Bryn Read online

  “I haven’t claimed you yet.”

  “And that’s another thing, if, as you say, you knew yesterday I’m your mate, why haven’t you dragged me off to your dragon cave and claimed me?” she asked triumphantly. “In Chloe’s books, the dragon shifter is always filled with this overwhelming need to claim his fated mate.”

  “Do you want me to take you to my cave and complete the mating?”

  “No!”

  “Then that’s the answer to your question.”

  “Nathaniel and Deryk didn’t seem to be able to control their need to claim their mate.” Damn it, why did her voice sound accusatory when she didn’t even want to be Bryn’s mate?

  Although, having parents who were divorced, and having been brought up divided between those two vastly different households, one in Ireland, one in England, Tegan thought there was definitely something to be said for a lifetime of the single-minded love and fidelity a dragon shifter gave his mate. It was one of the reasons Chloe’s books were so popular. Imagining being the recipient of all that love and devotion was certainly why Tegan loved them.

  But the fantasy of reading a novel, and reality, were two completely different things.

  “I have to go to another meeting I’m already late for.” She stepped around Bryn to pick up her shoulder bag and head toward the door, needing to get away from him for a while, even though the meet and greet with the new owners of Hawke Publishing wasn’t for another hour. She would need to come back to the suite, shower, and change before then, but it would have to wait. Her need to take some time for herself, to try to take in all Bryn had just told her, was far more important right now. “While I’m gone, I suggest you consider leaving before I get back.” She stormed out of the suite without giving Bryn a backward glance.

  Her head cleared once she was in the elevator, and she muttered to herself all the way down to the ground floor of the hotel.

  Dragon shifters aren’t real.

  Nor am I the fated mate of one.

  Maybe I’ve read one too many of Chloe’s books.

  But what about the talons?

  That preternatural glow of Bryn’s eyes?

  Not real.

  They couldn’t be.

  Maybe she was the one who was delusional. Or maybe it was the stress of Steven’s behavior finally getting to her, on top of the jet lag.

  Yes, that was probably what had happened. Not that she particularly liked the idea she might have imagined Bryn with talons, but it was certainly preferable to put that illusion down to stress and delayed jet lag than being the unwanted mate of a very real dragon shifter.

  Besides, she really didn’t feel any different after that brief kiss.

  She certainly didn’t feel the inclination to throw herself at Bryn and beg him to claim her as his mate.

  It wasn’t real. None of it.

  That decided, it was more than a little disconcerting for Tegan to step out of the elevator on the ground floor and find Bryn already there waiting for her.

  He shrugged at her accusing glare. “Where you go, I go.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Did you take another elevator?”

  One dark brow rose. “There is no other elevator on our floor.”

  Tegan knew that, but the alternate explanation for Bryn having arrived down here ahead of her wasn’t one she was willing to accept. “Next you’ll be telling me you came down the emergency stairs at preternatural speed,” she dismissed disgustedly.

  His mouth quirked. “No, I’m not going to tell you that.”

  She brightened. “You aren’t?”

  “It would be pointless when you already know that’s what happened,” he drawled.

  She closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath before opening them again. “I really think you need to leave New York.”

  “That’s no longer an option,” he told her bleakly.

  “Because I kissed you?”

  “Because I kissed you back.”

  Yes, he had, but that had been something Tegan had been trying very hard not to think about.

  Kissing Bryn had been a complete impulse on her part, created by excitement over Chloe and the baby. But for a few seconds, Tegan had felt Bryn’s firm and chiseled mouth kissing her back, the warmth of his tongue stroking over her parted lips—

  Lips she’d afterward chewed.

  Taking the mating aphrodisiac into her own mouth.

  There are no such things as dragon shifters or mating aphrodisiac!

  Then why did Tegan suddenly feel as if liquid fire was coursing through her veins instead of merely warm blood?

  Why were her breasts aching so badly, she wanted, needed someone—Bryn—to suck them, hard, in order to ease that ache?

  Why was her stomach churning?

  The heat and dampness between her thighs increasing by the second.

  Her knees feeling so weak, she was in danger of collapsing in surrender at Bryn’s feet.

  Of begging him to take her.

  Chapter 7

  Bryn saw the subtle changes in Tegan. The flush to her cheeks. The glitter to her eyes. The way her aroused nipples pressed against her top. Bryn was able to breathe in the perfume of the flow of her juices as they saturated her panties, and he knew that, despite her earlier disbelief, her mating fever had begun.

  A fever that would very quickly become too painful for Tegan to bear.

  An arousal only Bryn could assuage.

  A desire his dragon demanded he satisfy in order to relieve his mate’s discomfort.

  Right now.

  “Bryn…?” Tegan put out a hand as she began to sway on her feet, the glitter in her eyes having become feverish.

  “It’s okay,” he soothed as he placed one arm about her shoulders and the other behind her knees before swinging her up into his arms. Tegan immediately nuzzled her face against his throat, breathing him in deeply. “We’ll go back upstairs and—”

  “Tegan?”

  Bryn’s head lifted sharply as another male said his mate’s name. His eyes narrowed to hard slits as he turned to face the man who had dared to speak to his mate.

  A silver-haired man, aged about fifty, stepped back on his heel, no doubt alarmed at the ferocity of Bryn’s expression. “Is Miss McCall ill?” He continued to eye Bryn warily.

  “A touch of flu, I think,” he dismissed. “And you are?”

  “Justin Hawke, CEO of Hawke Publishing.” The man automatically put out his hand to shake Bryn’s, and then dropped his arm back to his side when he realized Bryn’s arms were full and he couldn’t return the gesture. “Miss McCall works for me,” Hawke explained as Bryn continued to look at him coldly.

  Tegan’s employer. An employer Bryn instinctively knew she wouldn’t want him to upset.

  Not that Tegan seemed particularly interested in what Justin Hawke thought right now. In fact, Bryn doubted she was even aware of the other man’s presence. Her tongue was currently licking up the side of Bryn’s neck, and she was making the most delicious purring sound in her throat while she did it.

  Bryn’s cock throbbed in response, the thick length burning, and pre-cum leaking from the slit at the top.

  But it was Tegan’s discomfort which concerned him. Her physical well-being. He knew from Nathaniel and Deryk that his mate needed his mouth and hands on her before the fever escalated to an unbearable degree.

  Bryn turned slightly sideways so that Justin Hawke couldn’t see the way Tegan was now sucking and biting the flesh beneath his ear. “I’m afraid Tegan isn’t well enough to attend the company meet and greet this evening.” He attempted a polite smile. “If you’ll excuse us, I’ll take her back up to our suite.”

  The older man’s brows rose. “You and Miss McCall are…together?”

  Bryn wasn’t used to explaining himself to anyone, and if this man wasn’t Tegan’s employer, he wouldn’t have thought of doing so now either. “I’m Tegan’s fiancé.” He deliberately used the human claim rather than the dragon one.

  “
I see.” Hawke nodded. “In that case, congratulations. And please give Miss McCall my best wishes when she’s…feeling a little better.”

  Bryn nodded abruptly, not giving the other man an opportunity to say anything else before Bryn stepped into the private elevator and pressed the button to go up. He breathed a sigh of relief when the elevator doors closed and he and Tegan were alone in the metal box.

  Tegan was now sucking on Bryn’s earlobe as her fingers unfastened the buttons on the front of his shirt. She pushed her hands beneath the material as soon as there was room, caressing the hard and muscular planes of his chest before her nails skimmed over his pebble-hard nipples.

  Bryn drew his breath in sharply. “Stop it, Tegan,” he groaned.

  She gazed up at him beneath lowered lashes. “Why? Don’t you want me?” One of her hands moved down and cupped the thick bulge in his trousers. “Oh yes, you definitely want me.” Her seductive smile was that of a woman secure in the knowledge she was desired.

  “There are cameras in here,” Bryn warned as he heard and felt the zip of his trousers being lowered.

  Tegan glanced up at the live cameras in one corner of the elevator. “Do you think there’s sound too?” Her hand slipped inside his trousers and then into his boxers, the heat of her fingers encircling his throbbing shaft. “Shall I suck your cock until you come and give them a real show?”

  Bryn groaned softly. “You are so going to regret this when you’re feeling more yourself.” He didn’t need to be told he was the person Tegan was going to blame for this lack of inhibition when she came back to her senses.

  “At the moment, I’m feeling you.” Her fingers tightened about the pulsing heat of his cock. “And very nice it is too. Mm, very long and very thick.”

  “Tegan—”

  “If you put me down, I can— Oh.” She pouted her disappointment as the elevator doors opened on their floor.

  And not a moment too soon in Bryn’s opinion. Another few seconds of having Tegan pump and stroke his cock and he would have done as she asked and put her back on her feet. After which, he would have pressed the emergency stop button of the elevator—the clamoring of his cock for relief told him this was very much an emergency—and seconds later, pressed Tegan down on her knees in front of him so she could suck the length of his cock to the back of her throat.

  Instead, he could only feel relieved there was no one else around as he carried Tegan down the hallway to their suite. Because he could feel the cool air against the heat of his cock as Tegan took it out and began to pump the thick length in earnest.

  Jesus…!

  Bryn had no choice but to put her down once they reached the door to their suite, needing to get the key card from his trouser pocket. The moment he put Tegan down, she fell to her knees in front of him. “Tegan, don’t—” He broke off with a strangled groan, falling back against the door as she licked the pre-cum from his cockhead before taking the bulbous top fully inside her very hot mouth.

  Ingesting yet more of the mating aphrodisiac.

  Damn it, they couldn’t remain out here in the hallway where anyone might leave their room and see the two of them together like this. Tegan was going to be angry enough with him about it without that added humiliation.

  “Stop.” Bryn’s hands were firm on the tops of her arms as he pulled her back up to stand in front of him.

  She gave another pout. “I was enjoying that.”

  And Tegan thought he wasn’t?

  Her mouth felt like hot, liquid velvet surrounding his cock, and Bryn wanted nothing more than to keep thrusting his pulsing length into that heat until he couldn’t hold back any longer and emptied his cum down her throat.

  “Not out here, Tegan.” He used the card to unlock the door before pushing her inside the suite ahead of him.

  Tegan immediately fell to her knees again, impatiently pushing his hands away as he would have put his cock away. “This is mine,” she growled, fingers tight about the throbbing flesh as she took his thickness into her mouth again and began to lick along his length.

  Bryn sucked in a sharp breath as he felt the hot churning of cum in his balls, a warning his release was imminent. Urgent.

  “No!” He gently pushed her away before drawing her up onto her feet. Again. “I’m going to run you a hot, scented bath, you are going to lie in it and calm down, and then we are going to talk. Do you understand? Tegan, do you understand?” He shook her as her heated gaze remained fixed on the fierce jut of his bared cock.

  Her pupils were completely blown when she raised her head to look at him, further evidence of her sexual haze. If he’d needed one, which he didn’t. Tegan was totally lost to the need to mate, even if she didn’t recognize that for what it was.

  Much as Bryn’s own mating fever urged him to claim his mate, he didn’t want it to be like this, while Tegan was completely out of control and unaware of what she was doing. A dragon mating was too binding, too final, and would change Tegan’s life irrevocably—would change her irrevocably—and Bryn wanted her to be compos mentis when she made that decision. There was enough tension between the two of them already, without adding coercion to that mix.

  It wasn’t easy with Tegan’s hands all over him, but Bryn finally managed to get the bath filled with hot, perfumed water, topped with scented bubbles.

  Undressing her caused him more discomfort than it caused her. Tegan seemed more than relieved to have the restrictive clothing removed.

  She was beautiful.

  Her hair was a dark cloud about the slenderness of her bared shoulders. Her soft skin was pale as alabaster. Her breasts were just the right size, not too big and not too little, and tipped with nipples of a deep rose. Her narrow waist curved out to shapely hips, dark and trimmed silky curls covering her mound. Her lack of height meant her legs weren’t overly long, but they were slender above delicately arched feet.

  Utterly beautiful.

  Mine.

  And yes, there was no point in continuing to deny it anymore. Tegan was definitely Bryn’s fated mate.

  But not like this. He wanted Tegan to be aware of exactly what she was doing when or if they mated. He would settle for nothing less, no matter what personal physical discomfort he had to suffer while he gave her the time to make that decision.

  “In you go.” He helped her to step into and then sit down in the bath. Tegan gave a relieved sigh as the hot water instantly soothed some of the fever she was suffering. Bryn breathed a little easier too once the bubbles had covered her nakedness to her throat. “Will you be okay here for a few minutes while I make a few phone calls?”

  Tegan felt as if she was emerging from a deep, dark fog where only Bryn existed. Touching him. Stroking him. Sucking him. Tasting him.

  She remembered feeling slightly off downstairs in the lobby. How her body was suddenly so sensitive, even her clothes had felt uncomfortable against the heat of her skin. But she didn’t remember anything else. Certainly not how she’d arrived back at their suite, let alone undressed before getting into the bath.

  Something, or someone, nagged at the back of her brain. Something or someone important, and yet for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what or who it was.

  Probably because all she could see and feel was Bryn. All she wanted to see and feel was Bryn. As she wanted to rip all his clothes off and impale herself on the hardness of his cock before riding them both to completion.

  Then she wanted to start all over again.

  And again.

  And again.

  “It’s started, hasn’t it.” Much as Tegan might want to continue denying it, she knew she could no longer hide from the fact dragon shifters existed. Or that the mating fever was also real. Impossible for her to keep resisting that truth when it was obvious she was currently caught up in the thrall of that mating fever. Because, as Bryn claimed, she was his fated mate.

  The bathwater was helping to soothe the excessive warmth of her body and the deep ache of her pussy. But the deep throb of
her clit remained, as did the pebble hardness of her aching and tingling nipples.

  She was in heat.

  Dragon heat.

  For Bryn.

  His expression was guarded as he answered her, lids lowered over those mesmerizing eyes. “Yes.”

  Tegan swallowed. “What happened in the lobby?” She clearly remembered leaving the hotel suite, her anger with Bryn, and stepping out of the elevator to find him there waiting for her. But after that was a complete blank.

  “Nothing too drastic,” he dismissed.

  But something drastic enough Bryn couldn’t quite meet her searching gaze.

  Oh God, what did I do?

  “The soak in a hot bath should help ease things for you for a while,” Bryn added briskly.

  Tegan remembered that from Chloe’s first book. Just as she knew the fever, the desire, would come back with a vengeance once the water was no longer enough to soothe her desperate need to be filled and claimed. To take and claim in return.

  Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she looked up at Bryn. “I hate this.”

  He flinched as if she’d actually struck him. “I know, and I wish—” He gave a shake of his head. “It’s too late for that.” He straightened. “We’ll talk once you’re out of the bath. Decide what we’re going to do.”

  Live together, or die together.

  Either way, Tegan’s life would never be the same again.

  Fate had chosen for her.

  And it had chosen Bryn Pendragon.

  Having Bryn as her mate wasn’t the end of the world, Tegan could acknowledge, inwardly, at least. He was utterly gorgeous, almost six and a half feet of muscular hardness, with a face that was the angular perfection of a fallen angel. Yes, his demeanor was dark and broody, but that only made him so much more of a challenge, and the joy deeper when she did coax him into a laugh. She also knew him to be a man of honor, and one who would protect his mate and family to the death. Having all that dragon devotion centered on her for what would be a long lifetime wasn’t something that could be refused lightly.

  Tegan wasn’t sure she wanted to refuse.

  But Bryn had made it clear a mate wasn’t what he wanted for his future. That she wasn’t what he wanted.