Bewitching The Dragon. Jane Kindred

tightened her arms around his neck. “Through the door and up the stairs.”

      She clung to him while he let go with one hand to turn the doorknob, and then he rebalanced her weight against him and stepped up into the utility closet off the kitchen. The stairs were to the left. Dev had to draw on the demon’s strength to mount the stairs without losing his grip on Kylie—in more ways than one.

      “Second door on the left,” Kylie gasped as he reached the landing overhanging the living room below. A decorative iron railing was the only thing between them and a ten-foot drop.

      Dev managed to swing Kylie through the bedroom door and onto the bed without a mishap. He wanted to hear her make more noise. A lot of it. He pulled out, careful not to let the condom slip, and Kylie protested, trying to hook him in place with her boot heels.

      “There’ll be plenty of time for that,” he said patiently. “I’m not done with you yet.” He had to duck down and sidle backward to get out of her grip, and he had the feeling he would have failed if the leather trousers weren’t so difficult for her to maneuver in. Dev worked her boots off and tossed them aside, and Kylie watched him as he slid the leather over her ankles one at a time. The look in her eyes made him wish he’d kept her belt a little longer. Of course, he did have his own.

      Her eyes fixed on his hands as he began to work his belt out of the loops. “What are you doing?”

      “I left yours downstairs.”

      She raised an eyebrow but didn’t stop him when he slipped her arms from the leather jacket and trussed her wrists a second time. “You’d better make this worth my while.”

      “Count on it.” He winked and rolled her over onto her stomach before she could protest, slipping the belt through the headboard and tying it off.

      Kylie turned her head. “That yes I gave you wasn’t an irrevocable free pass to the entire amusement park. Certain rides take extra tickets.”

      Dev laughed as he climbed onto the bed and stretched himself along her length. “Don’t worry.” He kissed the back of her neck, breathing in her scent. “I intend to earn every ticket I plan to use.” He unhooked her bra, glad to see it was the kind with adjustable straps that crossed in back. All he had to do was slip the little hooks at the end out of the tabs and he was able to draw the entire garment out from under her. Otherwise, he’d have had to resort to his pocket knife.

      Unfettered, Kylie wiggled to reposition herself against the bedspread. “Nice trick.”

      “I know a few.” He kissed his way down her back, drawing a contented hum from her when he placed one at the top of her bum. He wasn’t going for contented hums. His tongue slipping along her crack made her shiver and let out a little gasp. Still not what he was going for.

      Dev spread her cheeks with his thumbs and made his slow, steady way over every little bump and ridge of flesh while she moaned into the pillow until he reached what he was after and thrust his tongue against the swollen flesh between her legs. Kylie made those kitten noises again as he tasted her, drawing the flat of his tongue from bottom to top, from his perspective, like the first, gluttonous lick of an ice cream cone.

      The kitteny sounds got louder as he stroked again, spreading her open. Lifting her hips a little to give himself better access, Dev buried his face in her heat, his mouth locked on the prize.

      Kylie’s moans were loud and unabashed as she shook under his attentions, rolling her hips in his hands, shuddering and gasping until she was almost crying. When he was sure he’d made her climax, he straddled her legs and leaned down to her ear. It was wet with tears. She really was crying.

      Dev laid a hand on her back. “You okay, darling?” He thought for a moment she was sobbing but realized she’d begun laughing uncontrollably.

      “Am I okay?” she gasped between the laughter. “Holy Mother of God. If you want to kill me that way, it’s fine with me, but if you’re planning to fuck me, I think you’d better do it quick before you render me unconscious with that damn tongue.”

      Dev wasn’t about to waste any time. He yanked off his boots, stripped off his clothes, and drew Kylie up onto her knees and entered her once more while she pulled back on the belt that held her wrists and rocked into him to meet his thrusts. Feeling light-headed as he pounded toward climax, he dismissed it as the natural effect of his pent-up desire.

      He put his mouth close to her ear. “Do you want me to come inside you?”

      Kylie moaned and gyrated her hips. “God, yes.”

      “Tell me. Tell me to do it.”

      She turned her head toward him and he leaned in to snatch her mouth with his so that the words were moaned against his lips. “I want you to come. Come for me.”

      Dev jolted inside her with a roar of pleasure, biting her lip a bit harder than he’d meant to and tasting a drop of blood as the ejaculation shot out of him. He felt as if every muscle he had was releasing simultaneously with it, and he clutched her waist to his as he collapsed onto his side against the bed with an almost giddy sense of lightness.

      “That was—” He tried to catch his breath, licking the salty taste of blood from his lip. “That was—” He pulled out swiftly with a cry of surprise as the scar tissue at his back felt like it had caught fire.

      “Dev?” Kylie tried to turn her head toward him. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

      He was on fire, every inch of him crawling with agonizing heat. Dev looked down at his chest. His skin looked like it was boiling. No...it looked like it was—

      “Kurrrrr!” The word, hurled from his tongue, was the last coherent thought in his head before he leaped from the bed and stumbled backward on the floor with a sound coming out of his throat that wasn’t his own.

       Chapter 7

      In place of the constant tingle that had been animating her skin since Dev’s first touch, an icy column of fear gripped her spine. That growl had not been human.

      Scrabbling noises of something large and lumbering thudded along the wood floor. The bed shook with the impact.

      “Dev?” Ione realized she’d squeezed her eyes shut and she opened them with effort. She was still facedown against the pillow, tethered to the headboard. She took a deep breath and turned her head. At the periphery of her vision, a dark shape hulked. A dark shape that was making heavy breathing sounds—and seemingly emitting steam. Oh, God.

      She held her breath and grabbed the belt with one hand just above the spot where it was buckled while folding her other hand almost in two, the pad of her thumb against the outer edge and fingers tented tightly together, and tugged. Dev hadn’t strapped the belt tightly this time and, with a little effort, she freed the hand. She quickly undid the buckle to free the other. Ione sat up on her knees and took another breath before turning around.

      An expletive she’d only uttered once or twice in her life burst out of her as she scrambled back against the headboard. Covered in vivid green scales, like poison personified, the creature hulked inside her doorway on all fours, its massive bulk tight and compact, as if ready to pounce. Tension quivered in its thick, muscular limbs, while fiery gold eyes glared out at her from a narrow, reptilian face beneath a bumpy, ridged forehead that sloped back into hornlike protrusions. The bumps on its head continued in a bisecting ridge of the bony substance that traveled down the creature’s body and all the way to the end of the long tail stretching out the door.

      The hottest sex she’d ever had and the guy had to get eaten by a monster. And she was about to be the second course.

      Her mind was processing this, assessing the situation, as though hulking monsters in one’s bedroom were an ordinary occurrence.

      The creature breathed out a huff of steam and made a deep growling noise in its throat that