Page 8 of Driven by Dragonblood (Blood Born #3)

Patrick

I ’d gotten a call last night from the board at Lockwood, inviting me to join their staff on a part-time basis.

Three days a week for now, with the possibility of going full-time, was the offer, and since my current load of clients at the office I’d opened across town barely made a dent in the bills starting to pile up, I’d thankfully agreed to fill in.

Yet another reason to get out of the house and away from the discomfort I’d left behind this morning. But that issue could wait.

Something much more disturbing now occupied my thoughts.

I tore my focus off the door that had shut behind Jaxon Denham, taking him from sight—but not from mind.

I hovered on the edge of a storm, the impending change crackling like lightning, shooting electrical charges over my skin, the same as when his fingers had grazed mine.

My scalp prickled, and I sat rigid in my chair, my palms sweating.

The boy reminded me too much of myself for comfort.

Like me, he’d heard voices as a kid, and according to his file, the fact he wouldn’t shut up about them while a youngster had landed him in psych ward after psych ward.

At least I had learned to keep silent after my first stint in a bleach-scented, white room when I’d been seven and had met the doctor who had set me on a path toward healing through medication and meditation.

Doctor Sorino had been my hero and the reason for my career choice.

My heart had shattered when I’d learned, while in my senior year of college, following in his footsteps, that he’d crossed a serious line with a patient, lost his license to practice, and was criminally charged with grooming and sexual abuse—with a minor.

He had nose-dived off the pedestal I’d placed him on, and I’d set my hero worship aside, my focus turning from becoming a man like him to helping those like me.

I’d been nothing but careful in all my years directing patients through their mental processes and behavior, prescribing medication when needed.

But Jaxon stirred up the whispering in my mind Doctor Sorino had taught me to keep under lock and key.

I’d learned how to build a wall around whatever the darkness in my soul was until all evidence of its voice had no longer existed.

While in high school, I had weaned myself off the pills that had given me a semblance of so-called normalcy, but the bricks stacked against the strangeness in my conscience had begun to crumble since seeing those old writings from my childhood three months ago.

Meeting Jaxon had sent a shiver of unease up my spine, loosening my hold over whatever it was dwelling inside me that had reawakened after finding those journals.

He also made me question my sexuality and how I had never once been attracted to another male.

He was so young that the word pedophile came to mind, even though I knew he was of legal age .

My dick didn’t agree he was off-limits—damned near jailbait like that patient had been to Doctor Sorino all those years ago when he’d given in to temptation.

Stomach turning, I grimaced and shifted on my seat.

I would not allow a similar situation to land me behind bars, no matter how badly I lusted to taste the young man’s mouth and explore every inch of his body.

The earthy scent of Jaxon’s skin beneath the hospital’s allotted soap still lingered in the enclosed office, filling my nose and causing my balls to tighten against my groin regardless of the disgust roused by Doctor Sorino’s transgressions.

Deeply bowed, Jaxon’s top lip had created enticing images in my head of shoving my dick so far down his throat he would gag. I wanted his greenish-blue eyes watering as he attempted to take every inch of me due to desperation for a belly full of cum.

A hissing sounded between my ears, and while alarm skittered through my mind, something about the entire exchange and my body’s response felt…right. As though a path had opened in front of my feet, one I needed to follow with my usual drive to accomplish any task set before me.

“Fuck.” I shifted my weight from one hip to another, trying to work through the various aspects of my current life and how to succeed in keeping from falling into temptation—and possibly fill the hollowness in my chest I weirdly felt sure Jaxon would.

My hand soothed over my left pec without thought, but the ache for so much more remained.

The suggestion that a person couldn’t be happy with others until they were with themselves hadn’t proven true in all my years of counseling patients. I’d met dozens of people who had found their soulmates, their person, who had helped them find healing and contentment.

I wanted the same, which was perhaps what had made me trust too easily in the past, setting my heart at a woman’s feet in the hopes she would offer me whatever I lacked that caused my unrest in life.

I thought of my current situation, the unstable girlfriend I’d been putting up with for too long.

A match made in heaven, we were not. She had refused my aid for months, and I was done trying to fix her brokenness that did jack shit in soothing the need for more that had grown inside me since I’d returned home.

Thoughts of tossing her out, boxing up her shit, and changing the locks had occupied my head for over two weeks, and the idea of replacing her in my bed with an alluring man forbidden to me caused heat to rush through my blood.

Yessss.

My eyelids slammed shut, and I cursed over the hiss that had become vocal, the word distinct. My heartbeat raced, my twisting stomach tightening to rock.

“I am in control,” I stated through gritted teeth, hands fisted atop my thighs to stop them from shaking—and shoving down my slacks to sate the raging lust Jaxon’s proximity had awakened inside me.

Perhaps it was time to start wearing briefs rather than going commando like I preferred.

I imagined his slender but muscular body kneeling before me, soulful eyes an intoxicating shade of the sea filled with need as he stuck out his tongue, begging to taste me. Dark, wavy hair, the perfect length to clutch while he choked?—

“Fuck.” I rubbed a hand over my short beard and stretched my neck side to side.

So, this was what a temptation that even the most stoic professional would struggle to ignore was like. The boy was a patient, even if not for long, and still forbidden, no matter the craving he’d roused inside me .

There was no doubting my body’s response to the young man, assuring me I’d experienced some sort of sexual awakening.

While I didn’t give a shit about labels when it came to whom a person loved, I’d never felt drawn toward males before.

There was no denying the attraction between us, the potent chemistry that had swarmed the room upon his arrival.

I hadn’t questioned him being as hard as I was—I swore I could smell his want wafting past my nose while I fought to keep from drawing him deeper into my lungs.

But not him—not that… kid. Even if he wasn’t jailbait age, messing around with a soon-to-be ex-patient would be frowned upon in my line of work.

My life’s motto echoing in my ears and lips in a thin line, I set my mind on ignoring the unrelenting stiff dick in my slacks. I pulled the next file from atop the twenty or so high stack and covered up the one that drew me in like a carrot dangled just out of reach.

Couldn’t. Touch.

Thank fuck Jaxon Denham would be gone in twenty-four hours without another scheduled visit to this office. Best to let him fade from my memory and figure out my next step toward fulfilling the emptiness inside me.

The first being ridding myself of the baggage at home that I never should have picked up in January.

A Dear John letter sat on the kitchen table rather than a drunk girlfriend when I arrived home.

The weight of having to end things with her and kick her out slid off my shoulders like an avalanche, and I cracked open a beer, sucking it down in hopes to cool the heat still racing through my blood.

Twice while making myself familiar with the hallways of Lockwood, I’d run across the reason for my groin’s discomfort.

He’d taken note of me from afar as well, his sexy grin making my dick throb for a good, hard fuck.

The hollowness had grown in my chest as well, aching and alarming with every hour, intensified by those brief glances.

Regardless of my determination to focus on the patients being entrusted to my care, I found myself drifting toward darker desires I’d never experienced before.

Jaxon, tied to the posts of my bed, his back marked with lashes from a flogger. Satisfaction coursed through my blood at the thought of marking his skin, burying my aching shaft deep in his ass, and claiming him as mine.

“Christ.” I clunked the empty beer bottle onto my kitchen counter and leaned forward, grasping the edges with a white-knuckled grip. Arousal coursed through me, hot and potent, making my balls seize.

Head hanging and eyes closed, I attempted to slow my breathing, but every inhale reminded me of the young man’s alluring scent. All day, the memory of him had tormented me, caused my skin to pebble, and the lust for release drove me toward madness.

But now, I was in the privacy of my own home, where lines could be crossed mentally without anyone but myself being the wiser.

“Fuck it.” Trembling with barely suppressed need, I freed my straining length, hissing as I wrapped my hand around it. Copious amounts of pre-cum welled on the head, easing the downward slide of my hand. I grunted, hips thrusting to fuck my fist as I imagined sinking deep into Jaxon’s tight heat.

I could smell the muskiness of our fucking, his scent, even though this was only a fantasy I would never allow to come to fruition. His greedy groans filled my ears as I tore off my dress shirt and held it close, ready to capture my release .

Evidence of my weakness?—