Dalgo remained silent for long minutes, just watching her like that, sitting in the chair in front of the bed. Just as she was about to squirm beneath his intimidating stare, he moved.
He reached out, fast as a reptile, and grabbed her wrist. Janelle cried out in surprise but didn’t pull away. Dalgo looked at her hand, turning it over to caress the inside of her palm with slow motions of his thumb. The gesture, so innocent, made her skin tingle with erotic pleasure.
“What do you say, my mysterious beauty? Will you stay here and be mine?”
Janelle stared at Dalgo’s face, all male angles and strength. At those silver eyes that shone with the promise of things forbidden and untold. She knew she had no choice – and even if she did, she would choose the same way.
Her fate had been sealed the moment those eyes settled on her.
“I accept.”
Chapter 6
He paced the dark hallways, away from the heat that kept his personal quarters comfortable. And from the woman who was threatening his sanity.
The beast inside him pushed to get out. To take what was his.
But he refrained. She was weak and chilled to the bone. She needed time to heal before he could taste her body, sate himself on her flesh.
He needed time to cool off. She was defiant and feisty; made him want to bend her over and kiss her into submission.
But if he started that, he wouldn’t be able to stop. Not with his beast screaming and thrashing under his skin like it wanted to break free. He was grateful that Myral wasn’t there, at least. The dragoness was back with her mate and their dragonet in the lair, utterly oblivious of his need to restrain himself. Dragons didn’t understand the need for consent, the need for dialogue.
Once they found their mates, fighting and mating became one and the same and they took hold of each other, without a thought for mercy or tenderness.
But Janelle was not a Draekon woman. She was mixed-blood with a past he knew nothing about. She wouldn’t understand the savagery of the beast her soft lips had awakened.
“Did you find it?”
Dalgo turned around, a growl rising from his throat, then stiffened. Aldric was there; his oldest friend, his High Lord. And he wasn’t happy.
“Yes.” Dalgo bit out the answer then extended his hand, the silver velvet pouch inside it.
Aldric took it and retrieved the delicate bracelet made of a dragon’s scale. This was the very bracelet that symbolized his commitment to the Lady Endora, his Draekarra, the mixing of their vitalem, their life-force. Their essence was linked until their last breaths in a love that made a Draekon’s long life worth living.
“She was the thief, then.” Aldric’s voice was cold and angry. “And you captured her.”
“I did.” Dalgo spoke carefully. Because he hadn’t lied to Janelle. Stealing a Draekar bracelet was punishable by death. “She wasn’t working alone, though. Someone else sent her here to steal it.”
“If she’s working for someone then you will need to search the castle. Whoever had the guts to steal my Draekarra’s bracelet won’t give up so easily.”
“No, they won’t.” Dalgo shook his head. It did him good to think about work. “This isn’t a petty low-life thief. This is someone who was willing to sacrifice her life. Whoever is behind this is dangerous, and they know what they’re doing.”
Silence fell between them. Dalgo knew what he had to do and how to proceed. And Janelle was at the heart of it all.
“I won’t fail you.” Dalgo locked gazes with his High Lord. “I will find and destroy this threat.”
“I know.” Aldric’s hand closed around the precious piece of jewelry, then he slipped it into a pocket. His eyes scanned the dark hallway, then returned to Dalgo with a frown. “What are you doing here? It’s not like you to wander the halls of the dragon alone.”
“I needed to cool off,” Dalgo admitted freely, not bothering to hide how stirred up he was. Not from Aldric. His friend was one of the few who understood what it was to find his Draekarra. “I couldn’t be in the same room as her. Too dangerous.”
“So it’s real.” Aldric’s features were carefully composed as understanding made its way into his eyes. “But there was no notification of a compatible mate for you.”
Dalgo turned his back to Aldric then took a few steps away into the liquid darkness of the tunnels leading to and from the dragon lair. He was Draekon; he didn’t need light to see. And that meant Aldric saw him as well.
“She was never tested.” His voice sounded wrong, more an animal than a man’s. He was losing his fight. “But I don’t need a genetic confirmation result. I knew as soon as I kissed her. She’s mine, Aldric. She’s truly mine.”
Aldric came to his side but didn’t go as far as to touch him. It wouldn’t be wise right now, even if Aldric was his High Lord and they shared more than several years of friendship. Dalgo was under too much strain. He would attack any male who dared challenge him.
“You could be mistaken.” There it was: reason again. Aldric was nothing if not cool and calculating. But Dalgo was too far gone for reason. All he had was his desperate grip on control, and even that was slipping. “We know nothing about this woman.”
“When you found your Draekarra, could you have been mistaken?” Dalgo turned to Aldric, and from the shock on his friend’s face, he knew the beast inside him was pushing against its restraints, showing clearly beneath his skin and beyond his eyes. “Wouldn’t you have ripped the world apart to get to her?”
Aldric remained silent, his eyes assessing Dalgo as he summoned the strength to calm down. His long life of rigorous training made it possible to push back the beast, but it was a battle he was destined to lose eventually.
“An Old World mating.” Aldric shook his head. “There is a reason why the Draekons of old chose to search for their mates through genetic testing. Sometimes, the beast wants something it shouldn’t. What if she’s not truly the one? You will live a life without an heir.”
Aldric was right. But it was too late now – now that Janelle lay in his bed, tucked up securely in the pit of the dragon’s lair. Now that she had agreed to be his.
“Myral smelled it on her too,” Dalgo said. “I can’t back away now, and you know it.”
“What did you do, friend?” Aldric’s voice was low, but there was no mistaking the insinuation. He knew him too well. Ruthlessness was rewarded in a Draekon, but it was also dangerous. “Did you force her to accept you?”
“I did what I had to.” Dalgo swallowed. Because he knew what he had done. And he would do it all over again. “I can’t let her leave now. I can’t ever let her leave.”
Aldric took a deep breath then nodded slightly. He had found his own Draekarra two years ago and understood the call. It was a demand his body made, a claim that couldn’t be denied. “But you can’t go to her like that.”
“No.” Dalgo shook his head. “I can’t. But I can’t stay away, either.”
Chapter 7
She was sick of being alone in that room.
Dalgo had left hours ago – after leaving her a large platter of the most delicious food she’d ever eaten. Janelle ate her fill, then ate some more. Darrick didn’t exactly feed her – or any of the others – the best food he could find.
But now that she was full and warm, she was bored to death.
Her eyes scanned the single large room that comprised most of Dalgo’s personal quarters. The space was spartan, to say the least. The metal bed was the largest piece of furniture by far, and next to it stood a large, tall dresser. Apart from the round table with four chairs at which she was currently sitting, that was it. No frills, nothing superfluous. The kind of space a soldier ‘lived’ in without truly living.
It didn’t matter. Janelle wasn’t going to stay a prisoner for long. Sooner or later, Dalgo would slip up and she would make a run for it. And she would never come back.
She got up and walked to the wall, then flattened her palm against it. Warmth came off it,
just as it radiated from the floor and the ceiling. It was like the walls were coated in a layer of black, liquid diamond, and a flow of lava ran behind the opaque façade, emanating from the stone.
It was magnificent.
“It is what you think it is.” A male voice came from the dark recesses of the room and Janelle turned quickly. The sound of the door locking told her everything she needed to know. Dalgo was back, and he was going to take what he was owed. Excitement and fear spread through her in a rush and she found she had to brace herself against the wall to prevent her knees from buckling. “The walls, the ceiling, the floor… all made of black diamonds. The dragons build their lairs with dragon fire, and it burns so hot, you can still feel the melted rocks behind the thick coating of diamonds. It should stay hot for another few thousand years.”
“And what then?” Her voice was small, like a little mouse squeaking in the corner. It angered her, this reaction to Dalgo’s presence, but she was powerless to stop it. She glanced down at her barely clothed body. She was still wearing the men’s shirt he’d put her in, but nothing underneath. It stopped at mid-thigh and left her feeling defenseless.
“No dragons lie in a cold nest.” Dalgo spoke in a low voice, too low for man. So much so that she could barely make out his words. He spoke the same way a beast growled – like a predator about to pounce.
Janelle stayed silent as he moved in the deep shadows at the far end of the room. His tall, well-built body moved with a fluid grace, a grace no human man could have. A grace borne of incredible strength and something more. Something so utterly alien she couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
“You were gone for a long time.” Her voice bounced off the walls, off the ceiling and came back to her. She still sounded like a mouse; tiny and defenseless. She hated it.
“I had to stay away for a while.” Dalgo spoke as he stepped closer, into the faint light. “But I’m back now.”
Janelle stared at his face, her mind so empty she forgot to breathe. His features were subtly different, there was a new sharpness in the cheekbones, angles in the jawline, but it was mostly his eyes which sent her heart into a frenzy.
They were a blazing silver, looking like molten metal in the low light, and his pupils were slashed to vertical slits. They weren’t the same eyes that had looked at her before – yet they were. A more savage version, closer to what he really was, more raw and primal.
A dragon made man. Fire made flesh.
And that fire was about to consume her.
“Your eyes…” Her voice broke. She didn’t need to tell him; he knew. She was just the fool who hadn’t understood before.
The predator to her prey had come to collect what was owed. And what was owed was her.
“The beast is never too far from the surface.” Dalgo’s unsmiling mouth moved as he spoke, and the tips of two elongated fangs peeked through his lips.
He moved all the way to where she stood against the wall and Janelle was locked between the two sources of warmth. His face, as transformed as it was, was even more attractive. It was more expressive, more passionate. More dangerous.
“The beast has come out to play. Don’t tease it, sweet Janelle, or it might bite you.”
Dalgo moved fast and his hand locked behind her neck. His strong fingers curled at her nape, the tips closing around her racing pulse. His thumb pushed her chin up and to the side as he stared at her exposed throat. Fear coursed through her veins, laced with an erotic arousal so powerful, wetness dripped down her inner thighs, coating her in desire.
His dragon eyes, heavy with lust, caressed her exposed flesh all the way down to the first button of her silk shirt. She didn’t dare move, didn’t dare speak. It was a burden to breathe, to try and steady her heartbeat. Her body raged with tension, her skin sensitive to the mere feel of the long shirt. Beneath it, her nipples were hard to the point of hurting and her pussy ached with emptiness.
“Would you like that, I wonder?” That voice again, rasping like a large cat’s tongue on her naked flesh, leaving a trail of torment in its wake. “For me to bite you? Sink my mark into your skin?”
Her tortured moan echoed off the walls and Janelle braced her hands against the stone to steady herself. Because she would. The very thought of those fangs scraping against her skin made her core clench and more moisture spill between her legs.
What is wrong with me?
She didn’t have time to think about anything else. Dalgo bent his head, towering over her as she stood frozen despite the heat. His lips went to brush the skin of her jaw, just beneath her earlobe. A current of madness ran under her skin, under her muscles and inside her bones. It was the unleashing of something female and primal that made her crave all the things she shouldn’t.
“You smell so good.” His voice came just above her ear, more growl than anything else. “Do you know what you do to me? You make me want to lose myself in you. Inside you.”
His lips came down again, this time lower, just at the curve of her neck, and the shock of his hot, wet tongue made Janelle cry out. Dalgo pressed his face against her neck and she felt him smile there – and it was a savage smile. The smile of a barbarian about to set out to conquest.
“Yes, you would. And I will make you scream my name tonight.”
His free hand closed around her waist and his fingers dug into the soft flesh. His body moved closer and Janelle was crushed between the wall and his form – one so definitively male that her already foggy mind became a blur of lust and pure sensual demands.
She ground her pelvis against Dalgo’s hardness, the sensations too good to ignore, too strong to stop. Dalgo suddenly growled and his hand on her waist forced her to stop.
“I will be the one to give you pleasure tonight.” His voice. His voice was a pure sound of erotic promises, gruff and rasping. “And I will give you so much of it that you won’t be able to remember your own name afterward.”
He dug his fingers into her flesh, moving from the softness of her stomach to the swell of her breast. She gasped as his hand explored her, his face still buried in her neck. He parted his mouth and the tips of his sharp fangs rested lightly against her throat. A wet, hot tongue slid over the spot where her jugular was pounding frantically.
“Oh, Gods.”
His hand descended to her thigh, and the shock of his bare hand on her flesh made her quiver. His fingers were long and strong as he slid them between her legs. He slipped his hand higher, then higher still. Her breath caught as time felt suspended, then he reached up to cup her sex. He slid one finger between her lower lips, growling against her throat at the wetness he found there.
His thick finger pushed past her lips and dug into her core. Janelle cried out in pleasure as he filled her, pushing the palm of his hand against her clit.
Dalgo released her throat then, still holding her head firmly in place, brought his face just above her own. Janelle tried to focus on him but the pleasure was too great and her eyes kept closing.
“Look at me, Janelle.” His voice was a smooth command, and she obeyed. “I want to see you come.”
And she was so close, she knew he would get what he wanted.
His hand moved and he inserted a second finger inside her soft folds, pushing against the inner side of her clit as his thumb brushed the tiny nub from the outside.
Just like that, she shattered.
Janelle screamed, loud and wild as wave after wave of climax wracked her body. Her eyes closed as she was overcome with the sensations and Dalgo’s mouth sealed her own. He breathed in her cries of pleasure until, finally, just as she was about to collapse, he released her.
His hand came up and his silver eyes, dark with passion and slashed by the vertical pupils of the beast, locked with hers as he licked her essence from his fingers.
“Now, I take what is mine.”
His large hands closed around the collar of her shirt and she cried out in surprise as he ripped it clean from her body. The buttons went flying to the far corners
of the room and the tattered silk was thrown to the rock floor.
She stood, quivering and bared as his dragon eyes took in the sight of her naked body. Her hands crawled up her sides, intent on covering herself.
“Don’t.” This wasn’t the voice of a man. It was the feral snarl of a monster, barely contained within Dalgo’s skin. “You are mine and I will see you. See all of you.”
“I’m afraid,” she confessed freely, her limbs trembling as she stared at the man who would claim her in the most complete of ways.
His silver eyes flashed and his cruel mouth twitched.
“You should be.” Again, that otherworldly snarl, but lower, softer… yet even more dangerous. “You have awakened the beast, woman. And there is only one way to appease it.”
Dalgo’s hands suddenly closed around her hips and she was lifted into the air. Her legs locked around his pelvis as he walked, carrying her like she weighed nothing. He placed her gently on the large bed, never taking his eyes off her as he discarded his silk shirt to the floor. He made quick work of his pants as well, and stood there as she admired his naked glory.
He was pure magnificent male beauty, all hard planes and agile strength. His shoulders were wide and well-built, with strong arms and a smooth chest that tapered to a narrow waist.
His cock was thick and long, standing high and hard, pointing straight at her above his muscular thighs. It twitched as she stared at it.
“I want to see you. All of you,” Dalgo ordered. “Spread yourself for me.”
She hesitated only for an instant, as the raw possession in his eyes scared her. Then her hands went down between her spread knees of their own accord and she pulled her lips apart. Dalgo watched her, male hunger twisting his features. He knelt on the bed between her spread legs, and those eyes locked with hers.
“So lush, so feminine.” He swallowed as his eyes traveled down to her breasts, then to her displayed sex. “I am hungry, and you are my feast.”
12 Naughty Days of Christmas 2018 Page 46