Drakon's Plunder (Blood of the Drakon)

by N. J. Walters

  He looked like an ancient warrior, ready to battle any foe, slay any enemy.

  He was also very aroused. His shaft was long and thick and while she watched, he eased his hand down and gripped it.

  Sam forgot how to breathe.

  …

  Ezra knew he should turn away from Sam. Her arm was hurting and she needed to rest. She didn’t need to watch him jerk off in the shower. Of course, the only reason he had his fist wrapped around his dick in the first place was because she was watching him.

  How could he not be aroused?

  Her amazing red hair curled around her shoulders, the tips damp. With her green eyes and sultry smile, she could be a siren, sent to lure him to his doom.

  And he’d go willingly.

  That made Sam Bellamy a very dangerous woman.

  Swearing, Ezra turned his back on her and began to wash. He needed to get away from her before he did something stupid, like drag her out of the tub, slam her against the wall, and fuck her until they both exploded with pleasure.

  She wasn’t up to that. Yet.

  His cock jerked, and he swore again, thankful the rush of water kept her from hearing. He gripped his cock once again and pumped. He wasn’t human and could go for hours without needing to rest. Right now, his balls were so full they hurt.

  He told himself he wasn’t going to turn back toward her, but he did. Sure enough, she was still watching him, her eyes wide and her lips parted. Her skin was flushed from the heat of the bathwater and a rush of arousal.

  She lowered her gaze and licked her lips. That was all he needed. He stroked his cock faster. He slapped his free hand against the tiled wall for support and kept their eyes locked together. He wanted her with him, even if it was only having her watch him.

  He’d like to do that someday. Watch her pleasure herself. The idea of seeing her touching her breasts, stroking her slender fingers in and out of her tight core sent him over the edge.

  He roared, and the glass wall that partially enclosed the shower stall vibrated as the spray of the shower washed away his release. Sam was leaning against the edge of the tub with both arms resting on the rim, as though she wanted to get closer. He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. The orgasm might have slightly eased the physical ache in his body, but it did nothing to calm the turmoil swirling inside him.

  He gave his chest and groin a fast wash and turned off the water. In the silence, he could hear Sam’s heavy breathing. “You almost done?” He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist.

  “What? Ah no.” She grabbed the bar of soap from the holder and ran it over her legs. “I’ll be another few minutes.”

  He left her there soaking in his bathtub. Possessiveness swirled inside him. She was his siren. He liked the idea of her in his tub, in his bed, in his house. He wanted to see to all her needs, provide her with whatever she needed, as long as that didn’t include her wanting to leave him.

  That he would not do.

  He removed the towel and ran it over his hair and body, all the while listening to the sounds of water splashing as Sam washed. The creature that lived inside him, his dragon half, also listened intently. He’d never seen the beast so focused on a woman. That was a good thing, because Sam was staying.

  He still wasn’t certain about her connection to the Knights. Whatever it was, he’d have to find a way to deal with it. Because there was no fighting his primal instincts. Sam belonged to him. Besides, it was too dangerous out there for her to be on her own. Now all he had to do was convince her of that.

  He tossed the towel aside and yanked on the jeans and shirt he’d been wearing earlier. He grabbed the damp towel and stalked back into the bathroom. Sam was just standing but sat back down when he entered.

  “No need to be shy.” He dumped his towel on the counter and reached for her.

  “I’m not shy. Not really.” She stood, accepted the hand he held out, and stepped over the side of the tub.

  He couldn’t get enough of her. He devoured her with his gaze, loving the way several droplets clung to her breasts. One trailed down to the tip, and he bent and swiped the errant bead of water away with his tongue. It tasted almost sweet, like Sam. He particularly enjoyed the way her nipple puckered even tighter at his touch.

  Sam groaned and swayed toward him.

  She needed tending, he reminded himself. Food and rest. He grabbed a large towel and wrapped it around her. “I’ll be down in the kitchen. Call if you need me.”

  “I need to see that book, Ezra.”

  He paused in the doorway but didn’t turn back. “I know.” While he understood the necessity, that didn’t mean he liked it.

  …

  Sam pulled the plug in the tub and then sat on the edge, still wrapped in a towel. Now that Ezra was no longer in the room, she could breathe a little easier. He was so big, such a large, vibrant presence, he seemed to suck the air right out of her lungs.

  Watching him jerk himself off in the shower had left her feeling hot and horny. She’d never seen anything quite so sexy, especially since she knew the show had been all for her.

  Well, maybe not all of it. She grinned and shook her head. He’d certainly enjoyed himself.

  He’d caught her watching him and had showed her just how much she affected him, made himself vulnerable to her. That was almost as sexy as the water cascading over his naked body.

  She rubbed her hand over her face. “Focus.” The pain medication had dulled the ache in her arm, and the bath had soothed any soreness from their lovemaking. She dried off and padded back to the bedroom. The flannel shirt she’d worn earlier was still on the floor, along with the sweatpants so she pulled them back on. By the time she added socks, she had her wayward thoughts mostly under control.

  She took a few more minutes to tidy the bathroom and hang the damp towels to dry. Since Ezra’s comb was sitting on the vanity, she dragged it through her curls before tossing it back down. There wasn’t much else she could do with her hair.

  She studied her reflection. She didn’t look as pale as she had. Of course, thinking about Ezra naked in the shower was enough to bring color to any woman’s cheeks.

  Her stomach growled, so she left the bathroom and headed downstairs. Ezra was standing at the stove. “I’ll warm the pancakes and bacon in the microwave, but I’m scrambling more eggs. Nothing worse than cold eggs.”

  She took her seat back at the counter, content to just watch him. Before long, he had everything done and was taking his seat. She started in on the pancakes and bacon, not speaking until she’d eaten a good chunk of what she’d piled on her plate.

  “Do you want more?” Ezra indicated the still half full platters.

  She shook her head. “I’m stuffed.” Even though she’d been hungry, she could only eat so much.

  Ezra dragged each platter in front of him and proceeded to devour every remaining scrap of food.

  “Wow, you must have been hungry.” He was a big man and probably needed to eat a lot more than she did.

  “You have no idea.” His hot gaze stroked over her. Sam almost picked up her napkin and fanned her face but caught herself in the nick of time. He already knew he was hot stuff, best not to add to his ego.

  “So what now?” There was no putting off this conversation any longer. They were both sated from their lovemaking and the meal, both clean and dressed. There was nothing left to delay them.

  Ezra rose from his stool, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and poured them each a mug of fresh-brewed coffee. Sam knew she should help, but she also knew if she tried, he’d tell her to sit. In any case, there wasn’t a whole lot to clean up. “Let’s go into my office,” he said.

  She took the mug he offered. “Sugar?”

  He got a small container from the cupboard and dug a spoon out of the cutlery drawer. “Do you want milk?”

  She shook her head and added two teaspoons of sugar. “No. This is fine.” Finally, there was nothing left to delay them. “Lead on.” Now that the
time was at hand, she was reluctant. It meant her time with Ezra was almost over. She barely knew him, but she’d miss him.

  The living, dining, and kitchen areas were an open L-shape, but his office had walls and a door. It also had big glass patio doors that opened up to the outside and let in the sunlight. Shelves filled three walls of the room. Each was filled with glass jars and cases.

  Drawn to them, Sam walked to the nearest one. Beach glass filled several tall crystal vases. It was an explosion of color. She didn’t know much about beach glass, other than that it was pretty, but she did know that certain kinds were much rarer than others and that red and orange were the Holy Grail to those who collected.

  It made sense since colored glass would have been a luxury item years ago. The ocean took broken shards of glass and lovingly polished them until they were something else entirely, but still works of art.

  The vases on the shelves were filled with red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and more. And there was a lot of it. “This is incredible.” He must spend hours and hours on the beach to collect so many specimens. He also had to have travelled. “How long have you been collecting?”

  “All my life.” She moved on to a case filled with coins. Silver and gold, ancient and more modern, from all different cultures.

  “You’re a beachcomber?”

  He laughed. “You could say that. A salvager, too.”

  She hated to pull herself away. Ezra liked to collect old things, too. He got the value of their history. It was something they had in common, even if what they collected was slightly different. She understood his passion.

  Another shelf was filled with shells of different kinds. Some she’d never seen. “Do you dive?” He had to in order to have such amazing specimens.

  “You could say that.” At his dry tone, she forced herself to turn away from his collection.

  “I’m sorry. I could spend hours in here. This is amazing.” She could tell he was pleased by her reaction. And why wouldn’t he be? Any collector liked when someone appreciated their collection.

  He motioned her to a large leather chair in front of a massive wooden desk. The desk itself looked as though it had come off a ship from the seventeen hundreds. Instead of sitting behind it, Ezra took the other brown leather chair next to hers. He set his mug down on the desk. She took a sip of her coffee and almost moaned at the delicious flavor.

  He reached out, took her mug, and set it next to his. Then he angled both chairs so they were facing one another. He took his hands in hers. “What do you know about the Knights of the Dragon?”

  Chapter Nine

  Sam’s hands were cold in his, and Ezra frowned. The house was chilly. That was something he rarely thought about since it didn’t matter to him. He’d have to start thinking differently now that Sam was here.

  He stood and went to crank up the thermostat. He was glad Tarrant had talked him into having heat put in even though he didn’t need it for himself. He had a fireplace in the living room, but that was more for ambiance than for warmth.

  “You should have told me you were cold.” He sat back down and took her hands once again.

  She appeared slightly bemused. “I hadn’t really noticed. I’m always cold.”

  He’d have to be extra careful in the future. “Now, about these Knights of the Dragon you mentioned earlier.” He needed to know everything she did.

  What he really wanted to do was show her his collection. He could tell her where every piece came from. Not many people appreciated beach glass, shells, and odd coins, but Sam did. As an archaeologist, she saw beyond the monetary value of the object to the intrinsic value it had as a piece of history. She hadn’t even gotten to his pottery shelf. And this was only a small fraction of his collection.

  But once again, the Knights intruded.

  “It’s too crazy to be believed.” She dragged her fingers through her hair and sighed.

  “You mentioned they’re a secret society. That they believe dragons are real.” He hated lying to Sam, pretending he didn’t know anything, but that was the best way to find out what she knew.

  Sam leaned her head back against the seat of the chair and briefly closed her eyes. She still looked pale and tired. It had been less than twenty-four hours since she’d been shot and he’d dragged her home. Yes, it was only a graze, but the adrenaline dump and the blood loss, plus the ride back here in an open dinghy, all added up and took their toll. Add on top of it their lovemaking, and it was no wonder Sam was tired.

  “We can talk about this later.” Tarrant would kill him for not interrogating Sam, but he couldn’t make himself do it. It just felt wrong.

  She shook her head and opened her eyes. “No. I can’t stay here much longer. As I told you earlier, these people have a very long reach. They seem to have people everywhere, in law enforcement and in government. Rich people, powerful people.” She drew her feet up onto the edge of the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees.

  “How did you find out about them? Was it because of the book your friend discovered?” That didn’t seem like enough to send her down this path.

  “No.” She turned and stared out the window at the sea. The wind was brisk today, creating whitecaps on the waves. The water wasn’t blue. No, it was stormy gray. It was a hum in his blood, calling to him. But even the lure of the sea couldn’t drag him away from Sam.

  “I was approached after Brian’s funeral by a man named Gervais Rames.” She gave a small laugh. “I thought he was out of his mind when he claimed a secret society had killed Brian. I mean, who in their right mind would believe such a thing?”

  She looked so small and fragile curled up in the big leather chair. He knew she was strong, had a backbone of steel, or she wouldn’t have accomplished what she had. But he was bigger and stronger and longed to shelter her from harm.

  He reached out, scooped her into his arms, and settled back in his chair with her on his lap. “You do that a lot,” she informed him.

  He shrugged, totally unrepentant. “I like you here.” The fact that she didn’t argue told him just how worn out she truly was. “What did this Gervais Rames want?”

  She leaned her head on his shoulder. “He told me about the Knights and what they did. I mean, the idea of drinking dragon blood when the creatures don’t even exist is really out there. He told me how they killed people like Brian all the time in their quest for power and eternal life.” She tipped back her head and peered up at him. “I gotta tell you, I almost called the cops right then and there. I mean, there’s no such thing as dragons and eternal life. That’s all fantasy. Right?”

  “Right,” Ezra agreed. No need to upset her by informing her she was sitting in the arms of a water drakon who’d lived for thousands of years. And by the way, if she drank his blood on a regular basis, she’d be cured of any disease and live indefinitely. Nope, best to keep his mouth shut. His dragon grumbled inside him but didn’t give him too much grief.

  “But the fact remains that these people think it’s real. It’s like the alchemists centuries ago trying to turn base metal into gold. People do kill in the pursuit of arcane and forbidden knowledge. I’ve made it my life’s work to study such things. I know what different cultures have done since the dawn of time, the atrocities they’ve committed in pursuit of their cause.”

  Ezra was well aware of the lengths humans would go to in order to try to live forever or appease their gods, whichever ones they happened to be worshipping at the time in history.

  “So you believe the society is real, but not the creatures they’re searching for?”

  “Exactly.”

  “So how did this Rames know about them?”

  She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. Ezra reached out and snagged her coffee. She gave him a grateful smile and took a large swallow. “Thanks.”

  “Rames?” he reminded her, eager to finish this conversation so she could rest.

  “This is where the story takes an even crazier turn.”

  He flash
ed a quick grin. “I think I’m past being surprised.”

  “It seems that Rames was part of another secret society, only this one works to oppose the Knights of the Dragon. Their mandate is to protect all dragons. They call themselves the Dragon Guard.”

  He’d told her he was past being surprised, but he’d lied. She’d managed to totally stun him.

  …

  Sam knew she’d finally shocked Ezra. He’d been surprisingly calm about the whole secret society thing up until now. She guessed it had just taken one step too far into crazy land, even for a man as level-headed as Ezra.

  He was staring at her like she’d finally lost her mind. She knew where he was coming from. She’d thought the same thing a year ago. “I’m not lying, and I’m not crazy.” She felt it important to point both those things out.

  “The Dragon Guard?”

  She nodded. Why he seemed more stunned by the news about them and not the Knights of the Dragon, she had no idea. “Rames told me they’d existed as long as the Knights had, formed to oppose them. They’re all about protecting the innocent and saving dragons where they can.”

  “Where is this Rames now?”

  “I don’t know.” This is where things got dicey. “He disappeared not long after he introduced himself and gave me the information on the Knights. Said he had a lead on some book and would be working toward getting it away from them.”

  “What book?” Ezra radiated an intensity that was downright scary. She tried to push out of his arms, but he simply tightened his hold. He wasn’t hurting her, but she wasn’t getting away unless he let her. She’d never met a man as strong as Ezra. And she had a feeling he wasn’t even exerting himself.

  “I don’t know. He never said.”

  “Think, Sam. This could be important.” Ezra lifted her, positioning her so she was facing him, her thighs resting on the outside of his. It was a very intimate position. Of course, she couldn’t really complain considering how intimate they’d been earlier. Somehow, this was different. It was one thing to be naked and having sex, quite another to be emotionally vulnerable, and that’s how she felt.