Mere Passion (24 page)

Laird nodded, but added, “It’s frowned upon to resort to a shift to heal oneself.”

She was still petting and cooing to Kai when his words sank in. She rounded on Laird with deadly slowness. “Are you fucking serious? Why the hell wouldn’t you shift to heal yourselves?” When Laird held his hands palms up and rolled his eyes, she spun toward Kai, and if she could have found an uninjured spot, she would have smacked him.

“Kai…” She tried to calm her voice, to sound supportive rather than fierce, but she didn’t think it worked. “Shift to human. Now!”

“Can’t,” he wheezed.

“Like hell you can’t! Laird, go away!”

Kai coughed up blood and spit out a couple teeth. “Can’t shift. I am sorry, my love. Please go…”

Her face filled with heat, and tears filled her eyes. As usual, she sniffed them back. “No, you dumb dragon. You’re going to get up off your ass and shift.” She lit upon an idea. “I don’t want to have to take another lover.” Kai snarled, letting her know her efforts worked. “But I guess I’ll have to. Erling was pretty skilled. I’m sure he’d still be up for a tumble.” Kai growled lower and snapped his teeth. Her progress urged her on, even as she feared for her soldier’s life if Kai managed to recover.

“I can just imagine the children I’d have with Erling…so pretty! Terrible taste probably.”

The dragon shook, starting to morph slowly. His deep voice cried out in agony. The shift was slow, as it had to heal as well as change. Bullets pushed outward through his skin as he turned. Alara wanted to speak softly, to encourage him, but was frightened to reverse the process. “He’s not
quite
as big as you, of course, but he definitely knows how to use it.”

With howl of both pain and rage, Kai emerged, partially healed, fully human, and completely naked. Before Alara could speak, she was laid back on the seat of her snowmobile, with a very bloody and very naked Kai pressed atop her. He attacked her mouth with his, his tongue plunging in, his hands ripping at her clothes.

“Kai,” she broke away from his kiss long enough to speak. “You know I only want you, right?”

He only growled again, and then yanked her snowpants to her ankles. A shock of cold seared her exposed belly and thighs. Not bothering to remove her pants completely, Kai flipped her over so she lay on her stomach over the length of the seat. He straddled the back of the machine and pressed the head of his cock into her entrance, rasping “mine”.

His hands squeezed her hips almost painfully as he plunged. Freezing air bit at her damp entrance and she keened low in her throat at the hard invasion. Her legs hanging at the sides of the machine, she couldn’t maneuver to ease his entry, instead she could only accept the thick cock he slowly fed into her. He pulled back, almost all the way out and then sank in hard and fast, wrenching a shout from her throat. His lips lowered to her ear and he grabbed the handle bars to stabilize him for his next thrust. “Say it. Say that you’re mine.”

Blinded by the heat of his breaths, and the sharp rasp of cold, Alara whispered. “Yes, yes.” With a vicious pull on his hand-holds, he impaled her to the hilt.

Alara squirmed on the seat, rubbing against the vinyl of the cushion. He drubbed into her hard, fast, and merciless. The angle of the seat raised her hips high, and she struggled to find a way to push her body back to meet his. Removing one hand from the hand bars, he gripped one cheek of her behind.

“You’ll never—not ever again—take another inside your body. Say it.”

She twisted a hand between her legs to set off the orgasm on the very edge of exploding, but he gripped her arm and firmly placed it behind her back.

Another deep, hard stroke into her. “Say it, Alara.”

“Oh, gods…” His hold was so incredibly delicious and erotic, and his hips twisted into her so powerfully. “Yes…Oh, gods yes…”

“And we will live together as mates. You will be mine and I yours.”

A spark of concern shot through her, but it was instantly overwhelmed by a dam burst of lust. He paused to stroke down her thighs with the hand not wrenching her arm. His determined fingers branded her sensitive skin.

“Yes, Kai.” She was shaking now, so hot and ready. His hand reached between her legs, passing just the softest caress over her cold-nipped clitoris.

“Then come hard on my cock, mermaid. Milk it until I fill you to bursting.”

Hearing his low, normally-formal voice mutter obscenities sent her reeling over the edge. Her legs shook at the sides of the machine, but he plowed her through the buckling orgasm. She spasmed around his girth, feeling every jerk of him inside her, fulfilling his promise.

He collapsed on her shoulder, breathing warm and wet on her skin. Then he lifted her to standing, pulled up her pants, and placed her on the snowmobile seat in front of him.

The motor stimulated her already-sensitive tissues, and as if he understood, Kai reached forward to cup her center as they drove. He grasped her close—after all the guy’s clothes were destroyed, he must be freezing! His talented hand rubbed at her, making her wonder if she could drive and orgasm again at the same time. He leaned into her ear. “Hurry home, mermaid. There’s much we still have to do.”

* * * *

Gracie peered out her window toward the port of Bergen. She may have made it to mainland Europe, but something kept drawing her back to the water. Of course, ports were a great way to meet potential victims. But Gracie knew better than to think that’s the only reason she stayed.

She’d contacted the local Madame and gotten a permit to hunt, and had called her old contacts in Greece to let them know she was safe. Her friends Sally and Edith still didn’t remember their time in the Dendric labs, but Gracie figured that was for the best. There was no one to tell that she’d failed to seriously damage the company. Months of spying and manipulation, and what had she really accomplished? Mainly she just got her heart broken.

Tired of feeling sorry for herself, she headed out for a night of hunting on the docks. The wharfs stretched out before her. Fiberglass knocked against wood. Planks creaked below her feet. More than once, she saw a vampire lurking with a victim in the shadows between boats. Her heart sped up each time before tearing a little deeper.

Laughter erupted from a few vessels; rich Arabs partied on yachts. Retirees drank from plastic wine glasses on the decks of ancient motor sailers with signs that read
It’s five o’clock somewhere
! The occasional bicycle rode by.

She saw a familiar outline a dock over, a 160-foot trawler, almost identical to the Dendric One. She ducked her head between the boats, noticing that the ship she saw had a painted green hull, not the bare aluminum she remembered. Still, the sight tore at her. A glutton for punishment, she drifted along the docks, walking through puddles of light.

A man crouched in front of the boat, securing a line. As she neared, he lifted several boxes from a pile at the dock into the deck. His broad shoulders appeared strong, even from a distance, but Gracie had a feeling he was working with more than human strength. As if he felt her stare, he turned. Gracie stopped dead in her tracks.

A catcall carried over the breeze from a nearby boat full of revelers. Neither she nor Karon bothered to look. Gracie willed her feet to turn her around, willed them to walk her back off the dock and take some other man to an alley. But she couldn’t move.

His gray-blonde hair had grown a little, the waves reached past his jaw. Thick stubble coated his features, but his hard gray eyes shone. The dock lights threw sharp shadows on his features. He hadn’t fed in a while.

She moved forward like a sleepwalker, needing to see him if only for a moment. When she neared, he put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. Perhaps he no longer wanted her.

“Hello, Captain Karon.”

“You always were a formal one, Gracie.” He leaned toward her and breathed, his eyes closed.

“Are you here on—”

His hand closed over her mouth. “Don’t say their name.”

“Why?” She twisted her head to look around. No one was in sight.

He bent to speak in her ear, but the tone was more conspiratorial than concerned. “I need to get some distance between me and the vessel’s last location.”

She turned to the boat, and saw that not only did it have a paint job, but the serial numbers had been changed, and it had been rechristened
Gracie’s Revenge
. The corners of her mouth turned up, and she assessed the ocean-loving vampire. “Don’t you know it’s bad luck to rename a boat?”

His chuckle warmed her as he drew her close. “I’m sure it’ll be bad luck for someone.”

“And Grathers?”

“Dead,” he said, voice empty of emotion.

“I want to go after them, John. Stealing their boat is not enough.”

He nodded to her. “We will, baby. But first I’ve got to get invisible, fast.”

Her forehead wrinkled and she thought to argue, but he was right. Dendric was sure to start tracking him down, even if he hadn’t stolen a million dollar ship. “Aye, Aye, Captain.”

His face erupted in a huge smile. “You’ll come?”

She nodded. “And you’ll help?”

“Help you become a pirate? Of course!”

He practically threw the rest of the boxes on deck. “Well, we’d better get started finding some crew.” When she raised an eyebrow his smile grew broader. “We’re going to need snacks.”

* * * *

Clack, clack, clack. Alara’s heels hit marble. Kaylee skittered beside her as she walked, reading out her meetings for the day. In the weeks since the dragons had left, things had calmed considerable in Murrough. She and her advisors worked diligently to reverse any program changes or funding cuts ordered by her brother. She hadn’t worked up the courage to confront the Council Chair. Just a few more days, she kept telling herself. It was just too soon for her to deal with talking to another dragon.

Kaylee observed her closely. “You don’t look so hot, ‘Lara. Not getting enough sleep?”

Alara knew perfectly well what her assistant was getting at. “I’ve been sleeping fine, thank you very much.”

The younger female looked at her with an odd wisdom. “He’s coming back, you know.”

Her heels clacked harder as she sped up. Maybe Kaylee would fall behind and stop talking. “Who’s that?”

Kaylee jumped in front of Alara, almost getting run over. She narrowed her pale green eyes. “Oh please! You are so dumb! Your dragon, stupid. Your dragon is coming back. Right after he quits his job and gives the Council Chair a piece of his mind.”

Alara sighed loudly and pushed the other female to the side. “Oh him. Yeah, whatever.”

The girl jumped ahead again, this time placing her hand on Alara’s shoulders. “Don’t you ‘whatever’ me! You’re crazy about him.” With a shove, Alara stalked past. “You wuuuuuuuv him. You wanna kiss him. You wanna marry him.” Kaylee chanted like a hopped-up sorority pledge.

Alara threw open the doors to her offices and dashed inside, escaping Kaylee’s taunts. She knew that the immature mere didn’t mean any harm, but her words still stung. If Kai did return, well that would be nice. But Alara had to prepare herself for the possibility that he wouldn’t. Nothing could be worse than waiting for a male who never arrived.

* * * *

Kai’s heart pounded in his chest, and his mouth dried. Alara. Even being near her papers and exercise bicycle stoked his senses. After two weeks in dragon form, his human skin tingled under his clothes.

She walked through the door, and his breath caught in his throat. She dressed in a conservative tan suit, so different from her usual tight jeans. With her hair in a loose bun, she looked every bit the leader of a rich, though small, nation.

Her lips parted when she saw him, the lower one quivering. Her hard eyes filled with tears. “You came.”