Dragon Awakened(31)
She stared out the huge glass doors at the sparkle of sun on the choppy waves and felt as though she were slipping beneath them. His finger on her chin startled her.
“I can be easy on you, at least in the beginning. If you need that.”
She stepped away from the way his touch felt electric on her skin. The way his low, soft words washed over her. “No, don’t be easy on me. These people killed my uncle. And are trying to kill me. I don’t want easy.”
“Good girl. See you in a few minutes.”
Damn it, he’d manipulated her again.
Chapter 9
Can we turn the lights down?”
Ruby followed Cyntag into a windowless room the size of a tennis court.
He stripped off his shirt and tossed it to the floor. “I forget, you still have the modesty of a Mundane.” He strode to the control box near the door and dimmed the lights.
The halogen lights honed the planes of his cheeks and angles of his jaw, razor sharpening the cut of his muscles. The mirrors on two sides of the room created infinite versions of him. Cyntag, everywhere she looked. She scratched at her stomach again. Damn rash was worse than ever.
“You have an itch,” he said, and she swore he meant that kind of itch. Which she did not have, thank you very much.
She waved her hand dismissively. “Psoriasis, the doctors think, though they’ve never given me anything that relieved it.”
“Show me.”
“You’re used to ordering people around, aren’t you? Of course, you’re a sensei or whatever, with classes of rapt students following your every command.” And probably women falling at his feet.
“True. Your point?”
“Would it kill you to ask?”
He seemed to consider it. “No. Show me the rash. I’m not morbidly curious. I think I know what it is.”
With a roll of her eyes, she unbuttoned the lower part of her shirt and lifted it.
He knelt down to get a better look. The feel of his fingers brushing her skin startled her.
“Cyntag—”
“Call me Cyn.”
Cyn, which sounded like “sin.” Figured. Because with him kneeling in front of her, his dark hair catching the dim light, bare shoulders gleaming…whoa. Cut that shit out. “Well, Doctor Cyn, what is it?”
Though his hair was straight, a few locks had minds of their own, curling in various directions. She had the insane urge to run her fingers through what looked like silk.
He rose. “Dragon rash.”
“Huh?”
“Started when you were about thirteen?”
“Yeah.”
“Kicks up when you’re stressed. I bet it was driving you mad when I Catalyzed—turned Dragon—in the library.”
“Well, yeah.”
He stroked his own dragon tattoo. “It’s the part of you that’s Dragon. And it’s literally itching to come out.”
“It sounds like there’s a creature inside me. I’m having flashbacks of that Alien movie when the baby alien bursts out of that guy’s stomach.”
“It’s not like that. It has no physical form outside of you.”
Her eyes widened. “I’m going to have a tattoo like that?”
“It’s not a tattoo, but it passes for one. It’s just below your skin’s surface.” He wrapped his hand around her waist where the rash was. “We hold the essence of our Dragon inside us. Though we are mostly human, the Dragon is all animal. Once Awakened, it will pull at you to release it. To act on its impulses.”
She lifted her face to his, feeling the heat from his body, from his words, envelop her. “Impulses,” she heard herself repeat.
His fingers tightened on her skin, and he lowered his mouth just a little closer to hers. “It responds to stimuli like food, conflict…lust. When it wants something, it will goad and seduce you. It speaks to you telepathically, simple words like mine and want.” He let those words sink in.
And they did, like warm honey soaking into her skin. “Mine,” she repeated, feeling it thrum through her. “Want.”
“Mmm-hmm. And hungry.”
“Hungry,” she said, spellbound.
“And not for food.” His voice grew soft and low, his eyes hooded. “You’ll feel it through your whole body, hear the siren song in your mind.”
Yes, she heard it, felt it. Her body began to sag toward him, wanting to feel him against her. The spell! Just like the spell the Dragon Prince wove around Garnet. Ruby stepped away, pulling down her shirt. “It sounds like being possessed.”
He ran his hand back through his hair and cleared his throat. “It can be if you let it get the best of you. The Dragon has no reasoning skills, fears no consequences. If we let it control us, we pay the consequences.”