The gold nymph king! Her father! The veins bore the remnants of his touch.
She didn’t know whether to be thrilled or terrified, maybe both.
“He’s been here,” she said when they finally made shore and he returned to his mortal form.
“How can you tell?”
“I can feel him in the gold.”
“There’s gold in this swamp? I couldn’t smell it.”
“It’s down deep, so deep that only someone who can call the gold, or travel through it would be able to sense it.”
“Still.” Imre shook his head. “That doesn’t bode well.”
“I know.” She pressed her lips together and looked around. “But he’s been here. He’s still alive.” The words seemed to slam back into her after she’d said them. Because it was like giving voice to the possibility that he wouldn’t be alive when they found him.
If they found him.
Her father, the man who was her rock, her foundation, practically her whole world had been taken from her and it was a very real possibility she wouldn’t get him back.
The ground rumbled beneath them and the earth began to crack—a slow, deep splitting of the earth.
Her body was on fire, her fingers tingling and the pull of the gold echoed in her bones. It rose up in stalactite formations, golden swords thrusting up to stab at whatever had caused her this kind of pain.
The howls sounded again and this time, they were closer.
“They’ve found us. I’m sorry!” Aranka cried.
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. Look.” He pointed and there, in a clearing were thirteen bikes, and piles of clothes. Jackets slung on all of the bikes had Headhunter patches.
“Oh my god. What have they done?”
“Something terrible,” Imre agreed. “We have to fly.”
“I’m ready.”
Imre leapt into the air, his Change taking him just as the trees around them rustled with the movement of large animals—werewolves.
Aranka watched as they converged on the spot where she and Imre had just been standing, claws and teeth out, a sentient madness in their eyes and when one leapt at them, Imre opened his mouth and sprayed him with fire.
He howled in pain, screaming, but he didn’t die and the stench of burned hair clung in the atmosphere long after they were out of range.
The bikes and the clothes, however, were not immune to the flame and they began to burn, burning rubber and black, thick smoke curling into the night.
And the gold, still standing tall, evidence of her presence she was unable to conceal.
Imre flew higher and higher until the night air was sticky no more, but crisp and cool. She tightened her arms around his neck and buried her face there, finding comfort in his closeness, even in his dragon form.
“Do you trust Pim?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t trust anyone but my brothers and I don’t believe in coincidences. They found us too easily. It was like they knew where we were and had come looking for us.”
“That’s what I was thinking. So where are we going to go tonight, Imre?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this. There’s a cemetery out behind one of plantations not too far from here. There’s a crypt we use as a safehouse here. No one knows about it but Mikolas, Ondrej, and me. You’ll be safe there.”
“Me? Where are you going?”
“I’ll be there with you.”
“You better.”
He laughed. “Can you tone down the gold summoning, though?”
“I didn’t even know I could do that.”
Imre descended. “Hold on, this might be a rough landing.”
But it wasn’t. Again, he managed to control his Change so that when he took human form, he still had his dragon wings and they touched down lightly and his wings receded.
The cemetery was beautiful, peaceful. There were flowers all around and the old crypts had lovely stonework. She saw several raised up graves that had metal bars welded over them. “What’s that?”
“Zombies.”
“No, really.”
“Yeah, really. They did it in Europe to prevent the dead from returning as vampires, but down here, it’s to keep their loved ones from rising as zombies if they’ve cursed by a bokor- a voodoo sorcerer.”
He walked up to one of the oldest crypts and pushed aside a piece of statuary that revealed an electronic keypad with thumbprint identification and the crypt door turned inward.
“Come on.”
She followed him inside, through a reinforced steel door, and saw it was like the swankest hotel suite she’d ever seen. If it belonged to arms dealers. One wall was a veritable treasure trove of weapons and defense paraphernalia, a large modern kitchen that was all stainless steel, another wall was a computer system the flickered to life when they entered.
“The bathroom’s to the left if you want to take a shower.” He went immediately to the computer system and began typing.
“What are you doing?” she asked, leaning over his shoulder.
“Checking in with Ondrej. Feeding information to our central networking system and tracking our assets.”
“I didn’t know it was this involved.”
“You thought we just cruised around on our motorcycles without a fuck to give?”
“I assume you gave all the fucks.” She grinned. “But kind of. I mean… you’re so high-tech.”
“We’ve got pods like this everywhere we have a chapter.”
“Should you be telling me this?”
“Your sister is going to be getting the tour, so why not you?”
Why not her, indeed?
“They wouldn’t trust me with this. They’d assume I’d blab it, or break it…”
“You can’t break it, Aranka.”
“Oh, trust me. If it’s a thing that can break, I’m the one to do it.”
Imre shook his head and waved off her words. “Nah. I break shit, too. Some people better at other things and that’s okay.”
“Did Pim betray us?”
“I’m checking his bank accounts now, but I’m sure he betrayed us. I just need to figure out if it was willingly or if the Headhunters have something on him.”
“Your loyalty is a beautiful and terrible thing, Imre.”
“Why do you say that? Wouldn’t you want the benefit of the doubt?”
“I’d want it, but if I was a piece of fuck like Pim, I wouldn’t deserve it.” She shook her head.
“So, you’re perfect?”
“Far from it, but I would never betray my friends or family.”
“Not even to save your father?”
“I wouldn’t have to betray you. I trust you enough that I could tell you what happened and you’d help me.”
“You know me that well, you think?” He cocked his head to the side as if daring her to say she did.
She accepted the dare, because she did know him that well already. It was a sure knowledge she could feel in every fiber of her being. “Yeah, I do.”
He smiled then. “I guess you do.”
“I handled the royal accounts for my father. I can help look for suspect transactions, if you want.”
“I definitely want.” Imre grabbed her hand, but then he closed his eyes.
She could see that he was fighting against something, some inner turmoil.
“What’s wrong?”
“Go and get cleaned up. Rest. When you’re done, you can take a crack and this. Okay?”
“Did I do something?” She reached up with her other hand to touch his face.
When he opened his eyes, they were the bright, glowing emerald green. His dragon eyes, and they were beautiful.
“My dragon wants what it can’t have.”
“Your dragon can have anything it wants. So can you.”
“No, I can’t. You already said you don’t want forever.”
“How can I know if I want forever? My biology isn’t like yours. I don’t know what I want tomorrow. Le
t alone forever. God, it’s… forever.” She gave him a soft smile. “I know what I want right now, though.”
She leaned in and pressed her lips to his mouth.
He shuddered under her kiss, his hands not touching her, no contact between them except their lips.
“You keep playing with fire, Aranka, and it’s me who is going to get burned.”
“What’s the point of fire if it doesn’t burn?” She kissed him again.
She could kiss him for hours, but she wanted his hands on her. She wanted to feel his skin next to hers. She wanted to know if every part of him was as sensitive as his mouth.
Aranka sensed his surrender before she heard him growl and the sound was sexy as hell. His arms came around her and his embrace was hot and hard—everything she wanted it to be.
His hands seemed to be everywhere at once, but he whispered against her ear, “I have a confession for you. I’ve never done this before, either.”
Chapter 4
If a moment could be caught somewhere between the land of the living and the dead, this was it.
She looked at him with surprise. “Really?”
“I was waiting for the right person. My brothers kept shoving women at me. When that didn’t work, they tried men.” He shrugged. “They didn’t understand I was waiting for the right person. Now, you understand why I don’t have the kind of control my brothers have. Why I won’t be able to let you go. Because if you’re the right person, you’re the right person. You’re forever.”
He didn’t know what was so hard to understand about that. It seemed like it was such a foreign concept to so many. Imre didn’t think there was anything wrong with the way anyone wanted to do things, as long as it was between to consenting adults. But he knew what was right for him.
He was sure Aranka would walk away now. She was looking for a guide on a wild adventure and Imre, well, he’d watched just enough porn to get them lost.
She didn’t.
Her hand was on his face again and her lips hovered just above his. “I think that’s beautiful.”
She belongs to us.
His dragon had decided. There’d be no turning away, no stopping this thing between them.
“You are beautiful,” he said as his hands peeled her out of her clothes of their own volition.
“It’s just the gold,” she said, suddenly seeming shy as she looked away from him.
He titled her chin up so that she’d look into his eyes and see his truth. “More beautiful than gold, Aranka.”
He was rewarded with the full bloom of her smile.
“I’ll worship your body like I never have gold.”
She blushed. “For not having done this before, you sure do seem like you know all the right things to say and do.”
“I’m only being honest, as we always should be with each other.”
When she tilted her face up to him again, it wasn’t about him at all anymore. He wasn’t afraid he’d do the wrong thing, wasn’t afraid he didn’t know how to bring her pleasure. It was as if since she’d trusted herself into his keeping, his dragon would do the rest.
He wanted to touch her everywhere, not only for the pleasure of touching her, but for the pleasure it would bring her.
Except this thing between them wasn’t a one-sided seduction, oh no. Her hands were on his body too, exploring. They were soft and warm, but strong too. He liked that about her. He liked that she was everything feminine—including strong.
After kicking off his boots, he said, “You sure you don’t want to take this to the shower?”
She laughed, the sound had quickly become his favorite song. “Are you going to wash me?”
“It would be my honor.” He didn’t give her the chance to argue; instead he swept her up into his arms and allowed him to carry her into the shower.
He’d never much cared one way or another about all of the modern conveniences these safehouses had to offer—he spent so much time on the road without them. But this one, the water immediately turned on at his proximity and digital screen read the perfect temperature.
“Let me know if this isn’t to your liking.”
“Pretty much everything you’ve done so far is to my liking.” She turned her face into his neck.
He eased her to her feet and finished undressing before stepping inside the shower with her. He grabbed the organic cinnamon and cardamom body bar and made a lather in his hands before applying it to her hair. She leaned back into him with a moan.
He used the same lather to spread down over her shoulders.
Imre needed to ask Ondrej who stocked this place because whoever it was needed a fucking bonus. This stuff smelled delicious and felt like nothing short of heaven while he was working it over her skin.
Her muscles were tight in her shoulders, so he gave them extra attention, feeling her relax under his hands. Imre found he loved the texture of her skin, like living silk.
And she was so golden everywhere.
His cock was so hard and the way she’d pressed the perfection of her bare ass against him, he was surprised he’d been able to restrain himself.
For that, he’d thank his dragon. For his dragon, everything was about bringing her pleasure. Pushing her to that place where the stars lived.
So he continued massaging her skin with the bar, building up the lather until his smoothed it over her belly, and he took extra care with her breasts—kneading the full globes, bringing her nipples taut with the gentle circular motion of his thumbs.
She arched into his caress, her fingers closing over his.
He memorized every second of the way she felt against him, the sounds of need she made, and that moment when she pushed his hands down to her cleft.
Imre went to his knees, the spray of water warm on his back.
“Spread for me,” he whispered.
“This isn’t going to work, Imre. I can’t—”
“Trust me.”
“I do.”
“Do you remember how I can control my Change?” He flashed her a wicked grin. “My dragon wants to taste you.”
“Your dragon is dirty.” But she changed her stance to accommodate him, legs braced just slightly apart.
He felt the Change come over him, but it different this time. This time, his dragon knew exactly what he needed to do and it wasn’t a battle of wills. Only his tongue transformed. It was long enough to slide up to caress her, to press against her slick folds and swirl up over her clit.
“Oh my gods, Imre!”
He and his dragon both felt an incredible sense of satisfaction and pleasure at her exclamation.
She tasted like honey.
It wasn’t that she was sweet, but it was like a memory of summer.
He couldn’t get enough.
She leaned over, bracing her hands on his shoulders while he took them both to heaven. He’d have been content to lick her like a lolly until she screamed so loud the whole building came down around them.
“Would it be as good for you as it is for me?” she whispered, breathless.
“It’s very good for me,” he murmured and continued his task. Gods, she was still like silk on the inside as she was on the outside.
“No, I mean,” she gasped, digging her nails into his shoulder. “If I did this for you.”
The idea of her on her knees for him made his cock surge. “Then this would be over before we’ve begun. Next time.”
He returned to his task.
“So,” she gasped again. “If this forever thing happens,” Aranka panted. “Can I have this every day.”
“Mmmhmm,” he mumbled between strokes of his tongue.
“Okay,” she sighed.
He was going to hold her to that. She’d given herself to him and he was determined to keep her.
She climaxed, her legs shaking and that honey flavor getting stronger on his tongue. It wasn’t long until she was pushing away from him, but she couldn’t stand on her own, so he held her up again.
“Ti
me to rinse your hair,” he said softly.
She allowed him to maneuver her under the still hot spray and work his hands through her hair again, rinsing out the lather. Aranka leaned against him, trusted him to support her and hold her up while she processed the sensation he’d wrought in her.
He understood now how he was more than his dragon.
And how his dragon was more than him.
Imre wanted this female like he’d never wanted anything in the whole of his existence. His dragon made him yearn, made him need, and his humanity kept that need in check. But it was his dragon who sacrifice anything for her. It was his dragon who was the noble one.
He didn’t know if it was like that for all dragon shifters, but it was what it was like for him.
“Are you sure you haven’t done this before?” She looked up at him, her eyes glassy, half-lidded.
“Very sure.” He rinsed her carefully and then soaped up quickly and rinsed himself. After turning off the water, he wrapped her in a towel and led her toward the bedroom.
“When you said shower, you meant it.”
“I did. Don’t you feel better?”
“You know I do, but no more of this making choices for me thing. I don’t like it.”
“No? You don’t like that I made you come, washed your hair and gave you a massage? So noted.”
“Don’t give me that smirk. It’s not cute.” She pulled the towel more tightly around her. “And you’re dripping on the floor.”
“I guess I need your towel.” He pulled it from her like he was unwrapping a gift and she indulged him, turning around for him.
“I guess you do.” She took it from him though and drew it across his body slowly, taking the time to make sure she touched every inch of him in the wake of the towel. “I like touching you.”
He closed his eyes and focused on the sensation of her soft, silky fingers moving over his flesh. When he was dry, she dropped the towel and closed her hand over his length.
“It’s like velvet, but hard, too.” She stroked him up and down. “Do you like this?”
“Yes.”
She continued to caress him, and pressed her lips together. “I’m nervous. Is that dumb?”
He first instinct was to tell her it was going to be okay, but instead he said, “No. Me too.”
Imre: Drago Knights MC (Mating Fever) Page 3
