DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Karma, Rosalie is missing. The police won’t help because they believe she chose to disappear. But, for all we know, Rosalie is in danger. Someone has to find her.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m not the enemy here.”

  “I want to trust you,” she said softly. “But I know nothing about you.”

  “You’ve seen my aura.”

  I meant it as a joke, but Karma seemed to take it seriously. She turned and looked me right in the center of my chest, color rising to her cheeks that made them almost glow. She raised a hand, hesitating, her fingers less than a hair from the top edge of one of my many tattoos. When she touched it, every nerve in my body seemed to go there and seemed to feel everything about that simple touch.

  “Your aura tells me things about you I really didn’t want to know.”

  “Like what?”

  She sighed, a sound that spoke more to what she was feeling than any words she could speak.

  “I’ve given up the pleasures of the flesh to become a better human being. But you ... you tempt me in a way no man ever has.”

  “Maybe there’s a reason for that.”

  Her eyes slowly moved up to my face. “And maybe you’re a temptation I’m supposed to resist.”

  I cupped the side of her face in my hand, lifting her chin so that we were eye to eye. I ran my thumb along the bottom edge of her mouth, watching her eyes close as she again sighed. Just standing close to me made her appear to melt. The idea that I had the ability to make her feel that way gave me such a feeling of power. The thing was, though, she made me feel the same way. It was taking every ounce of self-control I had to keep from tossing her down on the bed right there and then.

  “You should go.”

  I stepped back and opened the door, gesturing for her to step through. She seemed a little dazed, confused by my demand. But then she pulled herself up to her full height—all five four of it—and walked toward me.

  “We’ll meet in the morning when we’ve both had a little sleep,” I said.

  She inclined her head slightly. And then she was gone.

  I closed the door and collapsed against it, wondering where the hell I’d gotten the strength to do that.

  I really was fucking exhausted.

  ***

  “I think there might be more going on here than we originally assumed,” I told Hayden over the phone the next morning. “It looks like someone might have attempted, or succeeded, in breaking into Rosalie’s hotel room. But her things are undisturbed.”

  “A break in?”

  “Yeah. Her stuff is still there, a nightgown sitting out on the bed like she’d dressed in a hurry the last time she was there. And that’s consistent with most of what we know. She called her sister around ten-thirty and then stepped out with a man a little after eleven. I found a witness, by the way, who corroborates the timeline.” I glanced at the notes I’d made on the computer last night. “And we have a name. Jake. Apparently he was new to the paranormal investigative family, so no one knows a lot about him. But I have another witness who could probably give me more information.”

  “Good. We’ve got the tech team working on the security camera footage. Hopefully that’ll help us get an identification. Or at least a picture we can go on.”

  “I have a name that needs to be checked, too. Karma Myers.”

  “Karma Myers? Sounds like an interesting person.”

  “She is.”

  Hayden chuckled. “We meet some interesting people in this job. Just make sure you stay smart. And safe.”

  “I will. I’ll check in again tomorrow.”

  I disconnected the phone and got up to dress, wondering if Karma was out of bed yet. I couldn’t imagine many of the kooks got out of bed before noon.

  I walked downtown, ducking into the same diner where Karma and I had eaten the day before. She was there, curled up in a booth, facing the window, her expression thoughtful. She didn’t seem to realize I was there, or she didn’t care. I wasn’t sure which.

  “Morning, Karma.”

  She didn’t even look at me. She slipped out of the booth and walked away, her dress—a green and yellow one this time—flying in the breeze created by her movements. She was gone, out the door before I could say a word.

  “What the hell?”

  “She’s a little flaky like that sometimes.” Becky, the waitress we’d had the night before, came up behind me to explain. “She’s been here since we opened at six.”

  “Yeah? Do you know where she’s staying?”

  “Next door. Room 220.”

  Same hotel as Rosalie.

  Was that how they’d met? Was that how Karma knew so much about Rosalie? Or was there more to it than I knew?

  I followed Karma’s path, slipping out the same side door she’d escaped through. It led into a small alley at the back of the diner, the overflowing dumpster and grease disposal container creating an aroma that was less than hospitable. But the hotel shared the same alley, moving around a small curve that led to a service door.

  She was standing just beyond the door, leaning against the cold bricks of the hotel. She was staring beyond the alley, looking at something that wasn’t there.

  “I thought we were meeting for breakfast. Did you learn something else?”

  She didn’t seem to hear me at first. But then she began to unbutton the front of her dress, her fingers shaking as she did. I didn’t understand what she was doing, or any of her bizarre behavior this morning. In a matter of seconds, she had the dress open and she stepped forward to let it fall to the dirty ground. She looked at me then, her eyes full of fear and expectation and trust.

  I’d never seen anything like it.

  “Karma ...”

  I went to her, wondering if I should be worried about someone coming along and seeing this gift I was seeing. And then she took my hand and pressed it to her chest, resting my palm against one bare, beautiful breast.

  “I want you,” she whispered, moving her naked body up against the length of mine, her mouth seeking mine in the cool of the late morning air.

  I couldn’t help myself. A man suffering from permanent impotence would still respond to this. To her. I’d have to be completely out of my mind to walk away.

  I pushed her back against the rough brick of the building and kissed her with everything I’d struggled to hold back last night. Our lips touched and then pressed roughly together, our tongues dancing with a passion I hadn’t known I possessed. And my hands ... I needed to touch her everywhere. I touched her ribs, her belly, my hands sliding over her hips. A couple of fingers found their way between her legs, finding a desire that had been written all over her face and her actions, from the moment I stepped into the alley.

  I grabbed her ass and lifted her up, aware of her hands already tugging at my jeans, fighting to open them to release the bulge hidden underneath. She wasn’t playing games here this morning. It was almost painful, the greed with which she finally thrust her hand inside my pants and wrapped her fist around my cock. So much for her fear that she was supposed to resist the temptation of my body. She embraced it, stroking my cock like she wanted to touch every inch of it, like she wanted to remember the way it felt against her palm.

  I’d had some pretty crazy encounters in my life, but none as sober as I was now. Never in the bright daylight, with a woman as contradictory and insanely sexy as Karma.

  I pushed her hands away and guided myself to her, trying to be patient, trying to remember to be gentle. But then she moved her hips, pushing forward, and I couldn’t help how hard my cock entered her, how deep it slid. I closed my eyes, overwhelmed with the pleasure that suddenly overwhelmed me, my knees threatening to give out on me as she screamed near my ear.

  She moved first, her hips rocking hard against mine. What could I do but follow her lead, pulling her hips harder against mine and rocking against her tiny body, rubbing her back roughly against the bare brick. I knew it had to hurt, knew this was not a good idea.
But she wasn’t complaining. And then ... shit, I forgot why it was a bad idea.

  Her nails bit into my shoulders as her muscles suddenly tightened against me, her thighs like a vice around my waist, her cunt milking me like I was a fucking cow. She screamed near my ear, a cry that echoed off the walls surrounding us. And that pushed me over the edge. I couldn’t hold on any longer or pretend that this wasn’t the hottest thing I’d ever done. I impaled her against the wall and buried my face against her shoulder, letting go of my own pleasure as she finished riding the wave of hers.

  We were still standing there a few minutes later when the back door opened and some oblivious janitor pushed a cart full of trash out into the alley. Karma began to laugh as I quickly set her on the ground and snatched up her dress. She was still buttoning it as we ducked into the hotel, barely missing catching the guy’s attention as he finished dumping his load and turned to come back to the service door.

  “You’re insane,” I whispered against her ear as we dove into the stairwell.

  “No, Kasey, I’m not insane. I’m your karma.”

  And then she began to laugh again.

  Chapter 6

  Karma

  My dress fell to the floor as we rushed, laughing, into my room. Kasey grabbed me by the waist and threw me down on the bed, tearing off his shirt before he came to join me. The laughter died as our mouths found one another again, his hand slipping over my belly, my breasts, his fingers doing things to my nipples that made them impossibly stiff.

  I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him last night. The way he looked at me, the way he touched me. There was a gentleness in his touch, an electricity that spoke to my soul. And when he threw me out, when he didn’t take advantage of what I was so close to offering him, I knew I had my answer.

  Goddess brought him to me. She wanted me to be with him.

  There was no longer a reason to fight my attraction to him. If this was what Goddess wanted, this was what I had to do.

  I tugged at his jeans, using my hands, my feet, to push them down over his hips, exposing warm flesh that sent sparks of pleasure through my body just at the feel of it against mine. Kasey rolled onto his back, pulling me with him, his hands slipping over my hips, my back.

  “Damn!” he cried, looking over my shoulder at my back. “You tore the shit out of your back.”

  “I don’t feel it.”

  “You will.”

  He pulled away from me even as I tried to catch him, but he didn’t move far. He lifted me up and carried me into the bathroom, jerking the faucet to make hot water pour from the showerhead. He climbed in with me even though he was still wearing his boxers, standing me in front of the spray so that it washed over my back. Immediately there were all these tiny stings, pain in a thousand places all at once. I bit my lip, trying not to cry out as he watched me.

  “The bricks.”

  He turned me and carefully cleaned out each scratch, his fingers so gentle that the pain lessened with the simple promise of pleasure. I leaned forward and let him do what no one had done for me since I was a small child—rarely, though, even then. I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had cared enough to help me treat an illness or an injury.

  “They aren’t that deep,” he said, lifting my hair away from my neck so that he could press his lips there. “You’re lucky.”

  “It was worth it.”

  “Was it?” He turned me around, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Do you make a habit of screwing strangers in alleys?”

  “You’re not a stranger.” I touched my hand to the side of his face, caressing his cheek with my thumb. “Besides, I told you, it’s been a long time since I last had a lover.”

  “It shouldn’t have happened like that, then. It should have been—”

  “What? More romantic? Gentler?” I shook my head. “Sex isn’t about emotions. It’s about a physical release and that ...” I smiled, the memory of my orgasm washing through my mind again like it was still happening. “That was very physical.”

  “You don’t believe in love and commitment?”

  “I believe in soulmates. But that has nothing to do with sex.”

  He cocked an eyebrow, his long hair falling in thick, wet clumps around his face. “You are a unique woman, Karma,” he said as he came in for a kiss.

  “Thank you.”

  I opened to him, welcoming him back with a relish that came from a need that was still not quite satisfied. I ran my hand along his chest, remembering the tattoos that were so plentiful over his body. You had to respect someone who could turn their body into an artist’s canvas.

  “What do these mean?” I asked, moving my lips down over his chin, his throat, loving the feel of his pulse against my mouth.

  “They’re tattoos. Do they need to have meaning?”

  “They usually do.”

  He pushed me back, pressing me up against the cold wall of the shower. He pushed my chin up and nibbled at my throat, sending shivers of pleasure through my body, creating goosebumps along my arms and legs, my belly and breasts. My nipples hurt, they were so hard.

  And then he was nibbling there, turning back the time, making my lower body ache even more desperately than it had before.

  “What does this mean?” he asked, brushing his fingers over a small tattoo on my right hip.

  I couldn’t think for a second, or even remember what words were.

  “It’s the world tree,” I mumbled as his lips created a path down the center of my body, his teeth nibbling at my inner thigh as I tried to remember what we were talking about. “... connects heaven, earth, and the underworld.”

  “Fascinating.”

  He turned me around, forcing me against the wall again. He nibbled at the bottom corner of my ass as his fingers moved between my legs.

  “And this one?”

  He touched an even smaller tattoo on my ass, just below the dimple at the bottom of my spine.

  I’d sort of hoped he hadn’t noticed that one.

  “It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  He nibbled at my ass again, his teeth sharper than they’d been before. I cried out, but that didn’t stop him. He bit me again and again, moving up and down almost methodically. And his fingers ... the man knew how to touch a woman in order to drive her out of her mind. I’d known that, his aura told me that, but the reality of it was more intense than I’d anticipated.

  “You have to stop,” I moaned, reaching down to brush his fingers away.

  “You don’t want me to stop.”

  I didn’t. I wanted more. I wanted his teeth to nibble at my clit. I wanted his fingers inside of me. I wanted his mouth to do ... everything! I wanted him.

  “I’m losing my mind,” I whispered.

  “That’s the idea.”

  He teased me for what seemed like hours, his fingers dancing along my lips, his teeth pulling at flesh that was never meant to be handled in that way. And then he was tasting me, sucking and touching and exploring places that had never been touched before. I lost my mind I leaned against the wall and just let him do what he wanted to do, biting so hard on my bottom lip that I could feel it swelling from the punishment.

  The pressure was building, my body so ready for the release that was coming like a tidal wave. But he wouldn’t let me have that. He wouldn’t stop the torture long enough to allow me just the smallest bit of sanity. He pulled away and gathered me in his arms, wrapping me in a towel as he carried me back into the bedroom.

  “You’re cruel.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t know who’s crueler, my love,” he said in a soft southern drawl I hadn’t noticed before. “You, looking so beautiful in my room last night. It was nearly impossible for me to sleep, and then you sitting in the diner, all curled up by the window, the light making your fucking skin glow like a statue of the Madonna.” He kissed me roughly before tossing me onto the bed. “I think you are the cruel one.”

  “Is this my pun
ishment?”

  He just smiled before he disappeared into the bathroom again. I was afraid for a moment that he wouldn’t come back, this irrational side of me forgetting that his clothes were on the floor beside the bed or that there was only one entrance and one exit to this room. But I needn’t have feared. He was back a moment later, my bottle of lotion in his hands.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Can’t let you dry out.”

  I almost laughed as he began to rub the lotion into my skin, moving over my body in a gentle, asexual way. I didn’t know what to think of his cruelty mixed with this intense attention to my comfort. He was complex, a man who couldn’t help his instinct to nurture, but who knew exactly what lengths he could go to, to push me to the heights of pleasure.

  A part of me didn’t want this nurturing or want him to care about my skin drying out or my scratches getting infected. But this other part of me was eating it up, loving it like a child desperate for attention.

  “I can take care of myself,” I said as he finished up with my feet, rubbing them with clear delight.

  “I know.”

  “I don’t need you to put lotion on me.”

  “I know.”

  “Then why—”

  “Do you always have such trouble allowing someone to care for you?”

  I wouldn’t know. No one’s ever tried.

  I threw my arm over my face, hiding my eyes as he finished. And then his hands were moving over my thighs and his heavy, warm body was pressed against mine. He tugged at my arm, forcing me to look at him.

  “Maybe sex is just about physical release and love is a human response to pleasure, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy being cared for, for just a while.”

  “Are you this kind to all your lovers?”

  “Do you really want to know the answer to that?”

  I didn’t, to be honest. Instead, I moved my hips under his body and opened myself to him. He immediately offered what I was asking for. He slid inside of me, his eyes closed as a soft groan slipped from between his lips. And then he was watching me, his eyes fixed to mine as we found a slow, gentle rhythm.