Dragon Blood

by Madelaine Montague

His lips twisted. “I’m not sure it’s a good thing … for me.”

  “How’s that?” Marlee asked, beginning to feel uncomfortable.

  He slipped his hands beneath her dress, stroking the soft flesh at the top of her thighs. “I got the impression that you were a more ‘take charge’ kind of woman.”

  Disconcerted despite the warmth that had begun to tingle through her at his touch, Marlee debated whether to dispense with the talk altogether. “And now that I’ve climbed on your lap you have an entirely different perception?”

  “I was actually beginning to worry that I might have to give chase,” he murmured, slipping his hands to her buttocks and dragging her up against his chest. The movement brought her cleft into contact with a raging erection, dispelling any doubts that lingered that he just wasn’t ‘in’ to her. His lips played along her face teasingly. He sucked at her lower lip, as if savoring the softness and then nipped at her upper lip with his.

  “Meaning you thought I might get away?” Marlee whispered.

  “There was never any chance of that. I just didn’t want to scare you. They run so much faster when they’re frightened.”

  Marlee’s heart skipped several beats, but since he settled his mouth over hers just then it was hard to decide whether it was uneasiness or heated need that caused the surge in her pulse.

  She dismissed the comments as teasing as her focus shifted to the currents flowing through her at his possession. His kiss was far more intoxicating than half a dozen mixed drinks would’ve been. Almost as soon as her body absorbed the heat, the moisture, his taste and scent, she was floating on a dizzying high.

  She heard the sound of his zipper and then the distinctive rattle of foil. Breaking the kiss, she looked down between them and saw he was fitting a condom over the most massive erection she’d ever seen in her life. A mixture of uneasiness and anticipation filled her. “I want all the trimmings,” she said when she’d dragged her gaze from the monolith to meet his gaze.

  “Good. I’m ready for a feast. Don’t worry. It isn’t going anywhere.”

  She struggled with the desire to mount him immediately despite her determination to enjoy a rousing round of foreplay. Distracted from that goal briefly by another kiss, she came up on her knees when he broke from her lips to explore her throat. Grasping his cock, she pushed the leg of her panties aside, guided it to the mouth of her sex, and lowered herself onto it. “Let’s just tuck in here to keep it safe,” she murmured.

  He smiled against her throat. “If you had any idea how long it’s been for me you’d be more worried about tucking it into that nice little cavern than leaving it lonely.”

  He caught her hips, though, lifting to meet her at the same time he bore down on her to seat himself. She’d thought between the lubrication of the condom and her own there wouldn’t be a problem. She realized fairly quickly that she’d underestimated the sheer volume of flesh.

  “They usually run when they see that thing, right?” she gasped, trying to banish the image of a dash to the hospital to sew her coochie up as she felt the burn intensify.

  He didn’t smile that time. His expression was taut as he slowly lifted her and settled her over and over until her body finally adjusted to him. She was panting for breath by the time he filled her completely, but even she wasn’t certain if it was altogether passion. He stroked her belly with a hand that shook. When she looked down, she saw the clear outline of his cock within her in the ridge along her belly. It made her kegels clench reflexively. He let out a hissing breath that drew her gaze to his face again.

  Holding it, he skimmed her dress upward. As soon as he’d unveiled her breasts, he pulled her to him, capturing the peak of one and suckling it. Tangled in the dress briefly, Marlee whipped it off and tossed it, curling her arms around his head and squeezing her eyes tightly at the jolts of pleasure shooting through her and connecting with her womb. By the time he released the first nipple and moved to the second, Marlee was so dizzy from panting for breath and from the rise of tension inside of her, she hardly knew what she was doing until Gabriel abruptly halted her restless movements by coiling his arms around her waist and pulling her more tightly down on his erection.

  She felt a deep flutter of the muscles inside of her then, the threat/promise of a climax.

  Unable to resist the lure of rapture so close, she ground herself against him and Gabriel released her nipple abruptly. Sucking in a harsh breath, he held perfectly still for a handful of moments and then began to move jerkily, lifting her up and then pulling her down over his cock again as he pumped into her in hard, jerky thrusts. Marlee uttered a long, drawn out groan as she felt her body gathering to take the leap and then sucked in a sharp breath as the ecstasy detonated, sending keen shards of blinding pleasure through her that stole the strength from every muscle and seemed to melt her bones. Slumping against him weakly in the aftermath, she focused on nothing but basking in the pleasurable afterglow.

  Her wits had just begun to kick into gear again when Gabriel tightened his grip on her and stood up. Carrying her to the bed, he lowered the two of them onto it together. He got up again almost immediately, though, and she listened to his movements without making much effort to interpret them, wondering for a few moments if he meant to dress and leave.

  The thought sent a flicker of dismay through her. Before she could get too wound up about it, however, she heard the plop of the condom in the trash and a moment later, Gabriel sprawled half atop her again.

  She was pleased when he burrowed his face against her neck, nuzzling her, and then her face and finally sought her lips. The kiss didn’t just carry lingering heat or appreciation, however. It was as hot and hungry as his kisses had been before. The thought of protesting flickered through her mind and was drowned by the heat he summoned.

  A flicker of surprise went through her—some sense that something just wasn’t quite right about the equation, that she should be sated and unable to generate much interest—but the pleasure drugs bombarding her eliminated reasoning ability very quickly. She climbed from warmth to feverish so quickly that Gabriel’s almost savage desperation, rather than sending up any red flags of uneasiness, only thrilled her more.

  She came almost as quickly the second time as she had the first and it was as satisfying or more so. She was exhausted enough, however, that she drifted from the pleasant cloud of warm afterglow toward oblivion without any awareness of the transition until Gabriel woke her again and made love to her with the same, fierce hunger of before.

  ———

  Eli knew the moment Gabriel entered their lair that he had done far more than simply ‘keep an eye’ on the woman—his woman. Anger instantly surged through him and he had to struggle with the urge to meet him and knock the shit out of him. “My memory must be faulty,” he growled. “I seem to recall that you said we needed to keep our eye on the woman to see what she was up to. I don’t remember you saying anything about fucking her.”

  Gabriel’s expression tightened. Despite the anger that instantly arose at Eli’s antagonizing comments, however, it was the truth—and he hadn’t said it merely to steer Eli and the others away from the woman—away from Marlee. He’d meant it at the time. “She’s breeding,” he said tightly instead of addressing Eli’s accusation.

  Eli felt as if he’d been punched in the solar plexus. The announcement sent him reeling, struggling to catch his breath, trying to bring some order to his mind.

  “Breeding?” John asked hoarsely. “She’s been with a man?”

  “She’s been with you two … and me … and she’s breeding. That’s no man’s child she’s carrying.”

  Eli looked around for a place to sit and finally collapsed on a rock jarringly. “She’s … How could she …?”

  Gabriel raked a hand through his hair agitatedly and then looked at his fingers when he realized they were shaking. “I don’t know. I just know she is. I smelled it.” He met Eli’s gaze.

  “Believe it or not I had no intention of do
ing more than we’d agreed upon.” He shook his head.

  “I don’t know what it is about that woman …. She reacted to me. I smelled her desire and the next thing I knew ….”

  John caught him off guard, slugging him hard enough on the jaw to swing his head sideways. He threw up arm instinctively to block the second blow and sent John a murderous look. “Have a care, brother,” he growled.

  “We bred her!” John snarled furiously. “What the fuck were you thinking to fuck our woman when she’s already breeding our young?”

  “I smelled another!” Gabriel bellowed at him. He had no idea where the thought came from or that it was even in his mind until it had spilled out. A jolt went through him when it had.

  He was as startled by the statement as all the others.

  They overcame their shock.

  “That isn’t possible!” Eli said tightly. “She’s human! You said it yourself. They don’t breed like that.”

  “I know that!” Gabriel snarled. “I’m telling you I smelled it! I could no more stop myself than either of you could!”

  “Well this is a hell of a god damned mess!” Eli muttered after a few minutes. “If you’re right, then she’s breeding mine, John’s, and yours—or mine and yours anyway—and she’s human. We have a hell of a lot more to worry about than her finding the lair or leading her people back to us if you’re right!”

  “What the fuck do you mean by that?” John demanded furiously. “Yours and Gabe’s? What the fuck makes you think you bred and I didn’t?”

  “That isn’t the point ….”

  “Like hell it isn’t! If she’s breeding mine, that makes her as much mine as yours, gods damn it! But that is the point, isn’t it? You think you can claim her and cut me out?”

  “I don’t know what the hell you three are pissed off about!” Joshua snarled. “At least you got the fucking chance! None of us have bred and none of us got any chance to breed when the three of you snatched the first female to come along that’s capable of breeding with us!”

  “It’s a problem for all of us!” Gabriel bellowed. “And it’s going to be more of a problem if all we can do is fight among ourselves! Shut the fuck up and think—or shut the fuck up and let me think!”

  All five of his brothers glared at him furiously, but after standing tensed to fight for several moments, they forced themselves to relax. Eli and Joshua began to pace restlessly. The others settled like Gabriel had, glaring down at their feet thoughtfully.

  “She seemed nervous,” Gabriel said after a little while.

  “Before, after, or during the fuckathon?” Eli snarled angrily.

  Gabriel sent him a tight look. “When I first spoke to her—when I was with her later.”

  “So?” Joshua asked blankly. “Some women are nervous. Maybe you made her nervous?”

  Gabriel frowned with a mixture of irritation and thoughtfulness. “She’s a government woman, right? She had a badge when we found her here. I don’t think she’s nervous by nature. I don’t see a woman like that going in to law enforcement.” He sent Joshua an irritated look.

  “And although I think some of her nervousness might have been from being around me— humans aren’t in touch with their instincts like we are, but they still have them!—I didn’t get the impression that that was all of it. There was wariness, and it might have been because she sensed that I was dragon without realizing it, but I still don’t think that was all of it. She went out of her way to invent some tale about being here on vacation. She never once mentioned that she was in any kind of law enforcement.”

  “You didn’t tell her anything but a bunch of tales about yourself,” Aaron pointed out dryly.

  Gabriel’s lips tightened. “I make it a habit to stick as close to the truth as I can, however, and that’s my point. I have a reason to be evasive. What reason could she have when I know damned well that she had no idea I was connected in any way with … the mating frenzy that went on here?”

  “So …,” Eli said after a few moments, “you’re suggesting … what? That she’s here undercover specifically to find us?”

  “Maybe,” Gabriel said doubtfully. “I suppose that would depend on how much she remembers.”

  “We healed her,” John said pointedly. “If they figured out that that bear crossed paths with her that would’ve aroused a lot of curiosity.”

  “The bear by itself might have done that,” Eli said dryly. “I was in a killing frenzy and then … well, you know the rest. I wasn’t thinking straight. They could’ve tracked her and found the bear.”

  “Why would she come alone, though?” Gabriel said after a moment’s thought. “I think that’s what’s bothering me. If she was sent, they wouldn’t send her alone to investigate.”

  “You don’t think you were too busy stalking her to notice if she had company?” Eli asked sardonically.

  Gabriel resisted the urge to punch his brother in the face—mostly because he didn’t feel like getting up at the moment. “You were there,” he said pointedly. “Did you notice anybody else that seemed to be particularly interested in her?”

  Eli felt his face heat. He didn’t particularly want to admit, however, that he hadn’t been able to focus on anything else from the moment he’d caught her scent and recognized her. “I didn’t notice anybody,” he said coolly, “but they could’ve arrived before she did.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “They couldn’t have set anything like that up,” he said decisively. “She didn’t actually see any of us. She couldn’t identify us and that means they can’t be that close, certainly not close enough to set up a trap at the rez for us. I think it must be a fishing expedition on her part. Maybe she remembers just enough to want to figure out the rest—like we thought when she showed up?”

  “Maybe. I don’t think the Feds were happy when they concluded their investigation and left, though. It might not be personal at all.”

  “Even if Gabe’s right, we still don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” Luke pointed out. “The question is—curious in a good way? Or dangerous?”

  John frowned. “I haven’t really paid all that close attention to the breeding habits of humans. It never really seemed relevant. Do you think it’s possible she could know she’s breeding and that’s what brought her?”

  Gabriel and Eli exchanged a look.

  “They don’t have our senses and I doubt she’s far enough along they could detect it with their tests,” Gabriel said dryly. “She’s only a few weeks along. I almost missed it myself.”

  Chapter Four

  Marlee knew as soon as she woke that she was alone in the bed and the coolness of the sheets where Gabriel had lain the night before assured her he’d been gone a while. She had mixed feelings about it. His departure had spared both of them any awkward ‘morning after’ conversation. On the other hand, she’d always been a light sleeper and she found it deeply disturbing that he’d risen, dressed, and departed without rousing her at least a little.

  Of course, she was almost more exhausted than if she hadn’t had any sleep at all, she thought wryly. Being woken several times during the night would’ve left her tired anyway, but being awakened for another frenetic round of sex had taken a good bit more out of her.

  “The man is insatiable!” she muttered tiredly, toying with the idea of turning over and going back to sleep.

  As she drifted toward slumber once more, it was only the thought that she was on a personal mission, and one of life altering consequences, that finally inspired her to give up the thought and get up. She winced as pain lanced through her. “Rough too!” she added as she got up and tottered toward the bathroom.

  Not that she was complaining—too much, she thought as she adjusted the water in the shower and climbed in. He’d made her feel pretty insatiable—and frantic.

  She frowned as that thought flickered through her mind, turning it over and over as she bathed. Could she just dismiss the effect Gabriel had had on her as ‘normal’ in the sense
that it was simply a new experience for her to find a man that had such a powerful effect on her? Or was it really, really odd that she’d had two encounters in the exact same place that went so far beyond anything she’d ever experienced that she felt like it defied the norm?

  She was still considering those questions when she got out and dressed, wondering if she was searching so hard for explanations that she was blowing the encounter all out of proportion.

  It didn’t necessarily follow that there was anything the least bit suspicious about it just because she hadn’t experienced anything like it before. Women talked—not that she had a lot of female friends—but she’d heard things, read things. Women who fell madly in love were inclined to talk about their feelings as if it was almost beyond ‘earthly’.

  Not that she thought she’d just experienced love at first sight, or anything like that, but maybe lust at first sight? Maybe she’d just beaten astronomical odds and met up with two—make that three, because she was certain there’d been two before—different men in the same area that were so attractive to her on a chemical level as to produce temporary insanity?

  Because what she’d done bordered irrational—ok! It went beyond rational. It didn’t just border it. She’d been as giddy and excited about going out with Gabriel the night before as if she didn’t have a care in the world and that was just plain out of character for her. It would’ve been even if not for the circumstances. Could his pheromones have been powerful enough to create that much of an imbalance?

  Science had pretty well established that attraction was chemical, even though people weren’t actually aware of it on a conscious level, and a natural drug was still a drug. She’d felt drugged the night before, but she knew damned well if she had been it was strictly natural. She hadn’t been so … enthralled that she’d let her guard down that much! There was no way he could’ve slipped anything to her.

  Besides, she’d been ‘high’ on Gabriel from the moment she’d met him.

  Abandoning that thread for the moment, she went back to considering the astronomical odds of meeting more than one man that had that kind of effect on her in one place and felt a wave of cold wash over her. She didn’t know how she could possibly be so certain that Gabriel wasn’t one of the men from her ‘erotic’ dream, but she knew he wasn’t. She felt it with a certainty that was impossible to shake. That definitely left her with three ‘out of this world’ lovers, because she was just as certain that two men had figured into that dream that certainly wasn’t a dream if one of them had gotten her pregnant!