Excerpt of Gothic Dragon by Marie Treanor

"Look," he said, flashing his gaze down the table. Following instinctively, Esther saw that while her attention had been so distracted by Arturo and then Drago himself, things had grown much more relaxed. Not to say lax. Wine flowed faster among the remains of the magnificent feast. The noble ladies she had seen earlier had mostly departed and now women of a different character sat in several male laps. One woman had her face buried in her man's neck. Some couples were kissing with abandon. One man, seated beside his woman, bent his head and began to kiss her breasts. His hand came up to cup the covered part and the woman's eyes closed in ecstasy.

Burning, Esther dragged her eyes away, which was a mistake because she immediately encountered Drago's gaze instead.

"I would do that to you," he said. "Now."

A gasp escaped her, of want, of fear that he would, or that he wouldn't, she no longer knew.

"And what's more I think you'd like it. I think you wouldn't care if anyone watched--God's teeth, you might even like that, too. Certainly, you'd invite me closer, draw your gown just a little farther down for me, till your aureoles begin to peep out over the top and my tongue can…"

"Shut up!" she gasped. Furious at the effect of his words on her hot, traitorous body, she scrabbled frantically for defense, and found it in attack. "Do you imagine this will make me reveal the secrets of my sorcery?"

"If it doesn't, it will be such fun trying that I won't care."

She swallowed. She could imagine his hands on her body, his mouth at her breast, tugging sensuously at her nipple. It would feel so wicked, so good…

Furiously, she blinked the vision away. She had to make him stop this. "And if I agree to tell you everything now, will you leave me alone?"

He smiled and reached for his cup. Raising it to his lips he shook his head. "No," he said softly, and drank before lowering the cup. "Face it, Esther. You're captive, and you're mine. You will tell me everything. And I will have you."

If she hadn't been sitting, her legs would have given way.

"Why?" she demanded. "Punishment? Because I doubted your motive for fighting Alessandro de Verini?"

"Maybe," he confessed. "But you won't feel punished."

"I'll feel sick. Why pick on me when you have a court full of whores dying to spread their legs for you? Why pick on the one woman who doesn't want to sleep with you?"

"Because I want her more than them. And because, despite protestations, I'm fairly certain she wants me more than they do. I--er--doubt their motives. Yours is pure lust, and all the more exciting because you're fighting it."

She tried to curl her trembling lips. "Do you imagine you're reading my mind?"

"I've become good at it." He leaned closer, whispered, "Besides, I can smell your arousal."

His finger brushed lightly across the swell of her breast, burning the naked skin, making her gasp. "Why are you torturing me?"

He smiled, leaning over her so that she had to bend her head backward to hold his burning gaze. "Because I like it…" The flames seemed to have consumed the darkness of his eyes now. He looked like a devil. His mouth hovered over hers, so close she could almost taste the wine on his breath as it stirred her lips. "Because I can."

"Bastard," she whispered.

"Evil and insane…" His mouth closed over hers, already moving over her lips, opening them wider for his tongue. It was like a sensual tidal wave. She couldn't have fought him if she'd tried. Deliberately, his hand closed over her breast, like a branding before any of his court who cared to look. If there was any doubt before that she was his whore, there would be none now. Even the wild, overtly sensual kiss devastating her mouth was designed to brand her as his, and yet behind it was a curious tenderness she had never expected.

And when he broke it, his eyes blazed into hers with a passion so powerful it terrified her. She had never seen such naked lust in any man's eyes and she was so desperate to taste it she moaned aloud.

"Mine," he whispered, almost in wonder. Then, more harshly, "Mine!"

He sprang to his feet, hauling her with him. "Now."