Page 77 of Gemini Kings
With a snarl, I sweep my arms overhead, vault from the deck, tuck my body into a jackknife in midair, and dive in headfirst. The warm water encases my skin and eases the bite of the winter night.
Underwater, I streak like a dolphin across the pool and surface gasping at the far end. My whole body’s alive and tingling with energy from being back in my natural habitat.
Oh yeah. It’s not a Red Sea reef, but I can definitely make this work.
I flip onto my back so I can backstroke over to where I started. Now I’m getting all nice and warmed up, so I twist into a breaststroke and do my next lap that way, which really kicks up my heartbeat. Eventually I settle into an easy freestyle that propels me back and forth across the surface in a powerful crawl I can maintain forever without effort. The exercise siphons off my simmering heat and burns away the restless energy that’s kept me awake.
By the time I hook my arms over the edge and tip my head back against the rim to catch my breath under that floating moon, I almost feel like me again.
Like Zara the cat burglar, off the grid and on the run, with someone else’s ass chained to the witching world throne.
My eyes are closed, my body floating, my head tilted back, my breath leveled out, my thoughts finally drifting toward sleep.
That’s when I sense him.
Every nerve and synapse in my body snaps to high alert.
He’s a hunter, he’s stealthy, he’s downrightsneaky, and like the apex predator he is, he’s managed to slither into the courtyard and decant his dragonish body into this pool without me hearing him, even with my newly enhanced shifter senses.
But he’s close enough now that I can feel him. Without moving an inch, my eyes open a sliver.
I twitch with a jolt of alarm.
He’s crouched in the water like a crocodile literally 6.5 feet away, submerged all the way to his nose, with a spill of pale hair streaming behind him as he glides toward me. His golden orbs are riveted on me without blinking.
Despite the warm water, my skin pebbles in a shiver.
Without lifting my head, I tell him, “That’s close enough, big guy.”
To my relief, that stops his stealthy advance.
“I am yours to command, my sovereign.” His guttural voice scrapes through the gurgle of the artificial waterfall at one end that filters chlorinated water back into the pool.
“If only.” I snort. “I’d like to command you to fly straight back to Siberia and leave me and my guys the fuck alone. But I know you won’t. I’ve learned a few things about warlocks.”
I close my eyes in royal dismissal (like that ever works). But I canfeelhim.
Sweet Jesus, can I feel him.
My entire body hums and tingles with, like, a whole new hyper-level of awareness.
Shit. This better not be that fucking mating bond.
I sense him the way I sense Lucius and Vasili, my alphas, even though this dragon hasn’t bitten me.
And that’s definitely not changing.
Fuck knows, my heats are already too intense. No way could I survive a third mating bite from yet another alpha.
“This is new to me also, my Zara,” he whispers. “But, for me, our bond is welcome.”
Cheese on toast. He’s hearing my thoughts.
That’s a mating bond thing.
And I know from just going through this whole bonding scenario with the rest of my warlocks that, if I accept this dragon as a mate, I’ll be hearing his thoughts too.
“How do I turn it off?” I lift my head to glare at him.
