Dragon's Curvy Doctor (Dragon's Curvy Mate Series Book 4) Read online

  Diesel takes a long breath, and time slows to a crawl as he exhales. The air fills with a smoky aroma like nothing on earth, and when Diesel reaches out and gently runs his rough finger along my smooth cheek, I realize that it’s coming from him, oozing from every pore like there’s a fire burning inside him . . .

  A fire that I want burning inside me too.

  “I’ll tell you why you aren’t scared of me, Dorrie,” he whispers, stroking my cheek with a tenderness that’s so at odds with his imposing physical presence that I’m shaking like a leaf.

  His touch feels like fire, and there’s an arousal burning through me that’s hotter than flame, taking my breath away, tying my tongue in knots, making my vision blurry like a post-modern painting. He runs that rough finger along my trembling lips, tracing it along my chin, finally bringing it back around and cupping my face and drawing me close to him.

  “You aren’t scared of me because you’re mine, Dorrie,” he whispers. “Because you know you’re mine.”

  I stare up into his eyes, and I see that thing move behind his green irises. I can see it clearly, and I swear it’s looking back out at me. I recognize the shape. It’s the shape of that shadow cast by the invisible creature that saved my life yesterday. It’s a shape that has no correlate in the natural world. It’s a shape from mythology, from dreams, from fantasy and make-believe, from a fairy tale . . .

  A fairy tale of dragons.

  I’m so close I can hear Diesel’s heart pounding like a drum, and the smoky musk of his body is heavy but somehow not suffocating. It smells clean and clear, and I know my body is reacting to his scent like an animal responding to its mate’s pheromones.

  Of course, I’m a doctor and scientist and I know humans don’t have pheromones.

  Not that it applies.

  Because Diesel isn’t human.

  He’s a Dragon.

  I don’t know how that’s possible, and I certainly don’t know what that means.

  All I know is that he’s a Dragon.

  And I’m his mate.

  Also, he’s kissing me.

  By God, he’s kissing me!

  4

  DIESEL

  I kiss her like I want to devour her, swallow her whole so she’s a part of me forever, so I can protect her forever, lock her away in the vault of my heart forever. The heat of her warm lips burns me in a way no flame ever could, and I claw at her back as I wrap my body around her like a blanket.

  I wasn’t expecting this to happen like it did—hell, I wasn’t expecting to even talk to her today! I’d been following Dorrie all day, just like I’d been doing ever since my Dragon’s instincts led me to her, ever since it was revealed to me that she was mine to protect, mine to claim, mine to love.

  I’m about to pop her up on the hood of her golden car, rip off her clothes, tear her panties to shreds so I can taste her sex that I can already smell in the air. But I know if I start down that path there’ll be no stopping me until I claim her in every way I’ve imagined ever since I first laid my fiery eyes on that perfect ass.

  “Diesel, listen . . .” she whispers as I run my hand down along the curve of her back, stopping just above the swell of her butt even though I don’t want to stop—not now, not ever. I feel like I could take her all night and all day, again and again until she’s overflowing with my seed, filled with my need, taken and owned, possessed and claimed.

  But I’ve waited for months even though I knew she was mine. I can wait a bit more. Until I get her to my shop, at least. Then I can get her all greased up before we play doctor . . .

  “Yeah, I know,” I growl, reluctantly breaking from the kiss, even more reluctantly stopping myself from sliding my big paws all the way down along her perfectly sized rear. “We should probably—”

  I’m interrupted by a terrible screech, and my mind springs into high alert as I scan the skies for Arthur’s Dragon—the beast I’ve been hiding from for two centuries. I don’t know why I thought of that asshole twice today when I’ve barely wasted a moment worrying about him over the past few decades.

  It’s because my Dragon senses how close we are to claiming our mate, I realize as I look down at Dorrie in my arms, her bosom all squished up against my hard chest, her lips shining from the way I kissed her, her brown eyes sparkling like little moons from some magical planet. My Dragon knows that soon Dorrie will bear our children, and it’s already paranoid about any potential threat to her safety.

  So Arthur the Asshole better stay put on his fucking castle or cave or crack in the ground. This isn’t the time to fuck with me. You shoulda finished it two centuries ago when I was a young hothead, my Dragon not fully developed. But now I’m a fucking Alpha too, Arthur, and you’d better—

  My train of thought almost spirals downhill as I’m ripped in two by the competing drives of sex and violence, the two dangerously interlinked forces that a Dragon is doomed to juggle for eternity. But then I feel Dorrie wriggle against me like she’s trying to get away from me.

  “What’s wrong?” I growl, my eyes still scanning the skies for any sign of Arthur or his brother Brogan. No sign of Dragons, and I almost relax. But suddenly I hear that horrendous screech again, and I instinctively grab Dorrie tighter, lifting her right off her feet as she screams in shock.

  I spin around, and then I crouch to my knees and pull Dorrie to the ground. I’m about to roll her under the BMW in case I need to Change to my Dragon and fight, but she grabs my arms and screams up at me.

  “What are you doing?” she yells. “Let me go, Diesel! I need to answer that!”

  “What?” I say, totally bewildered, my head spinning as my Dragon goes wild at the prospect of having to fight when its human mate is vulnerable. “Answer what?”

  Dorrie pushes my hands off her and struggles to her feet, her face flushed and angry, maybe even a little scared. She glares at me and pulls open her car door, reaching inside and grabbing a cell phone.

  The phone vibrates, and then it lets out the screech that almost drove me to madness a moment ago. I stare in disbelief as she answers the phone. “Wait, that was your fucking ring-tone?” I say, not sure whether to laugh or grab the phone and crush it like a peanut.

  But Dorrie isn’t in the mood for jokes, and she turns her back to me to take the call. When she turns to face me I know something’s up.

  “What is it?” I say, my Dragon going on high alert again when we see her expression.

  “I’m needed back at the ER,” she says with a sigh, looking at her watch and then sighing again. She pulls her hair back and ties a quick pony-tail, and it’s all I can do to not kiss her again. “That’s the job.”

  I stand mute like an idiot as Dorrie straightens her top and turns to her car like she wants to check herself in the mirror. Then I remember I just broke her mirror clean off.

  “You can’t drive that without a side-view mirror,” I say, stepping forward and slamming my palm against the window. Unfortunately there’s a little too much animal-energy flowing through my body, and my big hand pushes through the thick glass like it’s plastic wrap! “Oh, fuck!” I groan as my hand goes through the window and gets stuck since it’s shatter-proof glass. I twist and turn, and finally I yank my hand back—which of course pulls the entire fucking window out.

  Now I’m standing on the side of the road with a BMW window around my wrist like a bracelet, and I just shrug and grin.

  “Um . . . OK . . .” she says, blinking three times like she doesn’t believe the stupidity of what she just witnessed. “Well, now I’m definitely not street-legal!’ she says before glancing at her phone, her thumb twitching like she’s about to call a taxi or car service. Then she glances down the road, towards my beloved truck in the distance. She sighs and starts walking, looking back over her shoulder while I try not to stare at her mesmerizing ass. “Drop me off a block away from the hospital. I don’t want anyone to see me getting out of that hideous truck.”

  I frown, my blood boiling at the jab. Does she ser
iously not like those flames I painted on my truck? How does a dragon’s mate not like flames?!

  My Dragon agrees with me, and I feel the fire roil our blood. It wants to come forth, and I understand why. We were so close to claiming our mate, and that energy needs to go somewhere or else something’s gonna give. No way I’m sitting right next to her in my truck, winding through rush-hour traffic as her scent invades me. There’s a fucking time-bomb primed to explode in my pants, and there’s only one way to channel that energy elsewhere.

  So I glance over at the horizon and exhale. The sun has set, and soon it’ll be dark. I take a moment to indulge in the sight of my curvy mate strutting down the street like a vision of perfection, and then I shrug and spread my arms out wide.

  “Don’t worry, Doctor Dorrie,” I growl as my Dragon bursts forth in practiced silence. Immediately the beast’s power to bend light goes into operation, and then we’re gliding through the air like a shark in the dark depths of the ocean. “Nobody’s gonna see what drops you off at the hospital.”

  5

  DORRIE

  I make it through a heart attack, a gunshot wound, and a broken leg before I get a moment to myself in the ER which seems to be hopping with patients with all kinds of random conditions. I toss my gloves and mask and hurriedly scrub off as I try to hold myself together.

  “An invisible Dragon gave me a ride to the ER,” I whisper to myself after finally locking myself in the restroom and staring into the mirror. “You didn’t imagine it. You aren’t crazy. There’s a man who can turn into a dragon, and he says you’re . . . he says I’m . . . he says . . .”

  But I can’t finish the sentence, and I slowly lean forward and rest my forehead against the cool mirror. I keep my eyes closed, and I swear I can feel my feet lifting off the ground, feel the wind in my hair, hear the rumble of the beast that’s got me in its talons. The feeling is sublime, and I almost moan out loud as I stroke my neck and live through that magical experience again and again.

  And then I’m living through that magical kiss again, the smoky aroma of Diesel’s body, the way his big lips smothered mine, the way his muscles felt against my curves. I was so far gone in that moment I don’t even know if I’d have stopped him if he’d popped me up on the hood of my car and taken me right there, out in the open!

  “You’re a bad, bad doctor,” I whisper as the arousal slithers through me like a serpent in the night. My nipples are hard and pointy beneath my scrubs, and I know my panties are so wet I should probably change before going back out there.

  Before I realize what I’m doing I’m caressing my neck as I imagine Diesel’s big hands moving along my bare skin. I saw how badly he wanted me out there. His need was so strong I could taste it in the air, smell it in his scent, see it in his burning green eyes. I could feel the animal in him, and I wanted to give myself to him like a she-beast in heat. I wanted to let him take me like we were wild creatures of the forest. I wanted to—

  “Doctor Diesel? Are you in there?” comes a muffled voice from outside, and I almost snap my teeth and growl, I’m so pissed at being interrupted. I’m about to bark out a response, but then I remember that I’m paid a six-figure salary and I don’t get union breaks. Also, I’m now the senior ER doctor since Diesel conveniently turned Doctor Dick into an apple fritter because he got too close to me . . .

  “Careful if you get too close to Doctor Dorrie,” I whisper through a crooked smile as my arousal mixes with the moment of anger to create an emotion that makes me tremble. It strikes me that I’m almost thrilled at the extreme possessiveness oozing from Diesel and his Dragon. Yes, it thrills me. It excites me. Even though it scares me.

  Or maybe because it scares me.

  Now I burst through the door, almost hitting my nurse in the face as I storm out into the hallway, my stethoscope swinging like a snake in a tree, my legs feeling powerful, my mind sharp as a razor. I don’t know where all this energy is coming from, but I love it.

  “What’s going on today?” I say to my nurse as I hear yet another ambulance pull up near the back doors.

  “Full moon,” says the breathless nurse as she struggles keep up.

  I lean my head back and laugh. Every ER doctor and nurse is very familiar with how there’s an uptick of ER traffic on a full moon night. It’s been studied and verified in hospitals around the world, but nobody’s really been able to explain it so it gets relegated to urban-myth status.

  “Great,” I say, sighing as the medics wheel a middle-aged man who’s laying flat on his belly, a sheepish look in his eyes. I know that look. It’s a look that says, “Doctor, I have no idea how that hamster got up my ass!”

  Thankfully a more serious case rolls in so I can offload Mister Butt-mouse to one of the interns, and I quickly get to work sterilizing and suturing. Soon I’m totally in the flow of the moment, doing what I was born to do, handling injuries and illnesses without batting an eyelid, dealing with death and decay with a smile under my mask.

  It’s only when I step back to catch my breath that I notice something odd through the skylight that’s cut into the sloping part of the roof.

  The moon.

  The full moon.

  It’s bright and shiny, bigger than I’ve ever seen it. It’s also got a reddish tint, and I cock my head and stare up at it like I’m in a trance.

  “Blood Moon tonight,” I whisper under my breath. I know that’s when the moon is closest to Earth and the sun’s light hits it differently, causing a bending effect that makes the moon look red from certain angles. Sorta like how Diesel explained that his Dragon can bend light to look invisible even though it’s still very much there (which is why it casts a shadow sometimes).

  Soon I’m lost in the moon, and I stare transfixed at the glowing orb in the night sky. It seems to be turning redder as I stare, burning brighter like it’s got its own light suddenly, its own fire that’s heating me up even though the moon is supposed to be dark and cold.

  The background noises rise to a cacophony, like a roomful of cats banging empty pots and pans. I’m about to cover my ears and scream, but then everything goes silent, quiet like a graveyard, dead like the dark side of the moon.

  And then she speaks.

  She speaks to me.

  The moon speaks to me.

  6

  MEANWHILE . . .

  IN A CASTLE ON THE DEAD SEA . . .

  ADDIE

  “A Moon Dragon,” I say to Bonnie and Callie, holding up the ancient scroll from Arthur’s library. “Listen to this, guys. Pureblood Moon Dragons are all female. Apparently they don’t get along with Fire Dragons, who get their power from the sun.”

  “Oops,” says Bonnie with a snort. “We better hope none of the Sorority Sisters is destined to be a Moon Dragon then.” She glances around the room in the North Turret of our castle. The men have taken the kids out hunting for Phoenix (which is not as brutal as it sounds . . .), and it’s just us three women alone for once.

  Callie takes the scroll from me and hunches over it, skimming through the old-style calligraphy and then looking up like something just occurred to her.

  “What is it?” I say.

  Callie doesn’t reply. Instead she put the scroll down and walks over to the open balcony. She looks up at the sun like she’s thinking. “Probably nothing,” she says, turning and smiling.

  “That means it’s probably something,” says Bonnie. “Come on. What is it?”

  Callie bites her lip and glances up at the blue sky. “The scroll said that a Moon Dragon can join with its human only during a Grand Blood Moon. A Blood Moon is when the moon gets very close to Earth and so the light reflects off it weird, making it look red.”

  “Why do you know so much about Blood Moons?” I say with a smile.

  Callie snorts. “Because a Blood Moon also means it’s a Full Moon that night. And Full Moon nights were crazy at the prison. Fights, injuries, random accidents, you name it.” Bonnie and I laugh, but Callie continues. “Anyway, Blood Moons ha
ppen once or twice a year, so they’re uncommon but not that rare. Grand Blood Moons, on the other hand, are extremely rare. That’s when the moon is at the absolute closest point it can ever be to the Earth, and it only happens once every two thousand years.” Callie looks right at us, her eyes narrowed. When she speaks, her voice trembles with excitement. “The last time we had a Grand Blood Moon was two thousand years ago. Two thousand years ago today!”

  An eerie silence falls over all three of us, and I know we’re all thinking the same thing. After Callie’s Star Dragon joined with her, we realized that there are other types of Dragons that are destined to join with humans when the conditions are right.

  And it sure as hell sounds like if one of the sisters is destined to be a Moon Dragon, then the conditions are indeed right.

  Right . . .

  And right now.

  7

  DIESEL

  “Not right now,” I say to the guy who just walked into my shop. “We’re closed. If it’s an emergency you can call a tow-truck from the pay-phone in the corner.”

  “I don’t have any coins,” comes the reply, and my back stiffens at the voice. “Just a Red Diamond the size of your head. Though I might’ve misplaced that. You know what I’m talking about, right, Diesel?”

  My Dragon lurches inside me and I stagger back from the counter as I fight to keep my wings from exploding out of my back so I don’t destroy my shop and the entire city block. But it’s really fucking hard when the fight is rising in me like a fever. A fight that’s been a long time coming.

  A fight that’s gonna be to the death.

  “Arthur,” I growl, finally turning to face my old enemy. It’s an enemy that was once a friend, and everyone knows that friends make the most deadly enemies. “How did you find me?”

  Arthur laughs as he crosses his arms over his broad chest, and I blink as I quickly size him up. Fucker’s even bigger than he was two centuries ago, and from the veins bulging on his neck and forearms he clearly hasn’t let himself go. Good. At least it’ll be a fair fight.