Page 5 of The Black Dragon
They had something in common – ties ingrief.
She didn’t want this connection. “After, my father devoted himself to his studies of healing. He is a Mage and a physician, a good one, but after losing my mother, he lost his will to work. My mother came from wealthso we had money enough to live on, plus my father’s assets. He intends to find a way to heal others throughmagick.”
Somehow she needed Justin to realize that his imprisonment wasn’t intended to fulfill a power-hungry Mage’s need for magick, but sparked from a deeper longing to find meaning in life after losing hissoulmate.
“Your father has a strange way of expressing his compassion.”Cynicism darkened Justin’s expression. “A Mage who lacks compassion for his test subjects can’t be a truehealer.”
His words caused her stomach to roil, for Justin expressed the inner fears Ariel had these past two months. Fears that Leo left behind the altruistic motivation to become a healer of wounds and focused more upon the heady feeling of possessing magick he’d sought all hislife.
“You’re not the first dragon Father has captured. He caught two others, but they were younglings and barely able tofly.”
“And what did Leo do with them? Grill them on the barbecue when they failed to meet hisexpectations?”
“No. They’re alive. He releasedthem.”
Yet her conscience pricked, because she suspected had the dragons possessed the magick Leo craved, they wouldhave withered and died, drained to their last ounce ofpower.
Did her father plan the same withJustin?
“He will not free me.” Justin’s broad shoulders sagged, as if he realized the direness of his predicament. “Leo has captured the prize and he knowsit.”
“Is there anything I can do?” sheasked.
“A last request while you are here, little bird. Kissme.”
Arielblinked. “You’re not going todie.”
“Don’t lie to me,” he said quietly. “You and I know your father has no plans to free me. He will keep draining me until there is nothing left but a shell of dragon. I am too great of a prize for him to release. Without my magick, I willperish.”
Tears of self-pity she’d refused to shed rose to her eyes at his brutal truth. “I’ve tried reasoningwithhim.”
“But he will not listen.” A rueful look touched his face. “Not even to the daughter who placed his feet on this quest to healher.”
Guilt shot through her. Justin was far too insightful. Leo hadn’t considered the possibility of obtaining power enough to restore her lost limb, not until last year. She’d wistfully mentioned how she’d envied dragons their ability of flight,and wished she could harness that power. From her studies, she’d read dragons had remarkable regenerative power. There were accounts in the ancient books of Mage of dragons who even had regrown parts of their tail, much like lizardsdid.
Soon after, Leo started hunting for dragons tocapture.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to entrap you. Father had promised you wouldnot be hurt. It’s gone toofar.”
“Then grant me this one last request, little bird. One kiss before I die. One last taste of a woman’s mouth and one taste of passion for you.” He drew a hand across the nape of herneck.
Ariel drew back. “Why me? Because I’m here andconvenient?”
Memories flared. Past hurts, past attempts at love and finding a man who thought she was the onlywoman in the world forhim.
Justin wrapped his hand around her neck. “Because you’rebeautiful.”
Slowly he lowered his mouth to hers. Ariel’s eyes closed. Justin’s lips were warm and authoritative as he kissed her. His mouth moved subtly over hers like a gentle wave, and then as she parted her lips on a pleasurable sigh, he slipped his tongue deftly into hermouth.
Ariel tastedhim back, moaning at the pleasure a single kiss could deliver. Justin’s scent of forest and sparkling water covered her, sending her senses soaring. Her nipples hardened to diamonds as he kissed her, and a wetness began between herlegs.
She wasn’t that innocent. She knew what men and women did together when they mated, but long ago Ariel had resigned herself to never experiencing suchintense pleasure. A mad need swirled inside her as she envisioned spreading her legs open for him, allowing him to see another part of her no man hadviewed.
“I would touch you there,” he whispered into her mouth. “Feel your wetness with my fingers and stroke you slowly until you screamed your release. I want you, Ariel. I want you as a man wants a woman in the dark of night. I would slidemy cock into you gently, and when the burn of pain started, sealing us together as one, I would chase it away with my fingers and give you pleasure aswell.”
His mouth left hers and his lips caressed a wet trail down her neck as an ache pulsed between herlegs.
“Yes,” shebreathed.
