DragonMate (4 page)

The robe fluttered to floor as she moved toward him. “Don’t be this way,” she said, shrugging so her nightgown strap slid down and a breast was revealed. “I know you want me. You practically
devoured
me when I opened the door for you.”

Her scent reached him. It enveloped him, but unlike Jazzlyn’s it didn’t stir either his cock or his fantasies.

A small, niggling worry slid into Kirill’s consciousness as he remembered the silent exchange with Jazzlyn and the wave of dragon pheromones freed by the lust he felt toward his soon-to-be mate. Was it possible Deana had been caught in the backlash? Were her actions the result of his own lack of control?

Between the sorcerer’s curse and the image he’d carried of Jazzlyn since he was barely old enough to be considered an adult, he’d never pursued a female or had reason to try to seduce one. He had no sexual experience, though before this day was over, that would no longer be the case.

Embarrassed guilt caused Kirill’s face to redden. It deepened when Deana said, “There’s no need to by shy with me. I’ll take good care of you.”

He dared a glance toward the hallway where Jazzlyn had disappeared, only to look back and find Deana was climbing onto the table, the movement making the short nightgown ride up, leaving her buttocks exposed.

Horror vibrated through him as he backed away. Would Jazzlyn think less of him if he escaped to the car or if joined her in the bedroom like a scared fledgling seeking protection?

Approaching footsteps stiffened his spine. Panic brought inspiration. He did not want his soon-to-be mate to walk in on this scene!

Kirill lunged forward, plucking Deana off the table then hurrying to scoop up the robe. He wrapped it around her securely and tied the belt so her arms were bound at her sides.

The shock of his actions kept her still. Or perhaps his proximity and pheromones subdued her. Either way, Kirill was grateful to have the situation under control as Jazzlyn entered the room.

Her gaze lingered briefly on his face, noting his high color. “Ready to leave?” she asked, her voice holding the faintest hint of amusement.

Kirill answered with his feet, getting to her side and hustling her to the car as quickly as possible. Even the prospect of being trapped in a steely deathtrap with Jazzlyn driving paled in comparison to remaining in the apartment with Deana.

It took extraordinary effort for Jazzlyn to hide her smile and keep from laughing, but she managed it. Poor guy, he’d suffered enough.

A sideways glance at Kirill and her heart turned over in her chest. He was such a contradiction.

Most guys who looked as good as he did would have major egos. They’d
expect
the kind of attention Deana had obviously been giving him. Kirill, on the other hand…

Her good intentions not to laugh almost disappeared as the image of Deana tangled and tied in her robe resurfaced. Jazzlyn bit her bottom lip, remembering his heightened color and panicked expression. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was gay.

But you don’t know better—yet
, a mischievous internal voice that sounded a lot like Alex’s prompted, making her heart trip into a stuttered beat.
Maybe you should do a quick check. Give him a kiss in appreciation of his efforts on your behalf. Without him, you wouldn’t have the music box.

Lust burned her belly and flared outward. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. Did she dare?

She wasn’t a virgin, but she’d never taken on a man like Kirill. The two guys she’d dated to the point of actual intercourse had been gentle and considerate and…when it was done she’d felt unsatisfied and wondered if they felt the same.

It hadn’t exactly been a boost to her self-confidence.

But this is different. He’s different.

Indecision kept her driving a few moments longer, until she couldn’t stand it anymore.

His scent filled her car. His nearness was distracting enough to cause a wreck.

She pulled to the curb and put the car in park before turning to look at him. His eyes bored into hers, dark and hungry, eradicating any possible doubt about her desirability.

“Thanks for helping me,” she said, leaning forward, drawn to him like a moth to flame.

Fire scorched through her the instant their lips touched. It roared through her system, branding every inch of her as his.

She moaned. Or he did.

It was impossible to tell. Just as it was impossible to know whether he pulled her onto his lap or she climbed there.

She wanted him. She found him fascinating, like a gem with hidden facets, one needing the right person and setting to really see it in all its glory. He was endearing, strangely vulnerable, like a man out of his element, and totally adorable because of it, though she doubted he would appreciate the label, not when he bristled with masculine pride and projected the promise of dominance.

Her clit throbbed where it pressed against her panties. Her cunt lips were swollen, full. She ached with a desperation that made her want to guide his hand to her mound.

“We can’t,” she said, more for herself than for him.

“We can. We will,” Kirill said.

By the Great Shared Ancestor, did she have any idea what she was putting him through
?
he wondered, intensely aware of Jazzlyn’s breasts pressed to his chest and the proximity of her cunt to his cock.

Having her in his arms was torment and ecstasy, a battering of his senses. A reality beyond any he’d ever known.

His tongue delved into her mouth, explored, conquered. Centuries of need crested and he poured it into her along with his fire.

Mine!
It echoed through him with every beat of his heart. She was his and he would never let her escape.

His hands roamed possessively over her back, aggressively tugging her blouse upward so he could caress her naked flesh. He shuddered at the smooth feel of her skin and the way she responded to him, clung to him, her scent revealing her readiness to accept him as a mate.

He fought the urge to let the hollow spurs at his wrists descend and fill with serum. A moan escaped as he imagined raking them across her back.

They were an ancient adaptation leaving human females unconscious—a necessity in the days when dragons lived in rocky lairs accessible only by flying. But more importantly, the serum would alter her body, change her chemistry so she could conceive a dragon’s young.

His cock spasmed, the tip becoming wet, lubricated in preparation for working its way into her tight sheath. He’d heard it said that great care had to be taken even in claiming those human females who had a great deal of sexual experience.

A growl escaped at the thought of Jazzlyn
ever
knowing any touch but his. He would eradiate any memory of a past lover, burn it from her mind and body with dragon fire.

His arm tightened around her. One hand left her back to smooth over her skirt from waistband to hem, then slide underneath.

She shivered as his palm made the return trip against her skin, stopping on her thigh. His fingers traced the edge of dainty, feminine panties, sending a rush of possessive desire through his cock.

“What color are they?” he asked, loath to relinquish her mouth long enough to gain an answer.

“Dark blue.”

One of his colors, though she didn’t know it yet.

Satisfaction rippled through him as he imagined her wearing nothing but jewelry from his store of treasure. Sapphires strung together with delicate silver links, their beauty accentuating hers as they circled her neck and wrists, ankles and belly.

He reclaimed her mouth as his hand delved into her panties. In his fantasies her mound was smooth, naked of pubic hair, kept that way for her pleasure as well as his.

The erotic shock of encountering bare skin made Kirill lose control. For an instant the car filled with shimmering silver and traces of blue as the magic holding him into a human shape nearly failed.

The squeal of brakes right next to the car jerked Jazzlyn into awareness of her surroundings. She pulled away from Kirill’s kiss, flustered, needy—heart thumping and guilt rising as she remembered Caro.

It was harder than it should have been to slide from his lap, to return to the driver’s seat. She nearly whimpered at the loss of his hand between her thighs. A second longer…

Jazzlyn squeezed her legs together and fought to make sense of what was happening to her. She’d never in her life responded to a man the way she did to him, to the point where she lost her inhibitions in public.

He crowded her, not letting her retreat into either shyness or mortification. His hand cupped her face, forcing her to look at him. “You make me forget myself.” His voice sounded gruff, as if he wasn’t used to losing control in public either.

Warmth exploded in her chest then sunk to her cunt. It didn’t make sense, not given his looks, but she felt as though somehow they were kindred spirits. “You have the same effect on me.”

“Good,” he said, practically purring with masculine satisfaction.

She laughed, because on him a touch of arrogance was very attractive. It gave her the confidence to lean forward and brush his lips in a teasing kiss. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

He retaliated by cupping her breast and sending a spark of fire straight to her clit. “We will finish this after we’ve done what we can to find your cousin.”

It was a statement instead of a question. But Jazzlyn answered anyway, whispering
yes
against his mouth before his tongue thrust between her lips.

Chapter Four

“Perfect timing,” Aislinn said, joining Kirill and Jazzlyn at the door of Inner Magick long enough to lock it, then flip a sign over to indicate the store was closed. “And a perfect excuse for going home a little early today. Thankfully, it’s late enough that any of my regular customers would call before coming by. Let’s do this in the back room.”

They followed her through the beaded curtains.

Jazzlyn was momentarily distracted by drawings of things Aislinn was in the process of making. The work was unique, most of it small pieces of art to grace desktops, rather than jewelry, though she knew Aislinn did both.

With a wave of her hand, Aislinn directed them to sit down at a small table littered with stones. Jazzlyn unwrapped the music box and set it on the table. “I was careful not to touch it directly, just in case it mattered.”

She wiped suddenly damp palms against her skirt, realizing how many boundaries had already been stretched today and feeling nervous at being so far out of her comfort zone. Did she really believe in psychics and magic and heartmate stones?

Kirill’s hand came down on hers, pinning it to her thigh and reminding her of what had happened on the way to Inner Magick. A glance in his direction and she found it hard to care about anything but having time to explore the chemistry between them.

She might be introverted and shy by nature but that didn’t mean she intended to turn her back on the chance of a lifetime. In that way she was very much like her mother.

No regrets. Keep emotional baggage to the minimum. Those were the lessons she’d learned growing up.

A lot of women would have been bitter and vengeful at having a husband announce he’d finally accepted his homosexuality and ask for a divorce, her mother hadn’t been. Hurt, yes. Heartbroken—for a time. But she’d let it go and moved on, making sure Jazzlyn knew
both
her parents loved her and were glad they’d been together long enough for her to be born.

“How does this work?” Jazzlyn asked, looking from the music box to Aislinn.

“Every…reading, for lack of a better word, is different. Sometimes I’m more of an observer than anything else. Other times I feel what the person feels and experience what’s happening to them in the present, or I experience what has already happened to them, though usually not more than about thirty minutes into the past.”

Aislinn picked up the music box and closed her eyes. Kirill’s hand tightened on Jazzlyn’s and she was grateful to have him with her.

A minute passed, crawling by with agonizing slowness. Another crept by, equally nerve-racking. Then another.

Jazzlyn fought to keep from fidgeting, worried that her breathing was loud and distracting. She caught the subtle shifts in Aislinn’s expression and tried not to read terrible meanings into them, but by the time Aislinn opened her eyes, Jazzlyn felt close to nausea. “Anything?”

“I’ve got an address.” Aislinn’s eyebrows drew together. “Beyond that, I couldn’t pick up much. Hints of anger and fear but not full-blown terror or panic.”

“So maybe there’s nothing wrong. Maybe Caro and her current boyfriend are off somewhere fighting and I overreacted when she didn’t show up for the party.”

Even as Jazzlyn said it, it didn’t feel
true
to her. “Trust your instincts,” Aislinn said, setting the music box on the table and scribbling an address on a scrap piece of paper, her movements slow and concentrated, as if using her gift left her depleted of energy. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.”

“This is more than I would have been able to find on my own.”

Jazzlyn picked up the piece of paper then glanced at the music box, hesitant to take it with her or handle it until she’d checked out the address. She hated to ask but she had to know. “Can you read the same object twice? If there’s reason to think a situation has changed?”

“I should be able to. I need some time to recover in between attempts. If you want to leave the music box here, you can. Home is the only place I’m going when I leave the shop. You’ve got my cell number. I can come back if you need me.”

“Thanks,” Jazzlyn said, truly grateful for Aislinn’s help.

They left a few minutes later, Jazzlyn’s heart doing its crazy flip-flop when Kirill turned down both the suggestion he retrieve his car and follow, and her offer to let him drive hers.

“So you’re conceding I’m an excellent driver,” she teased as she pulled into traffic. He definitely seemed more relaxed than he had on the way to Caro’s apartment.

“I believe I can occupy my mind with thoughts other than those of imminent death.”

She should probably be offended, but the purr was back in his voice, making her insides quiver. How did he do that?

Jazzlyn smiled as an image surfaced—his face in that instant it’d been captured in the mirror and she would have sworn it was outlined by a dragon with the same silver with blue as the heartmate stones.

His aura maybe? Or more likely, a hint at his true personality.

A soft laugh escaped. He definitely had some very dragonish traits, including the ability to make her go up in flames.

“Something amuses you?”

There was a delicious hint of menace in his question, the kind promising sexual retribution and causing erotic fear to flicker in her belly. “Do you like fantasy?”

His chuckle was purely masculine. “Yes. You’ve starred in a great many of mine, though I’m sure they’ll pale in comparison to the reality of what we’ll find together.”

Her face flamed but she couldn’t suppress the smile or the way pleasure and anticipation danced along her skin with his words. “Not that kind of fantasy. Fantasy as in reading books or seeing movies with supernatural beings in them. Things like elves and faeries.”

“Neither of which are favorites of mine. They rank above sorcerers but what doesn’t? Dragons are far superior.”

She laughed again. “Somehow that opinion doesn’t surprise me. You’re very dragonish. I can definitely see you sprawled out on a bed of gold.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Her channel spasmed, hard, almost painfully, further dampening her panties as the image of him naked, waiting for her to come to him, flashed through her mind.

He reacted to her comment by moving closer, searing her with his heat. “Dragonish. I like that description. I can see myself taking you on a bed of gold and gems, draping you in jewels and luxuriating in having you beneath me, a dragon with his most treasured possession, his very human mate.”

She could see it too—not just Kirill in a human form, but Kirill in a dragon form, and it was more erotic than she would have thought possible. “I need to concentrate on driving,” she said, retreating, not sure how much more she could take before she melted into a puddle or burned up.

He backed off, settling on his side of the car and seeming content to make the rest of the trip in silence. She wondered, not for the first time, why she was acting so out of character, and shivered thinking about the symbols carved into the frame of the mirror like a spell working. When had she started to believe?

The moment she stepped into Aislinn’s shop and had the impression of entering another world? Or the evening Alexandria had shown her the picture of the heartmate rings and they’d both wished they could find one of them?

A glance at Kirill and her womb fluttered. Belief, hope, it was hard to distinguish between the two. He was a stranger in so many ways. Yet at the same time, she was so comfortable with him that it felt as though she’d always known him. She wanted him like she’d never wanted another man. He stirred fantasies to life and made them seem within her grasp.

Worry replaced desire the closer they got to their destination. Trust your instincts, Aislinn said, and they told Jazzlyn that Caro was in trouble, despite the surge of relief she experienced at seeing her cousin’s car when they pulled to a stop in front of the house matching the address.

“This is it,” she said, nervousness over the possibility of a confrontation making her hesitate.

“Stay here. I will go to the door,” Kirill ordered.

It was enough to spur Jazzlyn into motion. “No,” she said, getting out of the car.

She didn’t expect Caro’s boyfriend to come to the door with a gun. And if she was wrong about Carolyn being in trouble, the worst that would happen would be Caro getting mad.

Kirill’s growl soothed Jazzlyn’s nerves rather than fray them. It was all frustrated male, and accompanied by something that sounded like “by the Great Shared Ancestor”.

She didn’t have time to ask him about the curious curse before his fingers wrapped around her arm in a viselike grip, halting and turning her to face him. “Any trouble and you will go immediately to the car.”

Dark eyes bored into hers. Fierce. Intense. Possessive.

“Agreed,” she said, though she was very aware it hadn’t been a question.

He released her. Reluctantly. Stirring her libido and doing crazy things to her heart.

At the door he let her be the one to ring the bell. It opened a moment later and Jazzlyn wasn’t sure who was more surprised—the man standing there or her when he said, “Hey, you’re Caro’s cousin. Jazzlyn, right?”

“Yes.” She studied him. Jeans, polo shirt. Charismatic. At ease. But still a stranger. “We haven’t met.”

He smiled and offered his hand. “Sorry. You’re right. Caro showed me a picture of the two of you at the beach. I’m Mark.”

Jazzlyn took his hand, introducing Kirill. The men shook as well. She expected Mark to yell for Caro or invite them in. Instead he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

His gaze shifted to the driveway where Carolyn’s car was sandwiched between a sports car and a motorcycle. His eyebrows drew together in a show of puzzlement. “Did Caro know you were coming by?”

“No.”

Mark’s expression cleared. “That explains it then. She’s out with friends, shopping or something. Girl’s day out. I’m not expecting her to check in for several hours. I’ll have her call you if you want.”

Doubt assailed Jazzlyn. Maybe her instincts were wrong after all.

Mark seemed friendly and unconcerned, normal—not like the guys Caro usually went for though Jazzlyn hadn’t met many of them, only heard about them from Carolyn after the fact. So why did Caro stand her up and pass on Nana’s birthday party?

“Is Caro upset about something? I’ve left at least a dozen messages on her cell phone and haven’t gotten a call back.’

Mark shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong as far as I know. She lost her phone. It went overboard and she hasn’t replaced it yet.” He looked at his watch. “I was just on my way out. Girl’s day for her. Boy’s day out for me. Like I said, what if I have her call you when she checks in? It’ll probably be two or three hours.”

“That’d be great,” Jazzlyn said, accepting there was nothing else to do but leave and wait for the call.

She and Kirill returned to the car. As Jazzlyn pulled away from the curb, Mark straddled the motorcycle. Its engine roared to life. A tight maneuver to turn around in the driveway, a wave, and he was on the road, captured in the rearview mirror heading in the opposite direction.

Jazzlyn sighed, feeling both let down and hopeful. Her emotions were in a confused tangle while a tiny voice in her head reminded her she was closer to finding Caro and making sure her cousin was all right than she had been.

As soon as she was sure about Caro, she could concentrate on making jewelry. Life would back to normal.
Or not.