27. Zara

Alcohol had nothing on whatever was in this Pyrothian air. It had been strange to be stuck inside my own mind, hearing Tarek and seeing Tarek, but not truly understanding either. Pleasure? That had gotten through loud and clear though. I would have given into anything to feel like that again.

Something had burst inside of me the moment I came. A strange heat spread through me as his cock had twitched alive. I swear to whoever this goddess was that he had been bigger than I remembered, and I had felt every single inch as he used me over and over again. I was here for it.

What was the other bit though? My mind cleared slowly, but I wasn't in some weird fog, and I could feel this strange new thing. Love? Maybe. But it almost seemed deeper. More. Like if he let go of me right now, I wouldn't survive without his touch. That wasn't right either. But it was soul deep. This weaving of energy within me. It flowed around me in a calm, enveloping blanket. My shoulder pulsed, not throbbed, pulsed.

"Zara, come back to me."

I loved the deep tenor of his voice when he said my name. I wanted to open my eyes and do as he said, but shit, I needed a second to let whatever this was settle. I could feel every ripple of the water over my skin. I could hear every drop of water as it fell from the waterfall, not in sheets but as little drops all working together as a family to create the serenity.

I could feel his still hard length inside me, filling me to my limit. Even just the slightest movement of his body sent another wave of pleasure through me. Fucking hell.

Slowly, as the moments passed with him laying against my shoulder, the haze keeping me from opening my eyes to him faded.

My fingers played with the hair at the nape of his neck as I opened my eyes.

How had I missed the colors in this cave? Actually, even if I hadn't been high as a kite, I wouldn't have seen anything but him. Now though? I could appreciate the beauty.

I could appreciate that I saw strands of colors that I'd never noticed before. Where I saw sparkles before, I now saw a prism.

The thread of something inside of me pulled in an ache that was not my own. A strange feeling that wasn't mine. I gasped. That wasn't mine.

The movement seemed to have alerted Tarek I was awake or alive or something because he shifted to look at me, but it was the dragon who looked at me. Not Tarek.

I smiled because I knew he was mine, but I wanted the other side of him too. I don't know what or why, but I stroked down the center of his nose.

"Can you let Tarek back out now?"

Tarek's lips quirked up in the corner as he leaned into me and kissed me. The kiss was primal and raw. The way he kissed me without abandon had me wet and wanting, even as his already hard cock pressed into me against the soreness there. God, I needed more of him.

I remembered the pleasure from moments ago, but it hadn't been me, not really. I wanted to know what it was to be taken like this without the strange haze.

"Yes, Tarek. Please. I want you."

I wanted him to own every part of me at this moment. I couldn't stop the shiver that ran up my spine at the feel of his lips over my nipple and the way his teeth nipped at the taut peak.

His arm held my waist tight to him as he thrust inside of me, my body alive and his for the taking. His mouth released my nipple as he kissed his way over my shoulder. The sensations there seemed to have a line straight to my pussy as my entire body clenched around his hard length as he fucked me. The rumble of a chuckle should have sent me into a fit of rage against this smug action, but I was already too far gone to give a shit. Instead, that deep vibration sent me over the edge on his next thrust.

"Mine," he said against my ear as he pressed me against the wall, his arm still holding me, bracing me against him. He thrust inside me over and over again.

This was everything, it was too much, and yet I craved more.

My breath stuttered as I tried to breathe against the way he gave me every thick inch of him, hitting me deep and pushing me over the edge I was teetering on as he claimed me.

"Goddess yes. Yours."

Something broke free from him as I said those words. When his eyes captured mine, it was just the human green that stared back at me. I watched him as I rocked my hips with the rhythm that he'd set. I never looked away as I used him to chase my next release. I kept his pace as I moaned and struggled to keep my eyes open to watch him as I came on his cock again. I wasn't sure how much more my body could take. It was all too much pleasure, but something inside of me broke. The sadness turning to a need that wasn't mine.

"You are mine, Zara. Forever."

The words filled my soul, mending whatever might have been torn, tattered, and destroyed. I held onto him, trying to memorize every ridge and every pulse of him.

I wanted to remember the way he made me his.

Tarek had pulled us on the bank at some point after he had taken me a third time. The water lapped at my ankles and over my calves.

"Zara, do you remember saying something to me?"

I chewed on my lower lip.

"I said a great many things to you. I said I was yours. I like that one. I said that?—"

I bolted upright. Shit. Shit. Shit. I clawed at my skin like that was going to tell me where the damn tracker was.

"I have a tracker. There's a tracker in me. It's how they found me."

Tarek seemed much less panicked than I was, and I really wish that was something he could make me feel right now.

"Calm yourself, Zara. I believe I have found it. The problem is I do not like the idea of causing you pain."

I looked over my shoulder, turning this way and that.

"Where is it? Just get it out. Please. Get it out."

His hands slid over my shoulders, down to my biceps.

"Stop moving. If you want it removed, I will do so. These waters, they are healing. I am afraid this wound will be quite deep. However, this is the best place for you."

I clenched my teeth.

"I don't fucking care if I bleed out right now. As long as I can die on my own without someone else trying to steal me, drug me, or catapult me, I just don't care."

I knew those words were all mistakes the second they left my mouth because that shadow was back behind his eyes.

"Tarek, just get it out. Please. And then we need to talk."

The serenity of the moment was gone. It was back to real life, and that meant not only dealing with this tracker, but dealing with what all had happened.

He reached around me and helped me turn.

His fingers traced over my skin, along the back of my neck, stopping over a spot I'd never noticed. Even the tracing of his fingers there felt different from the area around it.

"This will hurt," he said as a sharp blade cut into me. I screamed out and then tried to muffle it with my hands.

The searing burn of the cut was what sent me into a sweat. Seconds passed although it seemed like hours while I waited and tried to keep from passing out.

Tarek's arms were around me as he walked me back into the waters. He submerged me to my neck, and the tingles that I had little rational memory of covered me once more.

Slowly, the nausea vanished.

"Is it gone?"

Tarek held up something blue with odd writings on it. It was larger than I would have thought.

"That was in me?"

He nodded.

"That is what allowed them to find me? How do I get rid of it?"

Tarek turned his head to the side as he held it out away from me and I watched as it started to melt in his hand. A moment later, he blew a flame into his palm.

"There is very little that can withstand dragon flame," he said, turning back to me and handing me a thin, molten pile.

I'd expected to burn myself, but instead it simply steamed away the water in my palm.

"Very little, except you. You are my mate. You will never be burned."