Page 1 of The Dragon’s Captive

PROLOGUE

“Iwill have you, human.”

The dragon’s hot breath traced fiery heat over the virgin’s skin, her pale curves arching in unconstrained ecstasy as the very concept of resistance fled her body. There were little jeweled beads of sweat dotted over her belly and upper thighs, remnants of the struggle she had entered into against her own instincts and desires when the dragon had taken her, stripped her of the clothing that had formed an artificial barrier between their bodies, and feasted his hungry eyes upon her. Now, like the resistance they represented, they were being erased, shimmering and evaporating as the dragon blew gently against her body, his lips mere inches from her bare flesh as his large, muscular body moved over hers.

She had arrived unannounced and uninvited, a delicious morsel of a woman he had wasted no time in claiming. Now he was thoroughly exploring the innocent who had wandered between the worlds without thought or care for consequence.

This was what the dragon had desired for so very long, a human woman, with all the softness and vulnerability that entailed. He could see the blue veins tracing beneath her skin, her pulse throbbing in her throat. Everything about her was intoxicating and sweet, from the bright copper falls of her hair to the tips of her toes, which curled in response to his touch. Her red lips parted as she drew breath to speak, her emerald gaze welling with feminine desire.

“You must let me go,” she moaned.

The dragon answered in a deep masculine rumble that made the little hairs on her body react, goosebumps forming over her delectable skin. “Let you go? This is what you wanted, is it not? This is what you crossed the divide between worlds to obtain. You came to mate.”

“I came to study…”

“Study? Ha!” His white teeth flashed as he let out a dark chuckle. “Young virgins do not come to a dragon’s lair to study. They come to be deflowered and made virginal no longer.”

His fingers teased her in the spot no man had touched before, finding her wet and soft and hot. “This barrier between your thighs, this little scrap of skin. It is all that stands between you and the full realization of your womanhood. It is mine. I will take it, and you, as my own.”

The dragon’s captive whimpered as those long, skillful digits continued to strum and tease, making her writhe with pleasure. Her squirming served no purpose but to make her strain against the leash wound about the dragon’s hand, a leash that led directly to the collar at her throat, a mark of total ownership.

She had come from a civilized world, but there was nothing civilized about the creature that had captured her, the man who was also dragon. His golden gaze swept over her form with unyielding lust, the kind of need that would not be denied. His instinct was to command, to consume, to make her his own in every way possible, and that possession was just beginning…

CHAPTER 1

Earlier that day…

Moving furtively, her long copper hair hidden under a dark hooded sweater, Kate swiped her pass card and walked into the building. Her reflection was briefly caught in the double glazing: wide hazel-green eyes in a round face, bow-shaped lips, and a smattering of redhead freckles over the bridge of her nose and the tops of her full cheeks.

It was three a.m. and nobody, not even the campus cops, was around. This was the time she did her best work, her most important work. She wasn’t supposed to be there, of course, but Kate had gotten used to skirting the rules in the name of getting what she wanted and needed. She was toting a big backpack that contained a bunch of items technically belonging to the college, stuff she took between her apartment and the lab so she could work on it wherever she was. The lab did have a few toys she didn’t have at home though, hence the late-night visit.

Technically what she was doing was stealing. Technically it was also breaking several federal restrictions on research. Technically… she’d be in a hell of a lot of trouble if she got caught. Fortunately, Kate was able to put all those technicalities aside and focus on the task at hand. She didn’t feel bad about breaking the law. She practically considered it her duty.

Real work, real science, that didn’t take place during daylight hours. It never had. Not since the fathers of science had begun their explorations of the physical world had their work been entirely legal. That was what Kate comforted herself with anyway. As an accelerated post-grad student, she had a lot of leeway and access, but the work she was truly passionate about was banned, hence the sneaking.

As she moved toward the lab, she clutched her notebook to her chest. None of her work was on a computer. It was all contained in the simple dog-eared exercise book that she never let out of her sight. Not even when she was showering. Then it went in a plastic bag and sat on a ledge above the water spray. Some people would have called that obsessive, but Kate knew it was necessary. If any of her peers saw what was in those pages, she’d be in deep trouble.

Thus far, she’d been lucky. She’d managed to avoid both detection and even any kind of suspicion. During the day she maintained a certain blandness that made her sort of sink into the background. Her appearance wasn’t too noteworthy in either direction, which helped. To others she appeared to be a curvy young woman with long copper hair usually tied back in a ponytail. Her dress was almost always a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers. She thought of herself as cute, when she had time to think about what she looked like, which wasn’t all that often.

“Hey there! What the hell are you doing?”

Kate jumped nearly out of her skin as a flashlight rounded the corner and the beam landed on her. She’d been wrong about the campus police. At least one of them was around, and had just found her.

“This is a restricted area.” The guard’s voice boomed down the hall forcefully, making her recoil.

“I know!” She tucked her notebook under her arm and held her hands up as best she could, as if the man with the loud voice and the torch was actual police—which he absolutely wasn’t. “I’m allowed here. Sort of. I mean, I have permission for…”

“Oh, it’s you again,” the guard said, shining the light in her eyes, temporarily blinding her. Almost simultaneously, they realized that this was not the first time they’d run into one another. The security guard’s name was Ben or Burt or…

“Brian,” she said, catching a glance of his name tag. “Sorry, I just forgot something, and I really need it for my assignment…”

“It’s Saturday night,” the man behind the flashlight snorted, as if she might not be aware of the calendar week. “You should be at a party or something, shouldn’t you? Get yourself a boyfriend before it’s too late. Got to look after your love life. Now go on, get out of here.”

“You won’t report me?”

“Why would I bother?” The guard shrugged. “It’s not like they pay attention to anything I say. Go on and get home—or just plain out!”

“I just need to get a couple of things,” Kate stammered. “I have this project due and…”