The Dragon's Lost Letters Read online

  The sensation of being filled by a man she knew was fated to be hers left her lightheaded, and that was even before he started to roll his hips against her, his motions shallow at first and growing deeper with every thrust. Her hands landed on his shoulders, her fingers digging hard into the powerful muscles there. She needed him with every fiber of her being, and instinctively, she could tell that he wanted her the same way. If he was slow, it was only because he wanted to take his time. If he was restrained, it was only because she was precious to him

  Norah gave herself up to the rising and falling motions of their bodies together. Her legs came up to wrap around his waist, dragging him even closer to her, and she whimpered with need as he dropped his head down to mouth at the base of her throat, sending deeper shivers of pleasure through her.

  “Oh I want you, I want you,” she moaned, barely aware of what she was saying.

  “I'm yours.”

  Even as the pleasure in her soared ever higher to its peak, she could feel his control slipping by inches. His body shook, and his low heartfelt groan made her shudder.

  “Let go,” she whispered. “Let go, I'm right here. I've got you. I belong to you.”

  His control snapped, and his hands came down to cradle her wide hips. At first she thought that he only meant to brace against the table, but then he was lifting her up to meet his thrusts, moving her as if she weighed nothing.

  God, how strong is he? Norah thought with delight, and then her own pleasure took utter control.

  There was no more holding back, no more resisting it. It was only pulses of pleasure that tore through her, that she was somehow convinced that he felt exactly as she did, and all they could do was hang on to each other. The bolts of desire left her shaking in their wake, but the important part was that she wasn't alone with it.

  Instead they had each other as the pleasure threatened to tear them apart, and then as Val shifted and the angle changed, there was no choice for Norah at all. She couldn't stop the final bonfire of pleasure and need from bursting through her, and it was so intense that she clawed at Val, aware in some distant way of her nails shredding his shirt.

  Nothing mattered in all the world except what her true mate, was making her feel, and she cried out with it, her voice echoing through the room.

  Norah collapsed boneless back on the table, still supported in Val's arms. She gasped as he pushed into her one last time, climaxing with a vicious growl that rung something deep and primitive within her.

  He was claiming her, and at the same time, he was being claimed as well. This was the man she was fated to meet. He was her mate, and now she knew it body and mind and soul.

  When he tenderly lay her back on the table, he stayed bent over her, his nose mere inches from hers. Up close, she could see the faintest flecks of gold in his dark brown eyes, the way his canine teeth seemed longer than those of an average human.

  “Mine,” he breathed with pleasure.

  “Mine,” she agreed, and she started to laugh.

  ***

  They eventually did make it to the restaurant, but only for takeout because Norah thought it was far too obvious what they had been doing. Instead, Val bought them about fifty dollars' worth of excellent Italian food, and they sat down to eat it on her couch, ravenous, exhausted, and still almost vibrating with excitement.

  Before they could dig in, however, Norah's phone chimed, and seeing that it was Sayeed, she immediately picked up.

  “So I see you listened to me as well as you ever do,” he said without a greeting, and Norah grinned.

  “Did you find out who it was?”

  “Some history professor,” Sayeed replied with disgust. “I sent the cops around to his place, and yeah, he's been at this for a while. Tons of books there, some wrapped up for sale. They're booking him right now, and I thought you should know so you didn't go running out to make a citizen's arrest.”

  “I wasn't going to do that,” Norah said, ignoring Val's elegantly raised eyebrow. “But wait, did he say anything about, um, me getting the picture or anything like that?”

  “He's admitted that he tried to get your camera away from you in the parking lot, and if you want to press charges you probably can. I told you not to play hero, Norah.”

  “But that's it?”

  “Yes, unless there's anything else you think I should know?”

  “No, no, that's it,” she said hurriedly. “Let me know if there's anything else I can do, all right?”

  “You've done more than enough,” came the aggrieved response, and Norah laughed.

  “Well,” she said, ending the call. “Sounds like we're in the clear. I don't have to rescue you from the circus.”

  “The circus would feed me in a timely fashion,” Val said reproachfully.

  “Oh! Oh, God, you didn't have to wait for me. Yes, let's eat.”

  Between bites, Val told her about the history of his kind, of the dragon that lived inside him and of the long life that now she would share. When their hands touched reaching for the gnocchi, Norah blushed and then felt incredibly silly until she realized that Val was blushing too.

  “We're ridiculous,” she sighed. “Is it always going to be like this?”

  “It'll soften. Eventually I'll have to do something besides look at you and think about how best to get my hands on you. I can't imagine that right now, but it has to happen some time. Mated pairs don''t actually just live in bed gazing into each other's eyes.”

  “This is real, then,” Norah mused. “You're a dragon, I'm your mate. This is love.”

  “It was from the moment I saw you,” he said quietly, and her heart beat hard in her chest.

  “That's the right word, isn't it? Love?”

  He set down his plate and took her hands in his. It occurred to her how handsome his hands were, lean and scarred and dark.

  “I'm not afraid to say that I love you. It may be biology or magic or luck or a miracle, but I love you. If you need some time to say it back – “

  “I love you,” she said, and he drew his breath sharply.

  “Norah.”

  “It's what I feel. It's what I know. A little silly to put it off in that case, isn't it?”

  “Spoken like a sensible woman. It's settled then. We belong to each other and with one another, and what's mine is yours, until my last breath leaves me.”

  If she thought too hard about his words, she would be swept away. She would break down into torrents of tears, or maybe she would simply drown underneath the power of what he meant.

  Instead, Norah grinned, squeezing his hands in turn.

  “And since we belong to each other, of course we must tell each other the truth.”

  “We must,” Val said, a cautious note entering his voice.

  “Right. So in light of that, love of mine, what kind of letters did you send to The Millbrook? That was you, wasn't it?”

  Val groaned, taking his hands back so he could cover his face.

  “You really want to know?”

  “I do.”

  Shaking his head, Val drew the packet of letters from his jacket and handed them to her.

  “I suppose you might as well get a head start on laughing at me for the rest of our lives.”

  The envelope crinkled under her fingers as she drew out the first letter. The slanting words were practically carved into the paper, and Norah took a moment to accustom herself to the spiky handwriting before she started to read.

  “Well,” she said after finishing two letters, “you certainly had some opinions about The Millbrook's bad reviews. I take it you thought it was being unfair to the The Chalice and the Wyrm?”

  “They were being more than unfair,” Val said hotly. “Honestly, if you read the reviews, you would have seen that they probably never even read the thing.”

  “And you very much liked that … what was it, a serialized novel?”

  “Yes. It was published every week in The Annulet.”

  Something about Val's sulky w
ords made Norah take a second look at him, and she covered her mouth with her hands.

  “Val … did you write The Chalice and the Wyrm? Did you call the editor of The Millbrook a simpering fool who would not know decent writing if it crawled up his-”

  “Yes! Yes, it's me, all right? It's all me. I wrote Chalice, and I was very proud of it, and I guess I sort of lost my temper.”

  “You lost your temper seven times over two weeks, I see,” Norah said, skimming the rest of the letters. “Did you really challenge the editor to a duel?”

  “I did. He declined because I sounded like a raving lunatic.”

  He sounded so miserable that Norah draped her arm over his shoulders, hugging him close and trying to hide her smile.

  “You didn't sound like a raving lunatic,” she lied. “But why did you want the letters back? They were just sitting in the collection, and as much as I love this archive, it's very likely that no one would have come looking.”

  Val made a face.

  “I'm supposed to be the smart, calm one in my family,” he complained. “I'm the oldest in my generation. I have to set an example. If word got out that I, ah ...”

  “Called the editor of The Millbrook a whey-faced poltroon not fit to shine the shoes of the Devil in Hell?”

  “Yes, thank you. That I had behaved like such an idiot, I would never hear the end of it. Honestly, Norah, I swear to you, my family is wonderful, but they will not let a thing die a gracious death.”

  “I've got four sisters, I know all about that,” Norah said philosophically, kissing him on the temple.

  “You do?”

  “Yes. And we should arrange a get-together. If you're my fated mate, you have to meet my family, and it really sounds that I have to meet yours. But first things first.”

  “You let me take you to bed, and I get to forget about The Millbrook for a few hours?”

  Norah grinned.

  “No. You tell me where to find a copy of The Chalice and the Wyrm immediately. I need a copy for the archive.”

  Epilogue

  ∞∞∞

  Four Months Later

  The desert sky opened over them like the pale blue pages of some enormous book, and Val looked up as if he could read the future there. Of course he couldn't. He was a dragon, not a fortuneteller. Anyway, his future was standing behind a steep rise, practically dancing in her excitement, and with a grin, he trotted back to her.

  “Hey, ear protection,” he said, and obediently, she inserted the ear plugs he had given her earlier. Val put in his own and then nodded.

  “All right, are you ready?”

  “Yes,” Norah said immediately. “Yes, absolutely. Born ready. Ready yesterday.”

  “All right, here you go.”

  The remote detonator was large in her plump hands, and Val shook his head.

  “You know that the whole point of this exercise is to get to the vein of rubies in the earth, right?” he asked. “The explosives are just a means to an end.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Norah said. “Can I now?”

  Val signed and nodded, and Norah actually giggled as she unlocked the switch and flipped it.

  Immediately a low, resonant boom shook the ground, sending bedrock up in a controlled birst of grit and gravel. The air filled with the sharp hot scent of cordite, and even through the ear plugs, Val could hear a dim echo of the blast. Norah was laughing so hard she would have gone right down on her rear if Val hadn't steadied her.

  “Oh that was fantastic,” she said. “That was amazing. It was exactly what I wanted it to be, and I want to do it again.”

  Val could never deny her anything, and he started to say so, but then her eyes focused on him.

  “I want you,” she said with that bright intensity. “Can I have you, Val?”

  With a groan, he pulled her back to the truck, kissing her as he went.

  “Whatever you want, darling,” he promised her fervently. “Anything, everything, any time and any place.”

  Norah's laugh was as brilliant as rubies, as wide as the desert sky.

  “You,” she said. “Always you.”

  A Note From Zoe Chant

  Thank you so much for reading The Dragon's Lost Letters! I hope you enjoyed getting to know Norah and Val as they fended off book thieves and lending permissions on their way to true love!

  If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, or join my VIP Readers Group on Facebook!

  Please consider reviewing this book, even if you only write a line or two. Hearing from readers like you is what keeps me writing!

  Also by Zoe Chant

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  See Zoe Chant’s complete list of books here!