Denying the Alpha Read online

  Then it burst.

  The shock of sensation had her screaming into his chest as another orgasm ripped through her. But Aldric was on the move. He licked a path of fire down from the valley between her breasts, over her stomach, stopping briefly to dip his tongue into the little hollow there before sliding lower.

  Cammi’s breath caught when he flicked the tip of his tongue over her folds. She arched against him when he sucked the sensitive little bundle of nerves between his lips. But when he zapped her clit with a tiny bolt of electricity, she screamed her delight and surprise at the sensation. The charge rippled through her body and down her limbs.

  She lay dazed under him for a long while, marveling at the sensations and the connection she already felt with Aldric. When he slid back to her side, Cammi couldn’t help staring into his face in wonder. It was so easy to see how anyone could get addicted to the feeling. Especially when she had a wicked storm dragon toying with her.

  Aldric’s smile was wolfish. “Think you can take more?”

  “Think you can give me more?” Cammi raked her nails down the hard muscles of his chest. Then his abs…

  Biting his lip, Aldric hissed when she ran the tip of her finger along the length of his cock. “Most definitely.”

  She did it again just to watch the tremors ripple through him. The sense of power it gave her was heady. That she could make a dragon tremble at her fingertips was incredible.

  Cammi met his gaze, then lowered it just as quickly, suddenly shy despite what they’d already done.

  “What is it?” He tipped her chin up so she met his gaze.

  “I want to … I don’t know how…” Cammi cleared her throat. “I want to please you.”

  Aldric gave her a gentle kiss. “You are pleasing me.”

  Feeling ridiculous, and knowing heat burned her cheeks, Cammi forced herself to continue. “I want to make you feel the same way you make me feel. But I don’t have any powers … or anything.”

  “You have plenty of magic, my little thief.” He curled her hand around his erection and couldn’t help the groan that escaped him. “This is the power you have over me.”

  His cock, so hot and hard in her hand, fascinated her. He was thick. Her fingers couldn’t meet with him gripped in her hand. Steely and silky, Cammi found she liked the texture of him. Another deep groan came from deep inside Aldric when she tentatively caressed him, and it was the sexiest thing she’d ever heard.

  She did it again to see if she would get the same response. This time she got a growl as tension tightened his body.

  Cammi continued her to pump him in her hand as she explored the length of him. She marveled at the beauty of his body. How amazing he felt. How he responded to every little movement and squeeze.

  That was, until he pulled her hand away.

  His chest was heaving and his eyes were tightly shut. She ran her hand over his chest and found his heart pounding against his ribs. “Did I do something wrong?”

  Aldric opened his eyes to level his burning blue gaze at her. “Absolutely not. But if you don’t want things to end too soon, you have to stop.”

  That put a smile on her face.

  He rolled her under him. When she parted her thighs to cradle him between them, he nuzzled her neck with a chuckle.

  The feel of Aldric so big and solid against her was amazing. The differences between them in size and strength was sure to be a continual font of delight for Cammi. Aldric seemed to enjoy having her against him as well. His clever hands found every spot on her body that made her tremble with pleasure or ache with desire.

  His kisses caused her head to spin and only added to the maelstrom of sensation that threatened to devour her. The sensation of his cock, hard and grinding against her, made her crave in a way she’d never imagined. And the fact that touching him was like being in contact with a live wire gripped her senses like a drug. When she was sure she was going to go mad, Cammi forced her eyes open to look at him.

  Aldric.

  Her mate.

  There was no doubt in her mind that she’d found him and that this was what she wanted. He was whom she wanted.

  Aldric was the part of her that had been missing.

  Dragging him down for another soul-searing kiss, she hoped he understood what she felt. What she was trying to convey with the kiss.

  He drew back a little to look into her eyes. She could see in the startlingly blue depths he felt it too and this moment was just as profound for him.

  In the end, no words were needed.

  Aldric dropped his head to crash his mouth into hers once more. Cammi arched up under him, needing to feel him against every inch of her. His hair-roughened skin abraded hers in a way that set off sparks of fire everywhere it touched. Writhing against him wasn’t getting her enough sensation.

  Cammi needed more.

  Sensing her desire, or perhaps no longer able to leash his dragon, Aldric raised himself just enough to get his hand between them and notched the broad head of his cock between her wet folds.

  His eyes searched hers when she went still. This was it. The last chance to back out.

  Cammi clawed his shoulders as she pushed her hips upward, slowly impaling herself on his thick erection. She felt the tremor that rocked him as surely as if it had been her own body. Then again, perhaps it had been a combination of them being ravaged by sensation.

  Aldric gripped her hips and slowly pushed the length of him inside her. What little resistance he met disappeared with a pinch of pain.

  Then he was deep inside her.

  She stared up at him in wonder. Feeling so full of him. Of emotion. It was incredible.

  His eyes were dark as he watched her. Even now, he was concerned for her well-being. She’d never felt better but had the gut feeling he could improve on that exponentially.

  Biting her lip, she shifted her hips and was rewarded with a shock of sensation and a groan from him. Cammi rocked against him again, and this time Aldric helped her untutored movements until they established a relentlessly deep, grinding rhythm.

  Cammi dropped her head back, closed her eyes, and she savored everything he did to her. Every sensation. Stretched around his cock, she met his thrusts, loving the groans rising from his throat and that buzz of pleasure that grew with every plunge he made inside her.

  He seemed aware of the building tension in her and his thrusts became more determined. “Come with me, Cammi…”

  Tingling had already started in her fingers and toes, rolling up her limbs. All the energy seemed to converge behind her belly button and, for an age, it pooled there.

  And then exploded.

  Screaming, she clung to him as he slammed into her. He held himself deep. The pulsing heat inside her as he came was accompanied by a burst of electricity from him that shot through her.

  The bursts of pleasure eventually faded, leaving Cammi dazed and the most relaxed she’d ever been. At the same time, she felt him. Not just inside and against her, but in the back of her mind.

  He lifted his weary gaze to meet her stunned one. “I feel it too.”

  “I guess it worked. We’re bonded.” She said it with a sense of wonder.

  Aldric gently grazed her skin with his hands. “If you wanted further proof.”

  Cammi followed his gaze and found her arms lined with the most delicate pattern. Silvery blue, it looked as if her arms had been painted with light. She knew it was the path his power had taken and had marked her as his. Her chest was the same, and she was willing to wager her back and legs were decorated as well. The marking looked to have originated from a bright point over her heart and flowed from there.

  “My tattoos…” The loss of them was in no way comparable to the delicate markings now on her skin. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Only made more beautiful by the woman it is on.” Aldric kissed her shoulder. “How do you feel?”

  “Wonderful.” It was as if his power now flowed through her veins as well. Cammi smiled at him but gasp
ed when she met his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She gripped his face so she could get a closer look. “One of your eyes has turned silver.”

  Aldric smiled as if the news pleased him supremely.

  “Why do you look so smug?”

  “It’s proof I belong to you.” He kissed away the moue of confusion from her lips. “You’ve marked me as I’ve marked you.” Aldric’s fingers traced the pattern along her collarbone. “Didn’t you know?”

  She stared into his eyes for a while longer. “I did … sort of. I wasn’t sure if I’d mark you. I thought you had to have some sort of power to do that.”

  Aldric tipped them to their sides, keeping them locked together. “Didn’t I tell you you had power?”

  Smiling, she pressed her face against his chest. “I guess I do.”

  “Never doubt me.”

  Cammi couldn’t help but laugh at the return of his haughty attitude. “Never?”

  He shook his head. “Just as you should never doubt I will do everything I can to give you whatever you want. Your old life is over.”

  Not having thought that far, Cammi’s eyes widened. No more scraping by or risking her life? The first part sounded wonderful … the second…

  “No more thieving.” His voice was implacable.

  “But—”

  “Cammi. I don’t want you risking your life foolishly. What could you possibly need that I can’t provide?”

  He was right about that, except there was one thing she wanted to do. Needed to do.

  “But I owe you a debt.” She gave Aldric a wicked smile as she wriggled against him. “I have to rebuild your collection…”

  Aldric’s laughter turned into a groan but didn’t argue when Cammi dragged him in for a kiss.

  “Perhaps I can be persuaded,” he muttered against her lips as her hands started to roam.

  Cammi proceeded to persuade him very well.

  The End

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  THE LIBRARIAN AND HER DRAGON

  Doris O’Connor

  Chapter One

  Annie

  The peace of the library was shattered by the roar of motorbikes. Their vibrations rattled my cup of peppermint tea on its dainty saucer, and I frowned at the disturbance. As if it wasn’t bad enough this particular motorcycle club had decided to pay our sleepy village a visit, they had to come and disturb my peace at my place of work too.

  Not a day went by that someone didn’t come in with a story to tell about the leather-clad hunks who rode through the streets as though they owned the town. Not that they’d done any actual damage, but their reputation preceded them. As a relative newbie—I’d only been in residence for a few years—I’d never witnessed the destruction they apparently left in their wake before I’d arrived, but this was getting old, fast.

  The doors flung open and the whole lot sauntered in. The leader lifted his helmet off his head as he approached, and I swallowed hard.

  Talk about a slab of prime male meat. He had to be well over six and a half feet of tightly-packed muscle and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the way his biceps bulged as he put his helmet down and straightened back up again slowly. A well-trimmed beard covered a strong jaw, which led to a corded neck and broad shoulders that strained the leather encasing them. Slim hips, powerful thighs, and an impressive bulge completed the look. Definitely easy on the eyes, if you went for that sort of brute strength. I preferred the intelligent, geeky type myself. Still, in the interests of honesty, I had to confess a woman could drown in the warmth of his brown eyes. They drew together in a frown as he noticed me. I briefly wondered what he saw as he devoured me with his gaze. I sure didn’t warrant that much male attention, usually. Not that I thought I was hideous. I scrubbed up pretty well when I wanted to, and I was comfortable in all my wobbly bits, but I was at work and the way this guy was checking me out just wasn’t on.

  “Can I help you?” I adopted my most professional voice and fixed a polite smile on my face as he came closer. Jeez, he really was tall. I craned my neck to stare up at him. He didn’t answer me, like any normal person would have done. Oh no, the mountain of a man loomed over my desk and sniffed the air. Sniffed. How dare he? It was hot in here with the ancient air conditioning on the blink, for sure, but I didn’t smell.

  A rumble rose from his massive chest, and when his dark gaze finally reached my eyes, I could have sworn flames danced in their depths.

  Maybe the heatwave we were experiencing had fried my brain or something.

  “You’re new.” His deep voice washed over me, made my hackles rise, because he was still undressing me with his eyes.

  “You’re rude!”

  A muscle twitched in his neck, and the whole library went quiet. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop, and my overdramatic co-worker’s loud gasp rang in my ears. Barbara rolled her chair closer to whisper in my ear. Not sure why she bothered. Her whispers were akin to other folks’ normal tone of voice.

  “You can’t speak to him like that. Goodness only knows what his gang will do now.”

  I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Really, it was pathetic the way everyone feared these Dragoons. What sort of name was that, anyway?

  Too late I realized I said the thought out loud, and I squirmed under the stranger’s heated gaze. Jesus—intense much? And there went his eyes again, definite flames, and it might be my imagination, but the heat just went up several degrees.

  If I was given to flights of fancy and I was one of the heroines I liked to read about in my stash of paranormal erotic romances on my Kindle, I’d have said he was a shifter who’d found his mate. His nostrils flared, and he leaned right into my personal space.

  Now, I was sure I was supposed to swoon here and go all mellow and spout nonsense like, “Take me, I’m yours,” but this was real life, not fantasy.

  My knickers might be soaked through, because, let’s face it, the guy was hot, but that sure didn’t mean I was going to make it easy for him.

  No, siree, not this librarian.

  “Have I got something on my face that needs closer inspection, or have you simply forgotten your glasses at home, Mr…?” I raised my voice, waiting for him to reply, but he continued to stare at me as though I was some sort of fascinating microbe under a microscope. Barbara made a strange noise as though she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs, and I picked up a sheet of paper and fanned the woman, lest she pass out on me.

  Our local paramedics were overworked as it was in the middle of tourist season, and they did not need to attend to a call out because she succumbed to hysterics again.

  What would I say in the report, anyway? Woman passed out due to hot, brooding guy at desk? When he still didn’t say anything, I did roll my eyes, which earned me a raised eyebrow. Oh, he was one of those.

  “And for your information, I’ve been holding this position for the last three years, so I’m hardly new. Now, unless you have a book to return or wish to borrow one, please move aside so that I can deal with an actual customer. You’re holding up the line.”

  Not that there was one. The members of the women’s reading club who had been holding their weekly meeting here were all squashed in the opposite corner, clutching their books to their bosoms like the proverbial pearls.

  Maybe we would need that ambulance after all. Mrs. Peacock looked almost as scandalized as when the stalwarts of our community had found out that I was stocking that book.

  Mr. Grey might do nothing for me, but who was I to stop women from wanting to read him? I had far hotter and more accurate stuff on my Kindle, for sure.

  I jumped when the brooding hulk dropped a leather-bound copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace on the desk in front of me.

  “I came to return this.”

  A cloud of dust rose off the desk, and I swallowed the resulting cough tickling the back of my throat. Once I could see again, my mouth fell open because this book looked ancient. I’d have k
nown if we had something this old in our collection. My heart started to beat faster. How I wish we did have this in our tiny library.

  “Oh, I say.”

  I ignored Barbara’s stage whisper and traced my fingers over the leather-bound exterior. Every fiber in my being urged me to open up this treasure and to immerse myself in what had to be first edition. How on earth had a leather-clad biker got hold of this?

  “There has to be some mistake, Mr…?” I raised my eyes and promptly wished I hadn’t, because the far too alluring stranger was still too close. So close that the heat emanating from his big body scorched my skin and I took an involuntarily inhale. I couldn’t help it. He smelled just so damn good.

  Smoky, like a good, old-fashioned bonfire—not the vile, cigarette kind of smell—mixed in with a hint of sweat and a dark musky scent, which wasn’t any cologne I recognized. One that got me all hot and bothered though, and that made me angry.

  At myself and this hunk, who still hadn’t told me his name and dared to waltz in here, tempting me with books and … damn it.

  “Gideon.” His voice dropped lower, taking my stomach with it, and I struggled to get my brain to work as lust short-circuited my synapses. Sweet Jesus, I wanted to climb this man hunk like a tree and never let go.

  What the ever-loving high kinks is happening here?

  “What?” I grimaced at the most unlike-me squeak I managed to produce and cleared my throat to try again. Before I could, however, the brooding hulk smiled. I was struck by how white and even his teeth were before I lost myself in that sinful curve of his lips, and the surprising dimple which showed in one cheek.

  “You asked me for my name, Annie.”

  I jerked in surprise that he knew mine. Before I could make a complete fool out of myself and ask him how he knew, I remembered my ID badge dangling on its lanyard over the girls, which once again seemed to snare his attention.

  So flipping typical.