Could he risk it? Risk her life for the sake of his pleasure? What if she was targeted next by Offner or any of the remaining Loyalists?
No, huffed his beast.
He would never let that happen. She would be better off if he never touched her. Decision made, Kingston struggled to keep his beast under control. Resolved to never consummate their mating. To never even lay a hand on her enticingly sweet body.
His jaw clenched, he remained rigid. Unsmiling and unmoving. Well, until Holley attempted to walk in those ridiculous heels that Fergie had given her. He was fond of the redhead, but those things were lethal weapons.
The damn spindly contraptions got caught on something, perhaps the carpet that ran throughout the hallway. As she pitched forward, Kingston threw his resolve out the window. He could not allow her fragile, soft body to hit the hard, unrepentant floor. Not while he still drew breath.
With faster reflexes than ever before, Kingston covered ten feet of space in a nanosecond. He heard the surrounding gasps, registered that something unique was happening, but nothing mattered until she was safely in his arms.
“Cump, look down,” Storm whispered, pushing his mate behind him.
Kingston growled softly but did as asked. Good thing too, he mused. Orange and red glowing flames swirled around him, surrounding his entire body.
“I think he got blinky,” Fergie whispered.
“What?” he asked.
“Like Hudson. But instead of blinking, you kinda burned through space and time. I mean Kingston, you were there one second then the next you were over there and carrying Holley,” the redhead said unable or unwilling to hide the amazement in her voice.
Yes, his Dragon chuffed.
He had burned across the hall to catch his precious female. Once in his arms, those same glowing tendrils circled the two of them. For a moment, he wondered if the fire would hurt her, but it did not seem to, though the wall was taking a bit of a beating from the heat.
“It’s lovely,” she said and leaned her face closer to his, laying her head down on his shoulder.
His chest swelled with ride. She was simply beyond his experience with women. Unafraid of fire, perfect for a Dragon. How could he ever let her go?
Mine.
He felt her magic reach out to his. Touching, swirling, moving in and out of one another. It was intimate. It was incredible. And for a single breath of time, it combined, pulsing in time, before it stopped and faded away.
Holley’s impossibly pale green eyes met his for a moment before she wrapped her arms around his neck and crushed her small, firm breasts to his chest. He returned the embrace, holding her tight to him. His precious mate.
She felt so fucking good, wound around him like that. Far too good to let go. No, he would not even consider it again.
Fuck those shoes though, he thought and began to stride purposefully down the long corridor with the exit in mind. He knew the Keep had a way of playing with individuals who had no clear destination.
Kingston always had a goal in mind, and this was simple. Get Holley comfortable, and safe, footwear. Done and done.
What he was not prepared for was how beautiful she looked reacting to her first time outdoors in almost three hundred years. The Diamond Dragon inside of him stirred and puffed out a short flame to celebrate her joy.
Fuck yes, she was joyous. Glorious really. Spinning among the leaves, looking for all the world like the brightest, most precious quantity among the jewel-toned world that was New Jersey in Autumn.
Bathed in the warm sunlight and dancing barefoot among the fallen leaves, Holley Mount, the newly freed Witch, captured his tough Dragon’s heart without even trying. If he were being honest, she’d had control of the organ since the moment he’d entered the dungeon-like prison where she’d been hidden all this time.
No wonder he’d insisted on coming here, on gaining this assignment. Somehow, deep within, he’d known she was there. His Dragon had recognized the Keep as his home because of her. It all made sense now.
If only he were worthy of her.
Grrr. The beast inside of him hissed at his defeatist remark. The creature wanted to kick his own ass for all his doubt. He knew it was true, the Dragon would gladly pound out any uncertainty that he was man enough for the job of loving her with his own claws.
Fuck. Am I strong enough? He wondered for a brief moment, hating his vulnerability.
Only one way to find out, the Dragon growled.
Nine
Holley sat stiffly in the strange vehicle, chewing on her lower lip. She had seen cars on television, but she had never been inside of one. The seat was soft and comfortable, and there was some sort of magical inner heating device that warmed her bottom.
She didn’t think she would ever get enough of feeling warm, though nothing topped being inside her Dragon’s arms. Maybe it was too soon for that, but he had been hers since she saw him all those years ago when he’d entered the doors of the Keep.
So handsome and stern. Then Neela had stepped inside behind him and Holley’s heart had damn near been ripped out of her chest. Time had a way of being lost in the belly of the Keep, but she knew it had been many moons before she understood what they were to each other.
Mated, but not. Bound, but apart. Her heart ached for Kingston in those times. He had struggled to maintain balance, to keep the woman, Neela, safe and protected.
Shifters readily accepted matebonds as wonderful things, but what they did not perhaps recognize was that the magic that tied two souls was not without a price. Nothing was.
When Kingston had offered Neela his bite to honor his brother’s dying wish he had given a piece of his life’s force to the woman. That bond that kept her alive and stopped her from following her fated mate unto death had to feed from something. That something was him.
“What you did was an incredible sacrifice, Kingston, for Neela.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I know the pain it caused you, the toll it took on you physically and magically, and Neela knows it too. She honors you, Kingston,” Holley closed her eyes and allowed that knowledge in.
“How do you know that?” he muttered.
“I know a lot more than you think,” she clutched the armrest.
Cars were fast on television, in real life they moved incredibly so. Certainly far too quickly to be safe.
“Are you alright?” Kingston asked from his position behind the wheel of the Mercedes.
“Um, yes?”
It came out as a question, and she supposed it was. Her stomach was in nervous knots. Holley’s heart was pounding furiously inside her chest, and truthfully, she did not know if she was alright.
“Want me to slow down?”
“No! Please don’t.”
The man beside her focused on driving and she allowed him some space. After all, it was probably not easy for him to consider the situation they were in. Though her heart hurt because she wanted him to feel nothing but joy when he looked at her, she understood his melancholy.
Time, he needed time. As for her, there was much to explore and experience. Being back in the world was a gift she had no intention of wasting.
“Almost there,” he murmured.
Holley leaned on the leather covered door to stare at the scenery as it sped by as they drove in to the city. She made herself dizzy in the process. So many people, so many buildings. They were crowded and busy, and oh so splendid!