“I…how dare… My dick…” he stammered, cheeks going red.
Lachlan hummed. “Yeah. Your dick was as hard as mine that night. Bet it’s hard now.” He looked down at the bulge that Apollo’s tight tailoring did nothing to hide. “Oh, yeah, I’m definitely sending your tailor flowers.”
“You’ve got no boundaries at all. Stop looking at me like that,” Apollo demanded. He was pressed up against the back wall of the elevator and looked so flustered that Lachlan wanted to get down on his knees right there and then see how deep that flush on his skin could get.
“Ican’tstop looking at you, Apollo. This is the problem. It’s always been the fucking problem.” Lachlan dared to reach out and loop his finger around one of Apollo’s soft curls. “And I amdonebeing subtle about it.”
Apollo’s eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”
“It is. So this is how it’s going to go from now on.” Lachlan leaned down until his mouth was next to Apollo’s ear and whispered, “Unless you tell me to stop, I’m going to use every one of my considerable skills and turn them toward dragon hunting. I’m not going to stop pursuing you until I run you to ground and you finally lay down at my feet and give in to us.”
Apollo’s gasp was the sexiest thing Lachlan had ever heard. “And what if I don’t want that?”
“Consent is a thing, golden boy. Tell me to stop, and I will.” Lachlan pulled back so he could look directly into Apollo’s eyes. “If you’re so scared at the thought ofussay, ‘Stop, Lachlan.’ Right now. Go on.”
Gold flashed in Apollo’s eyes. Dominant. Aggressive. He had a dragon in him all right, and it didn’t like being challenged. Lachlan had never been so hard.
“I don’t have to say anything, because I don’t give in to anyone. If you think I’d lay down and whimper before the likes of you, you’ve been hit on the head one too many times,” Apollo said with an arrogant little smirk.
Lachlan smiled back because Apollo could lie to himself as much as he liked. He was agreeing to play this game by not giving in, which told Lachlan he still had a chance. Thank fuck.
“We’ll see, gorgeous,” Lachlan said, and because he didn’t know when to stop, he ground his aching dick against Apollo’s. His smile went wider as he found him just as hard. Apollo whimpered, and Lachlan laughed. “Yeah, my ass it was only your dragon acting up on Midsummer.”
Lachlan stepped back from a dazed-looking Apollo. Before he did anything else and pushed him too far, Lachlan hit the button to get the elevator to go again.
“You’re such an asshole,” Apollo muttered.
Lachlan only laughed. “When I’m fixed on my prey? Yeah. I am. As I said, I’m done waiting for you to come to me, so enjoy seeing the hunter side of me,dragon,” he said.
The doors opened, and he strode out of the elevator.
He didn’t look back.
26
Bridget stuck close to Bas as they were taken into a ward with beds running down either side. Every bed was full with a victim of the Brollachan.
“They aren’t contagious from what we can tell,” the doctor explained. “We just don’t know what we are dealing with, so we thought isolation would be best.”
“This malady is magical in nature,” Charlotte said primly. “We are here to help lift it if we can, but they will still need your help when they wake, doctor. There will be disorientation, weakness, and trauma to contend with.”
Bridget admired how they all seemed to take control of the situation. She knew that the fae dealt with magical problems all the time, but seeing the Ironwoods and Greatdrakes at work as their agents was something to behold. There was a natural authority that the average person just moved into line for.
Bas touched her arm. “Help me check their necks? If you find any that have welts more raised than the others, let me know.”
“You think the size will indicate how strong the connection is?” Bridget asked, and he nodded.
They got to work, making a catalog of the most affected patients to the least. The strange thing was that it had nothing to do with how long the creature had been feeding off them.
“I wonder why that is,” Reeve mused aloud. “Bas?”
“My guess is the state of the mind. How strong it is, how susceptible it is to influence, etc.,” Bas replied.
“Imagination,” Bridget said, and they all turned to look at her. “You said it was hunting me because of my mind, the way I built the library in the astral, and all that. A feast. It could be that the more imagination and stronger their abilities to dream, the more it actually feeds it.”
“I agree with both guesses, though it hardly matters. What does is getting those bloody things out. Bas, let’s start with the least affected, and that way, we can alter the sigils as we go to enhance their power,” Charlotte said and pulled a plastic container from her leather satchel. Inside were square pieces of fabric about the size of Bridget’s palm.
“What are they?” she asked Reeve.
