Page 43 of Dance for the Dragon
Her breath hissed between her teeth, but she was tough and didn’t pull away. “Everything changes you,” she said. “Everything you experience makes you who you are.”
It started bleeding again, which was good. The flow of blood would help clean it out. Though his hands shook, Kohl cleaned it out as best he could, then pressed a clean gauze pad against it. By this time he was barely breathing at all.
“The angel on the side of your neck?” Her words seemed to come from far away.
“My mom. And purple roses were her favorite kind.”
Still staring at the wall, she asked, “What’s the thing in the middle? Between the roses?”
Through a red haze of blood lust, Kohl answered her. “A Harley engine.”
“So, you really like bikes, huh?”
He could barely concentrate on her words. “Yeah.” He took her hand and pressed it against the gauze until she held it there on her own, then he sat back on his heels.
Her eyes met his, traveled over his face and torso, and returned. He could only imagine what she was seeing. “Sorry about this,” she told him.
“It’s not your fault.” He took a shallow breath through his mouth.
“Is it all cleaned out?”
Kohl nodded. “Think so.”
“Good.” Tilting her head away, she pulled the gauze away and presented him her throat.
Overwhelmed with what she was offering him, Kohl found he couldn’t move.
When she noticed, Devon placed her hands on his shoulders and forced him to look at her. “I trust you, Kohl. Completely.”
Ah, honey. You really shouldn’t do that.
Chapter 14
Devon hoped her words had gotten through to him as she tilted her head away again, exposing her throat to Kohl. A brief second of panic overtook her when she realized what she was about to do, but she pushed it firmly away. She knew from working at Parasupe how enamored victims became of the vampires who bit them. But she didn’t know the vampire could track them. And from Kohl’s reaction, there were other things she didn’t know, but they didn’t have time for a big heart to heart. Besides, it all boiled down to one thing—Kohl was a stand up guy for a vampire/dragon, and she would much rather be attached to him than the crazy bastard who’d bitten her, if that was the case.
The first touch was soft, warm…gentle. A reverent kiss she felt all the way to her soul. The second touch was just a taste, a stroke of his tongue followed by a moan so earthy and erotic she felt it all the way between her legs. There was another gentle tug on her skin as he tested the blood flow.
Devon loved being this close to him. She moaned, and felt Kohl’s response as he drank from her. Experiencing this with him was the most intimate thing she’d ever experienced. The earthy, masculine smell of him. The warmth of his skin beneath her hands. The retrained power of his quivering muscles. The helpless sounds he made. Not to mention the knowledge that he needed her to survive—quite literally. No heart to heart or hot and heavy sexual encounter had ever come close to it.
As a woman, she’d always been aware of the effect she had over men, no matter what they preferred to believe. When it came to sex, she held the power. But this…
This was heady in way she’d never imagined possible.
Without leaving her throat, he leaned back until he sat on his heels and pulled her with him, arranging her on his lap. Devon straddled his hips with his strong arms wrapped around her and his hard, hot length nestled between her legs. Her leggings and the thin blanket he wore like a towel provided few barriers between them, but it was still too much as far as she was concerned. Rolling her hips, she tried to feel more of him.
Kohl lifted his head from her throat, dropped his hands to her thighs, and pressed his forehead against hers. “Devon.” Her name tore from his lips as his large body shuddered beneath her. “I want more. I want so much more.” Then he pulled back to look at her, and the words she had been about to say caught in her throat as she saw him. Really saw him.
Kohl was more vampire at this moment than she’d ever seen him before. His upper lip lifted in a predator’s snarl, exposing his long fangs as he studied the pulse in her throat with hungry eyes. His cheekbones were so sharp, she was surprised they didn’t cut through the skin. His eyes were bright, glowing that reddish gold, the pupils so narrow they were like slits. And overlaying shadows of the dragon rippled underneath.
Her eyes dropped to his bare chest and shoulders, where muscle strained, giving his tattoos a life of their own. Unable to resist, she ran her hands down the front of his shoulders, over his pecs, and down the hard ridges of this stomach, feeling the skin and muscle ripple beneath her fingertips. His big body shuddered beneath her touch, but otherwise he remained still, allowing her to explore him.
He was scary and miraculous and hungry and…beautiful.
Without a word, she pulled her hair away from the side of her neck and offered it to him once more.
Kohl immediately tried to draw back, turning his face away. He shook his head once, hard. “No. I’ve taken enough. It’s enough.” Shame reddened his features and darkened his eyes as he glanced at her sideways. “I already took more than I needed to.”
But Devon wasn’t giving up that easily. She took his face between her hands, ignoring his hiss of warning, and forced him to look at her. “I want more, too. Kohl, I want so much more with you.”
