Charlotte was having the most exquisite dream. It was snowing outside, and she was in a warm bed, the curtains half-closed, and a man was kissing her neck. His hot body was flush against hers from behind. She let out a soft moan of pleasure and tilted her head to give him better access to the sensitive spot just behind her ear, which sent powerful shivers down the rest of her body.

“Yes,” she whispered in encouragement. Her dream lover murmured something she couldn’t understand, and his dark, warm chuckle against her ear made her feel like she was doing something wicked in the best possible way.

She pushed back the covers and searched for his hand. When her fingers curled around his wrist, she guided his hand to the waistband of her panties and pajama bottoms.

“There? You’re sure?” he asked.

“Yes.” She rubbed her bottom against his groin, teasing the hard shaft by rubbing it against the cleft of her ass. “Touch me.” She closed her eyes, allowing her body’s senses to take over. The rustle of the sheets, the mix of his sighs and hers, and his smell, darkly masculine with a hint of pine and winter, wrapped around her. It was the most erotic dream she’d ever had. She’d never had a dream that felt this good—or this real. She wasn’t about to waste a single minute.

“Be patient, little one.” Her lover’s rough laugh sent shivers of longing through her. She wanted him to take her, to shove her flat on the bed beneath him and take her so completely that she felt owned.

She tried to move his hand again. “Please…I need…” Her clit was throbbing, and her channel was wet and ready.

“Oh, little rose, how you torture me,” he rasped as he sank his teeth into the sensitive area between her neck and shoulder. The possessive hold made her whimper, but not from pain. The bite rooted her in place, and her body went limp with pleasure at how safe she felt while being so incredibly aroused.

He slipped his hand beneath her panties and cupped her mound, then explored her folds with his fingertips. She wiggled, encouraging him to plunge his fingers inside her, but he resisted, and she was held still by his gentle but firm bite. When he finally slid one finger into her, the ripples of building pleasure began in earnest. He toyed with her, thrusting, withdrawing, and then his fingertip brushed over a spot that made her jolt and her belly quiver.

He let go of her shoulder to speak. “This, right here?”

“Yes, right there!” she gasped, and he began to rub on that spot deep inside. He pushed a second finger in, and the tightness gave way when he kept rubbing on that spot. His hips pushed hard against her ass as he rocked against her from behind. He continued to torture her with his fingers while nibbling on her neck.

“Bite me again, please!” she begged. There was something about the way he did that. She needed more of it.

He sank his teeth into her shoulder, and she screamed as pleasure ripped through, robbing her of thought and breath. She lay there, feeling the heat of him behind her, wishing she didn’t have to ever leave this bed. Charlotte sighed, the tension in her body seeping out of her, and a small smile curled her lips.

“How do you feel?” The deep rumbling voice snapped her out of her trance. Her body went rigid as she tried to process everything that had just happened. It hadn’t been a dream at all.

Oh my God, what have I done?

She’d crossed the line and done the one thing she shouldn’t have. She was lying in a hotel bed with a dragon shifter who had just made her climax using only his hand. Overwhelmed by a wave of embarrassment, she rolled away from him and buried her face in her pillow.

Rurik didn’t let her escape that easily. He slid up behind her, bending a muscled arm around her waist. The delicious heat of his body made her relax, but she still couldn’t meet his gaze.

“Still so shy,” he teased, nuzzling the back of her neck. It felt tender and raw. She lifted her head and brushed her hand over her skin.

“Ouch!” she yelped when she reached a tender spot.

Rurik gave a gentle rumbling laugh. “My apologies. I got carried away when you begged me to do it. You will be sore for a few days.”

A few days? It would be at least a week before she stopped feeling sore.

“Look at me.” He pulled her onto her back and leaned over her. She finally met his gaze. The green of his eyes was now strangely golden, as if the color had been put through a filter.

She reached up to touch his cheek, and a lock of his dark hair fell across his eyes. “Your eyes…”

“What about them?”

“They’re golden-green. I swear, yesterday they were pure green, like jade.”

He shrugged and rolled off her. “It’s a trick of the light,” he answered casually, but Charlotte knew that wasn’t the case. Eye color changes were a magical trait in dragons, along with rapid healing. The wounds from last night were almost healed. The once bleeding raw holes had healed over and looked like pink knotted scars from old injuries.

But then she remembered, he’d just been scratched, hadn’t he? But hadn’t she removed the bullets herself? Her mind fought with what she had seen versus what her gut told her was true. Had he planted the idea in her head?

“How are you feeling?” How could she pretend not to notice that he had healed far too fast from something that would have killed a mortal man? “Have the wounds reopened?”

“Fine,” he answered carefully. “Just a scratch, remember?”

There was something about the way he said “remember.” He had planted the idea in her head. He looked over her head toward the window and grinned. “I see your wish has been granted. Look, snow.” He pointed at the landscape outside, which was full of fluffy flakes.

“You’ll have to thank your brother for me,” Charlotte joked. “But I won’t be able to get to Saint Petersburg to see the Winter Palace. It’s a five-hour train ride.” It had been on her bucket list, but she’d come here for a particular mission, one that she was failing at spectacularly. She shot a guilty glance at the mini-fridge where she’d stored the vials of suppressant and their injector needles.

I was too busy freaking out over nearly getting killed and almost having sex with a dragon shifter in the shower. Get it together, MacQueen. You just need an opportunity to take him down, and then you can call the Saint Petersburg team to secure him.

“Why don’t you shower, and I’ll call my jet? We can be in Saint Petersburg in under three hours.” Rurik came over, his shirtless chest level with her eyes. His skin was slightly tan, like he’d spent time in the sun even in the midst of a Russian winter. She tilted her head back, and he traced his fingertips along her throat, making her tremble with delight.

“Your jet?” she asked, trying to contain her excitement. If he took her to Saint Petersburg, they would be that much closer to the Brotherhood offices. A twinge of renewed guilt dug like a small but sharp knife between her ribs. She smiled up at him.

“It’s one of the perks of my family. The jet is always on call.” He leaned down with a crooked grin and pressed an open-mouthed kiss on her that sent sparks of arousal through her exhausted body.

“Okay. I’m in,” she said with a sigh.

“Good. You should shower first. I’ll make the call.” He stole one more quick kiss that made her head go fuzzy. She forced herself to climb off the bed and go into the bathroom.

As she stripped out of her clothes, she heard him speak in Russian to someone on the phone. She heard him chuckle, the warm sound making her smile too. She gave herself a little shake.

What am I doing? I can’t fall for him. He’s the target. I have to get close to bring him down. That’s it. Then it occurred to her that perhaps his affections toward her weren’t genuine, but were brought on by the experimental pheromone she’d put on. Still, it didn’t make her feel that much better about what she was planning to do.

Was this how her brothers always felt? Did they have to get close to preternatural creatures to betray them? For the first time in her life, she had to face the fact that maybe her brothers were right about her. She might not be cut out for their line of work.

Charlotte took a quick shower and dressed. Rurik was already in his clothes from last night, examining his motorcycle jacket with a dark scowl. He slid a finger through one of the bullet holes and let out a stream of curse words. When he saw that she was watching him, he swung his jacket on. It was funny, she knew she should be freaked out over him being shot, but whenever she thought about it, she calmed and focused on one thought—she was safe and she was with him.

“We will need to stop at my apartment again before we leave.”

“Okay.” She collected her purse, her coat, and her camera. Then she walked over to the mini-fridge and opened the door, careful to angle herself so she blocked his view.

“I’m grabbing some snacks for the plane. You want anything?” She tucked a small black carrying case between two candy bars and crammed them into her purse, burying them deep.

“No, my plane will have the necessary amenities.” Rurik laughed. “Caviar from the Black Sea, if you wish.”

“Not much of a caviar fan,” she said as she shut the mini-fridge door. She had jeans and a nice sweater on, along with a thick blue peacoat. She hoped it would be warm enough for where they were going.

“Nor am I,” Rurik said with a chuckle. “But it is expected.”

She waved a hand over herself. “Do I need different clothes, or are these okay?”

Rurik smiled. “I much prefer you without clothes, but it is cold outside and I wouldn’t want you to freeze.”

“Ha ha.” She laughed sarcastically at his teasing, even though she liked it. A hot blush flooded her face.

“There it is.” His low rumbling chuckle made her burn with desire.

“There what is?”

“Your blush. It’s quite a fun challenge to see what makes you turn red, my little rose.” He slid a hand beneath her coat to stroke her lower back, giving her ass a playful squeeze.

She smacked his chest. “Are we leaving now?” If they stayed here much longer, she was afraid they would end up back in bed and doing what they’d almost done last night and this morning. It was exactly what she wanted. And that’s what made this game they were playing so dangerous.

* * *

“You failed,” Dimitri snapped at Luis Silva. Luis, the battle dragon of the Silva family who controlled most of Brazil, curled his lips in a challenge. He slammed his hands down on Dimitri’s desk. Dimitri looked at those hands, unimpressed by the cracks they’d made in the wood finish.

“Last night wasn’t my fault,” Luis said. “Those bullets you provided me? Completely underpowered.”

“That is the nature of a subsonic silenced pistol,” Dimitri countered. He’d overestimated this man’s intelligence. “You didn’t want to attract attention to yourself, now did you?”

“Yes, but to do it right, I’d have to go right up to him and shoot him point-blank. You think I’m going to do that in front of security cameras?”

“And what the fuck were you doing shooting up one of the nicer hotels in Moscow in the first place? You were supposed to take care of it from the shadows, not in the limelight. Don’t make me regret this alliance, Silva.”

Luis’s black eyes were as dark as obsidian, but Dimitri didn’t back down.

“He was with a woman. A human. I was curious to see if she would be given his protection.”

Dimitri calmed a little. “I know the woman. I saw her too.” If Rurik was protecting a woman, they might be able to use her.

“He took at least three bullets when he shielded her from the attack. That was instinct. She means something to him.” Silva pulled out a slender switchblade and flicked it open. He tossed it into the air, catching it by the handle as it came back down. A pointless display of agility, Dimitri thought, common among those compensating for actual talent.

“You plan on kidnapping her to lure him in?”

Luis nodded with a sly grin. “To the shadows, as you put it. The Ramirez family, do you remember them? They controlled most of Brazil a hundred years ago.”

“I remember.” Dimitri hadn’t liked Pablo Ramirez. He reminded Dimitri too much of Grigori Barinov and his brothers, no doubt part of the reason the two houses had once had an alliance. Pablo had believed dragons were supposed to be guardians to humans rather than their rulers. In other words, he’d been a fool.

“Pablo mated a mortal woman. We took her, and after we had our fun, we used her to lure Pablo’s family into a trap.” Luis snapped his fingers. “And that was the end of the Ramirez line. It cost me ten of my men, but men can be replaced.”

Dimitri didn’t smile like Luis did. “Pablo was too trusting. Rurik is no fool. You won’t catch him off guard. Not enough to kill him. And he won’t take a mate. He’s resisted the lure before.”

Luis was still grinning like a jackal. “Perhaps. But I believe I know something you do not.”

Dimitri steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair. “Oh?”

Luis flipped his knife again, and this time the blade landed point down on the pad of his finger, yet no blood was drawn.

“That woman he was with? She is human, but that isn’t all she is.” Luis continued to draw out the suspense a little longer.

“What is she?”

“She’s Damien MacQueen’s sister.”

The announcement hit Dimitri like a sledgehammer. The sister of a Brotherhood hunter? And not just any hunter. The head of the entire organization.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Positive. We keep track of MacQueen’s family closely.”

“Is she a hunter or tracker?”

“Neither,” Luis said. “She’s a civilian, as they say. She has some degree, I forget the word, but she does not work for the Brotherhood. She has no real training, no protection.”

Dimitri scoffed. “No protection? I doubt that. MacQueen wouldn’t let his sister go unwatched.”

“Yet she is here with a dragon. Do you think if MacQueen was watching her closely he would have allowed that? You know how the Brotherhood feels about our kind,” Luis spat and closed his switchblade as he got to his feet. “If you want Rurik dead, you let me do this my way.”

Dimitri got to his feet as well. “What’s your plan?”

“We tip MacQueen off, let him know who his sister is shacking up with. Odds are he will lose his shit and come in guns blazing. And”—Luis grinned—“we’ll tell Rurik’s brothers. They can’t know who he’s with, but once they do, they’ll close ranks, ready to fight.”

“You would give the Barinovs a heads-up? I don’t think—” Dimitri began.

“No, we tell them that she’s a spy, a hunter sent by her brother. You have to admit playing both sides against each other is the best way to handle this.”

Dimitri considered it. Perhaps Luis wasn’t an idiot after all. It wasn’t perfect, however. Grigori didn’t trust him, and he would trust Luis even less. However, one thing all dragons agreed upon was that they had to be careful around the Brotherhood. It was one of the few unifying forces between the dragon families of the world.

“Fine. But let me tip off MacQueen and Grigori.”

“Excellent.” Luis reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a pair of Cuban cigars, handing one to Dimitri. Luis snapped his finger at the end of his, and a small flame ignited the cigar’s tip. Dimitri did the same and took a slow drag of his exquisite Cuban.

“If anyone is still standing after this is over, we’ll snuff them out.” Luis puffed out a circular ring of smoke, which transformed into the shape of a dragon and then a shapeless cloud.

Dimitri watched the ghostly image of the dragon made of smoke fade. “Agreed.”

The Barinovs would finally be eliminated, and Ruslan and the rest of his family would be avenged. Dimitri began to laugh, hard enough that tears even came to his eyes.