Alphas are sooo sweet, and then they are not.

Okay, post is back, but still unedited. Read at your own risk.
Working title: HUSH BABY SLEEP

Kelly smiled, it was a bit sad but there was humor as well. “Dragons don’t know everything?” she teased gently.

Cord moved closer. He had to. Her teasing, the humor drew him. “Explain it to me. Use small words.”

Her hands rested lightly on his chest, not pushing him away. “Artificial insemination. We were ready to start the next week. But then I couldn’t for a long time. Do I need to explain?”

“No,” his hands were on the wall on either side of her head. He was leaning down, his mouth a few inches from hers. “You waited ‘til you were done mourning? Are you still in love with him?”

“I will always love him,” she confessed softly. “He’s part of my daughter.”

Cord let the hushed purr of her words sink in. He waited for it, any minute that confession should back him up off her. It didn’t. He didn’t care. Not even a little bit. That was then. He was now. Well, he did care. He was glad he didn’t have to take her from a man. It would have been difficult for them both.

Shadows and reality were swirling, merging. Suspicion raked his predatory senses, this story had the smell of an old evil in this age. The rose petals overwhelmed even that stench. Everything was wrong with the way he was reacting. She was taking up to much of the present. He couldn’t back down. Getting what he needed was more than a compulsion.

Cord nudged forward just enough to brush his hard length into the cradle of her hips.

The hall was lit with a single nightlight. There were no windows and even if there were, it was just before dawn. The top of the stair well enclosed them in intimate darkness. He could feel Minuet sleeping undisturbed at the other end of the hall. Molly was doing something down in the kitchen that involved a lot of muttering.

Cord’s hands left the wall to press her palms into his flesh. He dragged her hands up his chest. Wrapping them around his neck as his body slowly crowded her, trapping her against the wall. His hands trailed down the undersides of her arms, coming to rest on the sides of her breasts, thumbs caressing in lazy sweeps.

Kelly didn’t stop him. Her large violet eyes were watching him but there was no fear, no rejection as he wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed his body to her from knees to chest. Nor was there any doubt of his response. His hips rocked into her abdomen and he watched her eyes. It was her mouth he should have been watching. Lush lips opened in a tiny gasp as she felt his full length.

That was his, the air she breathed and he had to have it. His mouth took hers and he couldn’t be slow any more. He’d given her every opportunity to object, to stop him. She’d accepted.

His lips on hers weren’t near enough. Firmly pushing into her mouth he was rewarded with her muscles relaxing as she opened for him. Her taste, her delicious, addictive taste exploded through his senses as he delved into her. She tentatively sucked his tongue and all hell broke loose. She triggered a chain of responses he’d never experienced before. Lust back drafted through him with white hot demand.

He ripped his hands off her, flattening them on the wall beside her body. The rush of sexual aggression left little besides the drive to complete his possession of her. He was dimly aware his reaction could manifest in talons to insure she did not evade him. A low growl rumbled around them as his weight shifted into her, pinning her beneath him. Muscles tensed in his neck as his mouth pressed down, trying to get more, taste more and there was nothing, nothing he wouldn’t do to have this woman.

It was her soft, wheezing moan as she struggled for air that shot through his response. With a stifled roar he wrenched himself off her, flinging his body to the opposite wall as he stared at her blankly.

Kelly was panting softly, her eyes wide as she watched him. Cord had no idea what his expression was but it couldn’t be good. There was a flicker of fear in her face, but then it was gone. Damn it, she should be afraid. He was freaking terrified of what had almost happened. Almost? No, it had happened and there was no going back. Why? Why hadn’t Marelda told him?

“I’m sorry,” he ground out softly.

“For kissing me?” Kelly whispered back.

“No, baby. For much more than that,” he ran a hand down his face and tried to make sense of the changes he’d just forced on both of them. The secret kept from him within his own body. Marelda and her cohorts were indeed brilliant. He’d known they were masters of nuance, their end plan lush with detail. This detail changed everything and he hadn’t known about it. Ignorance was his only excuse and that was a damn useless set of words. He had to explain it to her.

“You didn’t offend me,” she continued softly.

Cord managed a half smile. “I will, give me a minute.”