Kiss of the Dragon by Nicola Claire Page B

Álfheimr . All excitement about my homecoming vanished and painfully my heart skipped a beat.
    I'd blocked it all out, in order to survive my captivity here. But now my fears for my loved ones came tumbling in.
    I had to get back and make sure everyone was OK. And if they weren't? I didn't even have an enemy to seek revenge on, not that that's my usual style. But Sofiq was already dead and now it seemed I had renewed my friendship with Aliath, so the Dökkálfa were all pretty much on our side. I had no way to vent my frustrations if any of my family were dead.
    But I had to know.
    I forced myself to smile back at Aliath and repeated his words back, "Until we meet again."
    He nodded and released me, in the process waving his hand as though clutching something in the air. It became obvious it was the filigree blanket which had coated me upon arrival in Álfheimr . Aliath pulled it away, releasing my Light. Should either of my Tego Texi Tectum not be near to nullify the blanket, at least now, I had full control on my own.
    Sergei immediately took hold of my hand and I felt his newly acquired Sanguis Vitam through the contact of skin on skin. My gaze flicked up to his. He must have seen my questions, my uncertainty of what waited for me back in Earth's realm. He smiled down at me reassuringly.
    "All will be fine, Mistress," he promised and squeezed my hand carefully, making sure not to crush any bones. I nodded, we both turned and bowed, hands fisted above our chests, to the King of Dökkálfa and then stepped backwards through a rip in space, a portal between our worlds.
    A crack of sound, a flash of light and the acrid smell of ozone...
    ...and then I was back in my world, in a home I didn't recognise, but staring into the eyes of the only man I had ever loved.
    "Michel," I whispered, and then found myself wrapped up in his beautiful, strong and safe arms.

Chapter 5
Saint-Geoire-en-Valldaine
    I had no idea where Sergei had gone to, he wasn't in the room with us. Michel and I were completely alone. Perhaps he had just ended up elsewhere when we stepped through that fairy portal back into Earth's realm. It had happened before, when Michel and I both left Álfheimr last time, he had ended up in Paris and I had ended up Rio de Janeiro. But I didn't have time to spare a thought on Sergei, Michel was determined to see to that.
    His face was nestled into the curve of my neck, he'd pulled the loose tendrils of my hair to the side to gain access to my skin, where he was preceding to kiss and lick and nuzzle his way across. His hands were freely roaming, one down to the dip in my back, his palm splayed flat against the rise of my rear, the other hand fisted into my swept up hair, entangled in the strands that he had started to pull down from where Sora had clipped them.
    His breath was hot, his body flush against mine was equally as hot and everything he was doing to me with his tongue and lips and teeth was way hot. The minute he had engulfed me in his arms I was lost, all thoughts of the state of my family gone from my mind and my entire focus on touching and tasting him. One of my hands had slid inside his white shirt, popping a button to gain enough access inside. His hard stomach and ripped abdomen were heaven to my fingertips and I greedily traced a pattern along the ridges down to his hips and then back up again. My other hand was clasped around the back of his head, in amongst the thick, long midnight dark strands of his glorious hair. I'd pulled it free of the tie at the back of his neck too, I'd never been able to resist his hair for long.
    " Ma douce, " he whispered against me, sounding as desperate as I felt, but his voice cleared a little of the fog he had created and made me acutely aware of where we were and more importantly who was not here with us.
    "Where are we?" I breathed against him and then moaned as his fingers found my nipple beneath the fabric of my dress. "Where is everyone? Are they OK?" I managed to get out