he adds a second finger, petting over me. The leather was already warm from being against me—and with his touches, it’s grown hot. It feels like it’s melting me, turning everything below my belly to liquid.
I shift under him and exhale in a rush as he feathers his thumb lower, along the area that covers my slit.
His eyes, scrutinizing my face, flare before his expression sharpens, even as his lids lower and he repeats the sensual pass.
Instead of bracing to run, my legs tense to—to wrap around him.
Before I can give into the impulse to embrace his hips, the dragon’s lips part—firm lips, the bottom one thicker, formed in a way that my eyes have trouble tearing away from it—and he sucks in a breath.
His nostrils flare and his eyes lock back on mine.
A sizzle of awareness explodes down my spine. It feels like my lower half lights up from this intangible contact.
And the dragon’s gaze drops between my legs like he can tell. His hands move to my leather’s waist fastening and he jerks on it, causing my butt to leave the ground for a brief moment before slapping back down.
Reality crashes into me. And I realize that no matter how much my body is interested in a male’s skillful touch, my head is overwhelmed by this dragon. Panic fills my chest, making my body feel bisected; my turned-on lower half may be submitting to the dragon, but my rational head is floating above the scene, alarmed.
With no premeditation whatsoever, when my hands splay on either side of me, and my fingers brush against the metal hook that started all this trouble…
My hand closes over it.
My arm arcs up, crossing in front of me. I swing wide—only nearly catching him in the face, when I could have aimed the hook right for his eye.
With a guttural exclamation of shock, he falls back.
I scramble away. I don’t even know how my legs manage it; everything felt like soaked weaving reeds a moment ago. Now adrenaline courses through my veins, and I pump my arms and my feet are swift and I fly out of the cave like I have wings.
A furious roar blasts out, rippling against me, making my back muscles snap tense.
But I don’t stop running.
CHAPTER 6
Nalle
I’ve angered the beast. Enraged him, in fact.
And he’s a man no more. From my hiding place, I watch the great black dragon (who appears even bigger and more menacing in what’s left of the sun’s light) as he tears up the ground, bellowing—and I watch as he grabs a tree. A full-grown, fifty-woman-tall tree.
He hurls it off the mountain.
The sound as it crashes against summit rock and other trees on its way down seems to bode ill. My odds of surviving the same fate?
I gulp.
I’m crouched, eyeing him from a thicket. I hope he doesn’t get close because he’s sure to smell my blood. I’m bleeding because my hiding place is a berry thicket, and when I ran into the evil-thorned berry canes, they tried to tear off all my skin. If I live through this, then the price of their camouflage was worth it. They have many, many chartreuse leaves providing me cover.
Glumly, I consider that if I still had my buffalo hide coat, I wouldn’t be all torn up now. But it is what it is. On the plus side, I’ve been picking the canes clean and enjoying the berry-recompense at least. The berries are mildly sweet and full of juice. If their thorns hadn’t dug trenches in my skin that sting like the dickens, I’d consider it a fair trade.
My plan is to get back down the mountain. My problem—besides the angry dragon—is that the longer I wait, the nearer to dusk the sky turns. In fact, it’s quickly becoming dark.
The moon is visible; just a rim of colored light, looking spooky and so close it’s like it’s been hung just off the side of the mountain. It’s almost scarlet tonight, and it’s beautiful.
The sight of the black dragon against the darkening sky set with a nearly blood-red moon feels ominous enough. Add his temper tantrum and I’m not keen on moving out of my hiding place. I’ll just stay here, wait him out.
The dragon drops his snout to the ground and inhales, his ribs showing briefly along his scaly sides. His wings snap up high above his withers and his tail falls still. With slow deliberation, he cranes his head in my direction.
Caught.
His long neck is a deadly