hard peak. It plumped up beautifully in his mouth.
Bringing out his vampiric skill, he flicked her tongue around her nipple. She let out a soft groan. And he recognized it as a sound of pleasure. “Yes, Lady Lucy, you like that.” Pursing his mouth, he suckled. Beneath him, she squirmed. A smile played at his lips.
If things had been different ...
Hell, she was one of the family who had stolen his nephew. She was one of the clan of beasts who had mercilessly killed his family. Things could never be different. Yet still, he had to pleasure her.
He gave a tug at her nipples. “No! Oh goodness, you can’t do that!” But he didn’t stop and her moans grew deep and throaty. He knew the dragon in her could take and enjoy a great deal of sensation. Her fists pressed against his shoulders as though she was trying to push him away. But she did it weakly, as though she was beginning to understand she didn’t want him to cease—she wanted more instead.
He suckled. God, she was delicious. And she was moving beneath him. She arched to press her breast to his mouth.
She was so damn delicious. Enough to make him want to forget who she was ...
No, he wouldn’t. He couldn’t let himself forget what dragons like her had cost him. He couldn’t forget his mission—if he did, he could lose his nephew forever.
While he sucked each nipple in turn, he shoved down the sheets. Lady Lucy didn’t protest. She was lost to the sensation now—he could feel the emotions roiling in her. No doubt she was fighting her response, but at the same time, the pleasure would be flooding through her. She would hate herself for feeling this for him, a man she didn’t know, who held her in his power. Yet she would want more. Hunger for it. Do any wanton, naughty, sinful thing to get it.
He pushed the sheets to her thighs. She gasped in protest. He ignored it, and slid his hand along the smooth curve of her stomach. She had generous curves, Lady Lucy Drake. For a fleeting moment, he wondered what she looked like when she became a dragon. They were beautiful creatures—not the fearsome beasts of storybooks. Their scales glowed like pearl, their forms were graceful and strong, their eyes as brilliant as diamonds. It was almost possible to forget how vicious and deadly they were.
Crisp curls met his fingers. He stroked there, then lower, pushing his fingers between her nether lips, and he touched the hot, slick skin of her quim. His fingers coasted along her clit—she cried out at the contact.
“Good, is it?” He played with her until she quivered beneath him like a frothy dessert. Her eyes were shut tight. She was lusciously moist.
Her scent reached his nose. And hell, he was lost. Lost in wanting her. He rolled over her, coaxed her legs apart with his, and settled between, playing with her sweet cunny all the while.
Then he released her taut clit, grasped his cock, and he guided it to touch her. She moaned. Then gasped. Her hands flew up to push on his chest.
“I—Oh! I’m not ready. Please. Can we wait? Just a bit longer?”
He circled the tip of his finger on her clit and watched her squirm. Watched her cheeks turn pink, and her breaths turn to gusty gasps. “I thought you were in a hurry to be ravished, so you could get home.”
“I—I just need a moment. I thought I could. But I can’t—”
His senses drank in pure fear. She was terrified. Actually frightened out of her wits. “Why are you so afraid of me?” he murmured. “I’ve done nothing to hurt you.”
“It—It’s not you. I was ... my fiancé ... I can’t stop thinking about what it was like, when he attacked me. When I realized he was willing to kill me, that he was not going to hold back because he had asked me to marry him.” She shook with fear. Her dark blue eyes grew wide with remembered horror.
“I don’t understand, love. Your fiancé tried to kill you?”
“Oh goodness. It—I shouldn’t have said anything. It doesn’t matter.”
She was wounded, this dragon. He needed to seduce her to pry the information from her, but obviously he could not seduce her until her fear abated. “Shh,” Sinjin soothed. “It does matter. I don’t want you to be so afraid.” He lay beside her and drew the sheets up over them both, covering them in warmth.
“I can’t—”
“I’m just going to hold you, my dear. While you tell me what happened to you.”
3
Dragon
At first Sinjin thought Lady Lucy would keep her secrets to herself. As he cradled her to his chest and brushed soft kisses to her head, inhaling the rosy scent that clung to her silken hair, she whispered, “I should not have said anything. I—I’ve ruined everything.”
“You haven’t. Come, you can trust me. We’re lying here naked together. What did your fiancé do to you? Should I find the gentleman, and duel him at Chalk Farm for you?”
“N-no. He died.”
“At the hands of a member of your family?” Since he was her intended husband, this man must have been a dragon. Why would he attack? Strangely, for all he hated dragons, Sinjin felt his fists clench at the thought of one hurting Lady Lucy. There was something vulnerable about her—something he had never sensed in a dragon before.
“I caught him, you see.” She burrowed closer to him. In answer, he cuddled her tighter. Her full breasts were a soft cushion against him, her generous hips pressed to his. What a magnificently lush and beautiful woman she was.
“Caught him? What do—” Then he could guess. What would break a woman’s heart? “You caught him with another woman?”
“Y-yes,” she admitted shakily. “But it wasn’t ... he was forcing himself on her. She was a maid and she wasn’t willing. She was so terrified. And I—I was so angry. He was a brute, and I’d thought ... I was so stupid. I had thought he was wonderful, charming, a true gentleman.”
“What did you do? Try to stop him from raping this maid?”
Against his chest, she nodded her head.
Hell. “And he lashed out at you in return?”
“Yes. He threw me across the room. He slash—he hit me. I thought he was going to kill me. It didn’t seem to matter that I was engaged to marry him. He was enraged. He was wild. Like a madman. If my brother hadn’t come ... I couldn’t fight him, you see. I wasn’t strong enough.”
“You are a very brave woman. No wonder you are so afraid to come to my bed.” Sinjin tipped up her chin, and met her gaze. Hades, just touching her delicate chin made his cold blood heat and sizzle. “You have nothing to fear. I would never hurt you. And I see why you would come to your brother’s defense so admirably.” Though the woman was a silly little fool for offering something she was too afraid to give.
Large, fetching indigo eyes gazed up at him. “I suppose it would not convince you to forgive his vowels without ... without payment?”
“Now that I have you naked in my bed, pressing so delightfully against my naked body? My dear
