But for how much longer?
He stared out at the calm, cerulean Pacific and saw his Fire Mate running past him. Her flaming ponytail flipping behind her, her sublime body moving for him, only for him, and the dragon he truly was deep in his soul growled with rising, insatiable need.
He had to find her.
Now. If not sooner.
* * * *
Sera stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her torso. Well, that was a big freaking waste of time and water. Fifteen minutes fucking herself with her own fingers in a desperate attempt to get the memory of her psychotic kisser out of her mind, and who did she see when she finally closed her eyes and came? In hunky, sexy, smoldering vividness?
Him. Her stranger. It was like he was in the shower with her. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear she could smell him, a spicy smokiness on her every panted, gasping breath. If she didn’t know better, she would have laid money she’d heard him roar with mutual release when she came.
Of course, what he sounded like when he climaxed was something she totally knew. Not. So what the hell was the whole point of her shower? She was still horny, still thinking of her stranger and now, it seemed, she was insane.
She shoved the corner of her towel under her armpit in ferocious frustration and stormed across her bathroom. “Brilliant. Freaking brilliant. I’m a skanky ho losing her mind. Just what Mum always wanted me to be.”
At the thought of her mother, dead now for close to fifteen years, she pulled a face. Yeah, her mum had been all about maternal guidance and high hopes for her precious little one. As long as the high hopes and maternal guidance didn’t interfere with Mum’s daily poker-machine playing, her nightly bed hopping with whoever offered to pay her rent and her hourly drinking.
Perhaps Sera really was a chip off the old block, in the end. She did, after all, gladly and willingly play tonsil hockey with a complete stranger today.
“Stop it, Sera.” She shook her head, willing the thought of her less-than-perfect childhood away. The damp kiss of her hair on her shoulder blades sent a shiver rippling through her, a delightful sensation that made her nipples pinch hard beneath the towel. So what if she’d kissed a guy? It wasn’t like she was now married to him. It didn’t mean she was going to screw him senseless if she ever saw him again. And seriously, what were the odds of that happening? Sydney was a massive place. A person could be lonely in a crowd here.
And you’re not lonely at all, are you, Sera?
“Damn, woman.” She rolled her eyes. “What is it with you and the melodramatics today?”
Sera hurried from the bathroom into her bedroom. She wasn’t lonely. The fact she didn’t really connect with anyone made little difference. She had her cousin. Sure, he was a bit of an oddball, but at least he didn’t give her a hard time about always feeling cold no matter how hot the day, or teasing her for wanting to constantly be in the sun. At least he didn’t call her “lizard” like her work colleagues did.
She liked her life the way it was, thank you very much. She was doing exactly what she wanted to do—looking after reptiles. One big reptile, in fact. Despite what her fellow animal keepers called her behind her back, how many people in the world could say they cared for a Komodo dragon?
And how many could say they’d been kissed senseless by a stranger in the street? A tall, dreamy, gorgeous stranger who didn’t faze her cousin’s dog and scared the crap out of a cop? A mysterious man who would bring her to climax after climax after climax if given the—
“Oh, for Pete’s sake.” The exasperated groan fell in the silence of her room and she dropped onto the edge of her bed. “Now you’re freaking hornier than you already were.”
This was ridiculous. She wasn’t normally like this. What was going on? Anyone would think the guy had worked some freaky voodoo magic mojo on her to make her so obsessed.
Letting out a sigh, she slumped back on the bed. Her pussy throbbed with the fading echo of her recent orgasm. Her clit still felt tender. Swollen. What she really wanted now, right now, was her stranger between her thighs, sucking on it, licking it. Nibbling on it with not-so-gentle bites before lapping at her—
Sera’s belly flipped-flopped and she caught her bottom lip with her teeth. She truly was a skanky ho, it seemed. An insane, skanky ho with an obsession for a guy she didn’t even know.
“Again, I say brilliant. Freaking brilliant.”
She lay motionless for a long while, refusing to touch herself no matter how much her body demanded she do so. Her body was a slut. As it had proven today. Once she got herself under control, she’d pull on some clothes and head over to work. It was almost dark. She didn’t normally take the long cross-city commute to the zoo come nightfall and the zoo’s sole Komodo dragon, a cantankerous reptile by the wholly silly name of Puff, certainly wasn’t expecting her. But she felt the need to go see him anyway. See him and take comfort in his ancient presence.
Okay, now you really do sound insane, Sera. You need to—
Her doorbell rang.
She snapped upright, bending her body into an abrupt right angle. The towel dug into her armpits and she let out a little yelp, and another—the latter from ridiculous nerves when the doorbell rang again.
So are you going to go answer it?
It rang again. And a fist pounded on the door. An insistent fist.
Sera pushed herself to her feet and ran for the door. It made no sense, of course, especially when wrapped only in a damp towel, but she had to answer the door. She had to. A warm tension in the pit of her belly demanded it. Told her to run to the door, fling it open and throw herself into the arms of the man every fiber in her being, every molecule in her body, told her was standing on the other side. Throw herself into his arms, wrap her leg around his hip and kiss him until—
She stopped herself from yanking open the door half a heartbeat after her fingers wrapped around the knob. What the hell was she doing?
Pulse pounding, mouth dry, pussy aching, she looked down at herself.
The towel had fallen from her body somewhere between her bedroom and the front door. Her breasts were swollen and heaving, her nipples hard and puckered. Her belly was doing some bizarre, hitching dance, as if it knew what was about to happen and couldn’t wait.
She sucked in a sharp breath, dismayed and, quite frankly, more than a touch worried, and let out a soft groan. The air smelled of her pleasure. She was so ripe, so ready to be fucked she could smell her own need.
And even with that horrifying realization, even at the sight of her naked body, at the feel of her juices on the tops of her inner thighs, she was still about to pull the door open. Because on the other side was her stranger, her psychotic kisser. She was sure of it. Completely sure. And she so wanted to be kissed by him again. Kissed and fucked and claimed.
Holy moly, woman, what is wrong with you?
She jerked her hand from the doorknob as if it was a snake. An angry snake. Took a step back from the door.
Stared at it.
Heard her blood roaring in her ears, like the hungry call of a creature from her dreams.
The doorbell rang again and she gasped.
“I can hear your want,” a man called from the other side of the door, his deep voice muffled by two inches of steel-cored wood. “Just as powerfully as I can smell it.”
Sera gasped again. She scurried back, stare locked on the closed door. He was here. Holy fuck, how could he be here?
Doesn’t matter. Open the door and let him in.
She shook her head. “Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin,” she whispered.
“I’m not a wolf,” he called from the other side.
Sera didn’t just yelp this time, she squealed. She stumbled back several more steps, mouth open, ready to tell whoever her stranger was to go the fuck away, when her heel came down on the towel so conveniently on the floor behind her. Soft Egyptian cotton slid over polished wood, and before she could save herself, the world slipped under h
er and she landed on her arse. With a thud. And another yelp.
“Fuck, that hurt!”
The door slammed open before the exclamation could finish bursting past her lips, the sound of splintering wood drowning out her cry a second before her mysterious stranger stormed into the house and scooped her from the floor.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Her question squeaked from her. There wasn’t really any other way to describe the way the words came out of her mouth. She squeaked them, like a trapped mouse. Except no mouse had ever been held naked against a chest so broad and hard, by arms so strong and perfect. Oh God, were they strong. And perfect.
Reality hit her.
“Put me down!”
She thrashed in his arms, far too turned-on for her sanity. She writhed and bucked until, with another shout, she tumbled from his strong, perfect arms to her feet. God, she was all about making stupid noises today, wasn’t she?
She hit the floor with a solid thud, bounced on her feet, stumbled sideways and scooped up her towel as she went. For a surreal moment she saw herself in all her naked glory—damp hair lashing around her face like red strands of rope, boobs jiggling, arms and legs waving about. For another surreal moment she thought thank freaking God I waxed yesterday, and then she was backing up against floor-to-ceiling mirror, knotting her wet towel around her chest and glaring at the man currently standing in her house.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” she spat out between ragged breaths.
Eyes the color of midnight studied her. He didn’t take a step. He just stood motionless, his tall, imposing, dominating body decked out in snug, faded Levis and a black polo, his gaze trained on her through an artfully messy tumble of glossy raven-black hair. “I—”
She didn’t let him finish. “How did you find me…are you a stalker? Are you stalking me?”
He shook his head, a pained expression flashing across features that were way too gorgeous not to be unnerving. “No,” he said, and Sera ground her teeth at the hungry way her body reacted to the deep timbre of his voice. “But I need to—”
“Fuck off,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes. “That’s what you need to do. Why the hell did you just break in my door if—”
“I heard you fall and hurt your—”
“That doesn’t mean you can—”
“Listen, you need—”
“Get lost, creep! And to think I just masturba—” She slapped her hand to her mouth. Oh Jesus, had she really almost said what she’d been about to say?
Her stranger—stop it! He’s not your anything!—cocked his head to the side and took a step toward her. “What did you just do?”
Sera smooshed herself closer to the mirror and cursed her idiocy—one, for backing her bare butt against a solid surface, limiting her escape options, and two, for opening her big, idiotic mouth. “Take another step,” she snarled, fighting to keep her anger, “and you’re in for a world of pain.” She should have been furious and petrified and panicked. Instead, the closer her stranger came, the more she wanted him, as if she were a cat to his funky-arsed catnip.
Cat, mouse…what other kind of animal do you purport to be this afternoon, Sera? Goat? Monkey? Lizard?
Her stranger’s eyes seemed to shimmer with a burnished heat. “I like the sound of that last one.”
Sera’s mouth fell open. He didn’t just read her mind. No way. “Okay, seriously, take one more step and I’m kicking your balls in!”
A small, crooked grin curled one side of his mouth. “One more step and I’ll have you flattened to that mirror with my mouth on yours.”
A wave of traitorous heat rolled through her, tight and delicious and…wrong. This was so wrong. A strange man was in her house, had broken into her house and seen her naked—God, held her naked. He’d kissed her, stalked her back here and now she was horny? Again? This couldn’t be any more wrong.
So why does it feel right, Sera? Right on every damn level?
She narrowed her eyes. And then said the most ridiculous thing she’d ever uttered in her life. “Try it.”
His nostrils flared. “Okay.”
He moved. With wholly unnatural speed.
One second he was several feet away, the next he was pushed against her, his hands pinning her wrists beside her head, one thick, hard thigh rubbing between her legs. Rubbing over her clit. Stimulating it. Teasing it.
“H-how…” she began, her voice barely a croaking whisper. “How did you…”
“Because I’m a dragon,” he stated on a low murmur, gazing into her eyes, “and you’re my Fire Mate.”
And then his mouth did indeed claim hers. Thoroughly.
Chapter 3
He kissed her. He couldn’t not kiss her. This wasn’t exactly what he’d planned, but when he’d detected the delicate musk of her arousal on the air, trickling through the minute space around the door, when he’d heard the waver in her voice and the rapid beat of her heart, he’d all but shifted there and then.
Then when he’d heard her fall, heard her cry out in pain, well—he couldn’t stop himself from smashing open her door.
And he’d found her naked.
He’d planned to talk to her, convince her of what he was, what she was, before claiming her body. But then he’d found her naked and his plan—admittedly not a stellar one—went to hell in a handbasket.
She was warm and firm and wet already, and she’d writhed against him, her skin sliding over his, her feistiness stirring an appreciation in him beyond the chemistry of their destined relationship, and he had to kiss her. He had to.
He delved his tongue past her lips, swiping at her teeth, tasting her mouth. She groaned, a low sound of confused need. He could feel the fight in her still, it thrummed through her body like charged energy. She stood crushed against him, her muscles coiled, but her lips moved against his. Moved and, finally, parted.
He growled, his hands jerking hers farther up the mirror, the action forcing her breasts upward. The towel unknotted, sliding open.
A wave of primitive lust surged through him. His cock jerked in his jeans, thick and hard, straining at the zipper of his fly, demanding release. He lashed his tongue over hers, feasting on the softness of her lips, the wildness of her tongue, as he rolled his hips against her sinuously.
She groaned again and rolled her hips in response. Her towel slipped farther, revealing more of her delicious body to the room, and Tyson growled again, thrusting his erection harder to her belly. He wanted to bury himself to the balls in her sex. He needed to. The pull in his soul, the driving need, was beyond control. That he hadn’t already taken her made his head spin. Or maybe it was the lush scent of her musk doing that? Maybe it was the soft heat of her naked curves against his body? He didn’t know. All he knew was he could hear her heart hammering beneath her breast, could feel her nipples rubbing against his chest, could smell her need in his every breath, taste her sweetness on his lips and tongue and had to kiss her more. Had to show her what it was to be a Fire Mate. The raw pleasure of a kiss, the pure desire.
Kiss her before claiming her.
All of her.
He released one of her wrists and raked a hand down to her breast, capturing its exquisite form. She bucked, gasping into his mouth.
He squeezed her breast again, loving the way she responded to his touch. It was instinctual. Natural. He pinched her nipple, rolling it between thumb and forefinger before dragging the pad of his thumb over its tip. She moaned, thrusting her pussy forward before hooking one leg around the back of his thigh.
His head swam, iridescent swirls of red dancing behind his eyelids. He needed to embed himself in her soon. Before the heat of the fire mating overwhelmed him. Dragging his mouth from her lips, he wove a path up to her ear. “I want to be inside y—”
She slammed her fist into the side of his head, and then struck his chest before he could even digest the first blow.
He staggered back a step, and another when she slammed both hands
to his chest and pushed.
Without tearing her gaze from his face, she scooped her towel from her feet and grasped it in front of her breasts. He didn’t have the heart to tell her he could still see her nipples. Not when she looked so fierce and angry and delectable. At some point soon he really needed to find out her name. Preferably before sinking his cock into her pussy.
Deep inside him the fire of his mating need flared hotter. Stronger.
Soon. He had to have her soon. If he didn’t, and that heat turned into an inferno…
“Jesus.” She gaped at him, eyes wide. Shocked. “What are you? Some kind of depraved, perverted hypnotist preying on helpless women? How did you make me do that?”
He grinned, lifting his hand to rub at his temple. He had to give it to her; she knew how to swing a fist. “I’d hardly call you helpless, and I’m not a hypnotist.”
“Oh?” Her blue eyes glinted with sharp sarcasm. “And what would you call yourself then?”
Tyson’s heart thumped at the question. He held her gaze with his own. “Dragon shifter.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Dragon what? Are you in some kind of a cult? Am I being pranked? Punk’d? Am I on Candid Camera?”
He laughed. He couldn’t help himself. “No. I’m a dragon shifter. Sometimes I’m human, sometimes I’m—”
“A dragon?” She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Big, scaly reptile creature from mythology?”
He nodded. “Dragon. Big, scaly reptile creature from mythology. With wings.” He paused a heartbeat. “And you’re my destined Fire Mate.”
Sera’s pulse pounded in her throat like a sledgehammer. She studied the man before her, a very distant part of her mind completely dismayed at how someone so gorgeous, so sexy, could be so freaking insane. The rest of her mind was only concerned with one thing.
Run!
She flung the towel at his face and did just that. Fast. As fast as she could, sprinting for her bedroom. Not stopping to see if he was following her, not caring her bare backside was on complete display if he was. Her phone was in her bedroom and her bedroom door had a lock on it. As far as she was concerned, those two things far outweighed her naked butt. If she got to her room before he could grab her, it’d be worth it. She could slam the door, lock it and call the cops.
Sera's Dragon Page 3
