The Water Dragons Box Set: Books 1 - 4 (Complete)

by Charlene Hartnady

  “Cut the bull! You’re not allowed near me. Like I said before, your boss wants us alive. I met with her today.”

  “I can’t help it if that thing attacks you, can I?”

  What was Tim talking about? She didn’t like the mocking edge to his voice. “Flood would never attack me,” she shot back, feeling like an idiot for saying his name.

  “Oh Flood, is it? How sweet. You know its name.”

  “His name, you asshole!” She knew she shouldn’t taunt him but she couldn’t help herself, she’d taken enough of Tim’s bullshit.

  “I’m telling you that the shifter is going to attack you tomorrow night.” Her blood chilled in her veins as he spoke. “I will arrive to find it brutally raping you. I’ll kill it trying to save you but I’ll be too late. You’ll both be dead. Quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck about the stupid lairs and these mines. I don’t believe for a second these creatures are capable, that they have the knowledge and infrastructure to mine for gold and precious jewels.” He made a snorting noise. “It’s a bunch of bull crap.” She let Tim go off on a tangent. “I wanted you to know what’s coming, little missy. I want you to sweat over it. To know that I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to—”

  “No!” She could hear the panic in her voice. Why was he telling her all of this? Surely he must know she would tell Alex. Tell the others. They would put a stop to his evil plans. “I won’t let you do that to me…to us. I’ll tell anyone willing to listen. I’ll—”

  “That uppity bitch leaves first thing tomorrow. She’s back day after next. No-one’s going to listen to anything you have to say. No-one’s going to give a shit. The others know that once the boss gets the information she needs, we’re out of a job. The longer this search goes on, the longer we stay in work. Everyone is on board. Those cameras,” he pointed to the hallway, “are going to be switched off for an hour tomorrow night. I have forty-five to make it look like the shifter killed you. That’s forty-five whole minutes of play time with you.”

  Her heart was beating fast. This was bad! She forced the panic down. She needed to keep a cool head and deal with this rationally. “Oh, forty-five whole minutes you say?” She laughed, surprised at how real it sounded. “What on earth will you do with the other forty? Then again, I can’t see you lasting even five minutes.” She laughed some more.

  “That’s not fucking funny,” he snarled.

  “The truth hurts.”

  “Hey, Tim,” someone called from down the hall. “I can’t give you any more time. She might check the footage in the morning.” Shit! This whole thing was real. These guys were working together.

  “Nearly done,” Tim called back. “You’ll sing a whole different tune when my cock is inside you tomorrow.”

  “I might not even feel that pencil dick…and that’s if you can even get it up.”

  Tim lunged forward.

  “You need to leave now!” came the voice from down the hall.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. He gets a bullet to the brain and then your ass is mine.” Tim didn’t wait for a response, he turned and left, slamming the cell door behind him.

  Paige could hear the women talking down the passage. “Is everything okay?” Hayley asked as soon as they were alone.

  “Everything is just fine,” she lied. “He came to check on the shifter.”

  “It sounded like you were fighting,” Sydney added.

  “He’s an asshole. I might have told him that.”

  There was the sound of laughing.

  “Get some sleep!” Paige yelled.

  “You too!” Sydney yelled back.

  Paige lay back down, looking up at the ceiling. Not that she could see much in the dark. Worry nagged at her.

  “You should not have provoked him,” Flood sounded angry.

  “I had to.”

  “You did not have to.” He ground his teeth. “He’s coming back tomorrow night. You heard him, he’ll shoot me and—”

  “I’m counting on him coming back and I’m counting on those cameras being off.”

  "Are you going to single-handedly fight that prick?" Flood was beyond pissed. His voice was a borderline snarl. "Because I'm not going to be of much use. If we're lucky I'll be walking by then, but I'll look more like a ninety-year-old human and will be just as fucking weak. I can't believe you did that. You need to get word to the slayer before she leaves tomorrow. She might be able to help you. Otherwise, we'll have to come up with some other plan. Fuck!" he growled the last, sounding frustrated.

  “You heard Tim. All of the guards are working together. They want us dead. They’ve worked out this plan. All of them. That bastard would never have had the opportunity to get to me tonight if it wasn’t true. We’re lucky he’s so sadistic. That he let us in on his sick scheme. He wanted me shaking in my boots. Shivering in the corner. Well, he can go and get stuffed. I’m not afraid, I’m angry.” She was shocked at how pissed off she felt. The emotion greatly outweighed any fear. “I’m going to use the information to our advantage. This way we can make it work for us.”

  Flood ground his teeth together. His body was like granite, he radiated frustration and tension. “How the hell can we make something like that work? I have no—”

  “We’re going to have sex.” There, she’d said it. She swallowed down the sudden lump that had formed in her throat.

  “Sex?” Pure shock dripped off the word. She was sure she heard his jaw drop after saying it.

  “Yes, sex. You said that sex will help you heal. It seems absurd, but if it will work. If we can get you healthy enough to take on Tim tomorrow night, then I’ll do it. We’ll surprise him and take him out.”

  “Twenty-four hours.” He sounded like he was thinking it through. She heard him swallow as well. “We’ll have to fuck half a dozen times. Are you up for that?” His voice was deep. She’d never heard anyone with a voice that deep. Even Vin Diesel had nothing on Flood.

  “Once…six times…what does it matter?” She couldn’t believe how calm she sounded even though her heart raced. Was she really doing this?

  “Says she who wouldn’t shower in the open cell. Someone might see us.”

  “You have supersonic hearing.”

  “Not when I’m about to come but…” He pushed out a breath. “That was crude of me. I’m sorry but I would rather be honest. My hearing might not work so well when I’m buried to the hilt.” She felt his words between her legs. Good lord! This wasn’t about pleasure. This was about achieving an outcome. That was it!

  “I’ll listen out then,” she mumbled.

  “Sure you will.” Flood was smiling. Why did he sound like he didn’t believe her? She must be reading this wrong. She couldn’t see his facial expression.

  “I will.” What was his problem?

  “Okay then. You sure about this?” he asked sounding unsure himself. “We can try to think of something else. There must be another way.”

  “Like what? You said it yourself, there’s no way I’m going to be able to overpower an armed man on my own. There’s a good chance you won’t be able to walk and even if you can, you won’t be of much use.”

  He pushed out a heavy breath. “Way to stroke a male’s ego.”

  “Sorry!”

  “No, you’re right.”

  She sighed. “Nope, there is nothing else. We have to get you strong and healthy. That means food, sleep and because you’re a dragon shifter, apparently lots of sex.” Shit! They were really doing this.

  Flood didn’t say anything for a couple of long seconds. She wondered if maybe he had changed his mind. “I can’t.”

  Oh crap! He had changed his mind. “Can’t what? Can’t have sex?” she quickly blurted, urgency evident in her voice. “Can’t or won’t? I mean, I know you can…but…”

  “Yeah, I can just fine and I think it’s a good plan, only, I can’t move. You’re going to have to do the work.” He sounded down. Like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.

  “O
h!” She had to bite back a nervous giggle. “Okay. I’m okay with that. Um…just to be sure, I need to check, I can’t get anything from you, can I? At least that’s what we were told. I mean, it’s not like we have condoms,” she whispered, her voice had grown softer as she spoke.

  “No. I don’t get diseases, so you’re good.”

  “Shew.” She pushed out a breath. “And I had a shot that prevents pregnancy, so we should be okay on that note.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Okay, so, this is awkward,” she babbled. “How do we do this?” She giggled. It was the nerves.

  “Um…” She could hear he was smiling. “I could give you a quick theory lesson, but—”

  She whacked him on the chest. In hindsight, that hadn’t been the best idea, considering she couldn’t see where he was, she might have hit him in the face or something.

  “Get under the blanket,” Flood said, “and get naked from the waist down…just a suggestion. Just so you know, you can change your mind at any stage. I will completely understand, and we can get to work on a plan B.” He sounded nervous, which strangely enough gave her confidence.

  She smiled. Okay fine. Get naked from the waist down. Do the deed. Once Flood was finished, she could clean up. Then they could sleep for a bit and rinse repeat. No big deal. None at all. “Okay then.” She got under the blanket and pulled down the zipper on her jeans. Undid the button and pulled them down, taking them off and folding them, leaving them next to the mattress. She wasn’t wearing panties. The pair she had been wearing were hanging on the cell bars drying, together with her bra. “Um, do you need me to…um…get you ready.” Her face felt flaming hot.

  “If by ready, I assume you mean hard?” Flood asked.

  “Yep.” She choked out the word.

  Flood swallowed. “No need. I’m ready. More than ready. What about you?”

  Paige squeezed her eyes shut, wishing the ground would open and swallow her whole. Oh god, just let this be over already.

  “You’re having second thoughts,” Flood began. “We don’t have to—”

  “No, we do have to! We are doing this! It's not what either of us wants, but what we want right now doesn't matter. It has to happen." She sucked in a deep breath, sat up and straddled him. Did it as quickly ‒ yet carefully ‒ as she could, before she could change her mind. Paige pulled the blankets over them. Flood was ready. Boy, was he ever. His thick member pushed up against her. "Let's just do this thing. I hope it's okay but I'm going to need to touch you and—"

  Flood shook underneath her a couple of times. She realized he was laughing under his breath. She put her hand over her mouth and stifled a laugh as well. This was the most bizarre situation she had ever found herself in. It took a few seconds more for him to stop shaking with laughter. “You can touch me any which way you want,” he finally whispered in that deep baritone of his. “I, on the other hand, will refrain. I mean, I’ll only touch when and if necessary. I’ll keep it as respectful as possible, Paige. I’m sorry you have to go through this.”

  “Let’s stop all the apologies and do this. Are you ready?” She gasped when she felt his penis twitch. It actually moved.

  “Yes, you?” He clasped her hips with his big, very warm hands.

  “Yes. As ready as I’ll ever be.” All she had to do was get this thing inside her and then make him get to the end point as quickly as possible. She reached down and clasped him carefully around his girth. Flood made a groaning noise. “Oh shit, am I hurting you?”

  “No. Not at all. Stop being so damned polite or this isn’t going to work…sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

  “You stop being so polite as well. You’re right. Enough is enough!” She lined him up with her opening and tried to sit on his tip. The plan was to slowly work him into her. “Wish I had some lube,” she muttered more to herself.

  “Fuck lube,” Flood whispered. “I need to touch you a little. Is that okay?”

  “Yes.” It came out sounding irritated. She was feeling irritated so it couldn’t be helped.

  One of his hands left her hip and she heard a licking, sucking sound. She yelped when his finger found her clit. His hand instantly stilled when she yelped.

  “Sorry. I didn’t expect that.” Her eyes were wide.

  He kept his finger on her nub but didn’t move so much as a muscle. “Is this okay? This isn’t going to work unless you’re wet.”

  Wet.

  The word reverberated around her brain. A zing of need pulsed through her, starting where his finger touched her. It wasn’t like that. He was going to touch her a little bit and then she’d take him inside her. After that, Flood would finish quickly and they could go to sleep.

  “Paige?” He sounded unsure. Flood pulled his hand away.

  “Yes! Yes, okay…you’re right. It can’t be helped. It’s fine. Do it!”

  “Try not to make any noise.”

  “You try not to make any noise,” she countered, frowning. He was the one who was going to come. Not her! He should watch it.

  His finger found her clit again and she had to stifle another yelp. It had been a year and a half since she’d had sex. Needless to say, she wasn’t used to being touched…by someone else. She was really sensitive. He zoned in on her clit and rubbed. Not too hard and not too soft. She pulled in a breath and held it. Damn! He was good. It felt really…good. Her cheeks heated up a whole lot more. The good thing was that she was going to be wet in no time. “Lift up slightly,” he rasped.

  “Why?” Her voice was a little strained. “This is fine. I’ll be ready in a few more seconds.”

  “Doubtful. You saw my cock. I wasn’t erect at the time,” Flood whispered. “I’m a big male, even for a shifter.”

  His crude words and that finger…rub, rub, rub…it was making her feel light-headed. Making her blood rush. She wanted to move against his hand. No moving, Paige! No! It wasn’t that kind of sex. The enjoyable kind. This was about escaping this prison. Getting out alive. It was a means to an end. It was work.

  “I need to prepare you.”

  “I’m…ready…now.” She was horrified to discover that her voice was high-pitched. That she panted between each word. She lifted herself and tried to maneuver onto his erection. Careful to stay clear of his broken hip. She managed to get his tip inside her ‒ an improvement ‒ but that was all. Flood was big. In fact, big was an understatement. Back and forth and up and down and she couldn’t get him to go any deeper.

  “Your pussy is very tight.”

  Pussy. More crudeness. More zinging and clenching. Her nipples felt hard. This was beyond awkward.

  “Let me work you with my fingers,” Flood growled out the words. “Get you nice and wet. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  She nodded. “Okay. Fine.” She lifted up so that there was space between her and him.

  “I’m going to touch you now,” Flood warned.

  “That’s fine.” She looked up, closing her eyes as the pad of one of his fingers found her clit. Rub, rub…it didn’t take long and she was back where she had been, wanting to rock against his hand, wanting to rub against him. Wanting more. She worked at holding all of that back. Then one of his fingers was breaching her opening. She bit down on her lip, holding back a groan. One thing was for sure, she had missed sex. It had been too long.

  Paige gripped onto his arms for support, feeling his muscles ripple and tense beneath the surface. Very soon, he added a second finger and then a third. Good lord, but it felt good. She wanted to ride his hand. Had to force herself to stay still, to keep quiet. Something trickled down the inside of her thigh and her muscles in her legs shook. Too much more of this and…oh god…any more and she was tickets. “Stop!” she choked out.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m sure I’m ready. It’ll work now.” She tried hard to talk normally even though she was panting.

  There was this wet sound as he removed his fingers. She felt him grip his erection, what was he doing? Her whole
body turned hot with embarrassment when she realized he was rubbing her juices onto his member. “There.” His voice was a rasp. Low and thick.

  He was angling himself with one hand, holding her hip with the other. He slid in deeper immediately. Oh…oh lord…oh! Up and down, each time she slid down further and further. Flood gripped her other hip too, helping guide her onto his thick member. He made these tiny grunting noises that were really sexy. It wasn’t long and she was sliding all the way home. Flood made this soft groaning noise as he bottomed out inside her. She worked hard at controlling her breathing. Paige hoped that he was close. This needed to be over. He felt good inside her. Too good! Better than he should.

  Flood’s grip on her hips tightened. He yanked her away, grinding her back down onto his cock. Paige cried out.

  She.

  Cried.

  Out.

  Then she covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes widened as he ground her back down. She clamped her hand tighter, stifling a moan. He’d brought her to the brink of orgasm before she’d sat on his erection. There was a part of her that was sure that sex with Flood would hurt. That it would be bearable but that it would hurt. She’d hoped not too much. That part of her was a gigantic idiot and couldn’t have been more wrong. The fact of the matter was, that he had brought her to the brink of orgasm and then sex with Flood was amazing. His big cock didn’t hurt her. Not after he had so carefully prepared her. Not when each inch of him massaged places inside her that had never been touched before this. She could say that with certainty. He felt like he was touching her everywhere. Her nipples were hard against the material of her shirt. Her boobs jostled and bounced. The grinding action worked subtly on her clit as well. Not too fast and not too slow. Pull…grind…back…pull…grind…back. Her mouth fell open. She struggled to fill her lungs with enough oxygen.

  Horror struck, when she realized she might just come and hard. This hadn’t been a part of the plan. He was supposed to be the one with the happy ending. Not her!

  Although she was breathing loudly through her nostrils, her hand still clamped firmly over her mouth, she could hear his little grunts and moans. It made her skin tighten and prickle. Brought her closer to the edge.