Sleeping Dragons Omnibus

Animus-4

Camille was still giving Eben that puppy-dog look, but appeared more flushed this time, her glance periodically darting to his crotch. Erika eyed Eben’s lap and raised an eyebrow. The man still had a hard-on. What the hell was up with him? He’d been a tad oversexed for at least as long as they’d known each other, but this was something new. She glanced around at the others to gauge their relative levels of excitement. When she met Hallie’s gaze, the pretty brunette raised an eyebrow and shot a pointed look at Eben. Erika just rolled her eyes in response and smiled.

Hallie was the reliable one. Even though Erika was sure she hid some deeper darkness, Hallie wasn’t afraid to share her opinion, and had eagerly and competently jumped at every task Erika assigned. She had also managed to adeptly rebuff Eben’s periodic advances. Erika had wondered if the woman was gay until they’d actually talked and she expressed that she preferred men who were just a little more mysterious.

“Why not Corey?” Erika had asked.

Hallie had pursed her lips and confided, “He’s way too laser-focused on his own agenda. I don’t do casual s*x and neither does he, from what I can gather. If I’m gonna sleep with a guy, I need to know he’s doing it because he wants me—not some feminine ideal I probably wouldn’t live up to anyway.”

But now Hallie had pulled her long hair up and was fanning her face while she eyed Kris. Kris was the mysterious native, his Asian features a contrast to the other men. He’d spent their weeks-long trek being the ideal guide, regaling them with stories of the jungles they traveled through, protecting them from potential predators, and cooking the best food they’d ever tasted. Yet he’d shared very little about himself. Mysterious didn’t begin to cover the large man who was now collecting their dishes to clean up, smiling politely at each of them as he went around the camp.

One thing she did note when he collected her bowl was the unmistakable bulge of an erection pressing against the front of his khaki shorts. It caught her eye before she could censor herself. When she looked up at him a second later, he just smiled and said, “Still hungry?”

She blinked at him and swallowed. A vivid image of taking his c**k in her mouth right there blazed across her mind and her thighs clenched involuntarily. What the hell was happening to her?

“Ah … I’m full.” Full was an understatement … she’d have loved to be full of him. So much that her vaginal muscles ached. God, she wouldn’t normally think of it so clinically, but the feeling was akin to an affliction now. It was no longer just a dull itch, but a very present distraction bordering on discomfort, one only made worse by the low-pitched whisper of a male voice inside her head. It was the same one that had occupied her dreams for years, but now seemed to be bleeding into her waking hours.

“Thanks for another great dinner, Kris. I’ll be right back.” Erika stood and wandered into the dimly lit corridor leading to the back of the alcove behind the tiers of the amphitheater seats.

Past the offshoots of a side-corridor she knew spanned the circumference of the temple was a cozy rear chamber harboring a fountain made of the ubiquitous jade. Its water spilled into a shallow pool, and the space was lit with the same small globes that had come to life when she and her research team had opened the outer doors.

Erika bent over the edge of the pool and splashed water on her heated face, undid a few buttons of her shirt, and splashed more onto her chest. Something in the air made her too hot. It couldn’t just be the excitement of finding the temple. Ever since they’d opened the doors, she’d grown more and more aroused, finding it nearly impossible to stop thinking of that man from her dreams who owned her so completely with his touch.

It wasn’t unlike her to want s*x after a find like this, but she normally had control over her fantasies. Here she feared she was completely losing it. She was driven to the point of insane lust and she couldn’t shake the sense that she was close now. Close to him, whoever the hell he was. And as fearless an explorer as she tended to be, the idea of proving her dream lover was real terrified her.

She shook her head again, trying to clear it of the cobwebs of desire. She was a scientist, she had to keep a level head, remain analytical about the situation, even if her thesis had stated that dragons existed, which was ludicrous on a good day.

“You okay?”

The deep voice startled her. “Oh, hi, Kris. Yeah … I think so. This place is pretty epic. I guess I’m just a bit overwhelmed by it.”

“You don’t look okay. Did the magic get to you already? I tried to keep the spice light tonight.”

She blinked at him, not sure she’d heard right. “Magic … what magic? And the spice was fine.”

He looked around like there might be invisible things floating in the air, then smirked at her.

“Dragon magic. It’s everywhere. It’s affected me, too. Dragons are horny beasts.”

“Not Dwarves?” she asked, shakily laughing about Eben’s earlier joke.

“Nah … Dwarves are a myth. Dragons are real, and they live here.” He leaned closer and said in a conspiratorial voice, “And they feed on our pleasure.”

His words made her quiver and she had to close her eyes to get herself under control. When she opened them again, Kris was kneeling beside the pool and stripping off his shirt. His shoulders rippled in the warm glow of the lights. He leaned over the edge of the pool, bracing both hands at the lip, and plunged his entire upper body through the surface, down into the cool water. She watched the expanse of his olive skin submerge, the tattoos that twined around his torso nearly obscured.

A single huge dragon adorned his body, its head draped across his back, eyeing her steadily from where it rested on the surface of one bunched shoulder. It coiled around him in a proprietary fashion, its tail twining around his waist. The eyes of the tattoo seemed to follow her.

Kris emerged from the pool and flipped his head back, flinging water behind him. He sat gasping and blinking, his glistening form covered with little rivulets of water. Erika’s mouth watered, and her p***y began to tingle in a way not unlike her tongue had during dinner.

“It won’t take long,” he said cryptically, swiping a hand down his face and flinging water off into a corner.

“What won’t take long?”

“The magic. You don’t really need to translate the text for it to happen. It’s your destiny as much as it is mine. Now that you’re in the current of the magic, it’ll take you where it needs you to be, to the dragon Fate has claimed you for.”

“And where is that?” she asked, latching onto his words. Did he know where her dragon was? Wait … Why the hell was she humoring him? He was speaking nonsense. Magic? She needed to get hold of herself, for Christ’s sake. As much as she wanted it all to be true, she was still a scientist, bound by logic and an analytic mind. It shouldn’t be that easy to just let go of everything she’d been taught.

Kris raked fingers through his wet hair and stood up, gesturing down the shadowed corridor. “I’ll show you.”

“Should I be scared?” she asked, the result of the last shred of logic in her.

He chuckled and let his eyes drift down over her sweaty, dirty trekking shirt that was already half undone. The fabric was soaked through from the water she’d splashed on her chest to counteract the heat welling from deep within her. Her n*****s were clearly visible, pressing against the weave.

“With t**s like yours, no.” Kris took a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes, as if savoring some aroma that lingered in the air. “And power that sweet, definitely not. Your dragon will be very pleased when you awaken him.”

Her dragon? “Who the hell are you?”

“Your guide.” He grinned and turned to walk away.

“Wait!” Erika yelled after him, then ran to catch up. “What the f**k about the f*****g dragon magic?”

“It’s everywhere in here,” he replied with a wave of his arm that made the muscles in his broad back flex alluringly. “And it’s the strongest it’s been since they were sent to sleep half a millennium ago. Now it’s time for them to wake and live in the world again. To mate with the humans Fate promised them.”

Chapter Five

Kris led her down a pale corridor that glowed with magic dragon light, or she supposed that’s what it was now. She felt a little drugged. Her skin tingled, so sensitive the rub of the material of her shirt over her n*****s sent jolts of pleasure through her with every stride. She’d been horny enough upon opening the doorway into this place, but now her normally healthy appetite seemed to be magnified tenfold. Magic, she thought. A little thrill went through her at the memory of some of the stories her father had told her, but she still wasn’t quite prepared to believe it. The dreams, though … was she prepared to believe them? Was her desire for that elusive red-eyed man strong enough for her to abandon her scientific principles?

“I guess magic might explain Eben’s perma-boner,” she joked, trying to dispel her anxiety. It might also explain the personal p**n video that kept running through her mind—the one of Kris nailing her against the warm jade of the temple wall, or bending her over the edge of the pool and f*****g her from behind, or countless other scenarios she’d imagined just in the span of the last fifteen minutes, not the least of which involved him, her dragon.

In a moment, they emerged at the back of the main room, outside one of the heavy carved doors that flanked the dais.

“Those doors are locked,” she said.

Kris smiled back at her. “Not if you know how to open them.” He pushed against the smooth surface of the door. It swung open just enough for them to slip into the darkness beyond. More sconces lit, illuminating a row of closed doors set deep into the curved wall of the corridor, each one set between a pair of majestic white jade dragons similar to the ones that stood guard beside the throne in the main chamber. All of them sported erections similar to the one Eben had so lewdly stroked earlier. Kris paused in front of the first door, one carved out of red and lavender jade.

“This door will kick off the ritual. Then this …” He moved to stand in front of the door beside it, staring up at the shimmering golden carvings. Not gilt, Erika realized when she looked closely, but more carved jade in a hue that resembled gold. “Then those over there.” He skipped the central door, which was larger than the others and a translucent grass-green that matched the throne. He pointed at the two on the far side. One of solid black at the end, then then one next to the green door—a twisting swirl of almost every color in the rainbow.

“The ritual happens in that order,” Kris said. “My door …” He walked to the rainbow door. “Is this one, the last one before the Queen.”

“Your door?” Erika asked. She had too many questions. She’d only gotten as far as the first door and stood mesmerized by the carved figures of the dragons on its face.