Jory Strong

Aislinn was in the back room, her face pale with exhaustion and worry, her eyebrows drawn together in intense concentration as she compared the necklace in her hand to the sketch on the workbench.

Marika’s heart sank. She couldn’t bother Aislinn with her troubles, not right now anyway. “That for a client?”

“For Sophie. She should be here any minute now.”

As if on cue the chimes over the front door sounded. Marika’s first instinct was to bolt from the shop to avoid seeing Xanthus.

He’d be with Sophie. Logic dictated it. The heat roaring through her body confirmed it.

Marika stiffened her spine. She was safe at Inner Magick. And what better place to start negotiations with Xanthus?

“Do you want me to send Sophie back?” Marika asked, turning away from Aislinn.

“Yes. Just her.”

Marika pushed through the beaded strings separating the shop from the back room. Fire scorched her nerve endings when her eyes met Xanthus’.

Her mouth went suddenly dry. He knew about Tallis. It was there in every line of his body, in the fiery possessive heat of his eyes.

She licked her lips and saw him stiffen. Couldn’t resist the impulse to look downward, to the thick, hard length of his cock pressed to the front of his jeans.

“Aislinn’s in her workroom, Sophie. You’re the only one she wants back there right now.”

It was a testament to Xanthus’ trust in Aislinn that he spared only a quick glance at the beaded strings serving as a doorway between the two rooms before returning his attention to Marika. Sophie disappeared from sight and Marika sought the protection of the counter, only to realize her mistake when Xanthus followed her, trapping her in the small space between cash register and end wall.

He crowded her, the red-orange dragon energy and potent pheromones making her shiver. Arousal gushed from her slit, soaking her panties and coating her inner thighs.

Xanthus curled his arm around her possessively, pushing his hand beneath her loose shirt. His palm burned against her belly, sent spikes of desire straight to her clit.

“Do you love him?”

“Yes.”

The answer was met by a low rumble, a barely human sound. “Tell me he satisfies you completely.”

Her cunt spasmed in response to the challenge she heard in his voice. “I’ll never leave him,” she countered.

The rumble deepened, intensified as if he was fighting to maintain the illusion of being human, struggling to remember his duty to guard Sophie.

Marika shuddered when he forced her to lean forward over the counter. A whimper escaped, erotic fear coupled with exquisite need.

“Tell me he satisfies you completely,” Xanthus repeated, using his free hand to jerk her short skirt up, leaving her exposed in sheer panties, making her feel vulnerable and powerful at the same time.

Rough jeans pressed against bare flesh and thin material. Fingers curled around her thigh, found the evidence of her need for him.

“Tell me, Marika.”

“It’s complicated.”

His hand moved upward, cupping her mound so her clit throbbed against his palm. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

Xanthus applied pressure and she moaned, wanting his fingers to slide inside her panties, to slide inside her channel and relieve the pressure building inside her.

“If he satisfied you completely then you wouldn’t be wet for me. You wouldn’t have gone out with me.”

Marika closed her eyes, tried to fight through the waves of desire, the nearly painful clenching of her cunt. There were tourists on the street, window-shopping, taking in the sights. A pause, a glance, and someone would see her through the glass front of the shop.

Reason tried to assert itself, but lost to an onslaught of fantasy—not of strangers watching her with Xanthus, but of Tallis watching. His hand gliding up and down his cock while another man took her. Xanthus doing the same.

The hand on her belly moved downward, reached the waistband of her panties. Marika’s breath caught, anxious need building, anticipation held on a knife-edge of worry that her bare cunt wouldn’t please him.

A shudder went through her when Xanthus’ fingers slid beneath the elastic and over her fevered flesh. He purred with satisfaction when he encountered only smooth skin, the sound pure dragon, one she doubted he was aware of making.

The heat at her back intensified. His hips jerked subtly.

She quivered. Wondered if she’d have the will to stop him if he pushed her panties downward and unzipped his jeans.

Desperate need clawed through her, identical to what she felt for Tallis. Confirming what she’d come to believe, that somehow, someway she had to make it work with Xanthus.

His hand pushed further into her panties, his fingers reaching her clit before he stiffened with tension. A buzzing sounded in her ears, a drone she couldn’t place until this rumbling purr became a frustrated groan and she realized the ring of his cell phone was muted.

“You’re mine, Marika. This isn’t finished between us,” Xanthus said…