Soren’s sensual mouth shaped into a pout as she hastily conjured jeans and T-shirts around both of them. “Selfish mammal. You know how I love seducing Majae.”
Galahad rolled to his feet and gave his friend a dry look. “You might get more opportunities, if you hadn’t indulged in the goat incident with Morgana.”
“You’d be surprised. Anyway, you laughed louder than I did, you hypocritical egg-sucker.”
He grinned. “I didn’t say it wasn’t funny.” Catching Caroline’s questioning gaze, he shook his head. “Believe me, you don’t want to know. For one thing, if I told you she’d have to kill you.”
“Then by all means, leave me in happy ignorance.”
“Smart girl.” He returned his attention to their exotic guest. “Speaking of well-cast spells, would you be willing to help us with a nasty little vampire problem?”
He described the situation, Caroline throwing in details of her own when she thought he’d missed a point. Soren listened, but when they’d finished, he shook his head. “Galahad, you know I cannot directly involve myself in mammal affairs.”
Galahad sighed. “I know, but I thought it was worth a…”
“However, I do know of a spell that might prove helpful.” He shrugged at the knight’s surprised blink. “I never could stand Geirolf and his race of parasites. These vampires are no better.”
“That’s putting it mildly. What do we need to do?”
“You, nothing.” Soren turned his shimmering gaze on Caroline. “You, come here. This is a complex spell; I’ll need to transfer it to you directly.”
Her heart gave a wary thump, but Caroline walked over to him anyway. He was even more breathtaking at close range, and she swallowed, looking up at him. “How, exactly, do you intend to do that?”
Soren gave her a wicked little smile, lowered his head, and kissed her.
She barely had time to notice his kiss wasn’t as blazingly erotic as Galahad’s when magic rolled over her in a frothing flood that rocked her back on her heels.
THE jealousy that flooded Galahad as he watched Soren kiss Caroline took him completely by surprise. It intensified when she sagged into the dragon’s arms. Galahad knew her reaction was probably from whatever spell transfer Soren was doing, but his inner Neanderthal growled. It was all he could do not to stalk over there and make lizard pâté out of his friend.
Which, considering Soren’s true form, said something about just how stupid his inner Neanderthal really was.
He’d never been this jealous of Morgana.
But just before Galahad’s common sense went down for the count, Soren lifted his head and set Caroline back on her feet. She looked dazed, which only added fuel to the fire. The dragon gave him a toothy smile. “Lucky mammal.”
“What the hell was that all about?” Galahad exploded. He knew he sounded like an idiot, but he didn’t care.
Soren shrugged his broad shoulders. “It’s the only chance I’m going to get to kiss the bride.”
“You…” Galahad’s mind belatedly processed what his friend just said. “What in Merlin’s name are you talking about?”
Obviously enjoying his reaction, the dragon folded his arms. “You do know you’re going to Truebond with this girl?”
He snorted. “You’ve been flying too high, Soren. That reptile brain is oxygen-deprived.”
Caroline blinked, as though trying to shake off whatever Soren had done to her. “Truebond? What’s a Truebond?”
“The Magekind version of marriage.” A vast oversimplification, but it would have to do for now.
Caroline’s jaw dropped in a gape. Even that looked good on her. “That’s ridiculous. We haven’t known each other twenty-four hours!”
“With a Truebond, that hardly matters.” Amusement shone in the dragon’s iridescent eyes. “You’ll tap one another’s memories, emotions, thoughts. You’ll know one another better than if you’d been married a century.”
“It’s a mind-fusion,” Galahad explained, glaring at his friend. The idea of exposing Caroline’s bright innocence to his sixteen hundred years of corruption was repellent. It would destroy her. Hell, sometimes he thought it was destroying him. “And no way in hell are we doing it.”
The dragon ignored him, looking into her eyes. “He’ll be your conduit, Caroline. You’ll free each other.”
“I said forget it!” Galahad snapped. “I don’t care what vision you had, it’s not going to happen.”
The dragon looked over at him in that infuriating way he had: wise, amused, tolerant of the hapless mammal’s foibles. “Of course not.” He gave Caroline a smile. “It was a pleasure to meet you, my sweet.”
As Soren turned and started toward the edge, Caroline stopped him. “Wait. The Truebond thing. What else did you see?”
He smiled wickedly. “This and that.” Before she could stop him again, he turned and leaped in a hard, long dive right off the edge. Caroline gasped as he disappeared, but an instant later, he shot past in dragon form, headed skyward, his massive wings beating.
She turned on Galahad, bristling. “Did you have to be such a jerk? I might have gotten some more out of him if you hadn’t run him off.”
He snorted. “Nobody gets anything out of Soren he doesn’t want to give.”
She stalked to the edge and looked up as if she were considering flying after the dragon. “Well, I’d still like to ask him when we’re supposed to do this Truebond thing.”
“We’re not Truebonding,” he gritted. “You have no idea what’s involved, and believe me, you don’t want to find out.”
“Well, it sounds to me like we’re not going to get a whole lot of choice.”
“First off, visions have been known to be wrong. Second, Soren isn’t above lying when it suits whatever game he’s playing. Third, for all you know, if we do Truebond, it won’t be for a couple of centuries. Either way, it ain’t happening anytime soon.”
Caroline glared at him. Even in his current enraged mood, he could see she was hurt. “Suits me just fine. I don’t even know you.” Whirling, she flounced off up the stairs toward the bedroom.
Galahad watched her go as irritation poured through him. Along with a healthy dose of fear.
Was the dragon right?
Merlin’s Cup, he hoped not. He’d been around long enough to know they had the beginning of something good, something he’d never encountered in all his centuries seducing Majae. There was a warmth about Caroline he rarely saw in Magekind women, an honesty and lack of calculation. And, of course, there was that innocent sensuality.
Too often Majae seemed barricaded behind ennui, wariness or cynicism until almost nothing he did could reach them. But Caroline was so deliciously open, her uninhibited reactions aroused him as much as her pretty body did.
He wanted more time with her. He wanted to nurture and protect the fragile seed between them, watch it grow. It was going to be marvelous.
But only if she wasn’t destroyed by a Truebond.
WELL, that had been pretty damn plain. Galahad wanted nothing whatsoever to do with a permanent relationship with her. After all his talk about being nothing like Dominic, he was cut from the same cloth after all.
The trick now was to maintain a strictly business relationship until they got Geirolf’s little cult taken care of. She’d keep her distance and stay out of his bed, and…
“Caroline,” Galahad said from behind her.
She straightened her shoulders, wiped the hurt from her face, and turned, determined to keep this light. “What can I do for…?”
He snatched her into his arms, and his mouth came down on hers, hungry and devouring. Caroline stiffened instinctively, but he didn’t let her go.
Oh, she thought, he’s going to be a pain in the ass.
9
OVER the next three days, Caroline discovered how right she was. She never found out if Galahad would take “no” for an answer; he made it impossible for her to get the word out of her mouth.
His centuries had taught him things to do to a woman’s body that lit Caroline’s up like the Eiffel Tower on New Year’s Eve. He wove wicked spells with his mouth and his tongue and his big, hard hands that put to shame anything she could do with her magic. He whispered velvet threats that made her knees go weak, then carried every one of them out—bending her over, spreading her wide, pinning her against the nearest wall. All so he could work his thick erection slowly into her tight flesh, sink his fangs into her throat. And take her, over and over.