Chapter 9 - Julie

"Oh, you are such an ass," I snap at him and move to push myself away, but his other hand slides around my hip and pulls me back. My hands fall to rest against his muscled arms, one so much larger than the other. Then, a ripple of energy rushes past my hand, and the dragon scales disappear.

I can't help the little gasp that comes from my mouth. It's fascinating. I look down at his arm and then back up at him, and there's a glint in his eyes, reflecting more of the soft amber in his hazel eyes in the glowing firelight than I've seen before. I push up onto my knees and try to scoot back again, but he moves faster than me, rising onto his knees as well. The quilt barely stays in place across his lap as he drops one hand to keep it in place.

My mind can't help but wonder just how well-endowed he really is if that was him cold. I'm not exactly a ‘sexpert' like Bernadette would claim to be, and my only reference had been my ex, Luke, and he was entirely the opposite of endowed. From what Bernie and I have discussed, she's pretty sure that's why he was such a raging asshole.

I pull the inside of my lip in between my teeth, trying to keep my mind from anywhere that train of thought is leading me. Nothing good can come from that. Focus, Julie. There are dragons. Magical shapeshifting fucking creatures, and your uncle is who knows where and possibly hurt.

"Why are they after my family?" I ask, shifting further back on my heels away from him. "We aren't dragons. What could they want with us? Do you think Merl is okay? Would they hurt him?"

My mind is spinning, and my mouth is keeping pace now. There's an undercurrent of panic that seems like it's trying to creep up and take control. I can't seem to breathe deep enough and my chest feels tight. I shake my head as if that will send the anxiety and panic away, but it just seems to get worse.

"Hey," Kaius whispers, putting one hand tentatively on my shoulder and pulling me closer to him, "We'll figure it out. I just found that out tonight. It's why I was out there. We will not let anything happen."

I feel my body leaning into him, the traitorous thing that it is. I can't fight the feeling of relief I get from his nearness. I look up at his eyes in the firelight, and I want to believe him. I want to trust that they've got this, but the image of Merl, clothes on fire with those shadows closing in, keeps replaying in my head.

"Oh God, Merl."

Tears are burning at the edges of my eyes, and I try to push away from him, but his hand locks tighter around me. Irritation flares in me now. He's so pushy. He won't even just let me have my panic attack in peace.

"Stop it, let me go," I groan at him as I try to push away, but in doing so, I throw us both off balance. I fall into him, pushing him back toward the floor. My hands are resting on his chest as the floor smacks into his back hard. He's such a distraction.

Maybe that's what I need right now.

My thigh is between his legs, and the hard length of him is pressed against my stomach. As I press forward to push myself up, I can't help but lean into it a little. There's a distinct shift in the look in his eyes from the pain that seemed to be there when he hit the floor, now something much darker.

His arm is still locked around me, and his breathing is coming short and shallow like my own. I don't know what prompts me to do it, but in a flash, I push myself further up on his lap, straddling him as I lean down to crash my lips to his.

This isn't a soft, romantic kiss. Irritation, pent-up energy, anger—all of it pours into him as I grind my hips down against that hard length as he catches my lip in his teeth. His hand slides down, gripping hard at the curve of my ass while the other joins it on the other side. Kaius's tongue thrusts relentlessly into my mouth as the kiss deepens.

His mouth is demanding as his hands slide up under the edge of my layers of jacket and shirts, and I gasp as they come into contact with the sensitive skin at the small of my back. It's just shy of tickling, but it sends a jolt of desire through me that causes me to wind against his rock-hard length that's settled and twitching against my body.

There's a flurry of hands as we both attempt to remove the other layers of my clothes. He stops, stilling as my shirt hits the floor, and his eyes travel slowly down the length of my body. He lets out a little breath.

A single, low chuckle slips out of him, and in a moment, he's rolled me onto my back in some sort of maneuver that somehow turns into another crushing kiss. His hands are roaming my stomach and chest and working their way to my jeans. I run my hands up the smooth plane of his stomach and chest, enjoying the little shiver of tension that runs through him as my fingers graze lightly across one of his nipples.

Kaius breaks away from my mouth and starts kissing his way down my neck, chest, and stomach, and he stops to nip at the skin just above the edge of my jeans. He has them open, unzipped, and just waiting. A flicker of eyes meets me from down the length of my body, and I feel him smile against my skin as he pulls them roughly down over the curve of my hips. A little gasp slips out as he settles that dangerous tongue between my legs.

I am dripping wet with anticipation, and his tongue slides with agonizing slowness up the length of my pussy before swirling around my clit, lazily. A shiver of anticipation runs through me, and he lifts my legs up over his shoulders as he leans back down to flick and tease me. The anticipation is building, and my body is clenching already when he adds fingers to the mix, thrusting them in and curling them against the throbbing spot that he seems to have found far too easily.

I arch up, bucking my hips against him as my body clenches hard. An orgasm rocks through me, but he doesn't stop. He keeps that slow, firm, steady stroking against me, and I cum hard for him once again, his name falling from my lips in a gasp.

Kaius pulls away, sliding my limp legs over his shoulders and settling them around his waist as he pulls me onto his lap, adjusting his legs underneath me. My legs fall to the side as he holds me, hovering with that slick wetness just pressed against the tip of him. I lean down, pulling him into a kiss, still hungry and demanding, but as I bite his bottom lip, he thrusts slowly up into me, sliding my body down against the motion as he does.

Stars explode in my vision as I stretch from the size of him. It's just shy of painful, but the sheer feeling of him stretching me to the absolute brink causes my body to reflexively grind down harder against him, and my name comes from his mouth like it's a curse.

I work against the length of him slowly, as it's the very best I can do not to come undone again instantly with the feeling of him inside me. He thrusts again, and I cry out and drive myself down to meet him. He moves with punishing pressure against me, his muscles tense and shaking beneath my fingers as my nails dig into the skin. He winds a hand up into the back of my hair and pulls firmly back on it, and I moan as his teeth graze a sensitive spot on my neck.

"Oh God," I gasp as my body clenches again in anticipation of the crash that's coming. Kaius's other hand finds my hip and pushes harder, guiding me to grind against him harder, faster, at a punishing pace until I feel him tremble along with me as I come undone around him. His body tenses as he empties into me, pulsing with me as I continue clenching around him in little spasms until I collapse forward against his shoulder.

I move a little against him again, and he shudders, pulling me up and off him before setting me back down to the side. He collapses down on the floor, pulling me down with him. Between the sex and the heat of the fire, it's plenty warm now. I lay there, my head on his chest, and my mind swirls.

I don't think I can accurately say I've ever been fucked like that before. My ex may have had sex with me, but this was something entirely different. This is what the books were talking about when they described that feeling of chaotic energy between two people. Passion.

Shit, I have been missing out.

The reality of who he is doesn't go away. He's still a jerk most of the time. I'm not under any illusions that he's suddenly become my romance book hero. I feel sleep tugging at me at my ability to keep my eyes open and remind myself as I fall asleep that this can't be anything more. I can't let myself get in deeper with him.

I wake up with a shiver and look around, disoriented for a moment before I realize where I am. The cabin. Kaius. Reality comes crashing back into me. I pull his heavy arm off me and set it gently back down next to him as I push myself up from the floor.

The fire is out. I set a few more logs in the grate and start a new one with a soft sigh. I turn and reach for my clothes, pulling them on quickly in the soft light of the growing fire. The gray light coming through the windows tells me it's daytime, but it doesn't look like the storm has let up at all. I can't see anything out of the windows, they're completely blocked with ice.

I pad over to the front door and pull it open a little to look around at the massive mounds of fresh snow everywhere. I don't even see our footprints from the night before. They've been covered and blown over by the wind and snow.

The wind gusts in through the small crack of the door, nipping at my skin, swirling snow into the cabin and around my feet. I push the door closed against the frigid gust with a sigh. We're definitely not hiking out of here today. That's for sure.

Thoughts of Uncle Merl invade as I move around his cabin, the image of his body on the ground, flames licking at his clothes. I close my eyes and shake my head.

He has to be okay. This can't be happening. None of it.

Kaius snores deeply over on the floor, still naked as can be. I open an airtight tote that we keep more blankets in and look for what I hope will be a bigger one for him to use. I pull out a rather obnoxious set of frilly, floral sheets my mother had sent up here for the one small bed.

"Best he's going to get up here," I laugh as I grab another blanket and head back across the room to lay the blanket over him. I leave the floral sheet next to him on the floor before I turn and head toward the little camp kitchen to see what there might be to throw together.