Sleeping Dragons Book 1: Animus Read Online Free Page A

attitude as a cultural divide of some kind, but his brash declaration by the pool a moment earlier contradicted that.
    “I’m destined for this.” His dark eyes met hers, intent and steady. He didn’t look like a crazy man. Should she believe him?
    “What the hell is this, Kris? I hope you understand I’m having a very hard time believing what you’re telling me. Dragons? Seriously?”
    “I’m the sacrifice that will revive them.”
    She laughed. “You’re crazy. You just need to get laid.”
    “I’d love to. But you can’t help me unless you walk through that door and begin the ritual.”
    She gave him her best skeptical scientific once-over. “So how did you get that tattoo? Someone had to touch you to give it to you.”
    “I’ve had this since I was born.”
    “You’re telling me they gave a newborn baby a tattoo?”
    “My mother gave it to me. She was one of them—a dragon—before she died. Two of the monks who helped raise me were also.”
    “Ohh kayy… I believe that about as much as I believe you can’t be touched.” She narrowed her eyes. His story was so outlandish she couldn’t wait to prove he was full of shit.
    “I’d love to feel your hands on me, Erika.” His voice held a hint of challenge but she didn’t move. She couldn’t decide how to start.
    “I’ll help you out,” he said. He stripped off his shirt again, and dropped his pants. He stood in front of her, resplendent in his nakedness and glowing in the warm light. Not only did he have the dark coil of the dragon around his sculpted torso, but his strong thighs were tattooed in a dark, scaled pattern all the way up over his hips. His erection was spectacular, too. Long and thick, with a glistening bead already dripping from his tip.
    She reached for him but stopped, her knuckles curling in like she’d hit a barrier just an inch away from him, so close the heat of him seemed to sear her skin. She shook her head thinking it was hesitation.
    “I’d love to have you suck me, Erika, but it can’t happen. Their power is too strong. I’m the sacrifice. I’m too sacred for contact and it’s driven me crazy my entire life, but the frustration is nearly over. No matter how hard you try, they won’t let you touch me. Not until we walk through that door over there. Before we get there you and your friends need to open the other doors. It’s my job to watch you carry out the first four stages of the ritual.”
    “You’re telling me you have some magical dragon curse that won’t let you come into contact with another human? And what… that you’re destined to be some blood sacrifice to resurrect a mythical race?”
    He smiled. “It isn’t a curse. I’m a gift to them, and it isn’t my blood they want but my lifetime of pent up need. You just need to play your part. Now that the magic is in you, all you need to do is let it carry you.”
    “So, we do our part and you get laid? What exactly are we putting on the line here?”
    “We give up our pleasure to them and they awaken.”
    “They?” she asked.
    “The dragons.” He reached out a hand and stroked the wing of one of the guardians that stood sentinel outside the doorway they stood within. “They’re asleep, but when this is all over they’ll be awake again. And free to live among humans again. To find mates among you. To extend their existence for another generation.”
    The tattoo around his middle seemed to shift in the flickering light. Kris’s cock twitched. She slicked her tongue across the smooth inner skin of her lower lip, imagining what he must taste like. She dropped to her knees, intent on proving him wrong, but just knelt poised and fevered at the effort to get closer. Her mind wanted him but her body was commanded by something beyond her.
    “Fuck,” she muttered. “Fine, if I can’t give it to you, I’ll give it to myself.”
    “Don’t,” he said, crouching in front of her, but she’d already pulled her shirt open and shoved up her tank