Dragon Hunts by Lizzie Lynn Lee Page A

smile faded when I caught Declan’s reflection in the glass. His lips had turned into a hard line. His blue eyes were ice.
    Declan didn’t like competition.
    Chastised, I tucked my tail between my legs and pretended I was busy with my briefcase. A slow, whirring noise whispered between us and the driver. Declan had put up the privacy screen.
    “You don’t like me, do you?” he asked.
    The question ambushed me and I found myself gaping like an idiot.
    His gaze skewered me, brimming with intensity, leaving the air around me thin.
    “What? M—me? Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “You’re generous with your smile except with me.”
    The neurons in my brain short-circuited. “I smile,” I said defensively, a little too loud, “all the time.” He arched his lush golden eyebrow. “You’re my boss. I don’t want to look goofy in front of you.” My excuse was lame, but I didn’t know what to say. Why had he suddenly become over-sensitive about me smiling, anyway?
    Declan echoed the word ‘goofy’ and reflected upon it. The contracts dangled from his fingers. He relaxed his posture, stretching his long legs out in the middle of the floor. We were sitting side by side. The limo was spacious enough to accommodate a dozen people, but he always chose to sit next to me whenever we were out.
    My heart skipped a beat when he placed his hand on my knee and stroked it. His flirting had never extended beyond the verbal before. I was sure what he was doing was solid grounds for a sexual harassment suit, but I didn’t want to lose my job. Not in my situation. Not this time.
    “You know, Jessie,” he began, no longer addressing me by my last name. “I don’t know how I could be more obvious about my interest in you. So I’m going to be blunt. I’m taken with you. You never object when I express my interest. But you don’t seem to give it a lot of consideration, either.”
    Jeez, I wonder why. I’d like to keep my job, thank you very much.
    “Jessie.”
    I inhaled sharply.
    Our gazes locked. My face heated.
    “Are you afraid of losing your job? I’m not the kind of man who’d sink that low to get what I want,” he added, after a few seconds of silence.
    I struggled to find the right words to say while he stroked his fingers upwards to my inner thigh. The contracts drifted near his ankles, abandoned.
    Declan purred. “Although, your body doesn’t lie…”
    He leaned closer. I froze. Our faces were only a hair’s breadth apart. Every cell in my body was petrified when he brushed his lips over mine. Declan took a light nibble at first, and when I didn’t refuse, he mashed his lips against mine and kissed me deeply. A low, hungry growl rumbled in his throat.
    I gasped. “Mr Cairne…”
    He slid his tongue in and engulfed me in one ferocious kiss. One that rendered me breathless and mindless. I instinctively grabbed the lapels of his suit, but I couldn’t decide whether I should push him away or pull him closer. I was lost, swimming in a thick torrent of heat. I burned. From the inside out.
    The biggest part of me wanted his warmth.
    Feeling his body against mine. Smelling his expensive, designer cologne. Him. Raw. A male so perfect that he made my heart ache.
    But the rational part of me warned that what I was doing would carry hefty consequences.
    Declan slipped his hand onto the side of my cheek. He brushed my jaw with his thumb. He slid his hand to the back of my head, fingers planted on my scalp, offering me no escape. He took possession of me. Completely.
    He broke the kiss, examining my reaction.
    “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted you ever since the first time I saw you enter my office.”
    “W—what?” I slurred like a drunk. “Mr Cairne—”
    “Declan.”
    I felt weird about calling him by his first name.
    He kissed me again. “Say it.”
    I swallowed hard. “Declan.”
    He pressed his lips against mine once more, in a tender kiss. They felt so warm. So addictive.
    “Wasn’t so hard, was