Smoldering Hunger by Donna Grant Page A

whatever it is you do?”
    “Aye,” he answered without hesitation.
    “Then I think we’re both lucky.” Her gaze shifted to his neck.
    Darius knew exactly what she was looking at. The head of his dragon tattoo that peeked over his right shoulder. Her interest made him want to fidget.
    “Is that a tattoo?” she asked.
    The first time he took her, he’d been clothed. The second time they’d been too frantic to notice anything like that. This third time was in the dark where she couldn’t see. It must be the streetlight behind him that shed just enough light to make out the tat.
    “Aye.”
    Her curiosity piqued, she sat up. “May I see it?”
    Darius pushed into a sitting position as she turned on the lamp on her bedside table. When she faced him, he felt the urge to pull her into his arms and kiss her. Instead, he remained still as she crawled closer.
    The first contact of her hands on the dragon head made his breath catch. Her touch was soft and light, inquisitive. He didn’t want it to stop.
    *   *   *
    Sophie was awed by the elaborate detail of the dragon head. It peered over his shoulder as if seeing who Darius was talking to. The ink was neither black nor red, but a mixture that shouldn’t even be possible.
    She moved on her knees around to see his back and could only stare in mute silence at the beauty of the artwork. The dragon took up Darius’s entire back.
    The dragon was perched, as if climbing Darius’s back to his shoulder. The detail was so impressive that she could even see the dragon’s claws digging into Darius’s back. The dragon had his wings half open while its tail curled at its tip, stopping just above his ass.
    She ran her fingers over the tattoo, unable to keep her hands off it. It wasn’t as if she knew Darius particularly well—or at all really—but she hadn’t expected him to have a tattoo. Yet, she wasn’t surprised by the revelation either.
    “Why a dragon?” she asked.
    He shrugged, causing his muscles to move and the dragon to look as if it were alive. “I like them.”
    “It’s gorgeous.”
    Darius turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. “You like it?”
    “Yes,” she said with a smile. “I’ve seen a lot of tattoos as a doctor, and I can honestly say that is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.”
    Sophie laughed when his arms snaked out and dragged her around to his front. His chocolate eyes held hers for a long moment.
    “What do you know of dragons?”
    She scrunched up her face. “I’ve never been one to love anything in a fantasy element, so I don’t know a lot about them. I know they’re in most cultures in some form—sometimes as good, sometimes as evil.”
    “And they’re the largest mythological creature in the world.”
    “True,” she admitted with a nod. “Is that why you chose it?”
    His smile caused her heart to miss a beat. “You were born to heal people. It was chosen for you.”
    “So the dragon was decided for you?” she asked.
    “It was.”
    “I didn’t take you for a man who was rooted in fantasy elements.”
    He nuzzled her neck. “I never said I was.”
    “But you’ve a dragon on your back,” she said as her eyes slid closed and her arms wrapped around his neck. His lips were doing wonderful things to her neck and throat.
    “Enough talking,” he murmured.
    Sophie forgot what they were discussing when he tweaked her nipple with his fingers. She ran her hands through his thick hair as he kissed down her throat to her neck and down to her breasts.
    A sigh escaped as she dropped her head back and gave her body once more to his skillful mouth.
    Dark Palace, Ireland
    Taraeth drummed his fingers on the arm of his throne. He’d been waiting for Balladyn for over an hour. It wasn’t like his right hand to not come when summoned.
    Then again, Balladyn had been acting strange of late. Ever since he kidnapped Rhi and tortured her. That wasn’t true. Balladyn showed his true worth as a Dark Fae when he