Sleeping Dragons Omnibus

Animus-3

“So erect c***s are only symbolic, is that what you’re saying?”

Erika gave him a sidelong glance. “In a statue, yeah. In you, it just means you haven’t jerked off in a few hours.” She looked pointedly at the huge bulge in his crotch.

“I always have a c**k. It’s not my fault if you’re too big a prude to want to touch it,” he muttered.

She scowled at him, knowing he was digging at her for kicking him out of her tent the night before, but she’d been too distracted by their imminent discovery to entertain him. Her plan had been to find that semi-dream state where her fantasy lover existed, imagine the things he did to her in her dreams, and rub out enough orgasms to send herself into a mini-coma so she could sleep through the night without the distraction of another body beside her.

It was unlike Eben to take issue with a night apart, but her s****l interest in him had waned the moment they’d set foot in this jungle. She’d probably taken advantage of his eagerness to please her one time too many. He’d just as soon go hungry when they were in a tiff, rather than come begging to her for sustenance of the carnal variety.

A hesitant throat cleared nearby and they both glanced up. Camille stood fidgeting, her bright blue eyes locked onto Eben’s hand where it still absently stroked the rod of polished stone.

“What is it, Cammy?” Erika asked.

“Uh … um … Do you mind if I start translating?” Camille asked, darting a look at Erika. “Everything is covered with text. Well, almost everything.” Camille’s attention slid back to Eben’s hand on the dragon statue’s c**k. Erika narrowed her eyes when she caught the wicked smile on Eben’s face while he watched Camille blush.

“Have at it,” Erika said. “The sooner we find out the secrets of this place, the better, right? The boys can set up camp. It’s their night, anyway.”

Camille nodded and left, clutching and twisting at the end of her long, blonde braid, a nervous habit she only seemed to affect when she was around Eben.

“You’re such an asshole sometimes,” Erika said. “She’s got the hots for you and you keep taunting her like that. It’s not fair.”

He chuckled and let go of the dragon’s p***s. “I’d love a taste of her, but I have a feeling she’s nowhere near as experienced as you. I like women who take the initiative.”

“Or men?” she asked, reminded of his excuse after she’d found him entangled with a fellow geology TA named Jared. Eben had been cocky enough to invite her to join them, but she’d been too shocked to take advantage of the opportunity. Later when she questioned him about it, all he’d said was, “He asked.”

Eben shrugged. “Depends on the man, but yeah.” His expression grew thoughtful as he turned to watch Camille bend over to extract a notebook from her gear. “I don’t know … maybe I could teach her something.”

Erika let out a long-suffering sigh. “Behave yourself while we’re here, all right? I can’t have my linguist falling to pieces mid-month because you popped her cherry and she’s too in love to keep working.”

“Yes, mistress,” he said with a gleam in his eye.

Chapter Three

Geva mentally strained at his bonds for the hundredth time in the last few hours. The temple where he and the rest of the dragon brood slept had finally been discovered after five centuries of waiting. His hibernation was due to end, and he couldn’t wait to be free.

Yet again, he imagined the first thing he would do once he was liberated from this prison and able to fly above the human world. He would seek out one of the nearby villages and use the seductive powers of his smoky breath to incite another orgy. Then he would bask in the debauchery, soaking up all the delicious s****l energy there was to be had. After that, maybe he would get back to the business of behaving and perform whatever duties were required of him by his queen. Just not until he’d had his fill of beautiful, nubile young women and men. His c**k throbbed at the very thought.

“You’ll do no such thing.”

Inwardly, Geva cursed. It seemed his keeper had been roused by the breach of their temple as well.

“Why shouldn’t I? You want it as much as I do, Issa. It can’t have been comfortable having to sit like a Guardian all this time, just to make sure my bonds were secure before the other Court dragons took their places.”

He lay prone on a huge stone slab, entirely petrified in red jade. As if it weren’t enough that the hibernation ritual turned them all into stone, the old Guardians who prepared the temple had also bound him in chains. And all because he’d broken the rules the week before his hibernation began.

Being the son of the reigning dragon queen hadn’t helped his case one bit. He’d risked being discovered for what he was, but there had been no real danger of that. All the humans in that town had enjoyed letting loose and f*****g to their hearts’ content. Geva had immensely enjoyed it himself, and had taken a taste of just about all the humans involved during the couple days it had gone on, up until he’d been discovered and hauled away for the hibernation ritual that was about to begin.

At least he’d gone out with a bang.

Issa’s voice rang through his mind again, reminding him of the thing he’d rather forget. “You will have a mate once the ritual to awaken us is complete. One of those humans out there belongs to you. I know you have dreamed of her recently. I hear you utter her name sometimes while you slumber.”

“She’s nothing more than a means to an end,” Geva snarled back. “Hers is merely the sweet cunt that will melt this prison when she slides down my c**k and gives me her Nirvana for the first time. She’ll be but one of many treasures I intend to collect once I rejoin the world and can claim my birthright. I’ll be as wealthy as Gavra, the first Red, was, with hundreds of pets at my disposal. I won’t stop f*****g for the next five centuries.”

Somehow he could almost sense Issa’s eyes rolling. She was his closest friend, and though she hadn’t actually condoned the antics that had gotten him chained up in his hibernation chamber with her as his guardian, she’d definitely been tempted. Female blue dragons were like that—always teetering on the razor’s edge between lust and propriety. The more red that tinged their scales, the more they leaned toward lust. Issa was a deep shade of lavender, so he knew how difficult it must have been for her to resist the lure of all the orgasmic power flying around that day.

“Our ways have been changing, Geva. Every generation the Court takes fewer mates. Your mother only had your father, remember? And my parents were exclusive to each other, too. A deeper bond with fewer mates means we get to keep them for longer.”

The prospect of five centuries in a new world was daunting enough without being forced to think of how he’d fare with only a single mate. No … he preferred to imagine hundreds of women who eagerly invited his touch, who begged for his c**k or his tongue. Not his heart.

The problem was that over the last couple decades, all those women he liked to fantasize about had begun to have the same pretty face, the same dark, silken hair … the same luscious backside and throaty cries when he f****d her.

Them. When he f****d them. Not one woman. One woman wasn’t enough for a Red as powerful as he was.

Soft laughter teased at his mind.

“What do you find so funny?” he groused.

“That you deny her so vehemently whenever she crosses your mind. I can picture her face as clearly as you do now, after being stuck in this chamber with you for so long. She is a lovely one, and judging from the spark she has, more than enough for a male like you. What was her name again? It was a familiar one …”

“Don’t say it, Issa.”

“It started with an ‘E’ …”

“Issa …” he warned, not wanting her to put voice to the syllables which had haunted him so often as of late, which evoked such vibrant images of the female who, at this moment, was so close by he could almost scent her through the chamber’s heavy stone door.

“Erika.”

He groaned, his mind suddenly awash in images of the female herself, of all the dreams he’d had of her eagerly indulging his myriad erotic whims. If his every fantasy could be embodied in a single human female, it would be this female. She was far too perfect to actually exist, though.

“There’s no way she’s real.”

“If she isn’t real, then neither is the male I’ve been dreaming of, and I really would rather believe he is.”

Chapter Four

After exploring for a time, Erika and her team erected their equipment and set up camp in one of the four alcoves that flanked the mezzanine. Each of the alcoves possessed a fire pit that seemed to work the same way the wall sconces had and put out sufficient heat for cooking. They settled into camp to plan their study and catalog their finds.

Kris began cooking dinner. Within moments, the entire area was awash in aromatic spices that made Erika’s mouth water and distracted her from her planning. She’d only mapped out a fraction of the compound that afternoon. They had mostly encountered a lot of jade corridors lined with locked doors. Tomorrow she would focus on the doors, but now she was distracted by a deeper need. It was like an itch she couldn’t scratch—a presence in her mind filled with a deep craving she couldn’t explain. She shoved it aside for the time being to eat dinner, thanking Kris when he brought a steaming bowl of curry and rice to her.

The sculpted Thai made Erika think of a Mongolian warrior sometimes. While she ate the spicy food, she imagined him naked on horseback, clad only in scant fur armor, coming to ravage her. The delicate flavors of her dinner made her salivate more with every bite; the spice on her tongue sent a zing of pleasure straight between her thighs. Her n*****s pricked and a sheen of sweat broke out on her skin. She found it tough to keep her eyes off Kris now, or any of the men, for that matter. Yet when she looked at each one, she saw something more, as though they each embodied the essence of that strange man from her dreams.

She shook her head, trying to dispel the fantasy, and took a deep breath. These men worked for her. Aside from Eben, she’d never have entertained a tryst with any of them as long as they had a professional relationship, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate what she saw.

They were all attractive, though Eben had always been the most forward one of the group. Dimitri was soft-spoken, though quick-witted, and flirted in a very subdued manner with everyone, even the other men. His sweet face and short-cropped blond hair afforded him a resemblance to a Nordic god. His full lips mesmerized her for a moment as she watched him consume the delicious food. Her heart sped up when his tongue darted out to lick his lips. She shifted her gaze away, replying to the group’s steady banter mindlessly while her eyes continued to roam.

Corey ate quickly in general, but tonight he seemed to savor the meal for a change. He took slow bites in between conversation about their find. The normally prominent lines beside his blue eyes relaxed, making him look ten years younger, and oh what a pretty boy he must have been when he was in his mid-to-late twenties like the rest of them. Now he was a very attractive man who’d probably been hurt one time too many, if the sad look in his eyes was any indication. He’d always been the most aloof member of the group, but he’d been a more than competent team member during their arduous trek to get here.