Bewitching the Dragon

by Jane Kindred

  Dev slid the belt through the loop and buckled it, pulling it just a notch tighter than he needed to. He unfastened Kylie’s pants and slipped his fingers inside, breaching the lace, inching downward and finding the warm hood of her clit. Kylie moaned, blue eyes lidded with desire, pressing herself against his fingers.

  “You’d better not be a psychopath,” she said breathlessly.

  Dev smirked. “A bit of a pervert, perhaps, but definitely not a psychopath.” He drew his hand out, making her moan again, this time with disappointment. “Before we go any further, I just want to get a verbal—”

  “Yes. For God’s sake, yes.”

  He stopped wasting time and yanked the leather trousers and lacy pants down her hips in one go, then picked her up with his hands on either side of her waist and sat her firmly on top of the washer. The brushed steel had to be freezing but she didn’t complain. The legs of her trousers were too narrow to get over the heels of her boots so he stepped into the circle of her knees instead of bothering with tugging off all the leather.

  Dev kissed her once more, enjoying the way she trembled at his touch while hooking her ankles behind his arse and tugging him closer. She had a way of being in control and ceding just the right amount of it at the same time. But he wanted a little more of it just at the moment. He lifted her arms above her head and slid the belt buckle onto a hook on the underside of the shelf overhead meant for hanging clothes. The slight stretch raised up her cotton shirt on her waist. He pushed it higher, letting his thumbs drag over the hard points of her nipples through the lace of the bra as he lifted the shirt to sit above it.

  Kylie squirmed on the washer lid, suddenly making kitten noises instead of deep moans. This was where he wanted her, so soaked with desire that she didn’t care how she sounded. He tugged the bra down and lowered his head to her breasts, sucking each nipple in turn while she writhed and made more insistent mewling sounds.

  He dug in his pocket for the condom, not finding it for a horrible moment, and enduring a look of disbelief from Kylie that promised coming wrath, just before his fingers closed over it. Dev presented it in triumph and grinned as he opened the foil packet. She rewarded him with a dig of her heels into his thighs like she was urging a horse to full speed, and Dev complied, unrolling the condom onto his cock and driving forward to meet her as she bucked against him.

  The washer was already slick with her arousal and the unimpeded motion joined them together like a freight car coupling with a train. Dev held her face between his hands, marveling that her sparkling eyes now seemed more green than blue, and groaned appreciatively as she rocked against him with a circular motion of her pelvis. Kylie turned her head and sucked his thumb into her mouth—the thumb he’d dragged against the slickness on the metal as he’d pulled her in close. She moaned at her own taste and closed her eyes, and Dev braced his free hand against the washer and began pumping his hips, thrusting inside her with all the grace of a wild animal taken over by the instinctive drive to procreate.

  His thumb slipped from her mouth and Kylie threw her head back, moaning loudly in tempo with his vigorous thrusts. Determined to make her miss a beat, he picked up speed, driving her to a stuttering staccato, and Kylie let her legs fall open, arching her back and making the most insanely hot keening wail he’d ever heard in his life. The sound dropped into a sort of mournfully sexy moan as her head hung forward, and it was only then he realized he’d already made her come.

  The look she gave him as he unbuckled the belt around her wrists was somewhat dazed. Dev draped her arms over his shoulders and lifted her off the washer, supporting her with her buttocks cupped in his hands.

  “Where’s your bed?”

  Kylie tightened her arms around his neck. “Through the door and up the stairs.”

  She clung to him while he let go with one hand to turn the doorknob, and then he rebalanced her weight against him and stepped up into the utility closet off the kitchen. The stairs were to the left. Dev had to draw on the demon’s strength to mount the stairs without losing his grip on Kylie—in more ways than one.

  “Second door on the left,” Kylie gasped as he reached the landing overhanging the living room below. A decorative iron railing was the only thing between them and a ten-foot drop.

  Dev managed to swing Kylie through the bedroom door and onto the bed without a mishap. He wanted to hear her make more noise. A lot of it. He pulled out, careful not to let the condom slip, and Kylie protested, trying to hook him in place with her boot heels.

  “There’ll be plenty of time for that,” he said patiently. “I’m not done with you yet.” He had to duck down and sidle backward to get out of her grip, and he had the feeling he would have failed if the leather trousers weren’t so difficult for her to maneuver in. Dev worked her boots off and tossed them aside, and Kylie watched him as he slid the leather over her ankles one at a time. The look in her eyes made him wish he’d kept her belt a little longer. Of course, he did have his own.

  Her eyes fixed on his hands as he began to work his belt out of the loops. “What are you doing?”

  “I left yours downstairs.”

  She raised an eyebrow but didn’t stop him when he slipped her arms from the leather jacket and trussed her wrists a second time. “You’d better make this worth my while.”

  “Count on it.” He winked and rolled her over onto her stomach before she could protest, slipping the belt through the headboard and tying it off.

  Kylie turned her head. “That yes I gave you wasn’t an irrevocable free pass to the entire amusement park. Certain rides take extra tickets.”

  Dev laughed as he climbed onto the bed and stretched himself along her length. “Don’t worry.” He kissed the back of her neck, breathing in her scent. “I intend to earn every ticket I plan to use.” He unhooked her bra, glad to see it was the kind with adjustable straps that crossed in back. All he had to do was slip the little hooks at the end out of the tabs and he was able to draw the entire garment out from under her. Otherwise, he’d have had to resort to his pocket knife.

  Unfettered, Kylie wiggled to reposition herself against the bedspread. “Nice trick.”

  “I know a few.” He kissed his way down her back, drawing a contented hum from her when he placed one at the top of her bum. He wasn’t going for contented hums. His tongue slipping along her crack made her shiver and let out a little gasp. Still not what he was going for.

  Dev spread her cheeks with his thumbs and made his slow, steady way over every little bump and ridge of flesh while she moaned into the pillow until he reached what he was after and thrust his tongue against the swollen flesh between her legs. Kylie made those kitten noises again as he tasted her, drawing the flat of his tongue from bottom to top, from his perspective, like the first, gluttonous lick of an ice cream cone.

  The kitteny sounds got louder as he stroked again, spreading her open. Lifting her hips a little to give himself better access, Dev buried his face in her heat, his mouth locked on the prize.

  Kylie’s moans were loud and unabashed as she shook under his attentions, rolling her hips in his hands, shuddering and gasping until she was almost crying. When he was sure he’d made her climax, he straddled her legs and leaned down to her ear. It was wet with tears. She really was crying.

  Dev laid a hand on her back. “You okay, darling?” He thought for a moment she was sobbing but realized she’d begun laughing uncontrollably.

  “Am I okay?” she gasped between the laughter. “Holy Mother of God. If you want to kill me that way, it’s fine with me, but if you’re planning to fuck me, I think you’d better do it quick before you render me unconscious with that damn tongue.”

  Dev wasn’t about to waste any time. He yanked off his boots, stripped off his clothes, and drew Kylie up onto her knees and entered her once more while she pulled back on the belt that held her wrists and rocked into him to
meet his thrusts. Feeling light-headed as he pounded toward climax, he dismissed it as the natural effect of his pent-up desire.

  He put his mouth close to her ear. “Do you want me to come inside you?”

  Kylie moaned and gyrated her hips. “God, yes.”

  “Tell me. Tell me to do it.”

  She turned her head toward him and he leaned in to snatch her mouth with his so that the words were moaned against his lips. “I want you to come. Come for me.”

  Dev jolted inside her with a roar of pleasure, biting her lip a bit harder than he’d meant to and tasting a drop of blood as the ejaculation shot out of him. He felt as if every muscle he had was releasing simultaneously with it, and he clutched her waist to his as he collapsed onto his side against the bed with an almost giddy sense of lightness.

  “That was—” He tried to catch his breath, licking the salty taste of blood from his lip. “That was—” He pulled out swiftly with a cry of surprise as the scar tissue at his back felt like it had caught fire.

  “Dev?” Kylie tried to turn her head toward him. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  He was on fire, every inch of him crawling with agonizing heat. Dev looked down at his chest. His skin looked like it was boiling. No...it looked like it was—

  “Kurrrrr!” The word, hurled from his tongue, was the last coherent thought in his head before he leaped from the bed and stumbled backward on the floor with a sound coming out of his throat that wasn’t his own.

  Chapter 7

  In place of the constant tingle that had been animating her skin since Dev’s first touch, an icy column of fear gripped her spine. That growl had not been human.

  Scrabbling noises of something large and lumbering thudded along the wood floor. The bed shook with the impact.

  “Dev?” Ione realized she’d squeezed her eyes shut and she opened them with effort. She was still facedown against the pillow, tethered to the headboard. She took a deep breath and turned her head. At the periphery of her vision, a dark shape hulked. A dark shape that was making heavy breathing sounds—and seemingly emitting steam. Oh, God.

  She held her breath and grabbed the belt with one hand just above the spot where it was buckled while folding her other hand almost in two, the pad of her thumb against the outer edge and fingers tented tightly together, and tugged. Dev hadn’t strapped the belt tightly this time and, with a little effort, she freed the hand. She quickly undid the buckle to free the other. Ione sat up on her knees and took another breath before turning around.

  An expletive she’d only uttered once or twice in her life burst out of her as she scrambled back against the headboard. Covered in vivid green scales, like poison personified, the creature hulked inside her doorway on all fours, its massive bulk tight and compact, as if ready to pounce. Tension quivered in its thick, muscular limbs, while fiery gold eyes glared out at her from a narrow, reptilian face beneath a bumpy, ridged forehead that sloped back into hornlike protrusions. The bumps on its head continued in a bisecting ridge of the bony substance that traveled down the creature’s body and all the way to the end of the long tail stretching out the door.

  The hottest sex she’d ever had and the guy had to get eaten by a monster. And she was about to be the second course.

  Her mind was processing this, assessing the situation, as though hulking monsters in one’s bedroom were an ordinary occurrence.

  The creature breathed out a huff of steam and made a deep growling noise in its throat that seemed to set the whole house rumbling. Ione considered going for the gun she kept loaded in the nightstand. Her eyes flicked toward it. Depending on how fast this thing moved—the thing moved, and instinct kicked in. Change the perception of a thing and you might change the thing itself.

  Ione flung out her hand toward the creature with a sort of battle cry, pushing against air with a move she’d learned in krav maga. The monster flipped backward, cracking the doorframe as it tore through it, a look of surprise in its fiery eyes as it righted itself and skidded along the landing. Ione was almost as surprised as it seemed to be. She’d imagined the force of air throwing it backward, but she hadn’t really expected it to work. It crouched on the landing, tail switching and taking out a row of the railing behind it. Before she could lose her nerve and allow logic to surface, she made the gesture and shouted again, this time with words.

  “In the name of God and the Goddess, get out!”

  The creature tumbled backward over the railing, batlike wings at awkward angles as if it had forgotten how to use them, and landed on its back on her living room floor with enough force to shake the building. She prepared for an attack, this time going for the gun, and ran out onto the landing with the weapon in both hands, aimed at the thing’s skull. She’d taken shooting lessons to be sure she’d know how to use it if the time ever came, but she’d never actually had to fire at anything but a shooting-range target.

  Ione squeezed the trigger, realizing too late she’d also squeezed her eyes shut. The bullet struck the window behind the thing’s head.

  Instead of lunging for her, the creature got to its feet and turned to barrel into the wide pane of plate glass that extended across the far wall. The thick glass shattered and the beast clambered through it only to let out a roar of surprise as it struck an invisible barrier inside the walled garden. Rafe’s wards.

  “Oh, crap.” She hadn’t expected to need anything to get out; they were fashioned to keep unwanted magic from getting in. If they’d been her own, she could have unlocked them, but these were Rafe’s arcane Aztec symbols.

  Ione stepped onto the landing, the gun still aimed at the creature in her backyard. If the place was warded so well that this thing couldn’t get out...how the hell had it gotten in? The golden eyes blinked at her like huge tiger’s-eye gemstones.

  “No...effing...way.”

  Steam huffed gently from its nostrils as it contemplated her from where it sprawled in the blanket of shattered glass. Ione was still holding a gun on it, threatening a creature she’d effectively cornered. And she was standing naked on her landing. She lowered the gun. The creature didn’t move. Ione stepped into the bedroom to grab her robe from the door. There were Dev’s pants and boots in a heap at the foot of the bed. She stepped back out, wrapping the robe around her. The creature hadn’t moved except to sit back on its haunches like a dog waiting for its master.

  Ione descended the spiral staircase that led to the second floor from the front entryway, gun still clutched in her hand, and slowly approached the broken window. The creature breathed out a soft plume of smoke and lowered itself to the ground, settling its bumpy muzzle against its front feet.

  With her finger poised on the trigger, Ione studied the glittering eyes from her closer vantage point. “What the hell, Dev?”

  The creature let out a sigh, its ridged back gently rising and falling.

  She took a step closer. “If that’s really you...why can’t you change back?” Eustace Scrubb had woken up similarly transformed in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader after falling asleep in a dragon’s lair coveting its hoard. What had Dev coveted? Ione? Well, Kylie, anyway. She glanced up at her reflection in what remained of the window. Crap. Ione. When had she lost the glamour? Not that it mattered now. The Covent assayer sent to end her career had screwed her brains out and turned into a dragon. Because, seriously, this was a dragon she was looking at.

  “Did I do this to you? My Lilith blood?” The dragon didn’t seem to have the answer to that.

  Someone was going to walk by and see this thing from the side path. “Come in here. It’s all right. I won’t shoot you.” She set the gun aside and opened her palms to show they were empty in case the dragon couldn’t understand human speech.

  The creature raised its head, tilting it.

  “Come on.” She pointed inside the house.

  The dragon
rose a bit clumsily and she saw why as it started forward. Blood dripped from its left foreleg. She hadn’t entirely missed it, after all.

  Ione backed out of the way as the dragon limped through the gap in the wall and hovered just inside. Whether or not it had Dev’s consciousness in there, it definitely wasn’t trying to hurt her.

  Watching her, it settled onto the floor, favoring the leg she’d struck, and curled its tail around its body, again resembling an obedient dog. Except this “dog” was taking up half her living room—and would take up all of it if it stood and stretched its wings.

  She took a tentative step toward it. “Can I look at your leg?” When it didn’t move to stop her, she came closer and crouched beside it to try to determine how badly she’d injured it. She’d heard the bullet hit the window, so it must have gone clean through. Ione could only see one wound. Perhaps she’d just clipped it. Even so, the dragon was losing a fair amount of blood.

  “Stay here.” Ione went for the first-aid kit in the downstairs bathroom opposite the laundry where Dev had—Christ.

  With the little kit in hand, she realized what she had wasn’t exactly made for dragon proportions. Or dragon flesh. She brought a towel with her to clean the wound and ended up tying it in place around the upper foreleg. The gauze and bandages were useless. The dragon put up with it patiently.

  “Sorry.” She glanced up at the glowing gold eyes. “It’s a good thing I’m not a better shot.”

  The dragon made a soft rumble in its throat that might have been a growl or a murmur of agreement. Ione’s stomach answered with a growl of its own. She hadn’t eaten anything since a cup of cottage cheese and a pear before going to the club. Dev probably hadn’t eaten dinner, either. Which meant the dragon was probably hungry. What did dragons eat? It was sort of like a dinosaur, which was a sort of lizard, right? What did lizards eat? Smaller lizards? Ione was on a vegetarian kick, so the only animal proteins in the house were eggs and cheese. Maybe lizards were herbivores.