Page 33 of Rurik
“What?”
“That you’re not a hunter—I didn’t believe it until just now.” He was still grinning, but there was a flash of surprise in hiseyes.
She stilled, studying him. “Why do you believe me now? What did I do?” She’d been snapping at him, and now he was claiming he believedher?
“It’s not what you did—it’s what yousaid.”
She tilted her head slightly. “What I said?” What had she said? She’d been rambling andfrustrated.
“You’d incapacitate me andescape. A hunter would never escape. A hunter would have tried to take me down, capture me. A hunter would probably even kill me if they thought it necessary. But escape? That is something a hunter wouldn’t think about. They’re fighters. You’re not fighting me. You camequietly.”
“Oh…” She whispered the word, realizing he was right. And it seemed her brothers were right after all. She wasn’t cut out to be a hunter. She’d already failed by being discovered. Hell, she’d confessed who she really was without him even interrogatingher.
She placed a palm over her belly. Knots of worry built inside her, making her sick. “I need to sit down.” She fell back onto the bed and tried to still her heart, which was beating hard enough to bruise her chest. Rurik approached her, towering over her as he reached her at the foot of the bed, and she lifted her gaze to his face. He reached up, hesitant this time as he cupped herchin.
“You aren’t a hunter, and you haven’t attacked me. You know the truth about me, and it is adangeroustruth.” He brushed the pad of his thumb over her lips. “Tell me, little rose, what do you really know ofdragons?”
She shivered at his intimate caress, feeling an ache deep inside because he wasn’t touching her out of desire, but to invokefear.
“You are immortal, but you can be killed. You’re susceptible to iron, but only if it is pure. You hoard gemstones and precious metals, and you can transform almost instantly. You can use pheromones and other means to hypnotize and influence people, especially those of the oppositesex.”
“Pheromones?” He suddenly laughed at this. “Oh really? So if I were to kiss you, you would spill all of your secrets? Even the darkest ones?” His green eyes grew warm, and she was lost in their color for a longmoment.
“I guess. I don’t know…” She trailed off. The Brotherhood’s reports on that particular factor had been vague, at least in the reports she’d had access to. Information was a weapon, and the Brotherhood kept it under tight lock and key to all but those who neededit.
“Let us test this little theory…” He leaned down and captured her mouth with his. He cupped the back of her neck, holding her captive for his ravaging lips. It wasn’t a tender kiss—it was a conquering one, yet it wasn’t violent. She whimpered, swept away by how conflicted he made her feel. Every cell in her body was humming with a languid and slowly building fervor that would explode if hecontinued.
“You’re sure you aren’t a hunter?” he asked betweenkisses.
“No, I’m a biochemist. They would never let me join the Brotherhood.” She sighed as he kissed her again and then gasped as he lifted her up and placed her farther back on the bed. Then he lay on top of her, kissing her again, and all shock faded beneath the pleasure of what his lips coulddo.
“Do you wish to hurt me or my family?” he asked. His hands lifted her sweater. The heat of his body burned her, not letting her feel the cold kiss of air on her bareskin.
“Hurt you?” she echoed dreamily as he kissed her collarbone, working his way down to the slopes of her breasts, which were covered by her blackbra.
“Yes, do you want to hurt us?” he repeated. His words, dark and soft, with that Russian accent, made her tremble. She’d come here planning to drug him, but she couldn’t anymore. Not after everything they’d been through together. Not after how she felt about himnow.
“No,” she answered honestly. The two vials of the serum lay in her purse, but she wouldn’t reach forthem.
“Then why did you come after me at the club?” heasked.
“I…” She tensed, fear still fluttering inside her despite her building arousal. “We know about the dragon war, the power vacuum it left behind and how things might escalate into something worse. I wanted to get you alone so the Brotherhood could talk to you. We want to do what we can to help avert a full-scale war, but your people and mine have never really been on talkingterms.”
Rurik’s gaze burned into hers. “Dragon war? That’s what this is about? You think my family can’t handle one Drakor dragon?” He chuckled. “You can tell the hunters there is nothing tofear.”
“But without the Drakors, there are others who will try to take their place…from China, maybe, or other continents. People could gethurt.”
“We would take the war to the countryside as we did a few months ago. There will be nocasualties.”
“You’re assuming that they will play by the same rules asDrakor.”
This seemed to give Rurik pause, like she’d touched on something he hadn’t considered and that she might in fact have a point. That relaxed her enough to enjoy what he was doing even more, and it cut a little into the edge of fear she teeteredon.
He kissed her stomach, flicked his tongue into her navel, and she dug her hands into his hair as he unzipped herjeans.
“I have more…questions,” he warned her. “Will you give me answers, or must I continue your interrogation withkisses?”
She could have sworn she heard playfulness in his tone, but it didn’t make sense. He should want to kill her for her deception. He had no reason to trust her, and she was a danger to him. So why was he kissing her when he should have been wanting to kill her? Weren’t dragons supposed to be ruthless? Maybe the synthetic pheromones she’d taken from the Brotherhood lab were keeping his temper down and his arousalup.
