"Kenyon, Sherrilyn - Dark-Hunter 03 - Dragonswan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Sherrilyn)

She felt oddly beautiful around him. Desirable.
"Tell me, Channon," he said, releasing her hand and glancing from her to the tapestry. "What has you so interested in this?"
Channon looked back at it and the intricate embroidery that covered the yellowed linen. Honestly, she didn't know. Since she'd first seen it as a little girl, she'd been in love with this ancient masterpiece. She'd spent years studying the detailed dragon fable that started with the birth of a male infant and a dragon and moved forward through ten feet of fabric.
Scholars had written countless papers on their theories of its origin. She, herself, had done her dissertation on it, trying to link it to the tales of King Arthur or to Celtic tradition.
No one knew where the tapestry had come from or even what story it related to. For that matter, no one knew who had won the fight between the dragon and the warrior.
That was what intrigued her most of all.
"I wish I knew how it ended."
He flexed his jaw. 'The story has no ending. The battle between the dragon and the man lives on unto today."
She frowned at him. He appeared serious. "You think so?"





"What?" he asked good-naturedly. "You don't believe me?"
"Let's just say I have a hefty dose of doubt."
He took a step forward, and again his fierce, manly presence overwhelmed her and sent a jolt of desire through her. "Hmmm, a hefty dose of doubt," he said, his voice barely more than a low, deep growl. "I wonder what I could do to make you believe?"
She should step back, she knew it. Yet she couldn't make her feet cooperate. His clean, spicy scent invaded her head and weakened her knees.
What was it about this man that made her want to stand here talking to him?
Oh, to heck with that. What she really wanted to do was jump his delectable bones. To cup that handsome face of his in her hands and kiss his lips until she was drunk from his taste.
There was something seriously wrong here.
Mayday. Mayday.
"Why are you here?" she asked, trying to keep her lecherous thoughts at bay. "You hardly look like the type to study medieval relics."
A wicked gleam came into his eyes. "I'm here to steal it."
She scoffed at the idea, even though something inside her said it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to buy that explanation. "Are you really?"
"Of course. Why else would I be here?"
"Why else, indeed?"
Sebastian didn't know what it was about this woman that drew him so powerfully. He was involved in grave matters that required his full attention, yet for the life of him, he couldn't take his gaze from her.
She wore her honey-brown hair swept up so that it cascaded in riotous waves from a silver clip of old Welsh design. Several strands of it had come free of the clip to


dangle haphazardly around her face as if the strands had a life of their own.
How he longed to set free that hair and feel it sliding through his fingers and brushing against his naked chest.
He dropped his gaze down over her lush, full body and stifled his smile. Her dark blue shirt wasn't buttoned properly and her socks didn't match.
Still, she drove him crazy with desire.
She wasn't the kind of woman who normally drew his interest, and yet...
He was beguiled by her and her crystal blue gaze that glowed with warm curiosity and intelligence. He longed to sample her full, moist lips, to bury his face in the hollow of her throat where he could drink in her scent.
Gods, how he yearned for her. It was a need borne of such desperation that he wondered what kept him from taking her into his arms right now and satisfying his curiosity.
He'd never been the kind of man to deny himself carnal pleasures-especially not when the beast inside him was stirred. And this woman stirred that deadly part of him to a dangerous level.
Sebastian had only come into the museum to get the lay of it for tonight and to find out where they housed the tapestry. He hadn't been looking for a woman to pass the lonely night with until he could return home where he would be ... well, lonely again.
However, he still had hours before he could leave. Hours that he would much rather spend gazing into her eyes than waiting in his hotel room.
"Would you care to join me for a drink?" he asked.
She looked startled by his question. But then he seemed to have that effect on her. She was nervous around him, a bit jumpy, and he longed to set her at ease.
"I don't go out with men I don't know."
"How can you get to know me unless you ..."
"Really, Mr. Kat-"