Last Immortal Dragon (Gray Back Bears #6)(30)

“Maybe for others. Our love story is different, though. For me, it started eons ago when I forged a connection with your ancestors. Feyadine wasn’t meant for me. She was only meant to be the beginning of my journey to you. It doesn’t feel fast to me.”

Cheeks flushing, she pulled Damon in close and rested her chin on his shoulder. The water lapped at her in a relaxing rhythm. “I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.”

“Haven’t you though? Through your visions?”

He was right. A piece of her had always known him. Had always yearned for him. “You sure were easy to fall in love with, Dangerous Damon.”

The corner of his mouth lifted against her cheek, and he angled his head just enough to rest his lips on hers and take a languid, gentle sip. “So were you, Dangerous Clara.”

“Can I see him?”

“You want to see the monster inside of me?”

She angled her head and nodded. “Don’t you know that’s what love is? It’s seeing the monster inside and staying anyway.”

He shook his head and stared at her as if he couldn’t believe she was in his arms right now. As if he couldn’t understand how they’d gotten here. As if he was the lucky one. Silly dragon.

With a slow, clicking rumble, he steadied her on the rocky bottom and backed closer to the waterfall. His eyes blazed silver, and he hunched into himself an instant before his skin ripped open and the enormous dragon inside of him was freed. He towered over her like a building and arched his long neck high. The waterfall pounded against the sharp spikes down his back, and streams of water trailed down his scales. His head was as wide as a barn, and when he blinked, two separate eyelids closed over his eyes from the side. The snarl in his chest sounded throatier and louder now, and he moved with snake-like grace. Two long, curved spikes unfurled from the base of his head backward and were accented by smaller ones that grew in lines down his cheekbones. His armor-like scales boasted the tarnish of burns and slash marks of old battle scars, but the old injuries didn’t hinder his movement as he stepped carefully through the water, arching around her, as if, even now, in the safety of the secret waterfall, he had the instinct to protect her.

He was lethal and terrifying and beautiful.

Stepping carefully over the jagged rocks beneath her bare feet, she held her palms out and made a relieved sound in her throat when her hands connected with his body. She’d expected him to be cold, but he was just as warm as he was in his human skin.

Slowly, she spread her arms out like wings and pressed her body against his. Damon’s stomach rose and fell under her with his steady breath, and the slow vibration of his constant rumbling rattled her body. When he lowered his massive head, his churning silver eyes with those long, contracting pupils beheld her with something akin to pleasure.

She squeezed her eyes tightly closed and grinned as her chest filled with overwhelming joy. She’d seen him when he was blowing fire and angry, and she’d seen him like this—a gentle giant that could be so careful with her in the lapping waters of the falls.

When she opened her eyes again, the sunlight was reflecting beautifully off of his iridescent scales.

She was in this.

Clara was staying because she’d seen Damon for what he truly was.

She was staying because he was so easy to love.

With a slow smile, she whispered, “I see no monster.”





Chapter Eleven




Damon traced the Blackwing crest on Clara’s shoulder blade as softly as he was able with his fingertip.

His Clara was fast asleep in his lair. God, he’d never seen anything more beautiful. Wild, red hair curled in waves over the pillow under her cheek. Her full lips were swollen from his kisses. Her skin flushed from the heat he radiated. Her freckles stark against her fair skin, creating constellations more beautiful than the night sky. Those delicately arched ruddy eyebrows that told him every emotion she experienced.

His stunning mate didn’t know it yet, but she’d wrecked him for eternity.

The first time he’d brought her into his bedroom, he’d been so scared she would find it cold, just like him, but she hadn’t. She’d accepted it, just as she’d accepted him in ways that had slashed him open so wide, he would never be able to completely tuck away his emotions again.

What had she done to him, this siren? She’d bewitched him completely. She’d dispelled his fears long enough to curl into his softened heart and beg him to keep her safe and warm there, and now for the rest of her life, he would love her without abandon. It was too late for anything else. Too late to hide from her or keep his walls up. Clara had laughed at the barriers he’d erected around himself and destroyed them with a single kiss.

Some mighty dragon he was, instantly falling to pieces for the fair maiden.

Clara smiled in her sleep as he ran his finger down the ridges of her spine to the swell of her hip. He’d been with many, but none had touched what he’d just experienced with Clara. She’d been so open with him, so vulnerable, when he’d made love to her. He knew what she was. Deep down inside where she tucked the fiery grizzly that wasn’t afraid of anything, she was a warrior. But with him, she let her guard down. She invited him to see the pieces of herself she’d hidden away to protect herself from the world. Against all reason, she trusted him. He could see it in her eyes when she’d slowed their rhythm, intertwined his fingers with hers and lifted her chin to look into his eyes as they moved toward release together.