“Alex,” she finally answered as she shifted to lean against him.
A whiff of scent hit him, driving his dragon to near frenzy. He knew this scent, but it shouldn’t have been coming from her. Dragon hormones. And not the ones that had been making the rounds in the clubs. These were the hormones put out by a female dragon at the peak of her fertile cycle. It was one of the few things that could drive a male dragon out of his mind. His body tightened with need. This was not going to be pleasant for either of them. “Come on.” Clamping down on his control, he tried to ignore the physical reaction he was having to the pheromones coming off her. They needed help. Badly. There was no telling what else had been in that needle.
Wrapping his arm around her back, Alex shifted Terra to his side to help her to the garage door. He opened it and slammed it shut again. There were two more men in the garage. He clicked the lock into place and looked back at the man he had knocked out. No wonder he’d gone down so easily—he had been cannon fodder, sent in to dose Terra. Then, when the pheromones bouncing around in her system affected Alex, his buddies would come in and finish the job. Who the hell were these people?
“Come on.” Alex coaxed Terra back towards the living room. Since the garage was blocked, they had to find another way out. The back door should provide a good exit. The sound of breaking glass stopped him. Of course, whoever these people were would have the back of his house guarded as well. Crap.
For half a second, Alex considered taking Terra upstairs, but that would corner them. That was a bad idea. Pushing that thought away, he turned back to the small hall leading to the garage. “This way.”
Terra nodded and followed his direction.
Running his fingers over the knotty pine paneling next to the bathroom, Alex found the seam he was looking for. Digging his nails into the crack, he pulled open the hidden utility closet. Until a few weeks ago, this space had held his ageing water heater. Alex had pulled the damned thing out when it had sprung a leak and ruined part of the wall in his closet. Instead of replacing the damaged appliance with a new one, Alex had decided to go with one of those inline water heaters, leaving the utility cabinet empty.
“Get in.” Alex pushed Terra towards the dark closet.
She nodded again and climbed inside without question.
Aww hell. Terra’s unquestioning response set all of Alex’s instincts tingling. He had never seen the new designer drug in action, but he’d read all the reports on how it affected its victims. They would start out delirious and move on to highly suggestible. That described Terra’s condition perfectly. Alex pushed her farther into the closet and climbed in behind her. Pulling the door closed, he ran through the list of symptoms, hoping he wasn’t right.
Working around her, Alex reached for the wall at the back of the closet. Terra let out a soft moan, confirming Alex’s fears. On top of the female hormones, she seemed to have been dosed with the drug making the rounds in the clubs. The next phase would find her insatiable and demanding. This was the reason getting a rape charge out in court was so hard. You couldn’t really call it rape when the woman was the aggressor. Even if she were being driven by a chemical reaction. They needed to get out of there now. He was barely holding out against the pheromones as it was. It was going to be even harder when they started affecting her. Alex shushed her softly and popped the piece of drywall out of the wall. He’d been working on patching the damaged wall for a while now, but everything had blown up at work, and he hadn’t found time to finish nailing the new board in place. Now he was glad he hadn’t.
The new opening led into the back corner of Alex’s closet. Sliding the plaster out of the way, Alex guided Terra out into the open space he had made to work. She moaned again as his hands touched her. It was not going to be long now before she completely lost control.
Sliding the closet door open, Alex looked out into his bedroom. So far, there was no one there. “Come on.” He pushed Terra out into the open space next to his bed. If he could just get her outside, he had a plan that might work to get them away. His hand slid down to the small of her back, driving a much louder moan from her. There was no way they were going to make it out if she continued to make sounds like that. He was going to have to do something fast before the intruders heard her.
Grabbing her in his arms, Alex turned Terra around and dropped his lips to hers. A zing of lust washed through him, driving all thought from his brain. He was already hard with desire, but the taste of her lips drove him to the very edge of his control. He groaned as he pulled her in against him. Her arms came around him, and she pressed into his front eagerly. The feel of her against him was exquisite. All thought of the men invading his home ran from his mind, and they stood together, lost in each other’s passion.
A rustle of scales broke through the lust as the sounds of footsteps on the stairs echoed through the room. Danger to Mine! his dragon growled, reminding him of their situation. They needed to get out of there. He pulled himself away from Terra’s clutching hands just enough so he could think again.
Sliding his hands to her hips, Alex pressed Terra back without releasing her lips. If he could just move them to the other end of the room, he had a plan for their escape. Slowly, he walked her backwards across the room. The hungry sounds she was making were muffled in his mouth. A note of hope crept into his heart as he continued to kiss and guide her towards the far wall. Stepping on the heels of his boots, he worked them off as they went.
As the passion rose between them, Terra started tugging at his shirt.
He moved so she could work his shirt up his back. Alex drew in a gasp of air as her nails scraped over his skin in her haste to get him out of his clothing, but the rumbled warning from his dragon helped him resist the urge to pull her against him again.
Their lips parted long enough for Terra to rip the shirt up and over his head. The cool air on his hot skin made him suck in more air. The thought of danger gave him the strength he needed to resist giving in to his urges.
She threw the cloth to the floor and returned to his mouth with more vigor than before. Her tongue worked against his with a passion that tested Alex to his limits. He moaned as her hands dropped to the waistband of his pants and yanked on the button, ripping it open.
Catching her wrists, he stopped her before she could slide her hand down inside his clothing. If her delicate fingers worked against his hardened length, even the warning his dragon was screaming at him wouldn’t be enough to get them out of there. He was barely hanging on as it was. Lifting her hands away from their goal, he wrapped them around his back and pulled her against him again. Her clothing was coarse against his oversensitive skin, but he held her to him, trying to keep her moving backwards to the far wall. If he just concentrated on reaching that wall, he could push back the desire racing through him.
She made another desperate noise that he caught in his mouth. Her nails bit into the skin of his back, fraying his control even more. Had she been any other woman, he might have given in at that moment. But she was his mate—Mine! —and he had to keep her safe. That one instinct was the only thing counteracting the hormones racing through his system. Giving in to the overwhelming need flowing through them both would only get them caught. Breaking their kiss, Alex glanced behind Terra to see how far they had to go. There were only a few feet left.
Denied access to his mouth, Terra moaned and dropped her lips to Alex’s collarbone.