Page 23 of Guardian's Dilemma

Glimmer was sitting on the bed beside me, his attention completely on me. In fact, I couldn’t deny that having a handsome man looking at me with such wonder would normally have swelled my ego to epic proportions and, even knowing that this particular handsome man was a dragon, I wasn’t immune to that look.

Having learned to keep my big mouth shut, instead of talking, I leaned closer to him. It was strange to move into a dragon’s personal space without a weapon in my hand and murder in my heart.

It was easy, though. My senses were human and it was my witchcraft that alerted me to magic. I resented the silver shackle on my wrist and the way it muted my power. I knew I would be feeling so much more if I had access to it.

As it was, I had to rely on my sight and sound and smell.

I was taking careful note of every movement he made and I paid particular attention to the way his pupils were dilating as he looked at me and breathed in my scent. I could use that.

If I’d ever thought about kissing a dragon – which I had not because whatridireever even contemplated touching a dragon except to impale him? – I probably would have felt sick. Which is why it surprised me that I didn’t flinch or gag or pull away instinctively when Glimmer leaned in to kiss me.

His lips brushed against mine and it was the faintest of touches. I actually followed him as he went to pull back and pushed our lips together harder.

He made a little sound that thrilled through me, right through my core and down to my groin. It was barely a breath but something about it made me push against him harder and part my lips to thrust my tongue into his mouth.

When he opened to accept me, I dived in and plundered his mouth, and got a low groan of pleasure for my trouble. I wanted to earn more of those sounds. I wanted to make him pant with desire for me.

I went to wrap my arms around him, crush him to me and feel his lean body against mine, but as I moved, my bound hands yanked against the heavy wooden post and I was jolted back to reality.

For a second, I was dazed. I hadn’t expected to react like that, not in a million years. It wasn’t like me at all. I’d never lost myself in a kiss like that, not even when I was horny. That was how I’d managed to kill a lion shifter who’d followed me back to my hook-up’s house and broken in, thinking the dragons would pay a reward for a deadridire. Even when I’d been… busy with my hook-up, I’d been alert enough to sense him there and had fought instinctively.

That memory was like a wash of cold water. That was when I’d had to strap my armour straight onto my skin. I’d had dragon’s skin against my own.

Glimmer looked me in the eyes and one hand reached slowly up to my temple, stroking a wayward lock of hair back from my face.

“It’s ok to be confused. We have time.”

That one little kiss had messed me up more than I thought because it took me a moment to work out what he meant. He must have smelled the mix of emotions that were rushing through me and assumed I was reacting purely to him, not the memory of that armour.

I nodded. I was going to say something clever or reassure him that it wasn’t him that was making me feel ill or remind him that he was a fucking dragon and not meant to sweetly brush my hair from my face, but instead I leaned back into him and kissed him again.

His lips were soft and I couldn’t feel any stubble on his chin. I wondered whether his facial hair didn’t grow well or whether he’d only just shaved. My own scruff must be scraping at him and I felt a jolt of pleasure at the thought of making him red from our kiss.

When he slipped his own tongue into my mouth, he moaned so erotically that I wondered for a second if he’d come. The way he pressed closer against me, though, suggested he hadn’t.

I let him push me back, just a little, and his body was moving closer and closer until he was almost in my lap. My body was reacting in ways it really, really shouldn’t and I knew he could feel my erection straining against my pants. He brushed his fingers over it and I wanted to beg him to stroke me until I got off. Then I’d have the brain capacity to do what I needed to.

How I managed to remember what I was meant to be doing, I don’t know. My training had drilled into me that dragons were devious and cunning and used our weakness against us, and yet I’d never been weaker around a dragon than I was right now and I was still alive. I didn’t understand what game Glimmer was playing and I was being torn in two trying to work out what I needed to do.

I needed to get free and alert the Council to the dragon’s presence so they’d come and rescue me and kill the dragons.

I wanted to wait and see whether Glimmer really was a dragon with a soul, one who could be saved, and work out how to get him away from his clan and protect him.

My body chose for me.

As I pushed my hips up against his, he reached out a hand and he must have had his claws out because he sliced through the tie binding my hands to the bedpost.

The second I was free, my body took off.

I had been trained never to submit, never to let a dragon pin me. Ingrained instinct had me out of the bed the moment I could, and I fled out the door as fast as I could. I didn’t look back. I didn’t see him sprawled on the blankets where I’d shoved him. I was already bolting for my phone.

Chapter 11: Glimmer

It had been stupid of me to assume that my mere presence would undo a lifetime of training and lies. Especially since my mate was human and couldn’t scent me the way I could scent him. He had no way of knowing that I really was his mate and that we needed to work together to make this work.

Just the smell of him had driven me wild and I’d become stupid.

I was paying the price now.

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