Renegade Dragon Read online

  But this woman was his mate. Yes, she’d broken into his home, and yes, she’d eaten one of his family’s precious apples, but she was his. She deserved better than being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. She was his mate, and if he wanted to keep her, he had to do it with the truth, even if that honesty threatened everything he craved with her.

  Nico clasped her face between his hands and traced his thumbs over her soft skin. “Ivy is at a safe house owned by my friend Reynard. The man guarding her is called Ian Madoc. He’s like me, a dragon, and Ivy’s touch had the same effect on him as yours has on me. She’s agreed to have him as her mate, and Mad will do anything to protect her. He’s taken her away until it’s safe, but I’ll take you to see her as soon as I can.”

  Whatever hardships she had survived in her young life, she had obviously learned how to read people very well. She must have seen something in his face that convinced her that he told the truth, even if it did sound outrageous. She relaxed and lost some of the wariness in her gaze. “What happens to me until then?”

  “Well, unless you want me to turn into a dragon again, I would suggest you hold my hand or touch my arm. Come morning, I’ll be safely in control again, but once the sun sets, we’ll have to come back here.” He motioned around the small prison-like cell. “If you want, we can move to the bed. So you can sit,” he added hastily. “Not because—”

  “I know,” she assured him. When she didn’t move, she asked, “What kind of drug? Is it one you made yourself?”

  He nodded. “I based it on an old potion that our enemies used against us. In synthetic form, it’s horrendously potent. The dose I was given was damn near enough to kill me, but I’m old enough that it’s just making things very uncomfortable.”

  “You’re in pain.” She wasn’t asking. “Your face,” she said, gesturing to his mouth. “I can see the little lines there. You’re trying to hide it, but I can tell.”

  Was this another skill she had learned during the childhood he was beginning to fear had been filled with cruelty? The clues were stacking up, and the conclusion he was reaching didn’t please him. “Honestly?” At her encouraging nod, he admitted, “I’m fucking wracked with agony right now. All I can think about is how damned brave and beautiful you are and how much I want to lie with you, but my body is screaming with pain.”

  Her face softened with sympathy. “How can I help you? Is there an antidote? There has to be something in your lab that will alleviate some of these symptoms.”

  He shook his head. “I designed an injectable drug that we call Chill to help dragons avoid a natural heat phase. It’s not perfect, and it causes a great deal of discomfort to the men I’ve used it on, but it won’t work on me. I tried earlier, and I think it made things worse.”

  “Well—there has to be something…” Her voice trailed off as she seemed to reach the only possible conclusion. She bit her lower lip, and he found himself making a mental note to tease that spot when he took her, to nibble her lush bottom lip and leave his mark on her. “I could…you know…if you want. Maybe if I use my hands or mouth and let you…”

  “Come?”

  She nodded. “Maybe that will help?”

  “It will.” He stepped closer to her and purposely invaded her personal space. She could read him very easily, but he couldn’t quite get a handle on her. “What do you want, Eris?”

  “You spared my life. Giving you an orgasm is the least I can do.”

  “No.” He rubbed his thumb over the spot she had just reddened with her teeth. “I don’t want it like that. Not between us,” he said, hoping she would understand.

  Maybe she did. Her eyes shuttered briefly as his thumb moved over her lip again. “I feel different with you.”

  Now they were getting somewhere. “Tell me.”

  “I should be freaking out right now. I should be fighting you hard and trying to get the hell away from here.”

  “But you’re not.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m standing here, and I’m offering to drop to my knees and get you off.” She seemed incredibly perplexed by that. “Why? Is it the apple? Is that why I feel so relaxed? So comfortable? It made my lips burn when I ate it. Is that why my body burns now?”

  So she was affected by the scent of his pheromones. “It’s not the apple. It’s me. It’s us.”

  “Us?” She backed away from him. “There is no us. You tried to kill me. I don’t even know you.”

  “Nor I you,” he countered. “Give it time. We’ll figure it all out later, but first…” He slid his hand to her nape and tilted her head to just the right angle. Slowly and giving her every chance to say no, he leaned down and captured her mouth. Unlike the kiss they’d shared in the rain, this one was seeking and more insistent. Their tongues finally touched, and she whimpered, the small, excited sound making his cock throb almost painfully.

  Breaking their kiss, he enjoyed her shuddery breaths on his chin and neck while he played with her earlobe. “If you want to help me, do it because you actually want me. Do it because you’re curious about what a mating heat is and how I changed from dragon to human right in front of your eyes.” He tugged on her earlobe. “Do it because the scientist in you wants to see this experiment through to the end.”

  Her mouth slanted with a mischievous little smile. “The thing about experiments is that they work best when you repeat them over and over again.”

  Now he was the one grinning. “It’s early yet, Eris.” He slid his hands down her sides and realized her clothes were cold and damp. “Let’s get you out of these clothes. Then—” he dragged her shirt up her belly—“my little Goddess of Strife, we’ll start on that control experiment.”

  Chapter Three

  What are you doing? This guy is a freaking dragon. He tried to kill you for eating an apple. Punch him in the face—and run.

  But, oh, the sensation of Nico’s fingertip grazing over her skin as he pulled her shirt over her head was just too good to ignore. She was curious about him. Even though the skeptic in her screamed this was all the effects of that stupid, toxic apple, she couldn’t deny what she had seen or what she could feel right now. Her body thrummed for this man.

  He encountered a problem when he reached the cuff, but he didn’t let it stop him. He ripped the shirt with a quick jerk and let the fabric flutter to the floor. He must have seen the look of consternation on her face. “You don’t need it tonight.”

  “I’m not worried about tonight.”

  “Anything that’s mine is also yours.” He dotted noisy kisses along her bare shoulder before grasping her bra strap and dragging it slowly down her arm. “You can raid my closet in the morning.”

  She ignored the way his remark about his things belonging to her made her heart race. That old familiar clench of emptiness returned to the pit of her belly. She hadn’t known real hunger in years, not since she’d been old enough to hold a part-time job, but the memory of starvation and the lack of a home or safety wasn’t easily erased. Nico made his offer in a flirtatious way. He couldn’t possibly understand what hearing those words meant to her, even if they were empty.

  He tapped her nose. “Where did you go, Discordia?”

  His little Greek mythology joke amused her, but she narrowed her eyes at him as if annoyed. “Funny.”

  “If you knew my family history, you would laugh.”

  The pieces finally fell into place. “Are you telling me the apple I ate is one of those apples? The ones from the myth about Heracles, Atlas, and the Garden of the Hesperides?”

  “So your knowledge of Greek myths goes beyond your name,” he said, looking ever so pleased.

  “Yes.” Not wanting to talk about her book collector father, she steered the conversation back to him. “So you really expect me to believe that that apple tree out back is the same one from those stories?”

  “You were chased by a dragon and watched me turn into a man right in front of you. Is it really so hard to believe that I also have a magical tr
ee or that most of the myths are real?”

  There was no point in arguing when he put it like that. “No, but in the myth, the dragon has one hundred heads.”

  “My family, my tribe, was one hundred strong. It was a little bit of truth spun into a wild and fantastic tale.” He started to reach back to unhook her bra, but her hand cuffed to his made it impossible. He stared at the cuff for a long moment. “If I set us free, you must not run. My beast will see it as a provocation. He’ll want to chase you, and you could be seriously hurt. We’re both warded inside this room until sunrise. Not even your expert lock-picking skills can get you out until morning. Understand?”

  “Yes.” She didn’t, not about the warding part at least, but decided it was in her best interest to agree. “I won’t run.”

  He gripped the cuffs in a special way, his thumbs and fingers pushing on certain points until the pins started to pop free in the locking mechanism. “I trust you.”

  “I broke into your house.”

  He glanced over at her. “You broke into my house to save your friend. Loyalty like that is an easy way to earn my trust. At any rate, you’re much too human to be any risk to me. You can’t hurt me.” He regarded her for a moment. “Do you trust me?”

  “No.” She didn’t even care if the truth hurt his feelings.

  He actually smiled. “Then I suppose it’s time to drop these chains before we go Fifty Shades of Dragon, yes?” The chain hit the floor with a loud thunk. “No need for safewords tonight if there’s not mutual trust between us.”

  A burble of laughter erupted from her throat. “You’re crazy.”

  “You have no idea.” His hands returned to the clasp of her bra. “Enough talking. More experimenting.”

  She avoided his mouth as it descended toward hers. “A properly designed experiment requires talking. We need a hypothesis and prediction, variables, a control, and—”

  Nico captured her mouth in a sizzling kiss that erased all scientific thought from her mind. She surrendered to the dizzying sensations he evoked, and felt her inhibitions fading. In the back of her mind, she knew this was happening too fast and that she should be hastily applying the brakes to this tryst—but she didn’t even try to stop him when he slowly pushed her bra down her arms. In fact, she gave her wrists a little shake to send the simple piece of lingerie to the floor.

  Give in, a mischievous, needy voice whispered in her mind. How many more times in her life would she have the chance to sleep with a dragon? This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. She’d never been the kind of girl to shy away from a new adventure.

  She shuddered as he ran his warm hands over her naked curves in the most appreciative way. He dipped his head and kissed a teasing line from the side of her throat to the swell of her breast. Tossing back her head, she reveled in the feel of his lips skimming her sensitive skin. When the wet heat of his tongue touched her nipple, Eris clutched at his powerful shoulders and prayed she wouldn’t fall to the floor.

  Nico slipped his arm around her waist and held her tight to his body. “You’re safe with me.”

  For a moment, the haze of lust faded enough for her to think clearly. “Am I?”

  “I would never allow harm to come to you.” As if to prove that he would take care of her starting tonight, he shifted her to his side and gently pressed her to the wall, bracing her against it for support. Crouching down, he picked up the remnants of her torn shirt and jacket. “Watch.”

  She did. Closely. Intently. She gasped in fascination when he took the clothing between his hands and suddenly and inexplicably fashioned a small pallet of blankets. Her mouth gaped as she stared at the tidy little bed he’d created from her ruined clothing. “How…?”

  He held out his hand. “That’s not the only magic I intend to show you tonight.”

  She grasped his hand but didn’t come to him immediately. “Your jokes are just terrible.”

  His sinfully sexy mouth twitched. “Then come here and let me put my mouth to better use.”

  Heaven help me, she thought with near desperation as he guided her down to the pallet and set to work on her soggy jeans. Nico dragged the denim and her boyshorts down her hips and thighs before tossing them over his shoulder. Laid bare beneath his hungry gaze, she shivered and gulped.

  He leaned down, placing a hand next to her head and another on her hip. Combing his fingers through her hair, he skimmed his mouth along her cheek and chin before dotting kisses down the side of her neck. Her skin was on fire now, an arc of heat racing along her flesh with every touch of his mouth and hands. She arched into him, lifting her hips and trailing her foot down his leg.

  Nico groaned and captured her mouth in a wild kiss, his tongue darting against hers and leaving her breathless. He nipped at her bottom lip, just enough to make her hiss, and then let his mouth wander down her neck to her breasts. He cupped her flesh in his strong hands and traced each nipple with his thumb. When he suckled her, she gasped, her hips bucking off the makeshift pallet and her body rubbing against his.

  When his hand rode the curve of her waist and hips and lower belly, she whimpered with need. His fingers finally touched her there, dipping between her thighs and tracing her sex. She cried out and opened her legs wider, silently urging him to keep going.

  “Tell me what you like, Eris.”

  Pleasantly surprised by his question, she nevertheless blushed as he gently explored her body. When two of his fingers zeroed in on her clitoris and rubbed slow circles, she smiled and sighed. “I really like that.”

  Nico laughed triumphantly and gave her exactly what she wanted. He kissed her like no one ever had, and he did things between her thighs that made her toes curl. His fingers slid up and down her seam before dipping into her. He swirled them around her clitoris and found a rhythm that made her ache. She clutched at his sides and shoulders, marking his skin with her short nails. Her breaths came faster as those first pleasurable waves rocked her core.

  Surging into him, she climaxed with a wicked smile on her face. He laughed darkly and claimed her mouth in a never-ending kiss. Panting, she clung to his shoulders and returned his kisses with the same enthusiasm. His smell, his taste, his body heat—she couldn’t get enough.

  Overcome with desire, she wrapped her thighs around his waist and arched into him. “Please.”

  His nostrils flared, and he shifted his weight to one knee. She expected him to grasp her hips and thrust deep, but he kissed a meandering path down her body. He paused at her breasts, lavishing each one with attention before dotting a trail of ticklish kisses down her stomach and along the curve of her waist.

  Eris inhaled a shaky breath as Nico nudged her thighs wide apart with his broad shoulders. That first touch of his mouth there—right there—sent her into a tailspin. She tangled her fingers in his dark, wavy hair and held on for dear life. He was gentle at first, using long swipes and soft flicks to drive her crazy. He seemed to sense the moment that coil tightened in her lower belly. He centered all his attention right on her clitoris, fluttering his tongue over that swollen bundle of nerves until she came apart beneath him.

  Her cries of pleasure echoed off the stone walls, each one higher and louder. He was ruthless between her legs, licking and nibbling until she’d gone hoarse from shouting out with joy. He gripped her inner thighs, holding her right where he wanted her as he feasted on her flesh. He left her a sobbing, shuddering, smiling mess.

  Clamping her knees together, she rolled onto her side and tried to catch her breath. Nico kissed a long, lazy line up her outer thigh. She realized very quickly that he didn’t plan to give her any time to recover from the wild orgasms he’d just given her. Sliding her top leg forward, he straddled her lower leg and lined up their bodies. Reaching down, he grasped his stiff cock and guided it into her, nudging at her opening as if to seek permission.

  When she pressed back against him and moaned, he carefully slid forward until he had bottomed out in her. Sheathed in her wet heat, Nico groaned and started to thru
st. Back and forth, in and out, slow and then fast, he fucked her like no man ever had. He gripped her hair in his fist, pulling just enough to make her scalp tingle and her body vibrate with dark, erotic impulses. His other hand kneaded her backside before sliding down to find her clit again. The combination of those talented fingers and his big cock gliding in and out of her sent her flying over the edge again. She came hard, clawing at the bedding beneath them and pushing back to meet his thrusts.

  With a growl, Nico shifted her again, flattening her onto her belly. He slipped out of her body just long enough to cant her hips to the right angle before thrusting deep again. She cried out with joy at the intense pleasure and pressed up onto her knees. He draped himself over her back, molding his body to hers as he took her like a wild man.

  Like a feral beast, she thought excitedly. For a moment, she worried he might fuck her right into the floor, but he showed his gentleness in the way he kissed the side of her neck and nipped at her shoulder, his teeth grazing her sensitive skin in a way that made her core pulse. He held back, not using his full power behind each thrust, and continued to touch and tease her with his mouth and hands.

  She sensed when he was close and pressed back against him, encouraging him. His angle of penetration changed, and she realized he was thinking of pulling away from her at the very end. Something primal ignited within her. Shoving back and fully sheathing him, she practically ordered, “I want you to come inside me.”

  With a hoarse growl, he slammed deep, pressing his thighs against her bottom. He shuddered with the waves of his climax and filled her with his seed. When he slumped forward, his heavy breaths buffeted her cheek, and his chin grazed her shoulder. He placed a lingering, tender kiss on her temple before slowly, carefully, retreating and falling onto his side.

  Winding a possessive arm around her waist, he dragged her tight to his chest and captured her mouth in a ravenous kiss. Still drunk with lust for this mysterious man, she happily returned his kisses and let her greedy little hands roam his incredible body. Behind the haze of desire, she wondered at this strange and unexpected insta-love she had for Nico. She still couldn’t believe she had begged him to come inside her or that she had broken all of her rules about sexual encounters.