Wicked Dark Dragon (Dragon Heat) Read Online Free PDF Page B

enough slack to let her reach him. She jerked hard but didn’t have the strength to break them. They were too tight on her wrists to even try to slip them either.
    The rattling chains seemed to rouse Beast. He issued a gruff, rumbling noise that seemed to emanate from deep within his chest. Planting both palms against the floor, he pushed up onto his hands and slowly lifted his head. A normal man would have sported two black eyes and a broken nose after the beating he had taken, but this man— her man—looked to be already healing. His cheek and jaw were swollen and red, and blood dripped from his nose but he seemed to have escaped his brush with violence without any broken bones.
    Well. Maybe not.
    When he started to crawl toward her, he grimaced and placed a guarding hand to his right side. The shadows hid whatever damage he had sustained trying to reach her. A couple of broken ribs wouldn’t have been out of the question. They didn’t seem to be slowing him down any as he crept toward her like some kind of hungry carnivore.
    She gulped as the dark-haired behemoth prowled ever closer. Keenly aware of her naked state and his, she squeezed her thighs together and covered her breasts with her arms. His gaze narrowed at her protective move but he didn’t try to stop her. Those green eyes of his had shifted to a frighteningly crimson shade and his pupils were elongated and thin like a snake’s. Like a predator, he pinned her in place with a menacing stare. She felt like a mouse tossed into a boa constrictor’s cage. This man could save her—or snap her neck.
    With the chains keeping her on a short leash, there was no escaping his advance. Beast halted only inches from her. His intense body heat simultaneously shocked and soothed her. She wanted to snuggle in close and soak up that radiant warmth. Maybe tuck her face into the curve of his throat and breathe in the intoxicating scent of him, too.
    As if sharing her thoughts, Beast lunged at her, the movement so stunningly fast that she squeaked with surprise and fear. He buried his nose against the side of her neck and dragged it along her skin, inhaling deeply with the slow slide. He made the strangest noise, almost like a purr, and rubbed his nose against the side of hers. His chin rested on her shoulder and he leaned into her. “I found you.”
    With trembling fingers, Ivy finally dared to touch his battered face. The brightest pop of light illuminated her mind. For the briefest of moments, she saw the two of them frolicking on a beach, splashing in waves and laughing as if carefree. When the vision faded, his palpable relief washed over her.
    When he breathed in deeply again, it finally occurred to her that he was using scent to identify her instead of her looks. “Did my face look different in the dreams we shared?”
    He nuzzled her cheek. “Faces can be faked with cloaking spells and potions. The Knights have used them in the past.” He breathed in noisily, as if to convince himself she was real. “Scents are impossible to replicate.”
    Belly quivering with excitement, she boldly traced one of the heavy black tattoos arcing along the side of his neck and dipping down his shoulder. “Is that what they’re called? The Knights, I mean.”
    He reared back and frowned down at her. “Didn’t you know?”
    She shook her head. Her lower lip trembled as the stress of her weeks in captivity finally hit hard. “I don’t know anything. They just—they grabbed me in that club, jabbed some kind of drug into my neck, and then I woke up tied to a metal slab in another room in this prison.”
    Beast’s jaw clenched when she gestured to her neck while telling him about the sedative. Was he remembering the way she had been shocked to make him stop fighting? When he reached out to touch the collar, she grabbed his wrist, stopping him before he could touch it. “Don’t. They’ll shock me again.”
    His teeth ground together so loudly she expected him to spit out