Free DragonMate by Jory Strong Page A

reassuring.
     
    “Yes, but she thinks she can handle it.” Or at least that’s what Jazzlyn thought Caro was trying to convey, along with a warning to stay away.
     
    “Perhaps that’s why Aislinn picked up only hints of anger and fear but not terror or panic.”
     
    “Maybe.” Jazzlyn turned in his arms, chilled despite the heat pouring off his skin.
     
    Aislinn had also told her to trust her instincts, and her instincts said Caro had wanted help, until Mark said or did something to make Caro say, “Worry about yourself.” Otherwise why would Carolyn have made a point of saying Mark was nothing like John Lamford?
     
    Kirill’s hand stroked the length of her spine. “You don’t think your cousin can take care of herself?”
     
    “I don’t know. She started to tell me where she was, then didn’t. I think she was warning me to stay away. But everything inside me says I need to see Caro in person before I can let this go.”
     
    Jazzlyn sighed and closed her eyes, savoring the pleasure and comfort of being held. With sudden insight she realized how much she wanted to be able to let worries about Carolyn go, once and for all. She wanted to mark paid to the debt she felt she owed her cousin for helping her survive the school years when she was so painfully shy.
     
    “Our relationship is complicated,” Jazzlyn murmured against the crook of Kirill’s neck, finding she wanted to say out loud the things that had been lurking in her mind for a long time. “If we weren’t related, if we didn’t have a history together, I doubt Caro and I would be friends.”
     
    Pain slashed through Jazzlyn’s heart as she remembered Carolyn calling her a loser, someone afraid of her own shadow, after first dredging up Jazzlyn’s failings from the past and tossing them at her. Being reminded of them had cut so deeply she hadn’t even been able to share what had happened with Alexandria.
     
    “We had a fight the last time we were together, about her choices when it comes to boyfriends. I told her why I thought she did what she did and suggested she see a counselor. She got mad. Really mad. Before she stormed out of the restaurant she said she was cutting me out of her life.
     
    “That was six months ago. Then out of the blue she called me and said she wanted to meet for lunch. Only she didn’t show. And she didn’t show for Nana’s birthday party. Even if she was still mad at me, she wouldn’t have taken it out on Nana.”
     
    A hot ball of fury formed in Kirill’s chest. He heard the suffering beneath Jazzlyn’s words and wanted nothing more than to remove her from this realm and leave Carolyn to the consequences of her own choices. But such a course of action was impossible.
     
    He knew what Jazzlyn was going to say even before she said, “I want to go to Mark’s house.” And he choked back a roar of denial because he knew he’d start a fire with the force of his frustration if he didn’t.
     
    The thought of her putting herself in danger was unbearable. But the thought of separating from her and leaving her unguarded in order to see to the task himself was equally intolerable.
     
    For the first time, Kirill understood how it was Xanthus and the men he’d descended from found it possible to share a mate with another male—not that he’d ever share Jazzlyn. She was his, wholly and completely his. But he could definitely see the advantages of having someone who could be trusted to sacrifice everything if it meant keeping a chosen female safe.
     
    Of course, keeping Jazzlyn safe wouldn’t be an issue if he’d accomplished what he set out to do—come to this realm, collect his mate, then return immediately to his lair.
     
    Frustration got the better of him. A small burst of flames escaped when he exhaled.
     
    Because he already considered her his mate, his dragon fire shimmered over her like an erotic kiss rather than a deadly assault. Her scent deepened as she felt it on her skin, telling him the