Page 6 of Rurik
Rurik flung the cage door open and entered, clanging it shut behind him. She swallowed hard, realizing that what she’d just asked had come true. She was trapped in a cage with a dragon—ancient, powerful, accountable to none but themselves—and this one was making her legs shake as he kept looking at her as though he wanted to eather.
He spun her around to face away from him. She gripped the bars, bracing herself. He pressed his body against hers from behind and nuzzled her neck. She moaned as he began to kiss her throat and bare shoulder. It was as though he knew just where her sensitive spots were, the ones that electrified her entire body. They still swayed to the music, but everything had changed. She wasn’t focused on capturing him, not now—she could barely think straight. All she wanted was to stay close to him, to keep touching him wherever she could. She needed to feel his body caging hers and his mouth and hands on her body. She’d heard people talk about animal magnetism, butholy shit, this was beyondthat.
They weren’t dancing anymore—they were grinding against each other, the sensual movements almost too much to bear. She was so close to danger, so close to the one thing she knew she couldn’t lethappen.
I don’t care. I should…but I don’t. I wanthim…
His right hand touched her right knee, sliding up her leg beneath her skirt. When he reached her panties, he brushed a fingertip along her satin-covered slit. She whimpered at the explosive reaction her body had at that simple caress. Rurik bit her earlobe, and a zing of pleasure shot through her body. She knew people were all around them, probably watching them, and she couldn’t find it in her to care, not when he was making her feel so wild, so out of control in the best possibleway.
“Tell me your name,” he whispered in herear.
She struggled to focus. “Charlotte…” She wouldn’t tell him her last name. Even through the fog of her desire, she knew that would be amistake.
“Charlotte.” Her name rolled off his tongue in that decadent accent, and she shivered. “My name is Rurik.” He flicked his tongue into the shell of her ear, sending a new bolt of arousal throughher.
“I’m going to kiss you now, little one,” he warned, and she nodded, wanting,needinghis mouth on hers. It didn’t matter that it was breaking her promise or that she knew her brothers would kill her for kissing a dragon. She had to kiss him. Pheromones be damned. Something inside her demanded it with a force that she couldn’t stop. He turned her around to face him, chest to chest, their bodies still pressed tight together. The bars of the cage dug into her back, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was this slow, delicious burning moment leading up to hiskiss.
He lowered his head and their lips brushed, and then he kissed her.Hard. It was the kind of kiss that made a rational, sensible person like Charlotte lose her mind. It was a kiss out of her darkest fantasies. He moved his lips over hers with a hint of roughness that kept her on her toes, as though at any moment he could take things to another level. It left her dancing on a razor’s edge of fear and excitement. He curled her hair in his hand, fisting the strands while he held her captive. His other hand gripped her hip, his firm hold keeping her right where she was.A dragon’sprisoner.
The music around them changed from one song to another, and then another, and yet neither she nor Rurik wanted to come up forair.
It was strange, but the more he kissed her, the more she had this funny feeling that she could hear whispers—soft, dark growling sounds deep inside her head. Like a man murmuring erotic words to her, but she couldn’t explain how she was hearing it. It must have been her imagination. Were all kisses supposed to be like this? Her previous boyfriends had never made her feel like she was on the verge of such sweetmadness.
Their kiss finally broke apart, and he pressed his forehead to hers. She closed her eyes, hands gripping his shoulders as she tried to slow her racing heart. His muscles were taut beneath her palms, and she could feel the heat radiating off him. It didn’t soothe the aching need her body now had for him. For the first time in her life, she understood what her friends had joked about when they’d talked about wanting a man so much they were ready to beg for it. She wasreadytobeg.
“Club’s going to close soon,” he said in a lowrumble.
“What?” She was distracted by his intimate embrace and how much she didn’t want this moment to end. His body was warm, and the leather of his jacket smelled so good. She wanted to bury herself against him, rub her cheek against his chest like a cat in heat. Her lips felt bruised, swollen from his kisses, and she lickedthem.
“We’ve been at this for over an hour, little one. I would like to continue, but I must close down the club.” A surprisingly rueful smile twisted hislips.
Reality crashed down around her. An hour? She had spent anhourmaking out with a dragon shifter? A dragon she knew was dangerous. The dragon she’d come to capture… God, no wonder her brothers wouldn’t let her become a hunter. She’d walked right into the lion’s den—er…dragon’s lair—and had all but jumped his bones. Mortification heated her face as she tried to shake the lingering flames of desire that his kisses had left burning withinher.
“I should go.” She released his shoulders and looked away, but his green eyes kept drawing her focus back to them. She raised a hand to her kiss-swollen lips and almost smiled but had to shake herself to remember that this was dangerous. She shouldn’t have gone thisfar.
He cupped her chin and forced her to meet hisgaze.
“Will you wait for me? After I close the club we can go to dinner.” The earnest desire in his words made her hesitate. Could she stay near him and not lose her headagain?
“Please, my little rose, do not make me beg.” He winked at her, and the harsh lines of his scarred face seemed to fade into boyishplayfulness.
“Eat? It’s after midnight!” she said, halflaughing.
“An early breakfastthen.”
She knew the logical thing to do was to thank him for the amazing evening and leave—but shecouldn’t.
If I can keep control over my hormones, I can learn more about him. That’s what a smart hunter would do,right?
She needed to learn his weaknesses if she was going to figure out a safe way to inject him with the serum and call the Brotherhood to come and get him. Rurik was the key to one of their biggest crises at the moment. He feathered another kiss over her lips, and the last of her resistancecrumbled.
“An early breakfast it is.” She grinned up at him foolishly. Maybe it was okay to play the bad girl and do something wild and reckless. Justonce.
“Excellent. Come with me.” He led her from the cage to the back of the bar and sat her down on a stool, then waved over the bartender. “Victor, please keep this lovely woman company while I closeup.”
The bartender spoke to Rurik in Russian, and Rurik responded with a chuckle and nodded. Victor handed Charlotte a fresh glass of wine. Rurik leaned in close and playfully tugged a lock of her hair before he walked through the club’s dwindling crowd. He disappeared through the back door she’d spiedearlier.
“My boss likes you,” the bartender said. His accent was heavy, but his English wasdecent.
