Fury of Fire (Dragonfury Series #1)

The male would’ve spent hours snooping around. But no way, not him. Rikar couldn’t wait to get out. The lab was suffocating, confining…like being in a freaking fishbowl. All the little fishes on display for the world to see.
    Rikar breathed in through his nose and out his mouth. He should’ve expected his reaction to the squat human building. Small spaces gave him the creeps. But the female? She would make him forget for a while.
    Dark hair pulled away from her face, she was bent over her worktable, looking good enough to eat. And as she filled small vials with clear liquid, Rikar imagined filling her from behind. He’d tip her hips up and…oh, yeah. That was exactly how it was going to happen.
    Reaching her lab door, Rikar peeled away from the group and turned into her fishbowl.
    Without looking up, she said, “Whatcha got?”
    Hmm, nice voice…husky but all business, with a hint of the South. Louisiana, maybe. Realizing he was empty-handed, Rikar conjured an evidence bag just like the ones he saw open on her table. He rustled the plastic. “Something looking for a home.”
    That got her attention. Turning her focus away from her science experiment, she gave him what he wanted…eye contact. And bingo. Instant attraction: pupil-dilating, mouth-parting, female hormone-surging chemistry. She was totally into him…or rather what he looked like. Fucking A. He was so totally on board with that.
    “Hey.” Rikar smiled, sending a whole lot of I-want-you-too her way. He pointed to his chest with one hand, lifted the plastic baggie with the other. “New guy. Not sure where I’m going…or who to give this to.”
    “That happens.” She smiled back and racked a test tube. Stripping off her rubber gloves, she came around the corner of the countertop toward him. “The lab’s like a big maze…confusing the first visit or two.” Less than three feet away now, she held out her hand, and Rikar got his first taste. She smelled good, so fresh and new. “Let me see what you’ve got, and I’ll point you in the right direction.”
    “Why don’t you take a break instead?” Reaching out, he cupped her outstretched hand in his, putting them palm to palm. “Get to know me a little better.”
    “Umm…” She blinked, her soft gasp music to his ears. He laced their fingers together. “I’m not supposed to—”
    “No one will ever know,” he murmured, laying it on thick. With a gentle tug, he walked backward, pulling her toward the door. “Time for a break…don’t you think?”
    And just like that, he was in…leading her by the hand down the corridor.
    Cloaking them both, Rikar hid them from the eye in the sky—all the cameras that humans liked to install everywhere. He didn’t want anyone to see where they were headed. He wanted to lay the female out, sure—take the edge off by feeding—not get her fired.
    Yeah, and wasn’t he a peach? A lying paragon about to bang a female blind and leave her just as fast.
    Rikar pushed the thought aside. It was what it was…he would get her off, take what information he needed, and get gone.
    Finding an empty office, he tugged her inside, locked the door and, when she offered her mouth, he went to work blissing her out. He didn’t ask her name. She didn’t ask his. Thank Christ. He wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. Not that he ever was, but as he took her good and hard—made her beg before letting her come—he wondered what it would be like to have a female of his own. To have someone waiting for him at the end of each night. To hold her close after he loved her each day…to not have to hunt anymore.
    Wishful thinking.
    He would never be like Bastian. That male was strong—above board—ready to sacrifice his own happiness for the good of the race. Rikar was too selfish for that. Too aware that losing his heart to a female would end more than just badly.
    So this was it. A fast fuck with a beautiful stranger in too public a place was as good as it would ever get for him.
    Half an hour later—well fed and orgasmed out—he left the pretty lab tech in a blissed-out heap and headed down the corridor. He was looking for Chuck, the skinny, wild-haired geek who occupied the last lab on the left. And, thank you God, no long search and retrieve necessary. The kid was in his lab, the purple streaks in his acid-blond hair a dead giveaway.
    Stepping over the threshold, Rikar slid the glass door closed behind him.
    “Hey, bro,” Chuck said, all surfer-dude,