Page 10 of Awaken the Dragon
Theo bolted off the couch with such force he almost toppled to the floor. Shaking feverishly, as his fingers clenched the pillows on the back of the couch and beneath him. He struggled to steady himself. Nightmares weren’t his usual forte, but when they came they brought with them all the rage, hopelessness and determination of his past.
Swinging his legs off the couch, he sat up and took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling...his head turned toward the balcony and without another thought he was standing. His hand was on the door in seconds, pulling it open. A crisp breeze seeped inside cooling his skin before he stepped out into the night. Burning along the membrane of his nostrils increased and the beast’s eyes took over.
Someone, or something, was close. The putrid scent of ripped flesh permeated the air, but as he moved to the railing and peered over, there was nothing. No human or preternatural being on the streets surrounding the hotel. Golden beams from lamp posts sliced through the dark of night for a stretch of maybe thirty feet in each direction. But he could see beyond that and there was nothing, except that stench. Maybe this was all a dream. His body was probably still lying on that uncomfortable couch sleeping the night away while all these strange thoughts ran rampant through his mind.
A whimper cut through his thoughts and he turned back to the balcony door.
She was awake.
Her face appeared as if she were standing right in front of him. Not the face the rest of the world saw, but her soul identity. The luminescent eyes against the deep hue of her skin and the soft halo of her hair. He couldn’t get that face out of his mind, even now after the nightmare and whatever had brought him out here. While she’d showered he’d wondered what the rest of her body looked like. Was her rich brown skin glistening beneath the spray of water? How about her full breasts, the ones that had pressed against him during the ride on his bike? And those long, toned legs he’d glimpsed when she’d hopped off the bike, would drops of water trickle down her thighs to rest at her core for him to taste?
Arousal gripped his body with the violence of a fighter.
His beast stretched and pressed against him as if to remind him that it was there and feeling the same draw to this woman. But Theo would continue to ignore the beast, the same way he had for hundreds of years.
Another sound came from the bedroom and he was across the floor in a flash. Instinct wanted him to bust through the door to assure himself that she was in no danger and to be prepared to kick ass if she was. The flesh stench had dimmed in this direction and when he pressed his ear to the door and closed his eyes, the rhythmic sound of her heartbeat reassured him that she was safe. His years of learned restraint and practiced control in this human body, using his human mind, had him gripping the doorframe instead of attempting to enter. But for her heartbeat, all was quiet now.
But he could feel.
The heat that had engulfed him while in his dream paled in comparison to the singeing he felt while standing here with a rock-hard dick. This couldn’t be a dream, nothing he’d ever conjured in his mind could make him this hard.
Lowering his head, Theo closed his eyes again. What the hell was going on?
Was she naked in that bed? How would it feel to be those sheets moving intimately over her body? How would she feel cradled against him through this infuriatingly long night?
He could hear her breathing as if he were lying right beside her. Slow and steady breaths as he imagined her face lying against the soft pillows. His fingers uncurled from the doorframe and trailed along the door the way he imagined moving over her skin. He would touch the line of her jaw first, then move down the stretch of her neck. He’d seen her pulse there while she sat in the back of the truck touching the pendant at her neck. He wanted to kiss her right there.
Her breathing changed momentarily. Had she turned over in the bed? Was she now lying on her back, legs partially spread in invitation? He would gladly accept. He would ease between those long legs and nestle his throbbing erection deep inside her waiting heat.
The heat.
Sweat prickled his skin.
Theo never sweated. The beastwasheat.
It pressed against him again, stretching his skin with the urge to get into that room and claim what belonged to...
Theo’s eyes opened instantly.
She was not for him!
He stared at the closed door, clenching his teeth in disgust. This was not a human he could use to relieve his lustful needs. Over the years Theo had been able to find ones who could serve that purpose and allow him to go on with the life he’d chosen to live without problems.
This woman wasn’t here for that reason. They weren’t in this hotel room because Theo needed to find release before he exploded. She was a job.
And she was promised to another.
Theo turned away from the door. He went back and sat down heavily on the couch then let his head lull back. This time when he closed his eyes, he thought of going for a swim in the cool water of his pool. He thought of taking as many laps as he could until his body collapsed with exhaustion and sleep dragged him down. He thought of going for a run through the cavernous hallways of his property. He thought of drinking the hundreds of cases of gin that had been gifted to him. Or sleeping. Not a normal seven-to eight-hour stretch, but letting his beast have the sleep that could last for another century or so. Closing his eyes and leaving it all behind.
Anything, he sighed.
Any thought or deed he could perform to get his mind off Shola and the inexplicable draw he felt toward her, because women were dangerous. His father and his species had learned that lesson the hard way.
It was morning, the indigo sky just yielding to the light of day.
Shola pushed the bothersome sheets off her body and they again rubbed against her sensitive skin like sandpaper. Warmth had originally surrounded her when she lay in the bed after her shower and covered herself. But all too soon that changed and nothing was comfortable whether she lay on top of the sheets or beneath; they scraped her skin until she wanted to scream out in agony. It was a level of discomfort that she had never before experienced. Was it possible it was because she was in the Western World? It was no secret that they did not live like the people of the River Tribe. Maybe their sheets were somehow made of sand or some other awfully discomforting materials.
Now her temples throbbed as she lay on her back staring up at the ceiling. Confusion clouded her thoughts while impatience nagged her soul. In retrospect two weeks was not a lot of time to complete her task. Not when she had been on this path for twenty-eight years, since her birth. It started with the foods she was fed to the whispers in her ear each night as she drifted to sleep. She knew the training had been for a sole purpose—it was the who, what, when and where she’d remained ignorant of, but no more. Now she knew and still she lay here in this hotel bed like she was waiting for something...or someone.
