Marked by the Dragon [The Dragon of Skye 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Doris O'Connor

  What the hell is wrong with me? Get. A. Grip. And stop ogling the man as though he’s the holy grail of all things manly.

  That internal pep talk meant she could at least get a reply of sorts out her parched throat.

  “I thought I already had an interview?” she asked, and inwardly winced at the wobbly cadence of her voice.

  Duncan smiled a slow, lazy grin, which crinkled up the corners of his eyes. His deep amber eyes twinkled in amusement.

  “We both know that wasn’t an interview but an interrogation. Miri is fierce when it comes to me.” He shrugged and ran a hand through his shoulder-length brown hair. A woman could envy the perfectly straight way those silky-looking strands hung. If Kerry was to attempt to let hers grow, it would result in nothing but frizz.

  His smile showed even white teeth set off to devastating effect against his dark-brown beard. Normally speaking, Kerry didn’t go for men with beards, but on this man, the neatly trimmed facial hair simply added to the whole bad-boy vibe he had going for him. The magnificent dragon tattoo on his left arm rippled with the movement as he brought his arm back down. It almost made the dragon come alive, as his keen eyes seemed to look straight at Kerry.

  Yes, that’s it. I’ve gone insane. It’s the Scottish air.

  There was far too much countryside surrounding Inverness for a city girl like her. Not that there seemed to be much air in the shop right now, not with Duncan watching her so closely. His mere presence made it difficult to breathe, which should have been ridiculous, had she not witnessed Miri’s reaction to what Kerry presumed had to have been her husband and Master. While Kerry hadn’t had the same visceral reaction to this Mark, she had certainly appreciated the man’s presence. He simply had dominant male written all over him. After her last experience in the world of kink, that should have sent her running, yet Miri’s response had put Kerry at ease. Those two were clearly in a loving Dom/sub relationship, not like…

  She pushed those thoughts firmly away into the locked box they belonged in and concentrated instead on the positives. Miri’s husband had that same air of quiet command about him as Duncan possessed, and one she couldn’t help but respond to. The single-minded determination to take care of Miri had been written in every feature. He’d also been impossibly tall, well over six feet, which made Miri and him a decidedly odd-looking couple. She’d barely reached mid-chest on him.

  At least Kerry had a few good inches on Miri, yet Duncan still towered over her. Add to that his muscle bulk, and it was more than enough to make her feel small and feminine, and as though she were his prey.

  Now, where had that thought come from? Maybe because of the gravelly timbre of his voice? It reminded Kerry of a large predator on the prowl.

  Yep, loco. That’s me. Think of something else, for goodness’ sake.

  “Does she have reason to be fierce?” Kerry asked.

  Duncan threw his head back and laughed.

  “Well, she seems to think so. Miri and I go way back to when we were both wee bairns.”

  “Wow, that is…that would explain it then,” she said.

  “So, tell me, what made you come all the way up to Scotland and this place to seek employment?” He glanced at her CV when he said that. “With such an excellent work record, I’d have expected you to seek employment with another GP practice, not in a tattoo parlor. You should know I can’t match the salary you were on down south, though the job does come with free accommodation if you want it.”

  “It does?”

  Duncan cocked his head to one side and smiled. A slow, lazy, and far-too-dangerous-to-her-equilibrium smile. If she wasn’t careful, she could so easily throw herself at this man, caution and good intentions be damned. She was never going to be that girl again. Once was one too many times. Getting involved with someone at work never ended well, let alone when that person was your boss, and clearly a Dom to boot.

  “Yes, it does. It’s only a studio flat attached to my humble abode above the shop, and it’s been empty ever since Miri hooked up with Mark, but it’s all yours if you want it. Might need a good airing out, and it’s in need of a face-lift, but if you decide to stay, I’m sure we can arrange that.”

  Kerry had a hard time drawing air into her lungs, and she got the distinct impression that she was being railroaded into this, as confirmed by his next words.

  “We can go up and I can show you now if you like? Helps to know what you’re letting yourself in for, right?”

  “I…that is…I haven’t said yes to the job, and strictly speaking, you haven’t offered it to me.”

  Kerry was rather proud of the fact that she got those words out at all, even if they held a distinctive wobble. Duncan ran a hand through his beard and winked at her.

  “Well, you heard Miri. I cannot be trusted with her paperwork, or so she keeps telling me, and she’s off to have her baby, so I do very much need a capable receptionist. Unless you’re telling me this CV is a pack of lies.” She swallowed hard as his gaze intensified on those words, and she took an involuntary step back from him as he advanced on her. Her butt connected with the edge of the reception desk, and she sat down with a thump as he reached past her to grab a bunch of keys off the desk. The action brought him so close that his hair brushed against her cheek, and Kerry couldn’t help her involuntary deep inhale. Really, the man just smelled too damn good. He paused mid-action when he appeared to notice her reaction to him, turned his head, and stared at her. This close to him a fire seemed to burn inside his amazing eyes, as they changed from warm amber to fiery yellow and back again as she blinked. A deep rumble, almost a snarl, came from his massive chest, and for one breathtaking second she thought he was going to kiss her, so intense was his focus on her. To add insult to injury, the one tiny, pathetic-looking tat she had on her body chose that moment to throb like crazy, and she gasped at the stinging pain that spread out from her abdomen. Like swirls of fire, heat raced across her skin and made her lean into Duncan.

  “Breathe, wee one.” His voice had dropped an octave, sounding even more gravelly than usual, and her stomach dropped right along with it. The growled words had the desired effect, however, and she dutifully pulled air into her lungs. The fiery sensation passed. She couldn’t help but put her hand on her belly, however, and of course, he noticed.

  “What’s the matter? You looked as though you were in pain then.”

  Heat rose in Kerry’s cheeks, and she shook her head with so much force it traveled through her body. The desk wobbled under her butt in time with her boobs. Oh, could this get any more mortifying? To his credit, Duncan only glanced at her cleavage, then kept his gaze on her face.

  “It’s nothing really, and of course I didn’t lie on my CV.”

  She somehow managed to inject the right amount of indignation into her reply, and Duncan smiled.

  “Good, so why the change in careers?” he asked.

  Kerry closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she lost herself in his gaze. She couldn’t spin him the usual line. Somehow, she knew he would be furious if she did, and for reasons she didn’t want to examine too closely, she wanted to please him.

  “The same reason I didn’t put my last job down as a reference. I had a disagreement with one of the partners at the surgery, shall we say.”

  Duncan frowned and scanned the papers in his hands again before he threw them down on the desk she was still sitting on. Just as well she was, because right now, Kerry wasn’t sure her legs would hold her up. Being this close to Duncan did far too many strange things to her equilibrium, which no doubt meant she ought to not accept this job, no matter how much she really wanted to. With the accommodation thrown in, it would solve one of her most pressing concerns right now, and that was where to live. She’d used up most of her meager savings on staying in bed-and-breakfasts, and she desperately needed to find a job, which was why she’d responded to the sign in the window in the first place. Kerry conveniently chose to forget the strange pull she’d felt to come down the s
ide street Duncan’s shop was situated in.

  “Meaning?” he asked. That one clipped word shook her out of her maudlin thoughts. When she didn’t immediately respond—namely, because all thoughts fled her brain under his renewed, intense scrutiny—he sighed and stepped back.

  “Fine, don’t tell me. I’m sure a quick phone call to the practice manager will shed some light on this, so—”

  “No, please don’t.” His eyebrows shot up, and she wanted the ground to swallow her whole when he crossed his arms over his massive chest and frowned at her. Even his dragon tattoo appeared to be frowning at her, and had it moved? No, that was impossible, yet Kerry couldn’t take her eyes off his arms either. It had to have been a trick of the light, and yet…

  “Just tell me the truth, lass.”

  Chapter Three

  Damn it all to hell and back, his mate wore her emotions on her face. Something clearly had driven her away from her last place of work, and sensing her discomfort, Duncan could take a pretty good guess what it had been, but he needed to hear it from her. His dragon would know if she was lying to him, not that she had so far. No, his wee lassie very much struggled with the attraction she felt to him. It was obvious that she felt the pull between them too, and if he’d had any doubt that she was his intended mate, her instinctive responses to him told their own story.

  It wasn’t all that unusual for a dragon to have a human mate, especially these days when his kind was a dying breed. Right through the centuries, humans had been marked by and for the dragons, and while this delightful, soft bundle of curves didn’t carry a mark in an obvious place, he’d bet the scales off his back she was marked. If he had to take a guess, he’d say she carried that mark on her belly, if the subconscious way she kept touching that area was any indication.

  “The truth according to whom?” Her reply, when she finally made it, came out as a mere whisper. Her obvious discomfort made his dragon want to take flight and seek revenge on whoever put those clouds in his lass’s expressive eyes. Duncan took a deep breath in and, to appease his beast, nudged Kerry’s chin up. The contact, innocent as it was, made her gasp. Heat scorched his fingertips, and Duncan smiled at her reaction. That hand went to her belly again, and pain briefly registered in her eyes before he summoned his magick and took her discomfort away.

  Her eyes widened in surprise, and she finally relaxed.

  “There is usually only one truth. Let’s stick to what actually happened.”

  Kerry flinched and tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. Once she stopped squirming, he loosened his hold on her chin and tapped her nose with his index finger.

  “Out with it, lass. I have broad shoulders and I’m a good listener. You have to be in this job. The tales folks tell me when they sit in my chair would put hairs on your chest, I’m sure.”

  He briefly let his gaze fall to her impressive rack, satisfied to see her tits jiggle in silent amusement. That was much better.

  “You best not tell me them then, ’cause I don’t think hair on my chest would be very attractive.”

  She gave him an uncertain smile when their gazes connected, and Duncan winked at her.

  “Not my kink, that’s for sure.”

  Her sharp intake of breath and the way her cheeks turned pink told him his hunch was correct. Inwardly he breathed a sigh of relief. It would have added another layer of complications to their dynamic if his mate weren’t naturally submissive. Duncan wasn’t at all sure he could condemn himself to a lifetime of vanilla sex.

  Her gaze dropped to his collarbone, and she kept it there. Her little white teeth nibbled on her bottom lip, and Duncan swallowed his groan. He wanted to be the one biting down on that lip while he drove his by now rock-hard dick into her luscious body. Thoughts like this were not helping his blue balls one bit, and he took a step back to give them both some much-needed breathing room.

  “And what is your kink?” she finally asked. The breathy cadence of her voice shot straight to his balls, and he shook his head to clear it of all the far-too-tempting images of his mate naked, tied up, and at his mercy that immediately bombarded his brain.

  “That’s hardly a subject for your employment interview unless you’re also applying to become my sub?” He dropped his voice on purpose, delighting in her immediate and far-too-obvious response. Her breathing sped up and goose bumps broke out on his lady’s skin. Had it not been for his superior hearing, he would have missed her hesitant response.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

  “Can’t or won’t, wee one, and look at me when you’re talking to me.”

  Her gaze flew to his face, and the sadness he read in her doe-like eyes almost brought him to his knees.

  “Who hurt you?” he asked. Her slow blink was all the confirmation he needed, and his dragon roared. Kerry’s eyes widened, not in fear but in arousal, as her sweet scent wrapped itself around him, making him want to throw caution to the wind and take her right there on the desk. It wouldn’t take much persuading on his part; he knew that. His mate was instinctively responding to the pheromones his dragon sent out to her, but Duncan wanted her to make this decision with her head and her heart, not because her hormones had gotten the better of her.

  That way, she would—hopefully—stay and not run away screaming when he revealed his true nature.

  “Tell me, wee one.” She shook her head and bit her lip so hard she drew blood. “Don’t do that.” Duncan pulled the soft flesh away from danger and swiped that drop of her life’s essence away. A cock-hardening moan came from his girl when he lifted his crimson-stained finger to his mouth and licked it clean. He smiled, all too aware that she would see his dragon self in his eyes, and sure enough, she blinked and shook her head as though she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  Duncan chose to misinterpret her action.

  “Fine, don’t tell me. I can guess. It was some fucker at your last employ, right? What did he do? Abuse your submission and push your limits beyond what you were comfortable with? Ignored a safe word, what? Out you to your work colleagues or…”

  He didn’t need to continue, because the way she wrapped her arms around herself and refused to look at him told its own story.

  “If he did any of the above, then he wasn’t a Dom, but an abusive asshole. You know that, right?”

  Duncan willed her to look up at him, and when she eventually did, tears clung to her eyelashes. Fuck it; he wanted to shift, hunt that asshole down, and burn him alive. His dragon didn’t care one iota that actions like that would get him thrown in jail faster than he could say “a bad idea.” His animal side simply reacted to the pain he sensed in his mate, and he wanted to make that better for her. To act on that impulse would be foolish, however, and aggression was not what she needed from him right now, so he swallowed the ball of fire churning at the back of his throat and forced his dragon to stand down.

  “It wasn’t like that. I mean, it was all consensual, but you’re right; he was an asshole. A married one at that…”

  The deep growl he couldn’t help but make shook the desk she was sitting on, and a grim smile kicked up her lips.

  “So, what happened?” he asked, and Kerry sighed.

  “I was a fool, that’s what happened. I should have known he was too good to be true. I mean, look at me. I’m hardly any man’s fantasy, now am I?”

  She blanched at another—and far more menacing—snarl he couldn’t keep in either.

  “Don’t talk nonsense, woman. If you were mine, you’d have just earned yourself one hell of a spanking for that comment. You’re beautiful, Kerry, and I bet those curves you seem intent on hiding under that oversized T-shirt would drive any man wild.”

  That comment made her frown up at him.

  “If you say so, and for the record, if you lay one finger on me without my permission, I’ll be calling the cops.”

  Her emerging spunk was delightful to witness. Grinning, Duncan inclined his head in agreement.

  “I’ll be handi
ng you the phone if that ever were to happen, which it won’t. I have no intention of touching you until you beg me to, lassie.”

  She blinked at the intonation he’d put on that one word, and much to his delight, she responded in kind.

  “You’ll be a long time waiting then, Sir. I don’t beg, ever, and after what happened, I have absolutely no intention of getting involved with anyone I work for or with ever again.”

  Kerry’s lips firmed into a thin line, and she positively glared up at him when he smirked at her reply.

  “Never is a long time, sweet lass, but I can’t say I blame you. For the record, call me Sir like that again, and you won’t like my response.”

  His lass rolled her eyes in answer and shook her head.

  “Anyway, to answer your original question, we’d been involved for about three months, keeping it all quiet, of course, because…well, work and all that. Neither one of us needed the gossip, or that’s what he said. I had no reason not to believe him, plus he was originally brought in as a locum only. The practice was expanding, see, and when he got his permanent contract, he changed. I should have seen it coming, really, all the excuses as to why he couldn’t make this weekend or that, but it wasn’t until the new practice manager started that I learned why. She was his wife, see.”

  “Ah.”

  Kerry smiled at his one-syllable response.

  “Ah, indeed. None of us knew that he was married. He wasn’t wearing a ring. There were no family photos on his desk, et cetera. He kept his workplace very sterile, which should have made me think, really. Anyway, I can only assume that he’s done this sort of thing before, because his wife cottoned on immediately when she saw us together at work. He denied it all, of course. What’s worse, he made me the guilty party by telling everyone I’d been stalking him, sending him dirty pictures which he’d…” Her voice broke, and she found the study of the floorboards most interesting again.