CHAPTER SIX
Tem
The acrid scent of his own cum on his chest filled his nose as he lay on his cot. The cot was a particular form of torture, the length a shade too short and the laughable thing they called a mattress too hard to be comfortable.
He growled, a low rumble that began in his throat but spread to his chest.
What? thrummed Evan.
Nothing. Thinking.
You do that, eh?
Be quiet.
Lord, you are grumpy. What’s going on? Thinking about the lovely Astrid?
Tem’s denial curdled in his throat, producing a bubbly grumble that thankfully didn’t travel through the walls. He was thinking about Astrid. Or rather discrete molecules of her scent clung around him that prevented him from not bringing images of her to mind.
The flash of her smile.
The brightness of her eyes.
Her svelte curves.
The sway of her hips.
It was enough to bring him to a half-hard state, a purgatory of repressed thoughts and un-actionable desires.
Even before his imprisonment, Tem hadn’t had such strong feelings for a female. Not that there were many she-dragons in the first place, but the very few occasions he had met one hadn’t done anything to set his heart aflame. No. The vixens he had met were cold, calculating and tended to think of dragon bulls as an amusement when convenient, and annoying the rest of the time. That dragonesses could reproduce asexually when they so desired did nothing to draw the sexes together.
Which was why half-dragons such as Evan existed. Male dragons were as passionate as females were dispassionate. And human women, or sometimes men, could meet the fire within a dragon’s heart with their own animal passions. Most of the time, such matings were fruitless since the intersections between dragon and human genome were few. But there had undeniably been a rise in hybrid births, no doubt a cause for alarm within the government. To Tem this rise in hybrid births made sense. Humans had an incredibly ability to harbor, combine and disseminate recessive genes. This probably led to humans with recessive genes mating with other humans with recessive genes, creating rare individuals who could bear dragon young. It was a fascinating development that he had been studying before he was arrested and imprisoned, and was something he had thought on much during these past twenty-four years.
It was important research to Tem because of the unexplained decline of the dragon population. Except for the hybrids, and the few dragon queens secreted and sequestered who could asexually reproduce, the outlook for dragon propagation was bleak.
He missed his research.
He wanted his old life back.
Through prudent investments and sensible land management, Tem’s family had lived comfortably on their estate. That was, until his mother and then his father passed on. Then Tem was alone.
His parents’ inability to produce a sibling had driven Tem into the wilderness of genetic research. He traveled the world to meet other dragons and obtain samples of their DNA. Tem spent countless hours in the salons of European high society developing criteria for determining who could harbor dragon DNA and who could not. It was tedious research, but worth it. He had developed a checklist of traits that could indicate the presence of dragon DNA.
Red hair is one trait, his brain reminded him.
I know, old man. I know.
Was this why Astrid fascinated him so? Did the patchwork of her DNA send him signals that she was a potential mate?
Dear Lord, no, he groaned.
There were problems with that outside his incarceration. One was the short life span of humans.
Could you survive her death? His brain asked.
It’s a little early to be talking about that.
Still, when dragons fell in love, they did so with their whole beings. When a mate died, they were likely to follow.
Maybe the dragonesses don’t have it far wrong, after all.
You can’t be responsible, reasoned Tem, for propagating a race and have a little thing like love throw a wrench in the works. Dying would be a big wrench.
Who said anything about love? rumbled the animal part of his brain. A little one on one action would feel very good.
Yes. It would.
But it would be dangerous. Wrong.
Dangerous for him, for her. Wrong because of the obvious mismatch between the two species.
Candles in the wind.
That’s what humans were. Brief was their span. One in growth, one third in propagating and raising their young, one third in slow death.
It was infuriating. Frustrating. Impossible.
Astrid.
An image of her standing before the cell block doors with her keycard in hand flashed in his mind. She stood poised as if trying to make a decision.
From where did these crazy images come? The visions of Astrid were persistent and growing more frequent. Something was going on, but he couldn’t figure out what.
“Astrid,” thrummed Evan happily.
With his jaw clenched, Tem sat and lowered his feet to the cold granite flagstone. This was another torture, that the fucking floor wasn’t warm enough to keep his feet from freezing. The thin slippers the prison gave them to wear didn’t do a thing to ameliorate the situation. He put the pain and the thoughts of cold out of his mind as he spotted Astrid give Evan a little wave while she pushed a metal cart toward Tem’s cell.
Tem did a long, slow exhale as Astrid walked the hall. He couldn’t help but notice the hardened nipples that poked and jiggled at the fabric of her uniform. He swore. The temptations of her flesh were enough to drive a dragon mad.
“Hello, Mr. Rawlins,” she said. “Are you ready for your sponge bath?”
He smiled his most predatory smile, not to welcome her, but to warn her off. For added effect, he licked his lips.
“I may be, but you, darling? Are you ready?”
Her eyelids fluttered, then her eyes settled into a smoldering half-lidded glance that went straight to Tem’s cock.
“Me being ready is not the issue. I’m just here to serve your needs.”
Inwardly, Tem gasped. Her words of submission were honey to his dragon and an unassailable draw.
No, Tem. This way lies madness.
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.”
Do not quote Hamlet to yourself. You know how the rest of that goes.
“Into my grave.”
Yes.
But Tem’s internal arguments failed against the human who stood before his cage with the promise of sweet touches and the heady perfume of her scent.
“Well, then, serve me,” he rumbled.
Her eyes twinkled with bemusement.
“Lift your arms. Walk backwards slowly,” she said in a coldly professional voice that belied the mischievous glint in her eyes.
Tem, well used to this hated exercise, raised his arms and spread his legs. Astrid hit the controls at the door, and the chains retracted slowly. He shuffled back step by step until his back hit the cold granite walls.
The door to his cell slid to the side, and Astrid strode inside. The full effect of her musky essence hit like a freight train, taking his knees out from under him.
Good thing you are chained to a wall.
Self?
Yeah?
Shut the fuck up.
Astrid’s gaze wandered over to his body, spread eagled on the wall. She took a sharp intake of breath and then shook her head. With slightly wobbly steps she moved closer to him, pulling the cart behind her. As Astrid moved within inches of him he saw that that cart held a metal bowl of steaming water, soap, and a pile of towels and washcloths.
“So,” he rumbled. “You are going to wash me down?”
She shook her head and pointed to her earplugs.
“Take them out,” he mouthed.
She shook her head again.
“Sorry, Mr. Rawlins. But I will try to be as quick and efficient as possible.”
She stepped closer and unbuttoned the shirt he put on earlier. It was specially constructed so that the under seams of the arms would pull apart to accommodate the shackles that would never come off. She pulled apart the seams and slipped off the shirt, exposing his chest to the cold of the cell.
Astrid soaped a washcloth and soaked it in the steaming water. The gentle and sensual movement of her hands fascinated Tem. She took a deep breath as she pressed the cloth to his cum covered chest.
“My,” she breathed, “you did make a mess of yourself.”
But her mouth didn’t move.
Wait.
He heard that—her thoughts.
What?
“Yes, I did,” he answered.
Her eyes flew open wide and she stumbled back.
“What? What was that?” she said, her voice panicked.
Tem would have done anything to assure her that this was all right. But he couldn’t.
Because he knew this was the worst thing that could happen between them.