For the Memory of Dragons (7 page)

The dragon man stared at her for a long
moment. His gorgeous eyes locked with hers. “I can’t let you sleep
in the chair. You’ve had a hard day, too. You take the bed.” His
hand came up to her hip as he spoke. The movement drew them closer
together.

“I won’t sleep, knowing you’re on the
floor,” Terra said, staring up into his face. Desire pulled at her
body as the tip of his tongue slipped across his lower lip,
dampening it.

“Fine,” he breathed the word softly.

Terra’s pulse skipped as he raised his hand
to the side of her face, drawing her closer to him. Her eyes
dropped to his mouth—so close, so kissable.
God, he would be
wonderful to kiss.
She nearly leaned in to taste him, when he
spoke again.

“We’ll share the bed.”

A zing of excitement raced through Terra’s
insides, making her gasp. It might be dangerous to her sanity, but
yes, she would share the bed with this man.

“Yes.” The agreement slipped from her lips
in a breathy whisper.

Her hands settled on his hips, pulling him
even closer. Terra wasn’t a loose girl by any meaning of the word,
but there was just something about this man that made her want to
give in without a fight. Even if it was only for one night. She had
a feeling this would be the best night of her life. Pressing into
his front, she tilted her head back, clearly offering herself up
for his kiss.

A shiver raced through him as he pulled her
harder against him. The evidence of his arousal was pressed between
them, and she could feel his desire racing through him like
electricity tingling across his skin. He paused just millimeters
away from her lips. His body temperature shot up as he held her,
almost panting. Warm puffs of air caressed her face as he
breathed.

Closing her eyes, Terra tilted her head and
moved to take his mouth. She met with… nothing. Opening her eyes,
she found that he was gone. She could still feel the heat from his
body, but he wasn’t there anymore.

The soft click of the bathroom door drew her
attention. She stood there, staring at the closed door. Had he
really just escaped to the bathroom? After she had left herself so
open for him? Embarrassment raced across her skin. How could she be
so stupid? How could she have read the signs so wrong! Of course
he’d run. He was way out of her league.

***

Alex leaned against the bathroom door,
trying to catch his breath.
Shit!
He’d almost kissed her.
And he wouldn’t have stopped at just a kiss. He would have had her,
in every way he could. And she would have let him. Then, his goose
would really have been cooked. His dragon was already on the verge
of claiming her. Had he given in to both of their desires, it would
have been impossible to stop a bond from forming. He could feel
scales rubbing against the inside of his skin, driving him to go
out and claim what was his.
No!
He couldn’t…
wouldn’t
do that to her.

Had he known who he was, his situation in
life, he could have let things go on. But, as it was, he couldn’t
drag her into his life not knowing what he had to offer her. They
were already on the run from some strange men that had broken into
her house and shot at her. And they were most definitely after
him
, not her.

No.
The best thing for him to do at
this moment was to beat down that instinct driving him to claim
her. Just the fact that he had left her hanging, so obviously ready
to take that next step, would drive some bit of a wedge between
them. But that was okay. Tomorrow, after they had both calmed down,
he would explain the situation to her. Even if that meant he had to
admit that he liked her.

Drawing in a deep breath, he closed his eyes
and listened to the sounds from the other room. The rustling of
plastic and banging of the fridge led him to believe she was well
and truly pissed at him. Even the water rushing in the sink as she
brushed her teeth sounded bitter. It was her right to be angry at
him. He was kind of angry at himself for leaving her like that.

Pulling off his clothes, Alex folded them
neatly on the back of the toilet and twisted on the water in the
shower as cold as he could stand. Right now, he just needed to get
a grip on his hormones, and a cold shower would go a long way to
chilling him out. He nearly squeaked when he climbed into the
frigid spray.

Grabbing up the hotel soap, he lathered up a
washcloth.
Maybe a little pain added in would help.
He
scrubbed himself as hard as he could, but it didn’t really do much
for his mental state. Well, at least he was clean again. Cutting
off the water, he climbed out and dried himself off.

What the hell am I going to do now?
The cold shower hadn’t done much to relieve his arousal. And now he
was supposed to go out and face Terra. He thought about her out
there in that bed—soft and warm, just waiting for him to come out.
Heat raced through his body, making him need another cold shower.
Yeah, there was no way he was going to make it through this
night.

Alex glanced at his clothing. He could put
it back on, but that wasn’t much of a barrier. And if his dragon
had anything to say about it, the clothes wouldn’t stay on very
long. A smile slipped across his face as an answer came to him. He
would let his dragon win this one.

Hanging the towel up, Alex cracked the door
open and let go of his control. Scales rushed over his skin as he
shifted into his lesser form. Yes, his dragon would push him to get
closer to Terra, but in this form, there was no way they would be
tempted to finish what they had started.

Rearing up, he caught the switch with his
claw and clicked off the light before nosing out of the bathroom.
The room beyond was dark. He hadn’t really thought about how long
he had been in the bathroom, but obviously, Terra had already gone
to bed. Alex slipped out and looked over the room. Sure enough, he
could see her all tucked in on the far side of the mattress.
Carefully, he slipped past the end of the bed and headed for the
armchair. Surely, Terra wouldn’t want him in the bed after he had
abandoned her like that. It would be tight, but he could curl up on
the chair for the night.

“Don’t you even dare.”

The growled words stopped him from climbing
into the seat. Alex turned to look at the form in the bed. He could
feel the waves of anger coming off her. He swallowed hard. Maybe he
should have just given in to their desires earlier.

“Unless you want me to kick it, get your ass
up here. Now.”

Lowering his head, he slinked back across
the room and around to the open side of the bed.

Terra sat up and flipped the covers back for
him.

Feeling guilty, he climbed up and lay down.
“I’m sorry,” he gurgled.

Terra flipped the covers back over him.

He turned his head so he could watch her out
of one eye. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

She let out a loud sigh and lay back down,
facing away from him. “Just go to sleep.” Her voice held a sharp
note of hurt in it.

Alex swallowed hard and closed his eyes. It
took several minutes of arguing with himself to come to the
decision to stay in this form for the night. Tomorrow, he would
shift back and apologize to her. Somehow, he would find a way to
make this up to her.

Consciousness pulled at Terra’s mind as she
floated on the edge of an uncomfortable sleep. It was much too hot
under the covers. She tried to flip the material back but found she
couldn’t move. There was something heavy on her. Awareness slammed
into her as her brain snapped awake. It wasn’t just something heavy
on
her; something very warm was tangled
around
her.
There was only one thing it could possibly be. Her fingers shifted
under the covers to touch the hot object behind her. She hoped to
meet with hard scales, but what she felt was a lot softer.

At some time during the night, her dragon
had shifted back into a man and wrapped himself around her. And it
wasn’t just an arm draped over her. Oh no. He had both his arms
wrapped around her middle, and his leg was slipped between hers.
Now that she was awake, she could feel his breath tickle across her
skin from where he had buried his face in her hair at the back of
her neck. And somehow, he had managed to work her shirt up to an
almost indecent level. His fingers lay splayed across the bare skin
over her ribs. Just a slight shift upwards would have him palming
her breast. The thought of his fingers on her brought those rosy
tips to hard points, and she shut that thought down as fast as she
could.

Terra drew in a deep breath, trying to calm
the fluttering of her heart.
Talk about mixed signals.
Last
night, he had made it very clear he wasn’t interested in her. As if
leaving her hanging weren’t enough, he had shifted in the bathroom
so he wouldn’t have to explain himself. Then, he had even tried to
sneak off to the chair instead of taking his side of the bed. Now
what was she supposed to do?

Turning her head, she tried to peek over her
shoulder at the sleeping man, but he was pressed into her so hard
that she couldn’t turn far enough. And speaking of hard, there was
definitely something solid pressing into her back. She should have
just let him sleep in the chair. Closing her eyes, she relaxed back
into his grip. It really wasn’t that bad being caught by him.
Honestly, it was quite nice waking up being held. She wiggled a
little, trying to get more comfortable.

A growl sounded from behind her, and her
dragon man buried his face deeper into her hair, if that were even
possible. He also tightened his grip around her as he took a deep
breath.

Terra froze, waiting to see what he would
do.

He let the air out in a long sigh and went
back to the deep, even breaths of sleep.

Letting out the air caught in her own lungs,
Terra decided it was time to get up. After what had happened last
night, it was probably best for both of them if she wasn’t in his
arms when he woke up. Especially with the evidence of his arousal
pressed so firmly into her back. He was probably dreaming of some
leggy blonde with big boobs. Having him wake up to find it was just
her would be rather disappointing, and she didn’t know if she could
handle that type of rejection again.

She pushed against his arms, hoping to move
them, but they held her fast. Like solid steel bands.

He let out another growl that froze her.

Geez, it was like someone was taking away
his favorite toy
. Sighing, Terra glanced over her shoulder
again. It looked like she wasn’t going to be able to get free
without waking him up.

“Hey, Cookie,” she whispered, using the
nickname she had given his dragon when they’d fled her home.

He growled again.

She patted his arm, trying to wake him up.
“Wake up, Cookie.”

“I’m not Cookie,” he growled, but his hold
never loosened.

Irked, Terra tried to shoot him a glare, but
she still couldn’t turn far enough. “Then what the hell am I
supposed to call you? I can’t go around calling you ‘hey you’ all
the time.” She squirmed in his hold, to no avail.

“Anything but Cookie,” he grumbled. Letting
out a long sigh, he relinquished his grip.

Terra took the opportunity and climbed out
of bed and away from him before he could clamp back down on her.
She yanked her shirt back down into place before turning to face
him. “You have issues, buddy,” she growled as she stormed over and
grabbed up her bag of clothing. Right now, she wanted to put as
much distance between them as possible. A nice shower should help
clean him from her mind. As if she could forget the exquisite feel
of him against her skin. Damn it, if he hadn’t made his position
clear last night, she would have spent the morning rocking his
world.

***

The sound of the bathroom door closing
between them broke Alex’s heart. Yes, he did have issues, and she
didn’t know the half of it. He should have just come to bed as a
human last night. At least then he could have kept on his clothing…
or at least part of them. But no, he had come to bed in his lesser
form, thinking that would save them from more awkwardness. How
stupid could he be! Of course, his instincts would have shifted him
into the form that was best for the situation, and his instincts
were pushing him to claim Terra. Therefore, human was the form he
had taken while asleep. There had to be a special level of hell
where people liked to torture themselves with denied pleasures,
because that’s where he found himself this morning. God, she had
felt good in his arms.

A shiver ran through his body at the sound
of the shower turning on. She was there, just feet away from him,
getting naked. It was all he could do not to get up and follow her.
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, trying not to
envision her soft skin glistening with water. Maybe if he went in
and begged, she would forgive him for his stupidity. But, then
again, doing that would put him right back at the point where he
had been last night. If he let his desires control his actions, he
could easily do something that they might both regret later. When
dragons chose a mate, it was for life. Alex let out a long sigh as
he thought about that. Sex didn’t automatically mean a mating bond
was formed, but he just knew if he gave in, there would be lasting
consequences to the choice.

The door to the bathroom creaked open.

Alex froze as Terra stepped out and laid his
pile of clothing on the corner of the bed. Now was his chance to
apologize and explain himself. He opened his mouth to speak, but
nothing came out. He hadn’t looked at her when she had extracted
herself from his arms this morning.
Wow!
What a sight he had
missed. He must have made some kind of sound because she stood
there staring at him like she was expecting him to say something,
but he couldn’t get two brain cells to bump into each other. She
was stunning, standing there in that rumpled shirt and mussed-up
hair.
Absolutely beautiful!