Her Photographer Phoenix_A Paranormal Romance Read online

  “Oh!” exclaimed Ellis. She sounded surprised. “Did you like them?”

  “Yes,” said Benton. “They were very enjoyable… for academic papers.”

  Ellis’ smile dropped into a scowl, and she splashed him.

  Laughing, Benton splashed her back.

  Ellis made a high, indignant noise and splashed him again, this with both hands. She flung herself at him, while Benton was still blinking spring water out of his eyes. He just barely caught her, his hands closing around Ellis’ ribs, in time to be forcibly dunked.

  Bubbles floating past his face, Benton bent lower and hooked his foot behind Ellis’ ankle, tripping her. Yelping, Ellis joined him underwater with a mighty splash.

  When they surfaced, Benton was laughing and Ellis was sputtering as she shoved hair and water out of her eyes.

  Benton was still laughing when he thoughtlessly swooped down to steal a kiss from Ellis, his lips curving against hers.

  For a heart stopping moment, Ellis stood frozen. Then her lips soften under his, and Ellis kissed him back. Her hands left her face, cupping Benton’s cheeks instead of her own.

  Sighing, Benton leaned forward into Ellis’ warm palms, and to his delight, Ellis took immediate advantage of his parted lips. Her tongue dipped into his open mouth and Benton moaned softly, his tongue sliding against hers.

  Benton’s hands, which were still wrapped around Ellis’ middle, tightened on her, and he pulled her closer, crushing her soft breasts against his hard chest.

  He had just gotten an arm around her – and his tongue inside of her mouth – when a feminine voice called, “Dr. Hale? Are you there?”

  Splashing wildly, they separated. Benton and Ellis were on opposite sides of the little spring by the time that Dafina rounded the corner of the tent. Ellis’ niece blinked at them, the shadow of a smile briefly curving her lips before she schooled her expression again.

  “There you are, Dr. Hale!” said Dafina brightly. “Hey, the weather’s been kind of… stormy lately, so I was wondering if you wanted to join Kris, Parker, and I for yoga. And maybe some meditation?”

  Because of the weather? That was… odd.

  Ellis’ expression softened.

  “That sounds great,” said Ellis, already wading for the side of the pool of water. As Benton watched, she tapped out her shoes and yanked them on, one after the other.

  When Ellis was clear of the pool, Dafina slipped one of her dry arms through Ellis’ wet one. Leaning close, her dark curls brushing against Ellis’ shoulder, she murmured, just barely on the edge of Benton’s hearing, “Good choice, Ellis. He’s cute!”

  “Dafina!” gasped Ellis, her tone equal parts laughter and scandal. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  Dafina’s laughter was the last that Benton heard of the conversation.

  Smiling, Benton flopped backwards in the water. Idly, he wondered if Ellis might be willing to pick up where they had left off later… in a more private setting… like, say, maybe their tent…

  Imagining it, Benton grinned.

  They didn’t get around to fooling around that night.

  Ellis had spent the afternoon in the field, and then had to sort out some minor tiff after dinner, which in turn meant that she was later going for her soak and later still returning to the tent. She fell asleep almost as soon as she tumbled into their shared bed.

  Benton, who had been half asleep and waiting for her, rolled over to catch her hand with his. Threading his fingers through hers, he dropped swiftly off to sleep.

  Benton dreamed about fire.

  It sparked in his bones and flared bright, liquid heat that flowed through him like the tides. And he moved with it, rocking like a small boat on a vast ocean. And under him, the ocean moved with him. She wound her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. She arched, cool and wet and inviting, and his breathing became as ragged. Grey storm clouds scudding overhead, and he was close – so close – but then – but –

  With a gasp, Benton surfaced from his dream. Still half-asleep, he nuzzled his face into Ellis’ soft hair. He felt so good.

  Sometime in the night, Ellis had rolled onto her side, taking his hand with her. She had dragged his arm across her middle, and he had followed it, curling his body up tight against Ellis’ smaller one.

  And now, he was hard and wanting, his hips rolling to rub his erection against Ellis’ butt.

  Realizing why he felt so good, Benton felt chagrinned. It was hard, but he forced himself to still his hips. His impatient cock throbbed a protest.

  He meant to get up and go cool down – either in Ellis’ spine-chillingly cold spring or one of the camp’s rudimentary showers – he honestly did, but Ellis hummed then and rolled over under his arm.

  Her eyes were heavy lidded and still sleepy when she reached up to thread her fingers in the small hairs at the back of Benton’s neck. A gentle tug pulled Benton toward her, and he eagerly fitted his mouth over hers.

  Benton plundered Ellis’ mouth, her tongue slow and sleepy against his own. She whimpered, a tiny scrap of sound, and it went straight to Benton’s dick. With a low noise of his own, Benton pushed forward, tipping Ellis onto her back.

  He settled over her, Ellis’ legs parting to accommodate his body between them. The length of Benton’s erection lay hot and hard against her damp core, and his hips rolled, rubbing it against her.

  Against his mouth, Ellis gasped and her hips bucked up against his. And Benton couldn’t help it, he grinned, his lips curving up against hers.

  Benton finally got a hand on one of Ellis’ luscious breasts. It filled his hand, warm and soft and lovely., and he gave it a tentative squeeze. Ellis seemed to like that, so he did it again, squeezing and stroking and tweaking her hardening nipple.

  Under him, Ellis was squirming and bucking, her nails lightly scratching through the small hairs at the back of his neck.

  “Benton!” murmured Ellis, a soft protest, when Benton pulled his lips away from hers.

  Grinning, he kissed his way down Ellis’ neck to her breastbone. There he hesitated, torn between staying to lave attention on her breasts and continuing down her shivering belly.

  Ellis decided it for him, pushing at his shoulders. It wasn’t super subtle, but it made Benton laugh.

  Following her wishes, he briefly licked the plane between Ellis’ breasts before continuing his journey down her curvy body. He kissed Ellis’ skin and nuzzled his face against her trembling belly, laughing softly again when Ellis impatiently tugged at his hair. Benton licked his tongue into her bellybutton, something that made Ellis squirm and giggle beneath him. Happy, Benton did it again.

  Settling himself lower on the bed, Benton coaxed Ellis’ thighs over his shoulders. One hand holding Ellis’ thigh open, Benton laid gentle kisses along the inside of Ellis’ thighs, licking her and rubbing his cheek against her soft skin. He legs were trembling and her fingers were tight in his hair by the time that Benton laid a long lick along the curve of Ellis’ sex, smiling to himself when she gasped and bucked up towards his mouth.

  Benton licked her again, his tongue dipping into her folds this time, and Ellis made another of those tiny, whimpery sounds that thrilled him to his core.

  His hips rolling idly against the mattress, Benton lapped at Ellis’ folds and licked around her entrance. He pushed the tip of his tongue inside of her just to hear Ellis whimper again and feel her body buck up against his mouth.

  By then, Ellis had the side of her hand jammed into her mouth, and, feeling wicked, Benton left her entrance. He licked his way up the length of her sex to close his lips around her clit. Then he sucked it, at the same time thrusting his first two fingers inside of Ellis.

  She clenched around him – her body tight around his fingers, her thighs clamped around his head – and came, her cry muffled by her hand. Her heels dug mercilessly into his back as Benton fingered Ellis and sucked her clit, urging her through wave after wave of pleasure.

  When sh
e finally lay limp and gasping beneath him, Benton stopped sucking and slowed the thrusts of his fingers. He gave her clit one last proprietary lick, and then leaned back to look at Ellis.

  Ellis lay satiated against the bedding, her limbs loose and her fine eyes limpid. Her face was flushed and so was her neck and her chest and the tops of her heaving breasts. Her chest heaved, and her sex glistened.

  If he could, Benton would have photographed her in that moment so that he might have it forever. As it was, he contented himself with trying to remember it, to memorize the curl of her lips and her tousled hair and the exact way that she was looking at him at that moment.

  “Come here,” she said, two little words that short circuited Benton’s brain.

  Benton clambered up the length of her body, eager and ready to sink into her slick warmth. Against his belly, the hardened length of his cock twitched, its tip wet with precome.

  He was on his hands and knees over her when Ellis reached up to pull his head down into a kiss. At the same time, her other hand found his cock, and she stroked it.

  Her tongue was in his mouth, and her hand was hard and hot around his cock, and it was all so, so good that Benton could barely manage to break away long enough to say, “Ellis, please, I’m going to –”

  At nearly the same time, she said, “I didn’t bring any –”

  His pleasure crested, and Benton didn’t hear what Ellis didn’t have any of as he gasped and shuddered his way through his orgasm, his hips bucking forward to thrust his cock through the tight circle of Ellis’ stroking hand.

  When he was done, Benton was shocked to find himself lying on Ellis, his head pillowed on her shoulder and her fingers threaded through his hair. He honestly didn’t remember how that had happened.

  “That was good,” said Ellis, and she sounded so utterly and completely satiated that a very masculine part of Benton thrilled to hear it. If he had possessed even an ounce more energy, he would have gone down on her again to show Ellis just how good it could be with him. Unfortunately, Ellis seemed to have wrung all of that out of him along with his orgasm.

  Benton would have felt embarrassed about how quickly he had come, but he couldn’t scrape up the energy for that either.

  He wasn’t a silly little virgin! Under ordinary circumstances, he could have held out longer! But there was nothing ordinary about Ellis or his attraction to her. She just had that effect on him.

  Besides, Ellis didn’t seem to mind.

  “Tissues now, then sleep more,” added Ellis, and Benton grumbled a wordless agreement.

  Sleep would be good. He could go down on her again in the morning. And… in… the…

  Clean and dry, Benton drifted contentedly off to sleep.

  Chapter 07 – Ellis

  Ellis couldn’t believe that she’d had sex in a tent, much less that she’d had sex with a near stranger in a tent on her worksite, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to regret it. It had been too perfect. Too right.

  In the moment, it had felt like some part of him had slotted into place inside of her – and she wasn’t talking about his fingers or his tongue or his penis, although they hadn’t quite managed to get that last part of him inside of her. It had been like some part of her that had been missing – had always been missing, though she hadn’t known it until that very moment – had not only been returned to her but also locked in place, so that she would never misplace it ever again.

  It had been everything that she had always heard a soul bond should be.

  Clearly, she was out of her mind.

  He was human. At the very least, he wasn’t a dragon. And she was. Dragonesses were supposed to have two soul mates, not one, and they were both supposed to be dragons. This was all wrong. And yet, she still couldn’t bring herself to regret it – or him.

  Well, not until she set foot in the eating and recreation tent, and the under twenty-ones all began to snicker. The over twenty-ones weren’t being particularly discreet about their amusement either, except for Kris. She just looked sad.

  Humiliation swept through Ellis.

  They hadn’t been that loud! How had they all found out?

  Landon, decided Ellis grimly, must have heard or smelled it or somehow sensed it and told all the rest of them. Somehow, someday, I’m going to make him regret flapping his lips.

  Everett’s friend Landon was an incubus, and incubus, by their very nature, were incredibly tuned in to sex – regardless of who was having it, apparently.

  Ellis shot the man in question a glare, and he at least had the decency to look shame-faced and embarrassed. That didn’t, however, solve her most pressing problem: everyone knew. And they thought it was hysterical.

  All the snickering and significant looks were enough to put her off her feed. Well, they would have been, but it had been Emilio’s turn to cook, and Ellis wasn’t giving up decent food to assuage anyone’s hurt feelings, even if the hurt feelings in question were her own. There wasn’t enough good food in her life for that sort of thing.

  Ellis shoveled her share of breakfast into her mouth, but those inconsiderate bastards had ruined her good mood and her enjoyment of her good breakfast food and even her excitement to greet the day. The only thing that could save today would be if the firebirds’ chicks finally hatched, and that just wasn’t going to happen. It was too soon.

  When Benton and Marc joined the group halfway through breakfast, Ellis found it in herself to eat faster still. By the time that Marc and Benton finished splitting the remnants of breakfast between themselves, Ellis was nearly done.

  “Good morning!” said Benton cheerfully. He leaned down as if to kiss her cheek, but Ellis slid smoothly away. Benton frowned.

  “Good morning,” she said around her last bite. “I’ll see you later?”

  Silently, he nodded.

  Leaving Benton to eat breakfast with Marc, Ellis cleared away her dishes and went back to their tent to try to find her composure. It would be absolutely disastrous for the firebirds if it rained now. She had to get hold of her emotions and control her powers.

  It wasn’t going very well. Mostly, she seethed at herself.

  No matter how good or right it had felt in the moment, she shouldn’t have done it. She had worked hard to get ahead in her field, and this was the sort of indiscretion that could cost her dearly, maybe even set her career back.

  Her research group was made up of three graduate students, her niece, her nephew, their cousins, and their friends, and many of them were some form of shifter, so the damage was thankfully limited. If she claimed Benton Hwong as her soul mate, most of them would understand. There might even be less giggling.

  But Ellis wasn’t certain that she wanted to claim Benton Hwong as her soul mate. How would she explain it to her parents? How would she explain it to him? Humans thought of soul mates as a romantic concept, not actual people that they could actually find out there in the real world.

  Not that Ellis had decided to claim Benton Hwong as her soul mate. He was hot as fire, and she already liked him a lot – loving him would be so easy – but he couldn’t be her soul mate. Her soul mate wasn’t supposed to be a lone anything, much less a lone human.

  And what would her parents say? They had mostly let Ellis and her siblings go their own ways, but she knew that they had always envisioned a traditional marriage for her: two dragon mates with a respectably large golden hoard of their own to give her children of her own. Coming home with a single man in tow – and a human one at that – would be the antithesis of everything that they had dreamed of for her, especially if she claimed that Benton and Benton alone was her soul mate. Ellis couldn’t even imagine how that conversation would go.

  On the other hand, there was Benton.

  And two dragon mates and a handful of children would have gotten in the way of her research anyway. An independent photographer was much more her style. He’d be more exciting too. But still…

  Ellis bit her lip. In that moment, she wanted Frederica and G
rissom desperately. With the other two-thirds of her triplet set in tow, Ellis had always felt invincible. They would have listened and had good advice for her. And if she claimed Benton as her soul mate, they would have had her back.

  But Grissom was a lone dragon, and everyone knew that lone dragons didn’t have soul mates. Asking him would’ve been cruel.

  Freddie, though, would have been supportive. And Freddie always knew what to do. At that moment, Ellis wanted nothing so much as to call Freddie on the satellite phone.

  But the satellite phone was only supposed to be used in case of emergency. Her love life probably wasn’t an emergency. Not yet, anyway.

  Ellis was on the verge of calling home anyway – she could afford it – when she heard the zippers being unzipped. Turning, she mustered a smile for Benton.

  “Are you ready to go down to the lake?” he asked almost warily, and Ellis felt a sharp pang of regret. She didn’t want him to be wary of her.

  Unsure of what to say, Ellis nodded.

  “Sure!” She said, finding a smile for him. The pinch in her heart relaxed when Benton relaxed. “Let’s go!”

  Chapter 08 – Benton

  Ellis was strange and stiff and distant all morning. Honestly, it wasn’t difficult to figure out why. The sly sideways looks between him and Ellis by her minions were enough of a hint without the sniggering or clumsy attempts at innuendo during breakfast.

  What he couldn’t figure out was why Ellis cared. So what if they knew? And so what if her assistants thought it was funny? Who cared what they thought? She wasn’t part of their group anyway. She was separate from them. And she was his.

  She was his fated mate. There wasn’t anything hysterically funny about that. It was enormous and amazing and wonderful, and last night had only been a taste of how good it could be between them.