Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 78142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
He looks so sad, so resigned. “Dragon… Where were you tonight?”
He swallows. “I went home.”
I raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean? You obviously didn’t go back to the western slope.”
“My childhood home, Diana. I haven’t been there since I was nine years old.”
Odd. No one knows Dragon’s backstory. I certainly don’t. I never even thought of him as having a childhood home.
“Did you see your parents?”
He shakes his head. “They moved away long ago. After…” He shakes his head again. “I can’t. I just can’t.”
Emotion swirls through me. I want to help him. Take that tormented look off his face forever.
But I don’t know how.
So I do the only thing that I think might help.
I wrap my arms around him, pull his head to me, and kiss his lips.
And what I intended as a gentle kiss turns ferocious in an instant.
He devours my mouth, shoving his tongue inside, in a sweeping and passionate kiss.
But it’s over as quickly as it started when he pulls away.
My lips are almost sore, and I bring my fingers to them.
“This isn’t the answer,” he says darkly.
“Then tell me.” I grab his hand and squeeze it. “Tell me what the answer is, Dragon. I don’t know how to help you.”
He yanks his hand away. “I never asked for your help.”
He’s right. He hasn’t asked for my help. But he took it when I offered him my family’s investigation services.
And now he wants to call that off.
“You know what? Fuck off.” I turn around and walk to my room. He doesn’t want my help? Fine. I don’t need to give him my help. God knows I have other things on my mind. This new job for one, and—
I gasp as my body is jerked around harshly.
Dragon grips my shoulders in the doorway of my bedroom.
And then his mouth is on mine once more.
Another raw and ferocious kiss, another kiss that makes my knees weak and my legs turn to jelly.
But this time I’m angry. I push at his shoulders until the kiss breaks.
“Thought I told you to fuck off.”
“Fuck…” he growls. “I hate what you do to me, Diana. I fucking hate it.”
“Yeah? I’m not a big fan of it either.”
Then he smiles. And damn, that smile… Have I even seen it before?
“God, you’re hot,” he says.
I raise my eyebrows.
“Do you even have a clue of what I’m capable of, Diana? What I’ve been through in my life? The things I’ve seen?”
I whip my hands to my hips. “I have no idea because you won’t talk to me.”
“And I’m not going to start talking now.”
His mouth comes down on mine again. This time I keep my lips sewn shut, but he is aggressive, and he slides his velvety tongue between them.
As my knees weaken, so does my resolve.
I part my lips, and he dives right in.
We kiss in the doorway of my bedroom, and I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me.
As the desire to help him burns in me, the desire for him burns even stronger.
We’re going to end up in bed.
I can’t bring myself to regret it. After a rough day at work, Dragon Locke might just be the salve I need.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Dragon
I know better than this. I shouldn’t be doing this. Not to her. Not again.
But I can’t bring myself to stop.
She is sparkling light in the sea of my darkness.
And this new fire I’m sensing in her? The kind that made her tell me to fuck off?
It makes me want her even more.
I taste every part of her mouth with my tongue, all her sweetness, and all this newfound defiance that she’s showing me tonight.
She deserves so much better than me.
Better than a man who can’t donate plasma because of his history.
Better than a man who would drown his sorrows in a fix right now if he could.
Better than a man whose parents gave him away years ago.
Better than a man who was told he was evil as a child and grew up to believe it.
She deserves someone worthy of her. Worthy of her kindness and compassion, of her beauty inside and out.
That’s not me.
But I don’t fucking care.
Right now, I need her. And I’m going to take her.
I back her into her bedroom. A bedroom I’ve never seen before.
I break the kiss so we don’t stumble and then zero in on her solid oak headboard.
A headboard with rungs.
Fuck…
I’m not into BDSM. I’ve tried it, but it’s not my thing at all. Still, I’d like to tie those thin and supple wrists to her headboard so she can’t move. Can’t touch me.
Even though I long for her touch. Desire it. Yearn for it.
I’m not worthy. I shouldn’t let her touch me.
I narrow my gaze, meeting hers. “What would you do if I tied you to the bed? To those strong oak bedposts of yours?”