Steph

 

Steph stomped down the stairs of the Kaur mansion full of fire and fury. After everything they’ve been through and what they did together, he has the nerve to tell her to leave? Yeah. She’ll do that. And Ryan freakin’ Kaur could go jump in the pool for all she cared.

She got to the bottom of the stairs and then stopped. Not only did she not know where she was going, Steph also realized that she had no car. The Kaur house was deep in the countryside of Connecticut, miles from anywhere. Steph left her purse in Mr. Kaur’s study so she walked to the door and pushed it open.

A flash of movement caught her peripheral vision while arms came around to grab her by the throat. Her training kicked in automatically and she delivered an elbow jab to her attackers’ side, jammed her spike heel into the attacker’s ankle, then yanked on the arm now loosely across her throat and tossed man over her hip. He landed with a loud thud at her feet.

“Who the hell are you?” She said as she put her spiked heel at his throat. The spike at his throat looked satisfyingly lethal but all it took was one yank of his strong arms to send Steph to the floor.

She grunted as her bottom slammed into the carpet. While she scrambled to get to her feet, the sound of men running toward the library alarmed her assailant. He got to his feet and run for the patio doors. They rattled as he pulled them open and fled.

Mr. Kaur, and two security people appeared at the doorway.

“Intruder ran through the patio doors,” she said pointing to where the man fled.

“Go,” said Mr. Kaur and the security men took off after him.

Steph scrambled to her feet and took off after the man who attacked her. She was aware that the security men were chasing him, but Steph would be damned if she’d let that creep get the best of her. She tore through the patio door and darted past the pool with her heart pounding in her chest.

“Wait!” she heard Mr. Kaur call.

Wait, Steph, said Ryan in her head. She looked over her shoulder to glimpse Ryan standing in the doorframe of the patio doors. He had put on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. She couldn’t help but notice how devastatingly handsome he was in clothes that revealed every muscle in his upper body and hung about his hips lazily. But she was still angry with him for what he did and said so she wouldn’t stop—not for him.

“Steph!” called Ryan across the lawn.

She stopped on the broad lawn beyond the pool and surveyed the area. To the right was the long and high wall that surrounded the Kaur estate. To the left was a wind break of trees that stretched south. Neither the security men or the intruder were in sight. She turned toward the gate at the northern end of the property and spotted one of Kaur’ security at the gate, but the other she couldn’t see.

Steph! Called Ryan again this time inside her mind.

She shook her head.

They want to hurt you! Please, come back.

Steph ran toward the windbreak. There was at least some cover there, and if someone wanted to hide that is where they’d go. When she reached the line of trees she peered inside. It was a jumble of tree trunks, old leaves, vines and broken branches spread as far as she could peer into the leaf-shadowed depths. If it wasn’t for her stilettos sinking in the landscape’s soft loam she would enter.

What she’d give right now for a pair of sneakers.

A crack of a branch caught her attention and she turned her head to its direction. A sweep of her head caught the laser target on her chest and she dropped and rolled as a shot whizzed above her head.

Steph!

Black talons clamped around her waist and she was jerked upward into the air. With difficulty, she twisted to see Ryan’s blue scales.

“Hey!” she complained.

Would you rather be shot by the assassin? Hold your breath.

You’re not—

I am.

Steph, remembering the last time Ryan shifted to another location, sucked in a deep breath and shut her eyes against the sensation of falling that surrounded her. Absolute cold prickled her skin like an itchy rash forming. Her heart hammered in her chest and her lungs wanted fresh air desperately. She resisted the urge to breath, to scream, to protest this latest crazy action by Ryan.

And then a current of air buffeted her body and the sun shone on her face. She pulled in a deep breath even though the insane flight by the dragon left her lightheaded. Steph looked to the landscape below her and saw sweeping mountain peaks between rolling valleys of green. She caught a glimpse of a castle rising from the land and Steph wondered where he took her.

He swooped down to the ground and settled on his hind legs and shifted. The strange sensation of Ryan’s body reducing and his dragon hide turning to human flesh spread trepidation through her. She’d seen him change but it was different to feel his talons shrink and his claws turned into hands. She hooked her arms around his neck to keep from falling.

“Hello there,” he smiled.

“Let me go,” she sputtered.

Ryan lowered her to the ground and she swallowed hard when she viewed him naked.

“Where are we?”

“Scotland. See that small castle there?” He pointed toward the turret they’d seen on the flight in. “My family owns that.”

“Okay. But what do you expect to do? Walk in there naked?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Why not? Don’t they have decency laws here?”

“I suppose. But seeing that my dad owns this land that’s not really an issue. Besides I have my lawyer with me.”

“Oh my god, Ryan Kaur, could you be more ridiculous?”

“Who is being ridiculous?” You insist on putting yourself in harm’s way and not accepting help from my father or me. I don’t know if you realize this, but you are in serious trouble because of me. I take that seriously. And I’m damn well going to make sure you are safe.”

“Don’t put yourself out on my account. I can take care of myself.”

“No. You can’t. Not against the dragons I saw. Steph, they want to kill you.”

“Why?” said Steph pointedly. “Why would they?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t. All I know is that the queen of the dragons went insane when she read my thoughts and found we went to bed together.”

“And what makes you think that we’re safe here?”

Ryan ran his hand through his hair and his face drew tight with tension. “This place is as good as any. The location is remote and few people come here. The only people who live here are the majordomo and a couple of maids.”

His obvious distress melted some of her anger away. Okay. He was trying to protect her. Ryan was facing things he never had to before. Still, that didn’t give him the right to kidnap her.

Or was it his distress? His smoky musk filled her nose with its intoxicating fragrance and it became difficult to remember why she was angry at him. Ryan put his arms around her waist and drew her to him and she did not resist. She should and knew it. But at this moment the comfort of his arms and the nearness of his body calmed her and chased away her jangled nerves.

“What you do to me,” he breathed in her ear. “All I want to do is take you to bed and keep you there day after day.”

“That’s a little silly, don’t you think?” she said. Or she wanted to say that. Instead she mewled and pressed her body against his. His stiffening shaft pressed into her thigh and all she wanted was him.

“Steph, Steph,” he whispered in a husky voice. He pushed up her skirt and brushed her mound with his fingertips as she whimpered. Her heartbeat quickened as pleasurable tingles gathered and swirled through her body. His fingers found her entrance and stroked her soft petals and when he thrust them in her she gasped. Ryan was just too good, too damned sexy to say no to at any time and despite them standing in a field where anyone could show up she wanted him. Now.

Steph kissed Ryan with all the passion in her soul. “I’ve got to have you,” she husked.

Ryan swept her into his arms and walked a few steps to a where a rocky outcropping gave them a small measure of privacy. He lay her down in the tall grasses and gave her a smoldering gaze that sizzled heat through her body. She didn’t know if she could stand another minute without him inside her.

“Ryan,” she pleaded in a throaty whisper. Steph pulled up her shirt and fingered herself through her lacy panties and gasped at the pleasure she drew from her fingertips. He dropped to his knees and pushed hers apart.

“That is so hot,” he said as he watched her slip her hand underneath the lace to her folds.

“I can be hotter.”

She slipped her fingers inside her entrance.

“Oh, god,” said Ryan. His face flushed and he pulled at his cock with his fist.

“Take me, baby,” rasped Steph. Her voice quavered as she spoke. “I need you.”