked off when he woke up all hot, bothered, and knotted up like that. I bet he did. The only question now was, would he let me watch? I shut the thought down before he picked it up over the Starscale link. Our relationship was too new for questions like that, right?

“I’m only picking up bits and pieces, but I like where it’s going,” Xav smirked and leaned in for another kiss.

This one was long and slow. He took his time pushing his nimble tongue between my parted lips. I pulled him in close, reveling in the strength of his body and the magic playing just under his skin. The more he leaned in, trapping me between the wall and him, the louder his magic hummed. He was hard against me as our tongues danced between our mouths. His scent overtook me and sent my head reeling with a million unanswered questions. Like where the hell did he learn to kiss like this and would I ever think in a straight line again? Did I even want to?

We kissed for a long time without some old fogie like Feral around to slide his hand between us. Xav’s hands found my hips and slid down to my ass. His fingers kneaded into my flesh, making it hum in time with his magic. No wonder he hadn’t told everyone how he shifted. I’d seen and felt it with my own eyes and still wasn’t sure how it worked. Xav was still a mystery to me, but some mysteries were meant to be kissed.

He lifted one hand and traced my jawline with it. I leaned into his warmth, longing for more of that hum. It vibrated through me mimicking how a dragon purred. Did magic purr? I never heard magic do that before but maybe that’s what this was – all the humming was just his way of purring. I kissed him harder, wanting more of him. He tasted like coffee and something sweet that I couldn’t put my finger on. Was it something in his cigarettes? Maybe I would try one after all. Daliah had.

He sighed into the kiss when her name crossed my mind. I shoved it away as she shoved me away as soon as she met Rosemary.

“I’m going to get you off and then we’re going to solve that problem,” he said, leaning back far enough to meet my gaze.

“Short of tossing her to another world I don’t think there is a solution,” I said, trying and failing to make him laugh.

“There is a solution, and I will find it. Call me possessive or say my ego is not as icy as the rest of me but when I’m kissing you, I don’t want you to think about your sister. She seems cool and all but I’m not that into women. I’m definitely not into your sister.”

“I’d hope not,” I frowned at him. “I didn’t think about her on purpose.”

“I know but if it can break through this,” he said pointing back and forth between us, “it’s bothering you.”

“Maybe I’m just high,” I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about her anymore. I don’t want to do anything about her. It’s allin her court now. She was a giant scaley ass and she can solve the problem now.”

Xav rubbed over his third eye chakra briefly before turning to an icy breeze. For a moment, I thought he’d blow right away, instead he wrapped around me, chilling out my dragon enough for me to stop thinking about dropping both of them in a volcano. Frost, Juda, and all their little babies. I wasn’t even sure what we were fighting about anymore. The house. The pink. Mom liking her more? That last one never made sense to me. She didn’t and Nelum wasn’t mum. All those things were the exact reason we couldn’t resolve this fight.

The breeze shifted and I found myself walking along that alleyway until I reached a building on the far edge of it. There was a hotel owned by a rabbit there. I checked into a room and the breeze that was Xav ushered me upstairs and pushed me down onto the bed. I surrendered to how tired I was, but I wasn’t ready to sleep. The breeze, now slightly warmer than ice, shimmied into my shoes until they fell off one by one. Then under my shirt, tugging and pulling, until my torso was naked. Then, against the odds, the breeze unbuttoned and unzipped my pants too. He left them on as he materialized stretched out on his side next to me, his head propped up on his fist.

“Is that how you’re going to solve every disagreement we have?” I laughed.

“Probably not but you’re tired and I refuse to argue with you. Right now, everything’s hot headed. We’re in the midst of our true-mate response and it feels nice to be me sometimes. I haven’t had the chance to do that since I left home.”

“Why did you leave home?” I asked him.

“Because only guys are supposed to be ice and they didn’t believe their own gods’ magic, I guess. It doesn’t matter,” he shook his head. “I’m not going back. We can have our icy or fiery or scaley little babies right here or on Starscale numbersomething. Really. I know a lot of people get homesick but leaving home felt like taking off a wet cloak that I had to carry around everywhere. Once I left, I could breathe easy for the first time in my life. Then with friends, magic, surgery, and medicine I found everything I thought I wanted with the Starscales.”

“Thought you wanted?” I arched a brow.

“You weren’t there,” he smirked and stole a kiss. “Now, I have it all.”

“Do you really?” I teased. “Because I don’t think a mate with so many family issues was on your wish list.”

“Makes me feel normal,” Xav teased right back. “It’s eerie if a whole family gets along all the time. It’s like they’re all playacting or something, mate. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be around fake people playing fake roles all day every day. I want real, even if real is a hot fucking mess.”

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