Read Online Dragon Mine (A Hidden Novella) by Jaime Rush - Free Book Online Page A

into sleep, making her feel safe and loved and a few other things that had nothing to do with sleep.
    “Good night,” she said, forcing herself to go into her room and close the door.
    The space she’d lived in as a teenager still bore her painted daisies on its maroon walls. Like mother, like daughter with her teenaged flower obsession. Elle wished she was that girl again, her biggest problem falling for the forbidden boy who worked at the factory.
    She stripped out of her clothes, catching her reflection in the bathroom mirror. No, being a grown up was good. Even with her bruises, both inside and out. She flicked on the shower and didn’t even wait until it was hot to step beneath the water.
    After drying off, she wrapped herself in a silk robe. She dug through the bathroom cabinet and found the cream she always used on bruises and scrapes. Concocted by Nana, it was an amazing mix of herbs and magick and not nearly as disgusting as Earthen. Elle went down the hall to the guest room and knocked.
    “Come in.”
    His voice was muffled. She saw why when she opened the door. He was lying face-down on the bed, still damp from his shower. Droplets dotted his broad back and pooled in the indent of his spine, but it was the swath of raw-looking skin that riveted her attention.
    He turned his head at her soft intake of breath. “Sorry; should have warned you I was naked.”
    “No, it’s…your back.”
    “Looks worse than it feels.”
    She walked in. “Then why aren’t you lying on it?”
    “All right, it hurts like a bitch. Fighting mostly naked is right under frying fish naked. Bad idea. I’m not used to fighting in human form.”
    She held up the jar. “I’ve got some cream that might help.”
    “You’re an angel. Throw a sheet over my bare ass, would you? Don’t want to be immodest.”
    “I don’t care.” She let her gaze drift down to his narrow hips and tight behind. Okay, she cared. She had touched this body many times, reveling in the fact that this gorgeous man was hers. That he wanted her, only her. His golden complexion glowed in the light. His arms were bent, hands beneath his head, flexing his biceps. She focused on opening the jar before he saw that she was staring at him.
    “Will it hurt?” he asked, though he didn’t sound worried.
    “Oh, it’ll be painful.” To touch him and not touch him. “But nothing you can’t handle.”
    As she lathered on the cream, she thought about his claim that wanting her was more than just the sex. Was he telling the truth? She could use her ability to sense him and find out. First she had to get him thinking about it. She smoothed her fingers down his back. His muscles stiffened and then relaxed. The scrapes’ redness lessened within seconds.
    “When you said you still dreamed about me…did you mean that?”
    “I’ve never lied to you, Elle. Not about how I felt.”
    She laid her hand on his back and closed her eyes. Images buffeted her, and she had to hold back her sharp intake of breath and the way her body jerked. She saw herself in his eyes, beautiful and perfect. And now, right now, she felt how her touch coursed through his body with pleasure and painful longing all at once.
    He grabbed her hand and turned over. “You were reading me, weren’t you?” He didn’t look angry, more like curious.
    She wanted to deny it but couldn’t after what he’d said about honesty. “Yes.” She released a breath. “I needed to know if you felt it, too, if it hurt so bad when we were apart that it was like being gutted, and then if seeing me again was like some part of you could breathe for the first time in months.” Okay, too honest there.
    He pulled her down and kissed her fiercely, hungrily. She let herself just feel, getting lost in him. No one had ever loved her the way Kirin had. She ran her hands up his arms, over his shoulders, and across his chest.
    “I dreamed about you too,” she said between kisses. Waking up in a sweat from a dream so vivid