by Jan Dockter
But he wanted to make this last, wanted more of her. He pulled away.
Disappointment brimmed in her green eyes. “What? You don’t like it?”
“No. I like it too much. He put his knee between her legs and put his hands on her shoulders and guided her to lay flat on the bed. He pushed her skirt around her hips and found to his delight lacy and skimpy black underwear. That Miss Prim and Proper wore something that drove him to dive between her legs, so he did. He buried his face in that skimpy lace where her musk hit him full force. He pushed aside the thin strip that covered her intimate treasures and brushed his tongue against her pink flesh.
She was divine, utterly delicious, and he had to have more. His tongue explored every nook and crevice of her petals that were soaked with her cream. She moaned when he put his mouth over her mound and sucked at her clit through the lace. Steph bucked into his mouth and moaned and Ryan wanted nothing more than to sink inside her heat. He put his hand on the undergarment and tore it off her. He didn’t care. He’d buy her a dozen more panties. Ryan wanted her flesh in his mouth. He licked and suckled her sweetness until she was grinding against his mouth calling his name and begging him.
“Please, Ryan,” she whimpered pleading for her release. But it wasn’t going to be that quick or that easy. There was more that he wanted of her. His hands ripped open the flimsy clasp of her bra Her gorgeous breasts spilled out, and he rose up and sucked a rosy nipple into his mouth.
“Oh!” she cried sharply. He laved her nipple with the tip of his tongue and then did the same thing to the other nipple. She pushed her hips into his rubbing against his cock that was still in his boxers. He pulled those down and lowered himself against her mound. The cream from her, the wet from his mouth created a wonderful place to slide against, teasing her, teasing himself. A fire burned inside him, the heat rose through his spine and if he didn’t stop what he was doing, he would shoot his load right now.
He slid back down between her thighs, lapping her sweet cream by spearing his tongue inside her. She gasped and grabbed his hair, holding him in place. He could barely breathe, but he felt the electricity rushing through her body, building in a tidal wave, ready to break.
“Ryan,” she screamed. Heat sizzled the length of his spine swirling around his balls, his cock swelling so that it felt like steel. He wanted this woman, more than he ever wanted one in his life. She lay gasping and trying to catch her breath.
“Are you okay?”
She smiled dreamily.
More than. That was fucking incredible.
There. Right there. He did hear her thoughts.
His cock pulsed demanding that he return to the matter at hand. She was so beautiful laying beneath him and all he could think was how much he needed to be inside her. He searched her face and reached for her thoughts.
I want you.
Take me.
She trembled under him with unexpressed desire and that stoked his need for her higher. He fumbled in the nightstand looking for a condom but found none.
Damn, he thought.
Don’t worry. Birth control.
In his mind, he got an image of the implant in her arm. And then he got another image of him inside her. She was thinking this. Steph wanted him.
Wickedly he slid his cock against her sensitive mound once again but that made her only wetter. And drove him insane.
He guided his cock to her entrance, but the wet and heat at the tip overloaded his senses. Ryan thrust and sunk deep into her.
She was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Steph was tight, but not so much that he winced with discomfort. Seated inside her he held himself above her on his arms and leaned down and kissed her.
Their thoughts tangled as their tongues did. He felt all her emotions, her joy at their joining, the heat in her body. He moved. Their thoughts intertwined, and he did not know where he began and she ended. As her desire rose once more it was as if it curled around his spine. He gripped her hips as she pulsed around him. Her sheath was wet and wrapped him like silk. He lost sense of who he was and was lost in the sense of the two of them entwined body, mind and soul. He moved within her and spiraled toward their release, rising high, pleasure pulsing through every nerve, building to a white explosion that stretched into infinity that stole his breath.
“Mine, mine,” thrummed in his head to the beating of his heart.
What he did next was pure instinct. He rose up on his arms found her neck and sunk his teeth in the meat of her shoulder just above the clavicle. Steph cried out but not in pain. He rode the wave of her third orgasm with her, the one brought on by the mark he made on her neck.
Ryan shuddered at the end of his orgasm barely able to breathe. He clasped his hands behind her neck and kissed her once more, but this time soft and sweet. His heart swelled for the delicious woman he held.
“That was amazing,” he said.
“Yes,” she agreed. Steph touched the bite on her shoulder.
“Why did you do that?”
“Seemed like the right thing to do. I marked you and now you’re mine.”
She sat up alarm written on her face.
“What? You did what?”
“Relax. The spirit moved me and it was good for both of us, wasn’t it?”
“Well, take it back. Now.”
“Take it back? Steph, we were just having fun.”
“Just fun? Ryan, a claiming bite is a serious thing for dragons.”
He laughed sure she was getting upset over nothing. “How would you know?”
“I’ve had an interest in dragons since I was a little girl.”
“Oh, so you are a dragon expert.”
“No. I just know a few pieces of information about them. And what I learned was a claiming bite is more serious than marriage.”
Now a cold chill ran down Ryan’s spine.
“Marriage?”
“More serious than.”
“Oh, fuck.”
CHAPTER NINE
Steph
“So now you don’t like the idea of claiming me?” Stephanie had to breathe to calm down. Ryan’s immediate reaction confused and disappointed her. When he clamped down on her shoulder what she had felt was not pain, but the most intense orgasm she had in her life. At that moment she and Ryan were one, intertwined, and it seemed he had reached to her very soul and took a piece of it. That now he regretted the act tore a hole in her heart.
She had never let a man use her, and she’d be damned if that man was going to be Ryan Kaur.
Ryan stood quickly and paced the floor in a parody of earlier in the evening. His face was twisted in concern.
“Every minute there is some new piece of madness in being a dragon,” he sputtered. “Why can’t I be regular old Ryan Kaur again, without the dragon part?”
Ryan’s self-anger matched the intensity of her indignation. He whipped around and stared her in the eye.
“Look,” growled Ryan. “Obviously, I’m out of my mind.”
“I’d say so.”
“But I’m pretty sure I’d claim you any time on any day.”
“Oh,” she said. Her anger deflated like a damaged beach ball and she sat and put her arms around her knees. A twinge of pain accompanied the moment, and she realized a new thing about Ryan.
“Come,” she said in a softer voice, “and put your arm around me.”
“What?”
“Sit down,” she said again. “When you touch me I don’t feel any pain in my body, but right now it is a little cranky.”
Ryan lay down, and she snuggled her head against his shoulder. It felt so good, so right to be here with this man even if she did meet him less than twenty-four hours ago.
“That’s much better,” she said as she descended into welcome relief. “You really are better than any pain killer I’ve ever had.”
“You too. Well, I mean, I feel calmer, more centered when I touch you.”
“Then I guess we need each other.” They lay in companionable silence w
hile Steph listened to the thudding of Ryan’s heart in his chest. It was steady and reliable unlike the young man she met earlier in the morning. But she sensed a shift in Ryan too. Though his thoughts swirled with uncertainty, there was pride swelling in him as well.
“Steph,” he said after a long moment. “I meant what I said. I’d claim you anytime.”
“I know you spoke the truth. I think, from now on we’ll never be able to lie to each other.”
“You think?”
“I’m pretty sure. I know, right now, what you feel is possessive of me.”
“I do.”
“But you aren’t sure what your other feelings are.”
“I’m not.”
“And really, it is too soon to know. As your lawyer, I advise you to take one step at a time.”
“Is that what you want to do?” asked Ryan gently.
“Yes. I know a few things about dragons, but you’ve shown me I learned less than I should. We’ve tumbled off a cliff you and me, and we did it like two babes in the woods not knowing the consequences. I have no idea what claiming me means.”
“I’m pretty sure it means you are mine.”
“That sounds like the dragon talking. But you are aware that people don’t own other people, right?”
Ryan chuckled. “That’s not what the dragon in me says, but yeah, I know that.”
“And then there is the matter of how we are going to face the world. My career at my firm is probably toast.”
“I’ll talk to them.”
“Do you think that will do any good?”
“I’m still Ryan Kaur. And I’m pretty sure that the government hasn’t connected the dots between the dragon and me. I’ll call your firm tomorrow and tell them we are going on an extended vacation. Staying away should help my father get the government contract he wants, and I get to spend some time with my human. We’ll lie low.”
His wicked smile melted her and Steph could refuse him nothing. It occurred to her they were connected by a mystical force that bent the usual rules. This revelation tilted and shifted her world. It really didn’t matter what Ryan felt about her. A deep and abiding need filled her to be with this man-this dragon. Whether that was the result of a dragon’s seductiveness or something else deep within her soul she didn’t know.
The strange woman’s words from her dream visited her.
You serve a dragon then?
What odd words. Was this what it meant to serve a dragon? To have no desire but to do what he wanted? This thought disturbed Steph. While she had been a soldier and followed orders she never did it blindly. There was some faith and trust in her leaders but none of them had ever led her astray. But this dragon? All she knew was that he was wild and impetuous and didn’t make the best choices in life. How could she put her faith and trust in him?
“I know you aren’t sure about us,” said Ryan. “I do catch your thoughts, at least some of them. But when you are thinking seriously to yourself it is like a whisper I can’t catch.”
“I’m not sure how we can be sure of anything,” she said. “We have had an eventful day. Perhaps we should get some sleep.”
A roar that shook the cabin woke her. She slipped out of bed and wrapped the bedsheets around her. Walking toward where the fearsome noise originated she heard Ryan muttering, and she imagined him pacing the room he was in. She found him in the living room pacing as she suspected. A huge wide screen television mounted on the wall flashed their individual pictures. Ryan spotted her. The anger on his face was enormous.
“Can you imagine? They think I kidnapped you. Kidnapped!”
Steph walked to him and put her hand on his arm.
“Ryan, you have to know that under any other circumstance this would not be a news story. It must have been planted by the government to draw me out.”
“You?”
“Yes, they can’t go around saying that somehow I’m associated with a dragon. All they know is that a dragon shows up around me. You are incidental because you showed up at the hospital. For all they know the dragon has us both.”
“So, you don’t think the government suspects I’m a dragon?”
“They could, but then there is also your family. They would have been heavily vetted before they got a major defense contract. Besides, I’m thinking something else too.”
“What?”
“Since it was my firm that handled your adoption, they have heavy stakes in keeping your dragon identity a secret. If it were found out they handled the adoption of a dragon child, then every other adoption they handled would be suspect.”
Ryan stared at her. “You think they are in a conspiracy to place dragon children in the families of the wealthy?”
“Think of it. It could have been going on for years. The U.S. is one country where there aren’t dragon suppression laws, and we all know how much corporate money steers the political tides.”
“Holy,” said Ryan unable to speak. He dropped to one of the couches and Steph sat next to him.
“No wonder the government is hot and heavy to find a dragon. Someone suspects and they want to root out this conspiracy. But who would concoct such a plan in the first place?”
“I think I know,” said Steph softly.
“Who?”
“You’ll think I’m crazy, but yesterday when you first brought me here I had a dream. I was in a courtyard where the tiles were broken and filled with grass, a beautiful woman stood there and she asked if I was a dragon. When I told her no she asked if I “served a dragon.” She told me then to tell you to think about the queen of the dragons and that would bring you to her.”
“The queen of the dragons? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Neither have I. But think about it, Ryan. If anyone would want to put dragons in powerful positions, it would be someone like that.”
“It’s a crazy plan. How would she know if these adopted dragons would be loyal to her?”
“I’m as much in the dark as you are, Ryan.”
He nodded. “I think we have to do two things.”
Steph’s stomach rumbled from hunger. She barely ate anything yesterday and didn’t even finish the burger Ryan made her.
“Okay, three things.”
“You think?’
“First, you need to call your firm and see what they can do to quash this kidnapping story.”
“And the second?”
“I need to get some things together for our trip.”
“Trip?”
“Yes, my family has an island in the Caribbean. I think we should go there until the furor dies down.”
“Your family owns an island?” she said incredulously. She knew Ryan’s family was wealthy, but the idea of having so much money that they owned their own island boggled her mind.
Ryan laughed as if her question was silly. “Yes, and a villa in the south of France, a castle somewhere in Scotland, and a condo in Tokyo and a bunch of other places. But I’m feeling the need for some sun.”
Steph smiled. “I could use some sand and sun.”
“But the third thing is most important of all. Getting you some food.”
CHAPTER TEN
Ryan
Steph spoke on the phone with the answering serving of her firm. But when she hung up the phone in disgust that grabbed his attention.
“They won’t take my call,” she said. “Like yesterday they gave me nonsense about Mr. Watins or his assistant, Jared, not being available.
“Well, you tried,” said Ryan. But he worried that someone in the firm was trying to make trouble for his family. “Give me the phone.”
He dialed his father’s cell number.
“Ryan,” his father said. “Don’t call me here.”
The phone went dead. Ryan was stunned. He didn’t expect his father to cut him off.
“Damn. He hung up on me.”
“What did he say?”
“Don’t call me here.”
“Then call him somewhere else?”
“You know, that is a good suggestion.” He called the main house’s rarely used landline. His father was at the other end as if expecting the call.
“What’s going on, dad?”
“I’m glad you aren’t mad at me,” said the elder Kaur.
“The thing with the hypnotism was shitty, but I understand you were trying to protect me. But we have bigger issues than that. Did you see the news?
“Yes. And I issued a press release, but no one is reporting on it.”
“Too bad you didn’t own a newspaper company.”
“Whoever is blocking this is coming from the highest levels,” his father said. “It’s going to take a while to get the story out. I’ll have to use other channels.”
Ryan had no idea what other channels his father spoke about but knowing his father he’d find a way.
“Have you spoken to-”
“Ryan, I can’t be sure this line isn’t tapped. But I’m reaching out to every resource.”
“I believe you. I was thinking of taking a trip. I’m sorry to disappoint you again, because I know how you feel about fraternizing with employees, but Steph and I have become quite close.”
“In a day?”
“Apparently, I’m made that way. You can spin it any way you want but one way or another Steph is here to stay.”
“Oh” said his father softly. “Then do what you think is right. I haven’t shut off any credit cards. Feel free to use the family resources.”
“Thanks, dad. I’ll keep in touch.”
Steph slid her hands up his arms to clasp them behind his head. Her body was tantalizing and he wanted her right then. But he had the sense, especially after the phone call with his father that they weren’t safe at the cabin anymore.
“Follow me,” he said, and he took her hand and led her to his mother’s bedroom. He opened a large walk-in closet filled with clothes. His mother was a practical woman who didn’t like the fuss of packing.
“You are about her size, so pack some things and get dressed. We’re living in fifteen minutes.
