But it was her eyes that really tugged at him. They were green pools of emotion. Whoever Sam was and whatever she’d done, she was not very good at hiding what she was feeling. And if that were the case, why had the Knights hired her?
He grabbed the pan off the stove and turned off the heat. It was time to eat. “What do you mean there’s a hum in your blood?” He found it interesting that Darius’s Sarah had a talent for psychometry, most specifically for books. Tarrant’s Valeriya had a sixth sense for danger, always knowing when it was near.
Now Sam was telling him she had an unusual ability as well. Was that what attracted the other side of his nature, his dragon side? Definitely something he needed to share with his brothers. If the Knights ever discovered this weakness, they’d exploit it to the max, using it to trap an unwary drakon.
They couldn’t let that happen.
Sam shrugged. “I can’t really explain it. I can always find objects of a certain nature if I’m near them.”
He set the platter of pancakes and the pan of bacon on the counter. He picked his words carefully as he got down plates and dug out cutlery. “What kind of objects?”
Sam tucked her hair behind her ears, but the curls didn’t stay there longer than a few seconds. “The kind most other archaeologists aren’t really interested in. I find things linked with myth and legend. Many of my colleagues consider such things inconsequential, but I believe myths and legends have a basis in reality if we search long enough.”
Ezra piled food on Sam’s plate and then heaped even more on his own. He’d just taken his first forkful of eggs, when she added, “Take dragons, for example.”
He choked and began to cough. Sam jumped off her stool, hurried to his side, and began to pat him on the back. His eyes watered, but he cleared his throat. “Dragons?” How much did she know about him? Could she sense he was different?
When he waved her away, she slid back onto her stool and had a sip of juice. She was blushing, both her cheeks a soft shade of pink. “I know it sounds crazy. I’m not saying there are dragons. I’m just saying they probably had a basis in fact. My theory is ancient man stumbled across the bones of a winged dinosaur and thought it belonged to a living creature.”
“A dragon.”
She nodded. “Exactly. I find artifacts relating to such things—pottery, tablets, scrolls, jewelry.” She gave him a pointed look. “Books.”
“Just dragons?” Was that why he’d been so drawn to her?
She shook her head, and he was briefly mesmerized by her bouncing curls. They were like fire in the morning sunlight. “No, all myths and legends—phoenix, dragons, unicorns, the kraken, mermaids, and a bunch you probably never heard of. What people fear, what they revere, that really speaks to the heart of who they were and what drove them in their daily lives.”
She frowned at her pancakes. “Do you have any syrup or butter?”
He went to the refrigerator and retrieved the butter. “No syrup. Sorry.” He wasn’t overly fond of sweet things, although Sam was sweet, and he had a feeling he could easily become addicted to her if he wasn’t careful.
“So you found this book,” he prompted.
Sam sighed. “I really shouldn’t be telling you this. The people I work for are nasty. My boss belongs to a secret society.” She paused and leaned forward, as if imparting a great secret. “The Knights of the Dragon.”
“Dragons again?”
“Scoff if you want.” She picked up her knife and spread some butter over the pancakes before cutting a piece. “But they believe it, and that’s what makes them dangerous.”
He couldn’t picture Sam being involved with the Knights. “So why are you working with them?”
She carefully set her fork down on the side of her plate and swallowed her mouthful of food. “I know I can’t stop them. They’re too large a group. Too powerful. I’m just an archaeologist.” Her gaze sharpened, and he caught the edge of old pain reflecting in them. “They killed a dear friend of mine about a year ago.”
That had to be the mentor Tarrant had mentioned. “Why?”
“He was so excited. He’d discovered an old book from the eighteen hundreds about an arcane society, one that believed dragons were real. He wanted me to come by so he could show it to me.”
Ezra had a sinking feeling he knew how this story was going to end.
“When I arrived and he didn’t answer the door, I got worried and used the key I had. He was lying on the floor. At first, I thought he’d had a heart attack or maybe gotten dizzy and fallen. Then I saw the blood on his chest. He’d been shot in the heart.”
Ezra shoved aside his plate and reached for Sam. He felt utterly helpless when her voice broke on a sob. “The police investigation pegged it a home invasion gone wrong. I looked for the book, the one he’d told me about, but it was gone.”
There was more to the story. Ezra needed to know how she’d gone from her mentor’s death to discovering the Knights. But that would come later. Right now the only thing that mattered was comforting Sam.
…
Karina Azarov sat at her desk and viewed the video footage that Birch had brought up on his laptop. “Is this the best they can do?” she demanded.
“Unfortunately, it is. It was dark and there’s only about fifteen seconds of footage. If we had more, we might have been able to get something out of it.” Birch hit the play button without her having to ask and she watched it again.
“It’s big.” She leaned forward. “It could be a whale.”
“It most likely is.” Birch closed the cover and tucked the laptop under his arm. “It’s big and fast. There were whales sighted in the area earlier that day.”
“So it’s nothing more than bad luck.” Karina sat back and rubbed her forehead. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? Nothing has been going the way it should these past weeks.”
“The best we can do is salvage what’s left of the Integrity and send another vessel to keep excavating the Reliant. We need to know if there’s anything else of value in the wreckage. Dr. Bellamy is missing. We don’t know if she’s dead or alive, if she had the artifact on her, or if it’s lost.”
“You’re right.” She straightened in her chair and picked up her phone to make some calls. “You deal with Dexter. Let him know I won’t tolerate any more failures. His only job is to find out what happened to Sam Bellamy and to recover anything she might have found. Tell him he has a week. After that, I’ll send someone else to do the job.”
Birch nodded and left, not surprised by her ultimatum. After all, he was the one who’d taught her how best to deal with the people in her employ. Results were rewarded. Failures were dealt with swiftly and brutally.
Chapter Seven
All the pent-up pain and sorrow of the last year seemed to pour out of Sam at once. Maybe it was because for the first time since she’d discovered Brian’s body, she felt safe. Her mentor had been her only true friend, her family. She barely knew Ezra, but he’d saved her life and given her a temporary safe haven. It was more than she’d expected when she’d set out on this mission.
There was something so solid about him. It didn’t hurt that he was sexy. He felt…right. She didn’t know quite how else to phrase it.
“You’re safe.” His deep voice seemed to surround her before it seeped into her very bones. Ezra was just one man, but she felt as though nothing could harm her as long as he held her in his arms.
This surcease of fear was temporary. She knew that. She couldn’t hide here forever. That would only endanger him. He might think he understood the danger, but she honestly didn’t think he did. No one could unless they’d seen firsthand just how far the Knights would go to protect themselves and their secrets.
Ezra scooped her into his arms and started moving. She lifted her head long enough to see him heading toward the stairs. “Where are we going?” She sniffed back the tears, hating that she’d succumbed to them. She’d cried endlessly after Brian’s death. Then she’d been approached by Ge
rvais Rames with his claims about the Knights of the Dragon. Her sorrow had quickly turned to anger.
She’d been on enough archeological digs, discovered enough artifacts, that she understood certain items had a particular energy, an even mystical power about them. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe such things existed. Many would consider her gift for finding such things to be magical. But her beliefs didn’t extend so far as to believe dragons were real.
Throughout the annals of time, people had killed to get their hands on these mystical amulets, statues, and texts. She’d just never thought her mentor would die for one of them. His life had been worth so much more than any book.
She hadn’t cried since, until now.
“To bed.”
She didn’t know if he meant to put her to bed to rest or if he planned on joining her there. Funnily enough, the idea of getting naked with him didn’t bother her at all. In fact, it was exciting.
She’d almost died. Had expected to die. For the past year of her life, she’d been insulated from the rest of humanity, living in a dark world where secret societies killed and got away with it because they had money and power. Most people lived their entire lives in ignorance, never knowing such people existed.
Sam wished she could go back to a time when she’d been blissfully unaware of such things. But there was no turning back the clock. No way to forget the things she’d seen and learned this past year.
Gervais had introduced her to a world of influential people, money, and deadly games all driven by their belief in dragons. He had a vast knowledge about the Knights, and when she began to look into it herself, she’d finally been forced to admit he didn’t seem to be as crazy as she’d first assumed. Not that she believed dragons were real, but there were powerful, dangerous people who did.
Ezra placed her in the center of the bed and then stretched out beside her. He watched her intently with the most mesmerizing eyes she’d ever seen. She had her hand halfway to his face before she stopped herself. What was she doing?
“No. Don’t stop.” He clasped her hand in his much larger one and pressed it against his cheek. He closed his eyes and inhaled sharply.
His features, like the rest of him, were bold and rugged. She ran her thumb over his bottom lip. He growled and nipped at the tip. A blast of heat jolted through her. Sam knew she was playing with fire but didn’t care.
There could be nothing between them but these stolen moments in time. She had to leave. Staying in one place would only make it easier for the Knights to find her. Aaron Dexter was out there somewhere, looking for her. She could feel it in her bones.
“What are you thinking about?” He took hold of her hand and brought her palm to his lips. He kissed it and then nibbled on the tip of one of her fingers. “You seem so far away.”
And she didn’t want to be. She wanted to be right here with Ezra Easton, the stranger who’d plucked her from the sea.
“It’s not important.” He frowned and then nipped her finger, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to startle her. “Ouch! What was that for?”
“Don’t lie to me.” He rolled, covering her with his enormous body. He held his weight on his forearms so he didn’t crush her. His wild, vibrant scent surrounded her. There was no mistaking the hardness pressing against her leg.
“I’m not lying.” She shrugged when he frowned. “There’s just no point in talking about it.” A tear trickled from the corner of her eye and down her temple, disappearing into her hair. She hated the weakness.
Ezra groaned and licked the next salty tear before it could slip away. “We’ll talk, but later.” He brushed light kisses over her cheekbone, angling toward her lips.
This was a mistake. There was no place in her life for any kind of relationship. But this wasn’t a relationship, was it? This was two people coming together in extreme circumstances.
What did it matter how she justified it to herself? She wanted Ezra. There was an empty spot deep inside her she suspected he could fill. She’d been cold and afraid for so long. She wanted to reach out and grab some heat, some human comfort, some sense of connection.
Their lips met, and the cosmos exploded. It was the briefest of touches, but it totally rocked her world, changing it forever.
He stared down at her, and she imagined the shocked expression on his face mirrored the one on hers. “Ezra.”
“Later.” He sealed his lips to hers, stealing her breath and all semblance of logic. He tilted his head slightly and deepened the kiss. She moaned, and when her lips parted, he eased his tongue inside.
He tasted as wild as the sea and slightly salty. She’d always been the kind of girl who liked salty more than sweet. He groaned, and the sound vibrated all the way to her toes, making them curl.
He pulled back and stared down at her, both of them panting for breath. “If you want me to stop, say so now.”
This was the moment of truth. It was her decision. What did she want?
Sam knew if she told Ezra to go, she’d regret it for the rest of her life, no matter how long or short that might be. She raised her arms and wrapped them around his neck. “Stay,” she whispered.
His eyes seemed to blaze like turquoise fire. He had the thickest lashes she’d ever seen on a man, but they in no way detracted from the fierceness of his face. If anything, they emphasized the harsh planes and angles of his cheeks and the hardness of his jaw.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded. “I’m sure.”
…
Ezra had never heard such beautiful words in his life. So simple, but they made his heart race and every muscle in his body tightened in anticipation. Sam wanted him.
She was here in his bed with her arms wrapped around his neck.
Maybe he was crazy. Maybe this was all some elaborate scheme of the Knights, but he just didn’t see how that was even possible. Inside him, his dragon half roared with displeasure that he was even questioning what they were about to do. His more primitive half wanted him to claim Sam.
Her taste was on his lips, slightly sweet and salty from the food she’d eaten. That gave him pause. She hadn’t eaten nearly enough. Neither of them had. The food was still on the kitchen counter, growing colder by the second.
He would make her something else when they were done. Because nothing short of a nuclear blast could make him leave this bed.
He kissed her, groaning when she slid her hands down his broad shoulders and dug her fingernails into his shirt. He wanted her hands on his bare skin. He pulled back and yanked his shirt over his head. Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she visually traced his tattoos.
“These are so beautiful. So wild and primitive.” She ran her fingers over the curve of one of the symbols and on to the next one. His dick was as hard as bedrock. Having her hands on his chest was making him crazy, but also content in a way he’d never been.
That’s the way it had been for both his brothers. Their dragon sides had known the right woman when they met her. Ezra had given up hoping it would happen for him. Never had he expected to pluck his woman from the sea, but it was fitting.
“I’ve never seen anything like them before.” He could hear the wonder in her voice, but that was all. There was nothing to suggest she understood what it was she was seeing.
“They go all the way down your arm, too.” Her fingers followed, flowing down his arm to his wrist.
He had to get her naked. He started to reach for her and remembered her injury at the last second. That stopped him cold. What in the hell was he doing? Not only was Sam still healing from her wound, only minutes ago, she’d been crying over the death of a friend. He was taking advantage of her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“You’re injured.” It was hard to get the words out when every cell in his body was screaming at him to just shut the fuck up. Sam was here, warm and willing. He could smell the faintest hint of arousal. It made the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He wanted to bathe in her sc
ent until it covered his entire body.
She frowned and glanced down at her arm. “It doesn’t feel that bad.”
“The bullet grazed you. Took out a layer of skin. You lost some blood.”
The corners of her mouth lifted. He’d found her beautiful when she was wet and bedraggled. Clean and warm and smiling, she was radiant. “You can do all the work. I’ll just lie here.”
She was teasing him. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had teased him like this. It made the weight of the years he’d lived and survived slip away. He felt younger, more alive than he had in centuries. Usually, only the ocean made him feel this way.
“I can, can I?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh.”
“Well then, I should get busy removing your clothes.” He waited to see if she would protest. When she didn’t, he levered himself off her and knelt beside her. He pulled off her socks, which were really his and way too big for her, and then skimmed the oversize pants down her legs. She was bare beneath them.
He stared at her long legs and slightly rounded hips. Sam was strong and lean and all woman. He wanted to crawl between her legs, but he wanted her totally naked first. He reached for the first button on the flannel shirt and slipped it through the hole. He wanted to rip the garment open, but that might harm or frighten her. He didn’t want that. She was a gift, and like any present, she was meant to be unwrapped slowly, to be appreciated.
The pulse in her neck was fluttering wildly by the time he undid the last button. He eased the edges back and stared down at her breasts. They weren’t overly large, but they were well formed and tipped with tight pink nipples.
Ezra groaned and lowered his head. He had to taste her. He trailed his tongue around the outer edge of her nipple before dragging it over the very tip. Sam cried out and pushed closer. He opened his mouth and covered her. She tangled her fingers in his hair and held him close.
He wanted to roar with satisfaction. Something inside him clicked into place like a bank vault slamming shut. He’d bring ruin to the world before he’d let anyone take her from him.
Drakon's Plunder (Blood of the Drakon) Page 6
