Dazed, I dropped the keys into her waiting palm. She was quick to take my hand, pull me toward the door, and unlock it. When Quinn faced me again, she didn’t give me time to read her expression before she bent down and scooped me up in herarms bridal-style without warning, like I weighed nothing at all. I yelped, my arms instinctively locking around her neck.
Quinn’s low and husky laugh made my stomach do cartwheels. “Ready to christen our place now, Mrs. Pierce-Garcia?”
Her mouth claimed mine again before I could answer. Not that I would say anything but fuck yes, especially when she called me by my future name. This kiss was fierce and deep, picking up right from where we had left off without losing any trace of heat. If anything, there was more flaring between us. I sank into her, allowing everything Quinn to take over all of my senses and support me. I barely registered Quinn stepping over the threshold like she had owned the place for centuries. The cool air inside smelling like wood polish, disuse, and sun-warmed wood didn’t stand a chance against her warmth surrounding me. The old wooden floorboards creaked under Quinn’s sandaled feet. Her stride had a smooth, unhurried sway to it, like she had all the time in the world to enjoy me.
There was something about feeling the steady flex and shift and solid strength in her back and shoulders that drove me wild enough to claw at the muscles working there. We hadfinallyinvested in some shifter-friendly clothes for her, so more of her clothes would survive our sexcapades, but the magicked fabric did nothing to protect against my sharpening talons marking her skin. Thanks to her new Huntscommander powers, she healed even faster than before, but that didn’t take away their initial sting. Quinn’s low rumble that she made in her throat rolled through me like a spark finding dry tinder. She took my bottom lip between her teeth and bit down, making my moan turn into a growl. When I pounced on her lips again, I could taste the ghost of her earlier laughter tempered now with something deeper, heavier that pulled me under until I was drunk and so addicted to her I couldn’t breathe without her being nearby.
Quinn separated us with just enough space to breathe. I knew my lips were swollen with the imprint of hers, the skin tingling and hot. Quinn’s nostrils were flaring. The thin circle of fiery gold around her blown pupils gleaming from behind half-lidded eyes told that she was already as undone as I was.
“Where do you want to start that tour, Sweetness?”
I blinked at her like she had just asked me how to rewire a house to install a ceiling fan. “I beg your sexiest pardon? What are you?—?”
Suddenly, Quinn pinched my tattooed tail encircling my thigh. An electrifying jolt went up my thigh to my core immediately, like she had pressed directly on clit. I squeezed my thighs together to seek some relief that I knew I wouldn’t find. I hissed loudly at the sharp ecstasy. I arched my back in Quinn’s arms. If she were anyone else who wasn’t used to my sensitive dragon tattoos, she would have dropped me. But Quinn knewexactlywhat she was doing.
“I love that you still question me even after all this time. It is more fun for the both of us.” Quinn’s gaze was dark and sharp, while her smoldering expression was one of a predator playing with its prey just for fun. She took a deep inhale, her nostrils flaring again. “Now, pick a room,la malcriada.I don’t know how much longer I will be able to resist you before I just take you right here and now.”
“M-maybe the b-bookshop area in the back? You haven’t really seen that part yet since you only saw things through the window in front.” I stuttered. Now that the initial shock of the contact with my tail had dulled to a tingling pulse on my clit, all I could think about was how much more I wanted of it, how much I needed it.
Fuck, I bet I was soaked at this point.
“That’s my good girl. Great choice.”
Quinn pulled me into another kiss. Crushing and heavy, her heat curled through every inch of me until I could hardly tell where her happiness ended and mine began. I closed my eyes, letting the moment take me. Just as I was wondering if Quinn had any intention of letting me get my breath back after this kiss, the world snapped into motion. I felt my locs whip around our faces in a strong force of wind. The whoosh of our passage was threaded with the distant creak of old wood. I didn’t have time to tighten my hold or to react to anything other than Quinn’s tongue and lips.
Not that I minded that.
In less than a heartbeat, the familiar scents of dust and paper that had long gone unturned in its books tickled my nose. I opened my eyes in the instant before we came to a stop. We were in what had been the library in the back of the Hollow Hearth Inn. The space was fairly large. Towering built-in shelves wrapped the walls like the vintage wallpaper with delicate curling vines that peeked above them. They still held the scattered remnants of the books left behind by the previous owners. Some leaned like they were too tired to stand straight, while others stood in tidy rows with spines dulled by age. A rolling ladder rested in one corner with steps wide enough for even me to sit on comfortably. Two deep-seated window nooks with plush velvet seating broke up the shelves, while a giant velvet sectional stood in the middle of the room, inviting anyone to sit and read for a while.
I only had a moment to take this all in, though. In the next fraction of a second, Quinn had placed me on my feet and pressed my back against one of the shelves. It wasn’t hard for me and my durable dragon-shifting body, but the bookcases were of a different opinion. The impact rattled them, and several old books gave up their perches with soft thumps and rustling flutters. Unlike the books at the Archive though, these didn’tcatch themselves before they spilled to the floor around our feet. Quinn shielded me from the falling books until the last one clattered to the floor. Her body pinned me in place, her palms gripping my hips so tightly a nice added bonus. The solid press of the wood was cool behind me compared to the living, equally unyielding, sweltering strength in front of me. I couldn’t tell if the rapid thud in my chest was from her kisses, her power, a combination, or some other third thing.
Quinn winced, her fun, dominating personality shifting briefly to one of sheepishness. Her brilliant yet dark eyes glistened with apology and concern as they checked me for injury. “I’m so sorry! I still don’t… I’m not used to my strength when we… when we’re like this.”
I smiled up at her, anticipation and desire drumming hard enough for me to feel in my fingertips. “Nothing to apologize for, Knightmaiden. I don’t mind! How many clothes and bedsheets have we had to get rid of because my dragon came out?”
“Fair enough,” Quinn chuckled.
“Besides… I have always wanted to be pinned against some bookshelves.”
Quinn’s eyes did that beautiful, maddening thing when she was about to do something rakish, where they glowed while darkening in color all at once. It was one of the many things I loved about her, that ability to pivot quickly without missing a beat. She raised her slitted eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a job requirement for librarians to want to be taken against some bookshelves. The best ones have lived out the fantasy.”
“Well, I would so hate for how good a librarian you are to come into question. We can’t have that, now, can we, Sweetness?”
I barely had time to shake my head before Quinn was untucking my shirt and pulling it over my head to reveal my lacyteal bra. She teased my nipples through my bra before roughly squeezing each of my tits. My eyes fluttered closed, moans filling the library.
A memory from Sunday brunch with the girls last week struck me, their jokes still poking at the back of my mind even days later. It made me chuckle. “It’s not like you need more motivation, but I will also be using this to prove a point to the girls.”
“Oh?”
“They said we only fuck in a bedroom and are as adventurous as a hetero-couple.”
Quinn laughed. “Now, that’s really fuckingrich!”
“That’s what I said!”
“As wrong as they are, it doesn’t really matter where we have or haven’t fucked,” She said like a storm, her words rumbling low like thunder while sending lightning dancing across my skin. “Because I can fuck you through so many orgasms that you forgeteverything…”
