Knock Down Dragon Out Read online

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “A key. To open the door.” She grabbed it from the box and moved to the door. She slid the front of the golden key into a small crevice on the handle. It clicked and then the door swung open.

  The air inside the cabin was cold, but not as biting as outside.

  “Oh, I forgot to grab my camera bag.”

  “I’ll get it.” Col turned immediately to retrieve his mate’s bag. He untied it from the now quiet machine and returned quickly to the cabin.

  This shelter appeared a bit larger than the one they’d spent the last few days inside. Where was the bed?

  He laid the bag on the couch and wandered to the back, through a dark hallway. The first door he opened was the washroom, with a sink and shower just like the previous cabin. This one also had a large tank in the corner filled with water.

  Col closed it and continued to the next door. It opened to reveal a room for sleep. Naomi’s scent filled the room. A few pieces of her clothing were hanging over a chair in the corner of the room.

  The bed was large and higher than the one at the other cabin. Both were so different than the furs and skins he was used to sleeping on at home. His people moved constantly, but it seemed his mate was used to more permanent living quarters.

  These wooden shelters were not mobile, like the tents his family and tribe lived in. This world was harsher, and the cold did bite at the skin after a while. Stronger shelters were probably necessary.

  He returned to the center of the cabin to find Naomi cutting up some type of orange food.

  “I needed something to eat. Want a piece of carrot?”

  Col shook his head. Then walked up to her, took the knife and pulled her out of the kitchen.

  “Hey.” She yanked her hand back. “I’m hungry. And we need to talk more about that other dragon.”

  “We can talk later.” He wrapped an arm around her waist.

  “No, I feel disgusting. We’re not having sex. I need to eat. I need to shower.”

  He redirected his path. “I will wash you then.”

  “Why do I feel like that’s going to turn into sex too?” Naomi gave him a wary look but allowed him to continue pulling her all the way into the washroom.

  “Executing Sefa is something I must do. I must deliver justice to my family. It would be dishonorable to allow her crime to stand unpunished.” He released her for a moment to turn on the water in the shower. She’d taught him how to use indoor plumbing as she said back at the hunter’s cabin. These knobs looked slightly different, but the markings were the same. Soon the large stone and glass shower stall was filled with steam and waiting for them.

  “What if she kills you?”

  “You will not lose me, shuarra.” Col’s tone deepened to that silky darkness that made her body turn to mush. “I. Will. Not. Leave. You.” His voice dropped even further and took on a commanding quality. “Say it.”

  “You will—”

  “You are my heart and soul, Naomi, but you cannot ask me to fail my family. Say it,” he asked again, waiting to hear her repeat his words of assurance. “I must hear that you believe in me. That you trust me to take care of you.”

  “You will not leave me?” She couldn’t lose him.

  “I will not.” His dragon rumbled softly in his chest.

  “I trust you.”

  “Good.”

  “You’re purring again.” The sound relaxed the tension from her body as if the vibrations were running through each and every one of her muscles.

  “My dragon is pleased that you trust me,” he answered simply, tugging at the zipper on her coat.

  She let him undo it and toss the puffy coat to the ground.

  “Naomi, I have trained for nearly two decades as a warrior. Jaha was a warrior as well, but not as skilled or as tested. His sister has no experience. She has never fought or trained a day in her life. She is a coward and traitor and a murderer.”

  His mate nodded slowly.

  “But when I fight her, you must stay behind. I will not risk you again.”

  “Again?” Her voice trembled.

  “During the fight with Jaha.” Each word he spoke was slow and defined. “I failed to protect you from one attack. I’d thought for sure I clutched no more than your burned corpse. But when I landed and set you down on the snow…it was as if nothing had touched you. Not a single hair had been singed. Not even your clothes.” He tugged the hem of her shirt.

  She lifted her arms and let him pull it over her head, baring most of her skin. Except for her breasts. Those were secured in a piece of clothing she’d said was called a bra.

  He kissed her shoulders, shoving at the straps in his way.

  She unhooked it and let the bra drop to the ground.

  “You survived dragon fire.”

  “I w-what?” Naomi choked out. “How’s that possible?”

  “Our tribe is blessed with a certain type of magick. Our skin is impervious to heat and flame. Whatever is touching our body takes on those properties.”

  “Like you sweat fire retardant or something?” she asked, with a hint of disbelief in her voice. “Then I wasn’t burned, because we’d been having sex. I was covered in your sweat. And you were holding me against your dragon’s body. Maybe your dragon sweats the stuff, too.”

  “Perhaps.” He stroked the soft skin of her bare shoulder. “But I think you are changing. Your wound healed very quickly.”

  “What? You think I’m becoming Reylean? I think the flame-retardant sweat thing is way more likely.” She chuckled and shook her head. “Just because I healed, doesn’t mean I’m changing. Maybe the cut wasn’t really that bad.”

  Col smiled but didn’t speak again.

  Was it possible?

  He’d never heard of a dragon being able to protect someone completely before. There were no stories. Nothing. Dragons didn’t burn. Or was there another explanation.

  Her wound had healed quickly. Her raised core temperature. The fever after his bite. Had her body changed? Become more like a dragon?

  Even the lions had said she scented as Dragon Tribe. It wasn’t just his scent. There was something different.

  His dragon purred in his chest again, knocking him loose from his thoughts. He looked down and smiled, pleased by the sight of his nearly naked mate.

  Col lipped and nipped and kissed his way down Naomi’s shoulder blades until he found her hard pebbled nipples. So beautiful. So perfect. He’d feast upon her and make her forget all the things that troubled her mind.

  At least for a while.

  11

  Naomi gasped as Col lavished attention on her breasts. Licking. Sucking. Nipping. Her core was throbbing in moments. Her objections and worries were melting away like the snow in a spring thaw.

  That’d been his plan all along…and it was working.

  His hands trailed to her waist. He was undoing her jeans now and pulling them down her legs. Then her pants were gone, and he was leading her into the hot shower stall.

  The water was scalding, but it felt so good. She stepped into the center of the water stream and let it sluice comfortingly over her body.

  All she could feel was the soothing presence of the water and Col’s hands working soap up and down the length of her body. Her mind left her worries and focused on him.

  On the here and now.

  She grabbed the bar of soap from her dragon man and worked up a lather on his hard muscles as well, being sure to cover every single inch. Water flowed over them as they moved, washing away the dirt and the blood and the worry.

  Naomi got some shampoo and worked it into his shoulder length brown hair. He was so gorgeous. Her own personal barbarian warrior. He was cut like a superhero. Hard abs that led down in a V-line to a more than impressive cock. Arms like freaking granite. Nothing about him was soft, except the way he cared for her.

  He returned the favor, massaging shampoo into her curls. Rubbing until everything just drifted away on the steam of the sh
ower. The water was scalding; hotter than she would’ve normally had it before. Now it felt so good. Almost like she was bathing in fire.

  Was there any merit to what he’d said? Was she really changing? Was that possible?

  Once the shampoo was rinsed away, she turned in the shower, pressing her aching breasts against his chest.

  Col didn’t need any more encouragement. His cock was hard and insistently nudging her stomach. “Naomi.” His voice was a deep growl that turned every brain cell to mush.

  Anything he wanted. Everything he wanted.

  “Yes,” she murmured.

  His hands skimmed over her back from her waist up to her shoulders, then down to cup her breasts. He thumbed the hardened nipples and she hissed out a quick breath. If he wasn’t careful, she was liable to come right then. Just from that.

  Col turned her, so his back was to the water, then knelt down, grabbed one of her calves and lifted it to rest over his shoulder.

  Naomi gasped for air as he kissed the inside of her leg, starting at her knee and running up the back of her thigh. She stared down as he drew nearer to her throbbing, aching, and needy core.

  He pushed her back until her ass hit the tile wall. At least now she wouldn’t fall on him once her legs started to shake. His tongue swirled over her clit and all rational thought exited her mind. There was only him. All she could feel was his hands on her body. His mouth on her sex. All she wanted to feel was him.

  “Please,” she murmured, moaning through the onslaught of pleasure.

  He sucked harder and she bit her lip to keep from screaming.

  “Don’t hold it in, shuarra. Cry out for me. I want to hear your pleasure.” Col voice came out husky and dark. A rumble vibrated through his chest and echoed in the steam-filled shower stall.

  “Col, I need more.” She flexed her hips to angle her sex even closer to his mouth.

  “Fly for me, Naomi.” He sucked again, slowly, but harder. Then he slipped two fingers inside, rubbing and stretching until the ache of need throbbed through her entire body.

  She shuddered. The climax was so close. Her chest tightened, and she sucked in a desperate breath.

  He reached up with his free hand to tweak one of her hard-as-a-rock nipples.

  Naomi joined in, playing with the other.

  Then he curled the fingers of his other hand inside her as his tongue drew circles on her flesh.

  Closer. More.

  Col pushed her harder into the wall and slid his fingers deeper.

  She careened over the edge, screaming as her body imploded. The orgasm rocked through her like an avalanche, rolling and tumbling and crashing down. No escape. Her breasts ached under his hand.

  Naomi floated high and her legs trembled and gave out, but Col was ready.

  He caught her weight and let her slowly slide down to the water-heated tile on the floor next to him. His mouth trailed along her skin, from her stomach up to her breasts. Latched onto a nipple, and she whimpered at the overwhelming sensations flooding through her system.

  No more. She couldn’t take more. She shoved his head away and he grinned at her with a sexy smile that made her core ache and miss his mouth already.

  She couldn’t get enough of him. Ever.

  “Shuarra.” His tone sung of his need for her. He stood, lifting her as he went.

  “Yes,” she moaned. She needed him, too. So much.

  He hooked one of her legs over his arm and pushed her against the wall again. His cock nudged her entrance for a second before sliding home.

  “Yes,” she cried out again, her voice as husky and as dark as his.

  Col stroked inside, and she clamped down on him hard. He groaned, burying his mouth in her neck.

  She clutched at his slick arms. His back, dragging her nails down his body in a desperate attempt to pull him closer. The water from the shower pounded his back and made it slick. “Col, yes.” She synced her hips with his thrusts. Then hopped up just a little on one foot, trying to get higher and hoping he’d get the idea.

  He did. Col’s hands moved to cup her ass, lifting her off the ground.

  Naomi hooked her heels behind him and he thrust harder. They moved in unison with each drive, gasping together.

  He looked into her eyes and kissed her, locked in an embrace she never wanted to end.

  A cry erupted from her throat. Another orgasm crashed through her and Col came right along for the ride. She tightened around him and her fingers dug into his flesh. Everything swirled and careened.

  She came hard and fast and he roared, shaking the glass door on the shower stall as he spilled into her, thrusting and shoving her into the wall hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs.

  Amazing.

  She gasped for a breath as he held her frozen in place.

  His cock throbbing and still buried deeply inside her. He’d come, but it felt as though he could go another round or two without a second thought.

  “My shuarra, you please me so much,” Col rumbled, nipping at her ear before pulling away. His hands encircled her waist and with one fluid movement he withdrew and turned her away from him. He put a hand flat on the middle of her back and pushed gently until she was flat against the tile wall, belly to stone.

  He wasn’t done.

  Her core lit with excitement and anticipation. Naomi sucked in a deep breath, but nothing could prepare her for the ferocity of him taking her again so quickly.

  He grabbed her ass, pushed her up and sank into her with a quick groan.

  Another cry escaped her throat. Col was so hard and hitting so deep from behind her. Her arousal ratcheted up and soared, building toward yet another climax.

  This dragon man, the way he touched her, it was indescribable. Amazing.

  “Col!” The next orgasm overtook her with his very next thrust, ripping through her core and radiating out from her center like a nuclear wave, growing wider and wider.

  He snarled and drove deep one more time before joining her on the path to ecstasy.

  She woke later in bed with her body nestled against Col’s. How much later was difficult to determine. The sun was still shining brightly outside through the curtains in the bedroom. Her dragon man was on his back, and she had her head in the crook of his shoulder, with one arm and one leg thrown over his wide body. The blankets covered them, and she was so warm. Everything smelled like Col, like fire and spice and man.

  As much as she didn’t want to leave the comfort of her mate’s arms, she had to call her family and let them know she hadn’t died out in the Alaskan wilderness. Naomi also needed to download the photos from her shoot and send them to her magazine. They were already going to be pissed that she didn’t check in yesterday.

  She extracted herself carefully from Col’s arms then the bed. She pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt from her suitcase in the corner and padded quietly out of the bedroom.

  Naomi filled a glass of water from the tank in the kitchen next to the sink before making her way over to the small desk in the corner of the living room where her laptop awaited.

  She pulled the memory card from the camera and plugged it into her adapter. The pictures popped up on the screen. Elk. Birds. A fox. That had been a lucky catch. Dragon.

  Holy shit.

  She had taken a picture of Jaha and his sisters right before they’d come at her. Naomi clicked again.

  Another picture of the two dragons.

  DELETE.

  She selected the pictures as fast as her computer would let her. Couldn’t keep something like that in her cloud. If anyone ever saw it, Col would be in danger.

  The picture zapped to the trashcan and she emptied it immediately. Hopefully it’d been fast enough. Privacy was a joke. The government had bots that looked at everything online. That one hadn’t uploaded yet though, she’d deleted it before it went into the cloud. It wasn’t on the memory card anymore.

  Gone.

  It was gone.

  Naomi took a deep breath a
nd let it shudder from her lungs slowly. She hadn’t even remembered taking the pictures. When Jaha had hurt her, it’d knocked even the surrounding memories around that time into the dark.

  Col said the black dragon had thrown her across the clearing. She’d hit a tree, which’d been why her head throbbed after she woke up in that cabin like an elephant had stepped on her. But her man was right, her head had healed fast. The cut was gone the next day and she never remembered it aching past that next morning either.

  Was she really changing? If so, what was happening to her?

  Not that having flame retardant skin was a bad thing. Naomi couldn’t really see a downside. Really, it was kinda like having a superpower.

  She looked down at her hands. No fingerless gloves. She’d been wearing them ever since she got to Alaska. Hadn’t been able to bear to take them off. Or socks. She wiggled her toes. No socks either. She wasn’t cold. Actually, she felt comfortable.

  Naomi swiveled the chair. No fire in the wood stove. They hadn’t started one yet. The air in the cabin wasn’t particularly warm either, she could feel the chill on the air…but she was warm.

  Maybe it was nothing. Maybe she was just warm because she’d been in bed with Col and he was like sleeping with an electric blanket. Residual warmth. That was all it was. Nothing was changing. She was still human.

  She put the memory card back into her camera and packed it back into her bag. Then returned to her laptop and opened her email. The screen loaded.

  Naomi went to her work account first and cringed. Five emails from her boss.

  Dammit.

  She hit reply on the last one and tried to apologize and explain that she’d had an accident and had been out of reach for the last twenty-four hours or so. She uploaded the link to her storage drive with the photos and sent a quick email that said she’d be in touch soon.

  Would like to tell him she’d be quitting…

  Naomi might have issues with Col going off to kill the bad dragon, but she had no intention of leaving Alaska. Asking him to come to New York would be like asking a T-Rex to live in Central Park. Not happening.