The (Not) Satisfied Dragon - Colette Rhodes Page 0,45
how I was feeling. All I knew with certainty was that I had to reassure both Ezra and myself that we were okay.
Only half confident that he wouldn’t push me away, I gripped his shirt and rose on my tiptoes. To my great relief, he bowed his head to meet me halfway, his hands coming to rest on my hips as our lips brushed. We both moved to deepen the kiss, our tongues intertwining, giving as good as we got.
With each of my mates, I could feel their magic under their skin when we were close. Kissing Ezra was like bathing in the elements — the heat of fire, the smoothness of water, the serenity of earth, the playful rush of air. All of it surrounded me, flooding my senses and drugging me with something that was potently Ezra.
How had he even considered leaving would make me happier? Irritation surged through me at his stupidity, and I nipped him hard on the lip. Ezra growled against my mouth, his grip on my hips tightening, pulling me even closer against him. I could feel his hardness pressing against my stomach, and the urge to wrap my legs around his waist and rub myself all over him was almost overwhelming.
“We should stop,” he said against my lips, sounding like he didn’t want to stop at all. “I don’t want you to do anything you regret.”
“I thought I got to make my own decisions these days,” I shot back, planting a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth. Ezra made a pained noise and I smiled against his skin. It was intoxicating, having this much power over him.
“Did you want to go ahead with the bonding now? It doesn’t have to be any more than that,” he added awkwardly, still holding me close.
“What do you mean?”
“Usually bonding the gold to the flight is when, er, the relationship is consummated. But there’s no rush to do that. We can do that whenever you’re ready.”
“Oh. Sort of like what I did with Seff yesterday?” I asked, pulling back so I could look at him.
“Um, yes. Similar to that. But…. more.”
Someone snorted from the other room, probably Hiram, and if I weren’t feeling just as awkward I’d be laughing at Ezra’s unusual display of nerves too. Ezra shot a glare back at the parlor where the others were gathered and I stepped out of his grip, grabbing his hand and leading him down the hallway.
The others had been hard at work in the parlor getting everything set up. The curtains were closed, and candles illuminated the space in little glass jars that dotted the spotless room. A fire was roaring in the grate, despite the hot weather.
Ezra guided me to the couch next to Levi while he and Seff moved around the room, pinching the wicks of the remaining unlit candles and leaving glowing flames in their wake.
“So, the blood thing. Can we go over it again?” I asked, twisting my hands nervously. Yesterday’s conversation was hazy in my mind.
“It's pretty straightforward,” Levi said, scooting closer to me on the couch so our legs pressed against each other and slipping his hand between my fidgeting ones. His confidence seemed to have grown since yesterday. I linked our fingers together, immediately feeling calmer. “We each partially shift one hand and slice our other palm with our talon.”
I winced, thinking of how sharp my talons were.
“Then we press our bloodied palms together, we'll release a bit of our elemental magic and you'll do your healing thing on our wound. After all five of us have bonded to you, you'll heal your own wound and then you'll be part of the flight and able to communicate with us.”
“Sound good?” Hiram asked, shooting me a mischievous grin. I wrinkled my nose a little.
“I'm not opposed to a little blood, but smearing our blood together is kind of gross,” I admitted.
“It's not as bad as it sounds,” Hiram laughed. “At least there's only one of you, it took ages when we all bonded to each other.”
It had never occurred to me that they’d actively bonded to each other. In my head, they'd always been a flight and had been born communicating silently with one another. I toyed absently with Levi's hand and noticed for the first time that there was a faint, raised scar in the center of his hand. The side effect of bonding without the gold there to heal them, I guessed.