“Come, human,” he orders.
Climbing to my feet, he grasps my waist and jerks me up into the air, hands sliding over my hips and legs as I pull myself onto level ground. Even at the top, the canopy of the jungle remains thick overhead.
But a bright flash of light and the comet’s glow pierces through to glisten a small basin of water.
Hitching, my eyes widening, my vision is filled by a trickling waterfall and crystal clear pool. I moan and crawl toward the edge, already tasting the water in my mouth. Its much-needed invigoration slices through me. Hearing Kaos pull himself up behind me, I can’t take my gaze off of the potential haven.
Dashing forward, cupping my hands, I lift water to my mouth.
I hear heavy footsteps and the sound of crushing grass. Two big hands grab hold of me, lifting me from the ground. Water falls from my fingertips. I make a noise of displeasure—but the sound cuts off when I’m thrown into the pool.
Splashing wildly, horror-stricken, and fully shocked, I find footing beneath and emerge from the water, furious.
I twist to see Kaos wading toward me.
“We’re going to die making so much noise!” I shout.
“I could not bear the smell of your pheromones any longer.”
Scowling, I push against his chest when he gets right up in front of me. “My pheromones? You’re the one who reeks like moss—you’re the one the femdragon is sniffing out! Who knew dragon men have such terrible survival skills?” Finding my walking stick-spear off to the side in the water, I grab it and make for the shore. “Did you even think that maybe there would be leeches?”
His hands on my waist stop me, and before I can react, he’s pulling me against him. “The water is crystalline. Look,” he snarls in my ear.
Breathing harshly, I look, but not because I want to. The waves of the pool calm while scanning the water, and my frustration builds knowing he’s right. I knew he was right since the moment I kneeled down to drink.
There’s only a few water flowers and frogs. The basin is so small it’s barely big enough for our bodies lying across it twice. There’s nothing but cool, sleek stones beneath and around us, the trickling water from a ledge above, falling down a rocky alcove from which the water must drain toward the river.
“If I reek so much, then stopping to wash it off is a good thing, is it not?” he muses, annoying me further. I jerk out of his hold, and when he actually releases me, I’m slightly disappointed.
Moving to the opposite side, climbing out of the pool, I only turn back after scoping out the journey downward, gritting my teeth the whole time. The shells sewn into my clothes clink when I sit on the edge and finally get that drink of water I’m craving.
I’ve craved it since he refused to kiss me. When I glance up, he’s just standing in the pool staring daggers at me. My skin heats.
“Clean yourself,” I grump, reaching for the spear at my side and gripping it. I’m trying not to let him get to me.
“Come here,” he orders.
“No.”
His eyes darken. “Now, Issa.”
Rising up, I pull my spear closer, even though my belly jumps and my core flutters at his command.The way he says my name…“I won’t follow the orders of someone who hates me,” I snap, pulling my legs under me and turning away, though my curiosity protests greatly.I don’t need to sit with him while he bathes. I don’t need to see that and have him know how much he affects me.
A sudden sharp intake of breath and a deep, terrifying growl sounds the air. A splash of water.Don’t look. Don’t give him the satisfaction.But I twist back anyway, finding Kaos directly within the stream of sunlight with the red comet glow beaming over him like a lover’s cape.
Whatever I was about to say is lost because it’s not a human male’s gaze piercing me with his ferocity, but a dragon hellbent on only one thing…Me.
His dark eyes flash green, muddling with the red. Sucking in my stomach, my senses shout:something is wrong!The glow blends with the pale green of his skin, darkening its shade but also lighting it up. It gives his long black hair glints of ruby, the ends floating in the water where they twist and dance like eels.
But my gaze stills on his body in its entirety. Having never seen his muscles so strained before, so tense that veins nearly pop from the surface, like something is trying to escape from him.
He’s fighting to keep it contained.
His hands wrench closed at his sides, and his wings go ramrod straight, spiking outward dangerously. Having felt them brush against me before—soft and sleek—they now have the appearance of weapons.
And his eyes—devilish and keen—serrate my soul, making me breathless. Hungry. Weak.
Wet, quaking, cold for his touch, his taste, his everything. The rich and musky scent of moss, so much more powerful than before, fills my nostrils, quickening my breaths.I need more.
