NocC 029 - Kendra Leigh Castle - Taming the Dragon - Harlequin 2012-12 Read Free Page B

body called to Tess as
strongly as hers called to him.
    “Pretty human,” Kaden murmured. He let the necklace drop and
braced his hands against the wall on either side of her head. He lowered his own
head to within a breath of hers, teasing them both with the promise of the blaze
that could catch between them. Kaden brushed his nose against hers, soft,
decadent contact. He felt Tess shiver, and a wave of desire rippled through him.
He spoke softly, deliberately.
    “Morgan Le Fay sent you here with a treasure she stole from me
long ago. If she’d come herself, I would have fought her for the insult. If
she’d run, I would have tracked her. But instead, clever witch, she sent you. I
don’t understand why...but until I find out, I will enjoy the gift.”
    “Gift,” Tess murmured, her eyes dropping to his mouth.
    Madness, Kaden thought. A human and
a dragon...such a combination was dangerous. But the connection was undeniable.
There was nothing to be done for it now.
    “Dragons collect beautiful things,” Kaden told her, lips barely
brushing her cheek.
    Tess shifted where she leaned against the wall, opening herself
up to him further. Every breath she took was a ragged, shallow little sip of
air.
    “Dragons?” she whispered.
    “Mmm,” Kaden growled, giving in and lowering his mouth to hers.
“Dragons. This dragon. Me. ”
     

FOUR
    Tess had a split second to register the fact that Kaden
St. George had just described himself as a dragon.
    Then his mouth fastened on hers, and her thoughts scattered
like butterflies in a hurricane.
    She’d never been kissed like this. She shouldn’t be letting anyone kiss her like this. Especially not a
guy who could blow smoke from his mouth and threatened to light her on fire. And
she was on fire...just not in a way she ever would have expected.
    There was a brief moment where she thought to protest. She’d
opened her mouth to do...something. Ask him if he was insane? She couldn’t quite
remember. Because his tongue had swept in, and then he was doing things to her
mouth she’d only considered in her most erotic dreams.
    Kaden’s lips were sinfully soft, a stark contrast to the
demanding way he used them on her. There was nothing gentle about his kiss,
nothing that bespoke anything but complete possession. She melted back against
the wall, her legs going liquid when he stepped closer to her. Tess lifted her
hands, not for any reason other than to put them on Kaden, and immediately found
them pinned to the wall on either side of her head.
    She was trapped.
    And to her shock, she was brutally aroused.
    His scent enveloped her, a dark and sensual musk that was both
unfamiliar and completely intoxicating. Tess’s clothes suddenly felt too tight,
too warm. She couldn’t seem to focus on anything but the feel of this dark
stranger’s body against hers, the ragged sound of his breathing that said he
wanted her at least as much as she wanted him.
    Kaden nudged her legs apart with his knee and then slid one
well-muscled thigh between them. The pressure was immediate, intense, and Tess
found herself arching into him with a broken moan. She ought to be afraid, and
she wasn’t. She ought to be fighting him, not giving in to this wild need that
had come on like a storm and obliterated every ounce of her common sense.
    There was a low, animal-like growl from somewhere. Tess’s eyes,
nearly shut, snapped open.
    “Wait,” she said breathlessly. He didn’t. His only response was
to drag his mouth across her jawline, then fasten it on the sensitive skin
between her shoulder and neck, sucking and biting.
    It took several long moments before Tess remembered what she
wanted to say.
    “I...wait, I heard something...”
    “No,” he said against her neck, a rumbling command. One hand
released a wrist to drop to her breast, taking it roughly in hand. She gasped at
the shock of pleasure the instant before his mouth covered hers again, kissing
her with a barely contained ferocity that she’d