Nathaniel (Dragon Hearts 1)

by Carole Mortimer

  “Nathaniel…?”

  He opened his lids to find Chloe’s eyes were also open and she was looking up at him with a mixture of confusion and a lingering of her earlier fear. It felt as if a knife was being plunged into his chest to see that emotion in her eyes when she looked at him.

  Nathaniel gathered her up in his arms and held her tightly against his chest. “I don’t— I never meant— Please don’t be frightened of me.”

  Chloe was having trouble pulling her scattered thoughts together.

  She’d had the weirdest dream. Something to do with King Arthur and his knights, goddesses and dragons, and an invisible island off the coast of Wales where the fae lived.

  Obviously, she had blacked out while she was in the dungeon, and Nathaniel had found her like that and brought her back upstairs.

  Was she frightened of Nathaniel?

  Well, he had locked her up in the dungeon of this castle.

  But he had also let her out again, because this room, the sofa she was lying on, were nothing like that cold and uncomfortable cell in the dungeon.

  He also felt amazing as he held her close to him, his body so warm and yet firmly muscled, the strength of his arms about her making her feel cherished. Whatever aftershave he was wearing, citrus and the clean smell of pine, was invading her senses so that all she could see and feel was Nathaniel.

  She ran her tongue over her lips before speaking. “You did lock me up.”

  The strong column of his throat moved as he swallowed. “I won’t put you in the dungeon again.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise,” he confirmed huskily.

  Chloe sighed her relief. “I was in a car accident when I was five. Trapped alone in the car for hours after my mother died. It was dark. So small and dark.” She gave a shudder. “Since then, I can’t bear… Small and dark places make me feel…”

  “It’s okay,” Nathaniel soothed. “Nothing is going to hurt you again, Chloe. I won’t allow it.”

  He sounded so sure. Spoke with such authority. An authority that couldn’t be doubted when it was backed up with such power of conviction. Except wasn’t he the one who was trying to hurt her?

  Something niggled at the back of Chloe’s befuddled mind, a fleeting memory, as Nathaniel lifted his hand before curving the palm about her cheek. That memory remained just out of her reach, and slipped away completely the moment he stroked the soft pad of his thumb across her bottom lip.

  His eyes looked deeply into hers. “May I kiss you?”

  She should say no. Nathaniel and his brother had taken her prisoner, locked her up, and then left her alone in the dungeon for what had seemed like hours. Chloe knew it couldn’t have been, though, because she could see the evening sun shining low into the room through the lead-light windows.

  It was the fact Nathaniel had asked rather than taken, as they both know he could if he chose, that persuaded Chloe into nodding her head.

  Nathaniel leaned over her, those chiseled lips as soft as she remembered from the last time he’d kissed her. Surprisingly so, when she could feel the leashed power in the tension of his chest as her hands trailed along the hard ridges of his muscles to grasp on tightly to his shoulders as he suddenly deepened the kiss.

  Nathaniel was lost in pleasure at the first brush of Chloe’s soft breath and the taste of her slightly parted lips. Those lips felt as soft and luscious as he remembered, tempting him, encouraging him to take more, when he had thought she would refuse him.

  One of his hands moved to cup her nape and hold her in place as he licked and sucked, hearing the hitch in her breathing as he bit down on the softness of her bottom lip. His other hand moved down to capture her breast, squeezing gently before caressing along the curve of her waist and then lower still, until he was cupping the heat between her thighs.

  Goddess…

  The denim of her jeans was an unacceptable barrier, preventing him from touching her silky flesh, from being inside her. And he wanted some part of him inside her.

  Mine.

  Yes, this woman was his, and nothing, not an avalanche or a tornado, and certainly not a scrap of denim, was going to keep him from touching her as he wanted to touch her.

  He deepened the kiss, eating her mouth with his, tongue slipping past her lips to invade and conquer all the wet heat inside. At the same time, he let one claw, just the one, break free, allowing him to slice through the denim and lace beneath as if they were butter.

  He instantly retracted the claw so that his fingers could stroke the soft heat of her bare pussy. She was so wet, and he gathered up some of that wetness on his fingers to stroke the swollen and pulsing nubbin above. Chloe groaned into his mouth as he flicked his nail against her clit, once, and then again, before stroking lower.

  He pushed one slicked finger inside her, giving a groan of his own as he felt how tight she was. His cock would never fit inside her if he didn’t stretch her a little first. He began to thrust that finger inside her heat, waiting until her juices were flowing and she was stretched a little before adding another finger, and then repeating the process until he was able to thrust a third finger inside. He began thrusting in earnest, curving his fingers to stroke the spongy nerve endings inside her.

  Chloe’s fingers were tangled in the springy softness of Nathaniel’s hair, holding him against her as their lips devoured each other. She was almost crawling into his lap, wanting to be closer still as Nathaniel’s fingers caressed and thrust inside her.

  Her hands clung on to his shoulders, nails digging into the hard flesh as she felt the swell of her release surging up inside her like an unstoppable tidal wave. Higher, and then higher still, until the release crashed over her in a seemingly never-ending blaze of hot pleasure.

  Chloe wasn’t sure, but she might have actually fainted again, because by the time she opened her eyes, Nathaniel was standing on the other side of the room and she was alone on the sofa.

  Her head felt befuddled still, her memories all jumbled up.

  She searched her brain for those memories.

  Deryk’s threats.

  Being locked in the dungeon and left down there.

  Nathaniel telling her a fantastical tale about Arthur Pendragon and—

  Nathaniel knew the exact moment Chloe remembered everything that had had happened to her in the past few hours. He could see it in the shocked widening of her eyes as she scrambled up to sit in the farthest corner of the sofa away from him, her legs drawn up and her arms wrapped protectively about her knees.

  Nathaniel had released her and moved away the moment he sensed she was starting to regain consciousness. Not because he wanted to, but because he had to.

  Today had been horrendous for Chloe. All of it. Even their lovemaking just now shouldn’t have happened. None of it should. For Chloe’s sake, not his own.

  He had heard and felt her pain earlier when she told him of the accident that had killed her mother and trapped Chloe inside the car with her for hours afterwards. He had felt the guilt for having locked her up in that small and cold cell, bringing those sad memories back to her.

  Nathaniel had the ability to take those memories away, along with the things he had told her about himself, but now knew he shouldn’t have. No matter how much he desired her, Chloe was not his. She did not belong to his dragon either. She never could. No matter what Deryk said, how desperate his brother was becoming, Nathaniel did not have the right to risk Chloe’s life in a mating that could kill her.

  She was human.

  A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw as he stepped forward into the sunlight, holding her gaze with his as he began to speak. “You fell and hit your head on a rock earlier, and I brought you inside the castle until you recovered.” He spoke in his dragon’s deep and mesmerizing voice as he sent the compulsion across the room. “Any other memories you have are a dream or a figment of your imagination from that bump on your head.”

  Nathaniel wished he didn’t have to include their lovemaking i
n the things Chloe had to forget. Ideally, he would have liked Chloe to remember that. To remember him. But if he was going to do this, then every single memory after he had spoken to her outside the castle earlier today had to go. They were memories he should never have given her in the first place.

  Chloe gave a pained frown, determined to remember rather than forget, as Nathaniel seemed so intent on her doing. Admittedly, she had felt slightly disoriented when she woke up a few minutes ago, but she didn’t remember falling outside the castle earlier or hitting her head.

  She would certainly never have imagined that cold cell in the dungeon.

  She was also sure she couldn’t have dreamed or imagined Nathaniel making love to her, that amazing climax.

  The delicious ache of her muscles, inside and out, told her she hadn’t.

  She wasn’t aware of any painful lump on her head as evidence she had fallen and hit it on a rock, causing her to have those wild hallucinations.

  So if she hadn’t imagined their lovemaking, and she hadn’t fallen and hit her head, surely she couldn’t have dreamed the things he had told her, either. Arthur. Uther. Arianrhod. Dragons.

  Wouldn’t it be better to let Nathaniel think he’d convinced her that conversation had never happened?

  What about seeing the dragon claw?

  Perhaps there was a logical explanation for that too? Such as Nathaniel having put something in the bottle of water he had brought down for her to drink. That could be responsible for her thinking she saw a dragon claw instead of a hand. It was certainly a more believable explanation than that he was really able to shift into a dragon.

  Eight suits of armor and eight swords in the entrance hall for the eight dragon warrior brothers of Arthur Pendragon.

  No!

  This stopped now.

  Nathaniel could not turn—shift, into a dragon. He was not the brother of Arthur Pendragon and not been part of the other man’s dragon army. His mother was not the Welsh goddess Arianrhod. Nor was his father Uther Pendragon. He certainly wasn’t over fifteen hundred years old.

  No matter what Nathaniel might try to convince her of, she did remember everything he’d told her.

  She also knew, despite the fact he seemed completely compos mentis now, that he had told her those things while under the influence of drugs.

  Then why was he trying so hard to make her believe the conversation had never happened? It wasn’t as if she would ever repeat any of it anyway. She gave a snort. No one would believe her if she did. She didn’t believe it her—

  Chloe gave Nathaniel a startled glance as a loud knock sounded on the wooden castle door. “Are you expecting visitors?”

  “It will be someone from the inn delivering your things.” Nathaniel’s expression was grim as he strode from the room.

  Chloe swung her legs down to the floor and sat up once she was alone. Which was when she also noticed the rip in her jeans. No, not a rip, she realized after giving it a closer look. The material had been cut clean through, her panties too, revealing—

  Oh my God.

  She remembered Nathaniel’s hands on her bare flesh, inside her, and the intensity of her climax.

  How had Nathaniel made such a precise cut in jeans? Perhaps he had a knife in his pocket? Or—

  She could figure this all out later. Now might be her only chance to get away. She doubted Nathaniel would want to make a scene in front of a third party, and if she was quick enough, she might be able to make her escape with whoever had come up from the inn with her belongings.

  She heard the murmur of male voices as she all but ran out into the entrance hall.

  Two male voices, both of which she recognized.

  “—to see Chloe before I leave.”

  “I’ve told you that isn’t possible.”

  “Make it possible.”

  “I said it isn’t possible,” Nathaniel boomed in that reverberating voice that sent a shiver down Chloe’s spine.

  “Will you please tell Chloe I asked for her,” the other man replied evenly.

  “No,” Nathaniel answered. “Now put the suitcase down and leave.”

  “Keith!” Chloe raised her voice as she reached the doorway in time to see him walking away.

  He came to a halt before turning slowly, a slightly dazed expression on his face. He looked at her blankly for several seconds before questioning tentatively. “Chloe?”

  “Yes.” She pushed past Nathaniel, grabbing her suitcase from where Keith had obviously left it, and was out the door before Nathaniel could stop her. She took a firm hold of Keith’s arm, having no intention of allowing him to leave without her.

  The puzzled frown cleared completely from Keith’s brow. “What are you doing here?” He shot Nathaniel a wary glance.

  It was the question Chloe could have asked Keith, considering she had ended their relationship this morning. And she would ask him. Later. Once she was safely away from Pendragon Castle.

  And Nathaniel.

  Chapter 8

  Nathaniel had taken one look at the blond-haired Adonis delivering Chloe’s suitcase and claiming to be her boyfriend, and decided he didn’t like him.

  His dragon’s kill, kill, kill had been equally as decisive.

  Not that Nathaniel was going to go that far, but he had compelled the other man to leave. To his annoyance, Chloe’s sudden appearance seemed to have circumvented that instruction.

  No, it hadn’t been Chloe’s appearance that broke the compulsion. That hadn’t occurred until she put her hand on the other man’s arm.

  What the fuck…?

  As far as Nathaniel was aware, this had never happened before. Ever. A dragon’s compulsion was powerful, unbreakable, which was the reason they rarely used it. And yet Chloe had broken it, and not even for herself, but for someone else. The man who claimed to be her boyfriend.

  Nathaniel should have made his earlier questions to Chloe more specific, and not only asked her whether or not she had a husband and children.

  Because she obviously had a boyfriend. A man who knew her intimately, from the expression of familiarity in his blue eyes.

  More intimately than Nathaniel?

  His nostrils flared, hands clenching at his sides, at the thought of this man touching Chloe, of his body inside hers.

  Mine.

  That inner shout came from Nathaniel this time rather than his dragon. The chivalrous thoughts he’d had earlier in deciding he had to let Chloe go were completely forgotten, to be replaced by a tide of jealousy that made him feel violent. A cold and merciless emotion that wrapped itself around his heart and wouldn’t let go. Chloe was his, damn it.

  “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave yet.”

  Chloe had been so relieved to see a familiar face, even if it was Keith’s, and to be outside the castle rather than inside it, she had momentarily forgotten they still had to get away from Nathaniel.

  She turned slowly to face him, her chin tilted in challenge. “Keith and I are going back to the inn now.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t think so,” he drawled.

  “You can’t stop us.” Even as she made the statement, Chloe knew she was wrong. Nathaniel had taken her prisoner quite easily earlier today, and she knew he was equally as capable of overpowering Keith. Keith looked fit enough, but he was nowhere near as muscular as Nathaniel. Or as fast.

  Nathaniel gave a mocking smile. “I’m not trying to stop you going anywhere, I merely thought you would like to take your backpack and cell phone with you.”

  Damn, she had forgotten about them. Well, both those things were replaceable. “I can collect them another time.”

  “Why not now?” He indicated she should go back into the castle to get them.

  Chloe didn’t trust him to let them go if they delayed too much longer. “Why don’t you go and get them for me, and we’ll wait right here?”

  Green eyes glittered with suppressed amusement at her obvious ploy to get him to go ba
ck inside the castle while she and Keith beat a hasty path down to the village. “I’m not sure where you left them,” Nathaniel drawled.

  “What the hell is going on, Chloe?” Keith was obviously tired of being ignored. “Who is this man? And why are you staying here with him?” he added suspiciously.

  She linked her arm in the crook of his. “I’m not. I thought Mr.—Nathaniel,” she absolutely refused to play to his fantasy and call him Pendragon, “was interested in sharing a story of the area with me, but I was wrong.”

  Keith nodded. “The landlord said you’d been asking a lot of questions. He also said you sent down for your things.” He looked pointedly at the suitcase he had brought with him.

  Chloe gave him a reassuring smile. “He must have misunderstood. I only wanted my camera from my room.” She really didn’t have time for Keith’s misplaced jealousy right now. She was grateful to him for being the means of helping her to get away from Pendragon Castle, but it didn’t change the fact their relationship was over.

  Once she was back in the village, she was going to pay her bill, pack up her car, and leave, never to return. Keith could do whatever he wanted. She was leaving.

  She turned back to the man standing in the doorway. “I have no idea where you’ve put them, so if you wouldn’t mind getting them for me?”

  Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed at her tone. As a dragon, he was at the top of the food chain, bigger and stronger than any other predator. All animals, except some humans, knew better than to oppose him. But in the past the dragon’s ability to compel had always controlled the most rebellious human.

  The fact Chloe had broken his compulsion of the man who had introduced himself as Keith Watson with the touch of her hand made Nathaniel question whether or not he had successfully compelled Chloe to forget the things he’d told her about himself and his dragon brothers.

  Or was her fear of him because she still believed him to be a drug or arms smuggler, who might or might not kill her for what she knew?

  Yeah, that had to be it.

  No human could resist a dragon’s compulsion.

  Some of the tension left his shoulders. “I’ll only be a minute.”