Page 5 of Drawn by Dragonblood (Blood Born #1)

Dakota

N eed burned in my core, a desperate yearning for the man sharing our fire and breakfast. His presence was a magical cinch on every atom in my body, attempting to pull me closer from where I’d firmly planted myself at my husband’s side.

A live wire of tension between Jon and Elijah sizzled and snapped in the open air as well, but I couldn’t tell where it stemmed from.

Lust or jealousy?

Jon was straight, so I feared the latter as the minutes slid past and my unrest continued.

I hadn’t been able to hide the instant connection I’d felt with Elijah like I would sometimes experience with complete strangers.

That unvoiced whisper through my thoughts promised I knew him from a different reality.

Or, rather, something about him hid from my mind like a fuzzy pane of glass when I tried to figure it out.

Years ago, a similar but not nearly as potent a situation as this had caused Jon’s and my one serious fight that had left both of us brokenhearted. But the draw toward Elijah was a hundred times more insistent—and sexual in nature unlike the others’ images I’d captured and stored on my laptop.

An all-consuming need owned my body to explore whatever it was that connected us on a different plane than anything I’d felt for a stranger before. My body urged— begged —to touch and taste. Become one with him emotionally and physically as I’d only ever done with my husband.

Jon had noticed my reaction. He could read me like an open book, always had, and he was well aware of my obsession with all things supernatural. Paranormal books lived rent free in my head. Daydreamer didn’t begin to describe my state of mind most days.

I trusted Jon to be my protector in the real world.

I always deferred to him to keep me safe since he was critical and careful in making choices while my head floated in the clouds.

In my imagination, I was secretly a fierce creature rather than needy and insecure, a woman who didn’t second-guess herself at every turn.

If only that other half of me existed in real life.

Even though Jon didn’t appear angry or shift away from where our thighs touched, guilt like I hadn’t experienced in years twisted my stomach.

My body’s reaction to the pale-eyed stranger must have hurt Jon, and like an idiot, I’d invited Elijah to stay for breakfast without thinking it through beyond my desire to feed and care for a guest.

I’d promised Jon all those years ago when my sixth sense nearly ended us to never hurt him again.

That he was my one and only, forever and always.

Jon was my reason for living and had been since we were young.

There had never been a doubt in my mind that we were meant to be together.

Best friends as children, we’d bonded by our similar home life, but we became so much more as we had grown into adulthood.

Our bodies changed at the same time, mine much later than most girls.

A late bloomer but perfectly in tune with Jon’s squeaky voice and filling out.

I hadn’t ever considered touching another man, hadn’t ever desired anyone else in that way until the crystalline blue eyes of Elijah Tolzman met mine.

My blood roused like I read about almost nightly on my e-reader.

Unnatural, unquenchable desire even more than I felt for my husband flooded through me and refused to lessen as we ate.

The yearning to draw closer to the man disrupted more than just our peaceful hike through the White Mountains.

He’d brought an unrest deep in my soul I couldn’t categorize in my head.

And although Jon had always been the one I trusted with my emotional well-being, I feared my need of his direction in that moment.

Knowing how Elijah made me feel would prickle Jon’s insecurities that stemmed from his never measuring up to the expectations his foster parents had put on him.

But what could I do other than defer to Jon’s leadership?

I would find a way to squash the stirrings inside me.

Had to. Then Elijah would leave, and Jon and I could move forward in the life we attempted to build together.

My eyes strayed to the one who’d disrupted our peace.

Elijah was the opposite of Jon, bulky with muscles compared to the lithe, swimmer-like body I’d had wrapped around me all night in our warm sleeping bag.

An alpha, rugged mountain man aura surrounded Elijah although his carefully groomed facial hair and the styled hair atop his head suggested refinement.

He spoke with clarity, enunciating every word, his manners impeccable even though we sat on the ground beside a campfire.

If I truly believed in time travel as I did magical creatures roaming the earth among humanity, I’d swear the man had been born and raised a century or two earlier.

I wanted to capture his beautiful face from every angle, stolen images for me to ponder on as I often did over my laptop’s strange folder in attempts to figure out why I felt drawn to complete strangers.

Not a single one of them had ever tipped my life sideways as Elijah had done though, not even that man from the streets of New York.

I sat on uneven ground in a figurative sense, fearing leaning fully one way or another would send me tumbling into an abyss. While the unknown caused my heart to race with sweet anticipation, dread of what awaited me through the fog clouding my future tightened my chest.

I continued to brush against Jon with my usual affection, seeking assurance. I also hoped he took comfort in my nearness, but he seemed intent on Elijah rather than focused on the jealousy that must burn in his stomach.

My eyes stung over my body’s betrayal of my one true love.

How long would Jon be disappointed in me? Would I be given the chance to prove myself to him? Assure him of the faithfulness I’d pledged to him not that long ago before the Justice of the Peace that had declared us husband and wife?

Regardless of the tension among Elijah, Jon, and I, we remained social, Jon more gracious than I’d expected. Casual conversation flowed, all surface stuff that held no meaning beyond passing the time until we went our separate ways.

Hopefully sooner than later.

The three of us discussed the peaks Jon and I had climbed and the ones I still wanted to see and take pictures of.

The White Mountains had always felt like home even though we’d both been born in upstate New York, and as with everything, Jon agreed to do what I wanted when it became clear we had to cancel our trip to Bermuda.

But would he forgive me this time since I’d gone way beyond my usual unusual interest in strangers?

I fought off tears all through our shared breakfast while faking a smile, my body and mind at war over arousal I couldn’t stop.

Soaked panties clung to my pussy, my nipples tight and aching because of one dark stranger whose presence tempted me to be unfaithful to the man I trusted to be my partner until death parted us.

The crisp morning air hinted at an approaching storm like the one raging inside me. The dark clouds crept toward us from the southwest and trailhead where we’d parked our old car for the week, matching my mood and unsettled emotions I fought to keep contained.

Elijah glanced at the horizon then at the double sleeping bag Jon and I had slept in the night before after stargazing while enjoying our usual pillow talk. “Do you have a tent?” he asked.

I squeezed my thighs together against the desire his voice incited like an alpha in one of my shifter romance books.

Me and my damned fanciful mind.

“Yeah we do,” Jon replied, tucking an escaped strand of hair behind his ear, “but you know what they say, ‘If you don’t like the weather here in New England?—’”

“—wait a minute.” Elijah finished with a smile, his attention still on the approaching clouds as though he too was wary of what they might bring.

“The storm was forecasted to pass south of us, but that appears not to be the case. And, with the flash flooding and dangerous winds they said would accompany the storm...”

“Maybe we ought to hike out of here,” I said, setting my scraped-clean bowl aside, my feet itching to move.

Toward Elijah.

No.

Away from him, hand in hand with Jon who owned my heart.

My mind felt torn in two, my body doubly so. Eyes stinging, I stared at Elijah, wishing I could name what it was that drew me to him.

“You’ll be soaked long before making it back to civilization, regardless of what trails you take,” he said, his gaze on Jon, thank goodness, because I wouldn’t be able to deny him if he looked at me with the same desire as he did my husband.

Jon shrugged as though unaffected by Elijah’s blatant hungry stare, but I noted the tension in his shoulders and the tightness bracketing his lips. “Can’t be helped.”

“My house is a short distance away,” Elijah reminded us. “You’re welcome to wait out the bad weather there.”

Jon scanned the mountains and rocks around us as my pulse thrummed at the thought of spending more time with Elijah. Nothing good could come from it even though my body begged otherwise.

“You really have a place in these mountains?” Jon asked. “I thought this was a national forest.”

“It is, but my ancestors lived here long before the government made this protected land. We’re the ones who sold most of it to them, in fact.

” Elijah spoke without any hint of bragging in his voice.

“I’m the last of my line and have been able to keep the retained land in seclusion by a private road that I keep gated. ”

“What do you do in the winter?” Jon asked.

“Helicopter when the weather isn’t too bad, Humvee when it is.”

“You have power all the way out here?”

“Being off-grid these days is easier than most think,” Elijah said, pushing up to his feet.

I tore my needy gaze off him and glanced over at Jon, who had tilted his head back to look at the man standing over us in a show of dominance that wasn’t as threatening as it ought to be.