Her Dragon purred, ignoring her, its talons kneading her skin.Mm, like.
Really?You haven’t felt that way about any of the Dragons I’ve dated.Why are you acting all sexy and wanting with a Caido?
Yummier than any of them.
Their beasts were carnal, predatory, but they didn’t always make sense.
She and Archer skirted the dance floor, jam-packed with writhing, rubbing, sliding bodies.He tugged her toward a newly-vacant spot at the bar, where undulating colors lit the thick glass.There were no available stools, just enough space for him to lean toward the female bartender and ask if she’d seen either Marik or Jeremy.
“Another Caido?Wow, this club’s getting interesting.”She stared at him for a second, then shook her head.“I haven’t seen Jeremy in a few days, but Marik’s here somewhere.”She searched the crowd.“I don’t see him at the moment.”
He ordered an absinthe, then turned to Lyra.“Drink?”
Definitely not an absinthe.“Cranberry and Absolut, please, dash of Tabasco.”He raised his eyebrow at that.“Dragons have a thing for, um, hot and spicy.”
Did she see his mouth quirk?Probably not.Archer was anything but hot and spicy, though she wondered what was beneath the surface.She tried to pay, but he ignored her outstretched hand and put money on the bar when the drinks arrived.He handed her the shorter glass and gripped his as he scanned the people sitting at the bar.
Lyra looked for Marik, too, but was drawn again to the dance floor.The sensuousness pulled at her, pulsing through her body with a song that was hard rock and electronica at once."Firestarter," the singer rapped, oddly appropriate to how she felt.She gulped half her drink and set it on the bar, her arm brushing Archer’s side.
She wanted to touch him.Knowing it was the Thrall didn’t quell her desire one bit.She didn’t even realize she’d begun to move to the beat until her butt brushed against him.The music was irresistible, too.She turned to him, nearly his height with her high heels, and moved close to his ear.Unfortunately, that action pressed her breasts against his chest.
“Now I know why you looked so pained about coming here.Is this what it’s like, people wanting to touch you all the time?”
He kept his gaze on the dance floor.“Everything about this is painful.”
“What is it that makes me—people—want to touch you?It’s beyond that you’re gorgeous.It’s a compulsion.”
He leaned closer, his breath warm against her ear.“It’s our energy, the essence we carry from our ancestors.”
His face was only inches from hers, the shimmer in his eyes pulling at her, making her eyes heavy.
It took her two tries before her mouth worked enough to ask, “Are you mesmerizing me on purpose?”
He didn’t look away.“No.”
“I won’t touch you.I’m stronger than your pull.”
His mouth turned up in a soft smile.“I am Dragon, hear me roar?”
She laughed, breaking out of the spell.“Yeah, something like that.I’m just saying, you don’t have to worry about me mauling you.I am totally into Dragons.Their heat.Their fire.”She dragged in a breath.Oh my, the way his eyes held her gaze felt as though she’d swallowed half a bottle of champagne.Speak.Don’t stand there staring at him like a nudge.“Kirin, my twin, fell in love with a Deuce, and I don’t get that at all.We should stick with our own kind.”
“I’m glad you feel that way.”
A woman returned to her seat at the bar next to them, forcing Lyra to shift closer to Archer.The woman’s gaze lingered on his face, and Lyra settled against him and shot her a territorial look, obviouslywithhim.
Archer smiled then, a real one that tightened her chest.“Wait a minute.Are you…my guardian Dragon?”
His gaze dropped to her mouth, a sure sign that a man was thinking of kissing her.Her heart didn’t trip at the thought; it did a complete flip.She involuntarily ran her tongue over her lips, imagining that Cupid’s-bow mouth sliding across hers.
The ice in his eyes shimmered.His fingers slid against the side of her neck.He watched his hand with interest, as though it were moving of its own volition.As though he’d never touched a woman’s neck before.Helooked mesmerized.By her.By touching her.
But Caidos were asexual.Right?He’d been unmoved by all those people groping at him, sexy women wearing dresses that gaped right down to their navels with big breasts about to pop out and sculpted men with beautiful faces.
Archer, actingveryun-asexual, pulled his fingers through her hair, watching it fall back against her collarbone.His thumb trailed from beneath her chin down her throat, settling into the hollow.
She couldn’t breathe.Even though all she could see were his light brown lashes, she was just as spellbound as he.Everything felt surreal, only lights and music and no one else but them, and the whole place was spinning like one of those revolving restaurants, only faster and?—
She reached out and touched his face, and he jerked back as though her fingers were on fire.His arm bumped the man on the other side of him.
