Reawakening the Dragon

by Jessie Donovan

  Since the dragonman was still unmoving, Jane bit his neck where it met his shoulder at the same time as she leaned her body against his. The feel of his hard cock against her stomach made her wetter than she’d ever been in her life.

  Kai growled and grabbed her arse. Pulling her flush against his body, Jane let out a squeak.

  Kai’s breath was hot against her ear. “Didn’t I tell you it was dangerous to tease an unattached dragonman?”

  Daring to lean back, Jane stopped breathing at the hunger in Kai’s eyes.

  Then she regained her wits. She had a bet to win. “Are you sure you don’t want to kiss me?” She lowered her voice. “Don’t you want to feel my soft, warm lips as you devour my mouth with your tongue?” His eyes flashed again and Jane knew he was close to losing control. Rubbing her body against his cock, Kai hissed. “Stop fighting it. You’ve been eyeing me since I first met you. Just admit you want one little kiss and you can finally stop wondering.”

  Kai’s voice was husky as he asked, “Wondering about what?”

  “What I taste like.”

  With a growl, Kai moved until his lips were a hairsbreadth from hers. “You play a dangerous game, human.”

  She blew across his lips and Kai’s grip tightened. The dragonman was closer to giving in. “Stop stalling. Either claim a kiss and let me win, or walk away.” She rubbed against his body again. “Although, your dick tells me you don’t want to walk away.”

  Slapping her arse cheek, Kai murmured, “If I’m going to lose, then I’m going to lose properly.”

  And he kissed her.

  Chapter Five

  As Kai Sutherland’s lips touched Jane’s, a possessive surge coursed through his body at the same time his dragon roared. Pulling the human even tighter against him, Kai pinched Jane’s arse. When her mouth opened in surprise, he took advantage and invaded her hot, sweet mouth with his tongue.

  For a second, Jane didn’t respond and he wondered if she’d had second thoughts. However, once she stroked her tongue against his as she leaned into the kiss, it took everything he had to remain in control. His human definitely made him work for it.

  His dragon growled. Her taste…I want more. Much more.

  Before Kai could reply, Jane’s nails dug into his chest as she took the kiss deeper. He growled and stroked harder. She may have won the first round by wearing down his self-control, but he wasn’t about to let her win this one, too.

  He moved a hand to her head and fisted her hair. Gently tugging for better access, he stroked, nibbled, and sucked her bottom lip. Releasing her warm, plump lip, he went in for another taste. It’d been too long since he’d had a female and he had forgotten what it was like to hold a soft body against his. And since she was human, Jane’s body was softer than any dragon-shifter, and he loved the difference.

  Jane leaned into him, her nipples pressing hard against his chest. He was torn between ripping off her shirt and sucking one of them deep, or turning her around to bend her over, tear off her clothes, and fuck her from behind.

  His dragon chimed in. Yes, do it now. I don’t want to wait.

  No. Fucking her would complicate things.

  Then lick between her legs. Her mouth tastes good, but I want to taste her honey.

  An image of Kai spreading Jane’s legs wide as he devoured her pussy flashed into his mind and his cock let out a drop of pre-cum.

  Stop it, dragon. That would also complicate things.

  His beast huffed. Who cares? We want her and she wants us. The clan is safe, so seize the chance.

  Kai stilled and broke the kiss. What the hell was he doing? He was wasting time with a female while his clan could still be in danger.

  Jane blinked and then frowned, her breathing still fast from their kissing. “I thought you were going to lose properly. That seemed like a half-arse job to me.”

  His beast scratched to take control. I will make her forget how to speak. Let me have a go.

  After tossing his dragon into a mental prison, Kai forced himself to take three steps back. “Says the female who rubbed against me, begging me for more.”

  While Jane couldn’t erase her kiss-bruised lips, her expression turned hard. Part of Kai regretted the change, but the rational part of his brain was grateful to get back to business. His clan was counting on him to keep them safe.

  The human crossed her arms over her chest. “Hide behind your badass expression and attitude all you like, but your actions and body didn’t lie. You were enjoying yourself.”

  He shrugged. “Of course. Who wouldn’t enjoy kissing a pretty female?”

  Kai was so used to being honest that it took him a beat to realize he’d just admitted he found Jane Hartley attractive.

  Triumph flashed in Jane’s eyes before she spoke up. “Sometimes your honesty is annoying, but other times, it reveals some of your secrets.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to press for details, but glancing at the clock on the wall, it was almost one o’clock. He couldn’t afford to waste any more time, so he changed the subject. “Since I’m not supposed to order you around, are you ready to get to work?”

  Jane raised an eyebrow. “Asking me a question must’ve been difficult for you.” Kai grunted and Jane smiled. “Okay, I’ll stop teasing, for now.” She lowered her voice. “But this is far from over, dragonman.”

  “I assure you, it won’t happen again. Once I make a mistake, I learn from it.”

  “I’m a mistake now?”

  His dragon huffed. Don’t be an arsehole. She is not a mistake. The other one was a mistake.

  Ignoring his beast, Kai answered, “Kissing any human is a mistake.”

  She studied him a second and then shook her head. “I’m not sure if I’m offended or intrigued.” Jane moved to the door and stopped to look over her shoulder. “Are you coming?”

  Good. The female was getting back to business. Kai could handle that. “Where are we going?”

  “South Gateshead.”

  Jane exited the door and Kai could do nothing but follow.

  ~~~

  The second she was out of Kai’s sight, Jane couldn’t resist touching her lips with her fingertips. Not even his comments dismissing their kiss as a mistake could clear the dragonman from her mind.

  Kissing Kai had been a strategy to prove to the unshakeable dragon-shifter that he could lose control like anyone else. Yet she hadn’t expected his lips and tongue to set her skin on fire. She’d never felt such a primal need to kiss a man back before, either. Because of her stubbornness, all Jane wanted to do was kiss the man again and have him beg for more.

  Yes, he’d been an arsehole, but Kai’s dismissal was part of the armor he used. Jane was beginning to see how Kai used work as an excuse for everything. However, she sensed there was something else holding him back from his attraction to her. It was plain from his erection and the stroking of his tongue that he wanted her. Yet he fought against it at every turn.

  Jane wanted to find out the reason for it.

  Still, the best thing would be to forget about the dragonman and his secrets so she could focus on her story. As much as she wanted to strip Kai bare and tease him until he lost complete control, she wasn’t about to tarnish her reputation or ruin her career. If she slept with him, no matter how careful she was, someone would find out and then no one would take her reports on the dragon-shifters seriously. She would be labeled a dragon’s whore, or worse.

  Once she had exposed the dragon hunters and helped raise the esteem of Stonefire with the public, she could chance sleeping with a dragonman. Maybe even the one she’d been dreaming about for months.

  Get a grip, Jane. Kai was more work than she could handle. There were others who would sleep with her after nothing more than a glance.

  Yet looking over her shoulder, she knew none of them would compare to Kai.

  Ruining your reputation isn’t worth it, Hartley. There will always be other men but there won’t always be another career-making story.
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br />   Straightening her shoulders, Jane picked up her pace and entered the living room before Kai could catch up with her.

  Nikki was standing at the far window, talking in a language Jane couldn’t understand. But she recognized the rise and fall of the syllables enough to know it was Mersae, the old dragon language.

  Kai’s heat came up behind her and Jane just prevented herself from shivering. She wouldn’t let the bloody dragonman know how he affected her. The next however many days were going to be the ultimate test of her own self-control. Yet with her story as the prize, she would find a way to resist.

  Kai’s low voice filled her ears. “Despite what I said, I still expect for us to work together. Is that clear?”

  Don’t answer, don’t answer. Telling him to fuck off wasn’t the best idea.

  As the silence ticked by, Kai grunted in what she would almost call amusement. The bloody dragonman must’ve read her mind.

  The urge to tell him off was strong, but Jane merely straightened her shoulders even more and waited for Nikki to be done. Arguing would only delay exchanging information with Kai.

  A minute later, Nikki lowered the phone from her ear and turned around. Kai moved to Jane’s side and Nikki looked back and forth between Jane and Kai. “I didn’t hear you two come in.”

  Kai spoke up. “What did Zain say?”

  Nikki tucked her mobile phone into her pocket. “The hunters are secure, but he hasn’t had a chance to interrogate them yet. He’ll call when there’s news.”

  “Good.” Kai then turned to Jane. His eyes were unreadable again and she didn’t like it. “Tell me why you picked South Gateshead.”

  If he was going to pretend they hadn’t just shared a passionate kiss a few minutes ago and treat her like an information source, then she would do the same. “The more I researched the Tyneside area, the more Gateshead made sense as my top choice for several reasons. Not only would they want to be on the edge of the city, but they would want access to new recruits.”

  “Go on,” Kai stated.

  “Well, there are a lot of economically disadvantaged areas in mid-to-south Gateshead. Since most of the dragon hunter recruits join for the money, it would be easy to persuade men and women living there to join—pick out the most financially vulnerable with the desired skills sets, dangle money in front of them, and voila, you have new recruits.”

  Kai nodded. “And their street smarts could help, provided Simon Bourne has them trained well enough not to fuck up.”

  “Correct,” Jane answered. “But while they will recruit from those areas, they won’t base themselves there since they’d stick out quite easily. I believe they’re either on the edge of Gateshead or in the farms not too far from the city limits.”

  Nikki frowned. “The former Carlisle-based gang has never used farms as their headquarters before.”

  Jane smiled. “Exactly, so the DDA won’t think to check there for a while. By the time they do, the hunters will be long gone.”

  Grunting, Kai looked between Jane and Nikki. “It’s logical and makes sense. Let’s hurry up and check out the area. The longer the two hunters we captured are missing, the greater the chance Bourne will move his people.”

  Holding up a hand, Jane added, “Please tell me you have a different car we can use. The big SUV from before will stick out like a sore thumb in some sections of Gateshead.”

  Kai shook his head. “That’s the only car we have. Remember, we’re dragons. We prefer flying.”

  Jane sighed. “Flying into Gateshead would be even worse.” Kai opened his mouth, but she cut him off. “My brother’s friend lives nearby and I can call him about borrowing a car, but it’s best if I talk to him alone whilst you two wait in the SUV.”

  “Do you trust him?” Kai asked.

  “It’s a friend of my brother, Rafe, and if Rafe recommends him, he’s golden. Older brothers don’t recommend other men lightly to their single sisters.”

  Nikki bit her lip, but Kai grunted. “I know. I have a half-sister.”

  Jane blinked. “You have a sister?”

  Kai took out his phone and held it out. “That’s not important right now. Call the human.”

  Jane raised an eyebrow. “I have my own phone, you know.”

  “Yes, but this way, I have his number in case I need to track him down.”

  Jane wanted to rub her temples. “Do I want to know why you’d need to track him down?”

  “If he betrays us, he will learn to never do it again,” Kai answered.

  Jane raised her brows. “Get in line, dragonman. He’ll have to deal with me and my older brother first. No one messes with the Hartleys and gets away with it.”

  She swore approval flashed in Kai’s eyes, but it was gone before she was certain.

  Nikki spoke up. “Forget the Hartleys, love. He’ll have to deal with Clan Stonefire.”

  Despite Nikki’s almost delicate appearance for a dragon-shifter, thanks to her half-Chinese ancestry, the woman’s voice was like steel. As much as Nikki had been joking and talking earlier, Jane needed to remember Nikki was a Protector. And not just any Protector—one who was out to prove herself.

  Taking Kai’s phone, Jane nodded at Nikki. “Just this once, we can call our threats a draw.”

  Nikki laughed, but it was Kai who spoke up. “I hardly think you and your brother are a match for an entire dragon-shifter clan.”

  “You haven’t met my brother.”

  Nikki added, “Maybe you should call your brother up here. I’d love to see him and Kai circle each other.”

  “As tempting as that is, let’s focus on our current task. If we don’t get moving, Kai may have a stroke.” The dragonman merely grunted and Jane grinned. “Okay, okay. Let me call Jeff.”

  Jane pulled out her own phone to get the number for her brother’s friend and inputted the number into Kai’s. As she waited for him to pick up, the image of Rafe and Kai growling and grunting at each other popped into her mind. Someday, she would like to see that.

  Jeff answered his phone and prevented Jane from wondering why she wanted her brother to meet Kai.

  ~~~

  Jane moved a hand to the door handle and Kai growled, “I still say I should talk with him first to ensure he’s trustworthy.”

  The human raised an eyebrow. “And as I’ve said twenty times, you can’t read minds. Maybe if you shifted your fingers into talons Jeff would spill all of his secrets, but he can’t know you’re a dragon-shifter.”

  Kai glared. “I can be persuasive without revealing I’m a dragon-shifter.”

  Jane shook her head. “I’m going. Now, stay here.”

  Before he could reach out a hand to stop her, Jane exited the SUV and headed toward Jeff’s flat.

  Nikki’s amused voice filled the car. “She’s not one of your soldiers, Kai. You should try a different approach with her.”

  A human male opened his door and smiled at Jane. Even from his position in the SUV, Kai could see the male giving Jane a once-over.

  As if the human was worthy of someone like Jane Hartley.

  Kai leaned closer to the car window. “We know nothing about Jeff. If not me, then at least you should have accompanied her.”

  Nikki sighed. “Jane’s survived thirty-plus years on her own. I think she can handle ten more minutes.”

  As Kai watched Jeff and Jane walk from his apartment to the footpath, Kai uncrossed and re-crossed his arms. The human male named Jeff had just touched Jane’s shoulder.

  After snarling, his beast spoke up, She shouldn’t be alone with the human male. We know nothing about him.

  She wouldn’t let me vet him first. I tried.

  But not hard enough.

  She is stubborn.

  His beast huffed. We are more so.

  I’m not so sure about that. She’s as bad as any dragon-shifter. She’d take on the hunters by herself if she had to.

  His dragon growled. We will help her.

  And if she sneaks away?

 
We will track her down.

  His beast’s words worried him a little. Kai knew Jane wasn’t a true mate since he’d kissed her and hadn’t gone into a mate-claim frenzy, but his dragon was acting as if she were theirs to claim. His beast hadn’t acted that way around anyone since Maggie.

  Nikki’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Worrying won’t help anything, boss. Trust Jane. She knows how to take care of herself.”

  He glanced at Nikki. “She’s human and fragile with no formal training.”

  Nikki raised an eyebrow. “Considering how you’ve taken every precaution to avoid Jane Hartley since her first interview on Stonefire, I’m curious why the sudden interest now.”

  “If she screws up, the clan could suffer.”

  Nikki studied him a second before replying, “What happened between you two whilst I was on the phone? It’s as if you won’t look at each other longer than absolutely necessary. I would say it’s because you’re afraid to let your desire show.”

  Kai grunted. “Ridiculous.”

  “You two also smelled of each other.”

  Kai’s dragon chimed in, Why won’t you declare the human ours? We should be kissing her again, right now.

  Ignoring his beast, Kai watched Jane laugh at the human male’s words. When the male touched her arm again, Kai dug his fingers into his thigh. He was close to exiting the car and tugging Jane out of reach. The time she spent flirting with the human took time away from them chasing down the dragon hunters. This operation was time sensitive and Jane knew it.

  Yes, saving time and finding the hunters was the only reason he wanted to rip her away from the male’s arm now around Jane’s waist. It had nothing to do with Kai’s dragon wanting to stake a claim on her.

  Liar, his dragon stated.

  Thankfully, Nikki’s voice prevented his dragon from saying anything else. “It’s okay to want her, Kai. Because of Melanie’s persistence, the rules have temporarily changed for Stonefire, for a trial period. Dragon males are allowed to take human mates of their own choosing, provided they apply with the DDA. Besides, considering all that Jane’s done for our clan, Bram would welcome her if she accepted you.”